3 Great Questions for Discussions Around Bullying

Remember when driving drunk was a minor offense?  It was legal to harass someone?  Moon someone??  There is no doubt that while many new laws have made our lives safer and more civilized, there are many people who think that the rush to legislate personal decisions (like helmet and seat belt laws) curtails our rights and should be left up to the individual.  Others think that clearer laws are necessary to keep up with the times. 

Recent headlines have turned this debate towards bullying, specifically cyberbullying.   This is a great opportunity to turn the question over to your students to help them develop respect for different points of view, think critically and speak and write persuasively.  This week Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for webcam spying on his college roommate who killed himself in the aftermath.   There are many different perspectives on the outcome of this trial, and many thought that the charges did not fit the crime.    

Should more laws be written to deal specifically with cyberbullying?  Viewpoints range from “not every tragedy should lead to prison” to “privacy invasions last forever.”Why not have your students examine these different perspectives – legal, psychological, cultural- as they apply to bullying?  Room for Debate  is a discussion forum of the New York Times that can provide your students with great written essays from knowledgeable professionals reflecting these perspectives and more on Cyberbullying and a Student Suicide. 

Should offensive opinions and hurtful statements be protected by the First Amendment?  How about having students look at bullying through the lens of the First Amendment?  How do you distinguish between free speech and bullying?  Where is the line between free speech and harassment? Do state bullying mandates leave any wiggle room for common sense?  This Edweek article “Groups Urge Balance Between Censoring, Stopping Bullies”  can provide students with highlights of the recently published guidelines “Harassment, Bullying and Free Expression:  Guidelines for Free and Safe Public Schools."

What do you think should be done about bullying? 

How about having your students look at different student perspectives?   Common Sense Media provides the lesson “Taking Perspectives on Cyberbullying” featuring video clips of the Friday Night Lights TV show, providing a lesson plan complete with student worksheets and  video clips.  (caution:  may only be appropriate for older students due to clip content)

You can have students practice civil discourse on these issues practicing good digital citizenship using the SCAN tool at TregoED.  Just register and set up the free cyberbullying lesson for the private URL for your class.   Students will read the cyberbullying scenario and discuss the issues and possible solutions guided by the SCAN problem solving strategy (See the issues, clarify the issues, Ask what’s important and Now, what should be done?) from the built in different points of view.  SCAN is a great way to teach students civil discourse and empathy as they represent the point of view of parents, teachers, administrators and bullied student and collaborate on solutions.

The question remains, do we need to use the criminal justice system to battle cyberbullying or would teaching civility and respect be a more effective solution?  Either way, discussing the question can help students practice those attributes, while they learn to think critically, read and write on this relevant and authentic topic. 

Dr. King's Dream

Remembering Dr. King’s legacy is a relevant activity in any classroom whether covering bullying, the economy, world peace, social justice or looking for relevant nonfictional reading and writing across several disciplines. Plan ahead using some of these great resources to get your students thinking.

For Students:

Read Dr. King’s "I Have a Dream..." Speech: 

Students get a small taste of what segregation feels just entering the site.  They can listen to Dr. King’s speeches or read some of his other writings at Remember Segregation.  Simply powerful.

Watch a video on Dr. King, fill out a KWL graphic organizer, take a quiz, or study relevant vocabulary at BrainPop

Read the Story of Martin Luther King and find related facts, figures and folklore. (some ads)

Play the “It’s Not Fair Game” to learn about and experience prejudice first hand!  Fun- teaches students MLK related vocabulary while skewing the score to discover how it feels when "it's not fair!"

For Teachers:

Teachersfirst (a great FREE teacher resource page) has links to many different MLK resources including video links, lesson ideas, materials, and interactive sites.

See what other teachers are doing for MLK day at Scholastic’s site.   

Watch great historical videos of the Civil Rights Movement and Rev. King

Try out this free SCAN lesson “Dr. King’s Dream.”  Register from the dashboard, set up the lesson and send kids to your private URL to discuss whether Dr. King’s dream has been reached in their school, state, country or globally. They will look at issues from each perspective and name some action steps that you might take to solve them.  New to SCAN?  Start here.

Students can make a difference:  Read the 6 Steps to Nonviolent Social Change and remind students of the small everyday things they can do such as not judging others by their appearance or actions, sticking up for others, or learning more about different religions and cultures. Have them make a list of actions that they can do to reach MLK's dream.

