Students walked into the classroom to find this on the white board. They stopped and stared while asking each other what the heck happened. Starting off Day 2's lesson, I asked students to categorize the type of words they see on the board. Although a lot of these words were unknown to the students, they could identify that they were unkind words, acts of bullying, or mean words. I asked students to find two words on the board, one they knew and one they didn't know. They shared these words with others at their table group to see if they could help one another find meanings to the unknown words. As a class we discussed the unknown words and how it relates to being unkind. Before starting the next video, I told the students they would be hearing other people speak with accents and they would hear some terms that may be unfamiliar. "Stand Up, Stand Out" opens with defining the word "checking". We discussed the other terms shown and related to what we call it. The video was great because it was real kids talking about how they "check" each other for fun, which is what often happens in our class. Students joke with one another and one persons always ends up getting their feelings hurt. My students related this to what they have seen happen in and outside the school. When asked whether joking around and teasing each other is bullying, they all agreed that it was. Some said that "Anything that hurts someone else emotionally or physically is bullying" others added that "Sometimes joking around with friends gets out of hand and mean things are said". I asked the students "Why would you want to joke around and hurt your friends feelings?" We discussed that maybe we really aren't being a friend when we do this to one another. In their table groups, students were asked to figure out why people tease each other. "To feel good about themselves" and "Because they want people to feel the pain they have" were the two most popular answers. Surprisingly, students even shared out that they have been bullies and they picked on others because it made them feel strong. I knew the next thing I need to work on with my class after this, is how to deal with disappointment and pain. When I heard them identify bullying with low self-esteem and sadness, I knew it would be beneficial to discuss some strategies that we can use if we are ever feeling that way.
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AuthorHi, I'm Amanda Green. I teach 5th grade & ESL in Berwyn. ArchivesCategories |