Learning How to Stand Up to Bullies

A Lesson Plan for All Levels

Objective: To help students understand the difference between being a bystander and an activist ally.

Grade level: Elementary through High School

Preparation: Select a book to read aloud that shows someone being victimized. Some possible books include:

Elementary level –

• The Araboolies of Liberty Street (Swope)
• Going Some Place Special (McKissack)
• White Socks Only (Coleman)
• Mayfield Crossing (Nelson)
• Maniac Magee (Spinelli)

Middle School level –  

• Say Something (Moss)
• Stepping on the Cracks (Halm)
• Carlos is Gonna to Get It (Emerson)
• Slob (Potter)
• Bullyville (Prose)
• Blubber (Blume)
• The Revealers(Wilhelm)

High School level  –

• Mississippi Bridge (Taylor)
• Don’t Call me Ishmael (Bauer)
• The Beckoners (Mac)
•  Bullied (Erno) Note: This is an anthology of short stories]
• Drowning Anna (Mayfield)
• The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
• Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

Procedure: Read the story. Then make a chart on the board like the one below.

Chart Activity

1. Talk about what each role looks and sounds like.
2. List characters under the roles they played in story.
   

   ---

Follow Up Discussion Question

Ask students if they have ever taken one of the roles. Discuss how they felt. What they could they have done differently?  Did it make a difference who else they were with?

Extensions:

1. All grades: Rewrite the story for “justice” Have students retell the story with the people who were bystanders joining with the ally and being successful – especially in those books where the outcome is mixed.

2. Act out scenes from the books to practice the roles.

3. 2nd grade and up: Have students make similar charts in their reading journals and using books they have read place characters under the role they take in the story.

4. High School: Use the chart to evaluate historical events and the role different important personages played, such as the emancipation of the slaves during the Civil War or the elimination of apartheid in South Africa.

Do you think books can provide us models for how to deal with bullies?

Which books above have you read?

We love hearing from you!