Upstanders and Allies

Digital Literacy and Online Safety (Y8) - Lesson 5

A note about this lesson

This lesson is taken from Common Sense Education’s excellent Digital Citizenship curriculum. Their resources are shared for free under A Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You can find the original resources HERE.

Objectives

Consider the different perspectives of those involved in a cyberbullying incident.
Identify ways to be an upstander or ally to someone being bullied.
Problem-solve potential challenges of responding to cyberbullying.

Lesson Resources

Digital Literacy and Online Safety (Y8)

Lesson 1 - My Media Use: A Personal Challenge

Lesson 2 - Big Big Data

Lesson 3 - The Power of Digital Footprints

Lesson 4 - My Social Media Life

Lesson 5 - Upstanders and Allies

Lesson 6 - Copyright and Fair Dealing

Links to Education for a Connected World.

This lesson from Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship curriculum links to the following strands from the Online bullying section of the Education for a Connected World framework.

Warm-Up: Hurtful or Not?

10 mins.

1. Ask: Does anyone here have a nickname that their family calls them?

Call on volunteers and follow up by asking: Do you mind sharing it with us? Or is it embarrassing? If learners are comfortable sharing it, have them do so.

2. Say: OK, so what if, as a joke, I just started calling you that? Would that be OK?

Call on volunteers to respond. If necessary, clarify that it depends on how the person feels about it. It might be OK, or it might not.

3. Say: OK, what about if I change the nickname a little bit? Let's say I add a funny adjective to it. Would that be OK? If you feel comfortable, give an example by adding a relatively harmless adjective to one of your learners' nicknames. Alternatively, you can use the example "Sassy Sam" for an imaginary learner whose nickname is "Sam".

Call on volunteers to respond. Learners may say it depends on the adjective you choose and your relationship with the person. If necessary, clarify that it also depends on how the person feels about it. If the recipient doesn't like it, then it's not OK.

4. Ask: What about if I choose a negative adjective, like "sneaky" -- "Sneaky Sam"? Would that be OK to call someone?

Call on volunteers to respond. Most will likely say "No, it's not OK." Some might say it depends on your relationship with the person and whether you're joking. Clarify that the person likely would not feel good about being called that, regardless of your relationship, and so it's probably not OK. If you're really good friends, you tease each other a lot like that, and the person is OK with it, then maybe it's not that bad.

5. Say: All right, last scenario. Let's say I take that negative adjective and nickname, and I post it to every single picture I can find of you online, on Instagram, Snapchat, etc. And I even post a picture of you to my account with the insulting nickname. Would that be OK? Or would it depend on the type of relationship we have?

Call on volunteers to respond. Most will likely say "No, it's not OK." Clarify that you agree, that under no circumstances would it be OK. Identify the behaviour as cyberbullying, which is using digital devices, sites and apps to intimidate, harm and upset someone. (Slide 4).

Read: Cai and James

10 mins.

1. Say: In all those situations, we talked about how one person's actions might make another person feel. What we were doing was called empathising or showing empathy. Empathy is "to imagine the feelings that someone else is experiencing." (Slide 5) Why do you think it might be important to try to empathise with others? Take turns sharing with your partner. (Slide 6)

Allow learners to pair-share and then call on volunteers. Showing empathy can help learners:

Make decisions about how they treat people.
Make decisions about how they allow others to treat them.
Build relationships with others.
Decide on what they think is right and wrong.

2. Distribute the Cai and James handout and ask learners to read the story silently.

3. Ask: Is what James did in this scenario OK? Why or why not? Take turns sharing with your partner. (Slide 7).

Discuss: Where Do People Stand?

20 mins.

1. Say: Could this situation have turned out differently? If so, how? To answer these questions, you're going to first take on the perspective of one of the individuals involved.

Assemble groups of four learners and direct their attention to Part 2 of the handout. Read the directions aloud. Assign a different role to each member of the group or allow groups to choose their own roles. No roles should be duplicated within a group. (Slide 8)

2. Allow learners five minutes to think about their viewpoints and complete Part 2.

3. Explain to learners that they will now take turns sharing within their group what they wrote based on the viewpoint they had. Allow 10 minutes for groups to share.

4. Have learners complete the Reflection Questions on the handout.

5. Call on learners to share their answers to the "Reflection Questions". On Slide 9, capture the different ways that learners respond to question No. 2. Use the Teacher Version to offer additional ideas.

As learners provide possible actions, follow up by asking: Why might that action have been difficult for the person to do? Is there something else they could've done instead?
Point out that some of the actions mentioned are examples of being an "upstander" or an "ally". An upstander is someone who responds to a bullying situation by confronting the bully directly or by telling a trusted adult. An ally is someone who responds to a bullying situation by supporting the person being bullied (e.g. checking in with them, being a friend to them, etc.). (Slide 10)

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Copyright and Fair Dealing