Sophie Bowie

Bullying Lesson Plan

MELS Competencies: Competency 1: Reflects on ethical questions. This competency is
involved in all aspects of this lesson, in particular the what would you do? style
questions that go along with the short story, in addition to the personal narrative in which
the students will write about their own experiences with bullying.
Objective(s): The objectives for this lesson are for students to be able to think about the
difference between right and wrong, and be conscious of the feelings of others. Students
will also be able to reflect on their own experiences with bullying and empathize with
everyone who was involved recognizing that in an aggressive situation, the best thing to
do is to walk away and seek help from an adult.
Group Size: Students will sit in groups of 4-5 and work individually, as well as
participate in class discussions.
Materials:
-

Pencils/coloured pencils/scissors (for each of the students)

Personal narrative outline (for each of the students)
Bullying story and handout with accompanying questions (for each of the

students)
Looseleaf (for each of the students)
Chromebooks (for each of the students)
iPhone stencil handout (for each of the students)
Dictionaries (for each of the students)
Highlighting strip (for the students who have trouble reading)
Mean Stinks video on a Smartboard or projector

Introduction: 10 minutes
Show the Mean Stinks bullying video to introduce the topic. Then write the
word bullying on the board and ask the students if they can define the word. Gather a
collection of the students definitions and write them on the board below the title. Start a
conversation with the students by asking questions such as Has anyone ever had any

Sophie Bowie
experiences with bullying that they would like to share?, Are there different kinds of
bullying?, What are some possible causes of bullying? and What are some ways that
we can prevent bullying from occurring? Write these questions on the board and ask the
students to discuss them in small groups of 4-5 students for a couple minutes. Then ask
the students to share what they had discussed. Make sure to write the students ideas on
the board in order to keep track of them, as well as to validate what the students are
saying. Another important thing to keep in mind is to encourage the students to react to
bullying in a calm and non-violent way to always walk away and seek the help of an
adult instead of facing the bully head-on.
Development: 3.5-4 hours (spread out over the course of 4 1hr sessions)
Give each of the students the bullying story and accompanying questionnaire.
Explain to them that they must read the story and then answer the questions in a what
would you do style. Remind them to write in full sentences, and to ask the teacher if
they have any questions. Regardless of whether or not a student raises their hand,
circulate around the room in order to be present for students who might be more shy to
ask a question.
Students will also be writing a personal narrative about bullying. Give each
student a handout, and explain to them that they can write about an experience involving
them being the victim, the bully, or an onlooker. Students must reflect on why certain
actions were taken, and try to see the point of view of all of the characters involved in
the story. Therefore, once students are finished their questionnaires, they can begin
writing their outlines for their bullying story on the personal narrative handouts. As they
are writing, make sure to once again circulate around the class to offer help. Should a

Sophie Bowie
student not know how to spell a certain word, refer them to a dictionary instead of giving
them the answer.
Once the students are happy with their outlines, they can write the rough drafts of
their personal narratives on the Chromebooks. When their rough drafts are completed,
remind them to reread their narratives a few times in order to fix any mistakes and tweak
them to their liking the resulting stories will be their final drafts.
Lastly, the students will be providing a visual aspect of their bullying story. This
shall be done in the printed outlines of an iPhone. Explain to the students that they can
therefore show a conversation between two or more characters in their story in the form
of text bubbles especially since a lot of bullying in todays world happens online. If the
students feel that drawing a picture of their story would be more appropriate, then they
can do so they can even create an anti-bullying prevention ad. Once their drawings are
complete, ask the students to cut their iPhones out these shall be displayed in the
classroom.
Closure: 5-10 minutes
Have another discussion with the students about bullying. Ask them the same
questions as in the beginning of the lesson, and ask them if any of them have gained more
insight into bullying after looking into their own past experiences involving it. Once
again make sure to write the students ideas on the board.
Evaluation: Students will be formatively evaluated on their participation in class
discussions. A summative evaluation will follow, based on the completion and accuracy
of answers for the questionnaire, the completion of the iPhone drawing, and the
completion of the personal narrative (which shall follow a rubric).

Sophie Bowie
Differentiation: For the students who have trouble reading, offer to read the story and
questions aloud to them, or pair them up with another student. Additionally, offer the
students a highlighting strip for reading, which can help them focus on the text one line at
a time. If any of the students have trouble writing, provide them with a dictionary for
their written work, and allow them to use the voice recognition feature of Google Docs in
the Chromebooks when they write out their personal narrative.

References
"Mean Stinks" Anti-Bullying PSA for MuchMusic. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2015,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTChUaRvof4
Quebec Education Program. (2001). Gouvernement du Qubec Ministre de lducation.