A goldmine of Anti-bullying Resources
The Southern Poverty Law Center has a new program called Teaching Tolerance. They have some wonderful resources that I can’t resist sharing with you. Here are just a few of their more exciting ideas.
Celebrate Mix it up Day! Mix It Up at Lunch Day is an international campaign that encourages students to identify, question and cross social boundaries. While schools can register to host a Mix It Up event on any day of the year, millions of students around the world participate on the official Mix It Up at Lunch Day, held on the last Tuesday of each October. It’s October 31st this year!
Students consistently identify the cafeteria as a place in their school where divisions are clearly—and harshly—drawn. So we ask students to move out of their comfort zones and connect with someone new over lunch. It’s a simple act with profound implications that we encourage educators to include in year-round efforts to promote healthy, welcoming school environments. Studies have shown that interactions across group lines can help reduce prejudice. When students interact with those who are different from them, biases and misconceptions can fall away.
More Activities for Teaching Tolerance
Happy Faces
Grades K-2
This activity for the little learners promotes empathy and looking beyond themselves to see the needs of others. This exercise also includes an extension activity that involves going outside the classroom. Learn more here.
Allies: A Discussion Activity
Grades K-5
Educator and author Mara Sapon-Shevin offers strategies and ideas to help students become allies—people who stand with or for others.
After leading students in a discussion about ways children and adults are discriminated against, the next question is: “So what do I do if I notice this happening?” Sapon-Shevin presents some ways to begin this discussion with young children. Learn more here.
Everyone’s a Helper
Grades K-5
Building a safe and productive classroom community is one of the most important tasks when beginning the school year. Engaging students in getting to know one another and helping each other teaches them to appreciate the beauty of diverse abilities, makes the teacher’s life much easier and helps the whole school community feel safe and respectful. Learn more here.
It’s Okay to Feel Different
Grades K-5
This lesson seeks to help students understand that difference and diversity are to be celebrated, not hidden. They set the stage for a school year filled with mutual understanding and a real sense of the strengths of the classroom community. Learn more here.
Breaking Down the Walls of Intolerance
Grades K-12
Bullying and ostracism sometimes dominate school culture, leaving many students standing on the sidelines. Through fun activities, critical lessons and special events, Mix It Up has encouraged campuses to stand against acts of intolerance and to commit to breaking down the walls of division.
In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to share with one another how bullying and other acts of bias have helped build a “wall” of intolerance at school. On Mix It Up at Lunch Day, members of the school community will tear down the wall collectively, uniting as one. Learn more here.
Developing Empathy
Grades K-12
When we put ourselves in another person’s shoes, we are often more sensitive to what that person is experiencing and are less likely to tease or bully them. By explicitly teaching students to be more conscious of other people’s feelings, we can create a more accepting and respectful school community.
Me and We: We Are All Similar and Different
Grades K-12
While some things may divide us, other things can unite us—even simple things like ice cream. This activity, with possibilities for all grade levels, gets students out of their seats, out of the classroom and out of their assumptions! Learn more here.
Examining Identity and Assimilation
Grades 3-8
In the essay “Magic Carpet,” Mitali Perkins writes about learning to see her rich heritage through critical colonial eyes as a young girl in New York and her struggle to reclaim her history as an adult. Use this lesson’s discussion questions and writing activities to help your students explore identity and assimilation in the essay and their own lives. Learn more here.
Cliques in Schools
Grades 3-12
What is the difference between a friendship group and a clique? How can cliques make some kids feel left out? How can you include other kids in your friendship group? The activities for each grade band below include several possibilities for exploring these questions in your classroom.
Social Boundaries Activity: Map It Out
Grades 3-12
This activity factors in the perspectives of students and teachers. The task: For one week, observe your school’s hallways, common areas and seating arrangements in classrooms and the cafeteria, paying attention to how students are grouped. Teachers should first sketch the school’s social boundaries, identifying where social cliques hang out. Then students will sketch the school. What will you learn when you compare maps? Learn more here.
Borders and Boundaries
Grades 6-12
This activity involves mapping the areas of the school in which particular cliques or self-segregating groups congregate, but it also includes a discussion of oppositional, “us versus them” thinking. Together, these exercises can encourage students to identify and address exclusionary behavior in their school. Learn more here.
Crossing Social Boundaries
Grades 6-12
By the time students finish this lesson, they’ll be able to identify different organizations in the school and discuss what their organization can do for another group. They’ll also be able to “cross-pollinate” by taking action to do a kind deed for another school team or organization. Learn more here.
In-Group Favoritism
Grades 6-12
By the time your students complete this lesson, they’ll be able to recognize and define in-group favoritism, identify the ways in which they participate in it, and determine ways to guard against it. Learn more here.
Mix It Up
Grades 6-12
Why do many students stay within one social group? How can crossing boundaries between groups break the walls of division in your school and community? Students explore these questions and more in this lesson that can help prepare them for Mix It Up at Lunch Day and beyond. Learn more here.
Here are a few last links to The Southern Poverty Law Center’s new Teaching Tolerance program. They really are not to be missed.
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