How will you honor his legacy and work towards his dream?

Simple Ways to Exemplify Good Character

Sometimes people fear technology because they say that we need more face-to-face time, more personal contact time, etc.   Kids need to learn how to interact with each other in both worlds.  Skills that you teach them, such as communication and collaboration, are equally important in the physical and the virtual classroom.  Creating a safe and caring environment through mutual respect is also the basis of any classroom.  But what does that look like?

The Caring Environment
Do you have to be a child psychologist and delve into their personal lives?   Do we need to take the time to teach character?   Do you have to share details of your personal life in order to prove yourself human?  The fact is that we are always teaching – as parents, as adults, as educators.  As Barry Schwartz points out in his TED talk on practical wisdom, “the camera is always on.”  We have to do more than recognize and address bullying; we have to embody good character.  What does that look like in the classroom?
I have had the opportunity to teach with all kinds of top-notch characters in my 33 years.  I love the diversity of style, personality, and instruction that each of us brings to the classroom.  When it comes to demonstrating and earning respect, one colleague stands out.  This person was passionate about American history.  She was tough and had very high standards. Many students were shocked to earn their first C ever in social studies.  There were never any discipline problems or behavior nonsense coming out of her class.  I remember there was always a line of concerned parents to see her at conference time.    What I also remember is that when there were former students in the building, they always wanted to go see her! 

What was her secret? 
Was she giving out candy?  How could she be so tough and yet command such high respect and admiration?  Why did they like her and her class so much?  Then I started to notice, she did the little things.  She greeted every one of her students by name at the door.  She knew their names on the second day of class.  She was passionate about her teaching.  She showed them that she cared:  she cared about them both as individuals and cared about their education. She made them feel that the 40 minutes she had with them was the most urgent 40 minutes of the day.  Her time and their time with her were very valuable.  Her enthusiasm and refusal to get sucked into nonsense that takes away from learning was catching.    Students rarely left her class, not because they were not allowed, but because she made them feel it was too important to miss.

What Can You Do?
I know that there was a lot more learning going on in that classroom than the objectives written on the board.   Could it be that simple?  Could these simple demonstrations of character, caring and a passion for what you are teaching make such a difference?  It sure seems like a good start.  What better way to begin a New Year?
cross posted on Technology Integration in Education

Teaching our Students to Argue

It may seem that in this land where bullying has become a crime, we are trying to eliminate arguing from our classrooms.  On the contrary, it is more important than ever to bring arguing into the classroom and teach our students how to deal appropriately with different points of view.  Certainly we should not be leaving it up to the media to model arguing.  It is crucial that we not only model good arguing, but teach it as well.   The art of arguing incorporates many higher level thinking skills.  It is time for us to hold our own “rally to restore sanity” in our classrooms (to borrow from John Stewart) and teach our students civil discourse.    We need to take debate and persuasive writing out of isolation and practice them regularly in all content areas. 

Online discussions are a great way to learn the practice of “arguing” or persuasive writing.  I think it is important that we give our students a jump start with the rules of netiquette before they jump in.  Our students have been taught throughout their education many rules that apply to our classroom discussions (raise your hand, listen to others, be polite, etc).  Can the same be said for rules for online discussions (be polite, don’t use all caps, remember the person behind the avatar, etc)?  Unfortunately, our students often think that their internet spaces are places devoid of adults or rules.  We are increasingly finding that “arguments” and discussions that start out online are spilling over into our schools and classrooms.  We need to be proactive and teach them that althought they do not always have to agree, there are similar rules for online discussions that will result in polite and respectful conversations.

Modeling, practicing and monitoring online classroom discussions is a great place to start.  There are some great resources for online discussion rules like “Interact with Tact” from onguardonline.gov or “guidelines for discussion” or the “Dos and Don’ts of Online Student Communication”  from Collaborize Classroom.  This features great sentence openers for when students don’t agree, such as “Rebecca’s comment made me think about….” Or “Although Zach made a strong point that__________, I think….” Or “I respectfully disagree with Lawrence’s assertion….”  I have students use the SCAN tool from TregoED.org which offers rotating free lessons and has students role play different perspectives on hot topics such as “Should we allow students to bring cell phones to school?” to practice their persuasive writing and online netiquette skills.  It is a great way to get all students engaged in the discussion and practice their online communication skills. How do you teach the great art of arguing in your classroom?