Lesson 3 – How bullying feels and how best to respond
Have students watch the second anti-cyber bullying animation, The Match.
STEP 2 – As you watch The Match for a second time, consider the emotions felt by Conor and Ryan by completing Worksheet 3.1: The emotions involved in cyber bullying.
STEP 3 – The following questions to help you to understand what led Ryan to bully Conor:
Q. Both characters experience negative emotions during the animation. Have a look at your worksheet and explain what causes Ryan to be upset? What causes Conor to be upset?
Q. What emotions lead Ryan to bully Conor?
Q. In what way might Ryan have dealt with his negative emotions, that didn’t involve bullying Conor?
In this exercise the students will write letters to an agony aunt looking for advice. When writing the letters the students will take on the roles of the different characters in The Match. These letters will help the students imagine what motivated each character to act the way that he did and will help them to understand the feelings that motivate bullying.
STEP 2 – Split the class so that half will write their letters from Ryan’s perspective and the other half will write their letters from Conor’s perspective.
STEP 3 – Have students complete their letters by filling in Worksheet 3.2 My side of the story.
STEP 4 – When the students have finished writing their letters, the letters should be folded up, as if for sending. Then the letters should be swapped so that everyone who wrote a letter from Ryan’s perspective gets one from Conor’s perspective and vice versa.
HOMEWORK – For homework, each student should then pretend to be Aunt-i Bullying and respond to the letters received by writing a response that contains advice (Worksheet 3.4: Your problems solved). Students should be encouraged to show the video to their parents and discuss the homework activity with their parents. The following activities will help prepare them to give advice on the topic of cyber bullying.
