Lesson 5: Bystanders Stand UP

Drama

 B1.1 Creating and Presenting: engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on examining multiple perspectives related to current issues, themes, and relationships from a wide variety of sources and diverse communities

B2.1 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: construct personal interpretations of drama works, connecting drama issues and themes to their own others' ideas, feelings, and experiences

Drama

• take on a role and improvise in role to understand the interior monologue of my characters through prepared improvisations
• deepen my written monologue, and share it using vocal and body expression to enrich communication
• use vocal expression through "Choral Speaking" to effectively express the ideas, feelings & understandings of my character

Dance

Dance

I can:

• use movement to express and develop my character

Language

Oral Communication 2.5: identify a range of vocal effects, including tone, pace, pitch, volume, and a variety of sound effects, and use them appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences to communicate their meaning

Oral Communication 2.6: identify a variety of non-verbal cues, including facial expression, gestures, and eye contact, and use them in oral communications, appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences, to help convey their meaning

Writing 2.6: identify elements in their writing that need improvement, selectively using feedback from the teacher and peers, with a focus on voice, diction, and an effective beginning and ending

Language

• continue to examine how PSAs (Public Service Announcements) are used to communicate information
• explore the point of view of my character in depth, drawing on the original video, my imagination, and personal experiences to empathize with him/her
• use vocal expression through "Choral Speaking" to effectively express the ideas, feelings & understandings of my character
• revise my written monologue based on peer and teacher feedback, as well as new character insight from the prepared improvisation

chart paper and marker
Role on the Wall charts from last class
YouTube videos
TV & VCR or projector
BLM #8 Prepared Improvisation Checklist (one copy per group)
BLM #16 Different Expressions of Power
CD player and CD with soft instrumental music

Whole Class > View Anti Cyber bullying PSA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQBurXQOeQ (51sec)
Explain to the class that you are going to watch a short PSA about cyber bullying (review the term PSA from lesson 3). Explain that in this video and throughout the lesson, you want them to focus on the role of bystanders; research shows that bystanders are the group who have the greatest potential to impact positive change in bullying situations.  Using YouTube, watch the above Public Service Announcement.

Key Questions for Discussion:

Who are the bullies, targets, allies, and bystanders in this video?
What message(s) do you think this video is trying to communicate?  
Who is/are the target audience(s) for this video, and why?  (bullies? targets? bystanders? teachers? parents?)
Who holds the power in this video scene?
How did the bystanders react? What else could they have done?
Do you think that people say things online that they wouldn't say in person?  Why could this be?
If you see a message or video online that you identify as bullying, what can or should you do to help?

Whole Class Discussion > Bully or Bystander?

As a class, review the bully and bystander roles on the wall. Prompt: How are bullies & bystanders the same? How are they different? Discuss as a group.

Pre-lesson Preparation:

Access and/or download YouTube video: Anti Cyber bullying PSA

Photocopy BLM #8 Prepared Improvisation Checklist
 

Tip: You may wish to share BLM #16 Different Expressions of Power with the class, to inform their improvisations and discussion.
 

Small Groups > Prepared Improvisations 

Remind the class that drama allows us to investigate characters and the relationships between characters in depth. Explain that they are going to investigate the dynamics of cyber bullying by taking on the roles of some of the people in Trey's life and creating short scenes. Organize the students into pairs, and ask them to select one scenario from the following list:

1) the conversation between Trey and his mother, after she has viewed his video
2) a phone conversation between Trey and an anonymous caller who wants to explain why he is not intervening or taking action to help him.
3) Trey's mother and Trey's teacher. They are meeting to discuss how to help Trey feel comfortable about returning to school.
4) Trey and his guidance counsellor. The guidance counsellor has asked Trey to meet with him after school to check-in after his first day back.

Explain that their task, in pairs, is to create a short improvised scene (1-3 minutes) that helps us better understand these relationships. Review success criteria for prepared improvisation with students (see BLM #8) with students, and invite them to add a few criteria to the chart. Advise students to use the following prompts while devising their scene. Post the questions prominently, and tell students that you will be circulating to each pair to hear their answers to these questions:

Prompts:

Who are you? Where are you?
What do you want from this person? Why?
How will you go about getting it? 
What do you want them to see and understand about you? (outer voice)
What do you not want them to see or know? (inner voice)
 

Give students 10-15 minutes to improvise their scenes. Circulate, prompting with the above questions. They will not be scripting this scene, so the challenge is to listen to each other carefully and respond authentically in the moment. Encourage them to establish the setting of their scene, using chairs, tables and whatever simple props may be available in the classroom. 

Explain to students that the short scenes will run uninterrupted by comments or applause, to create a mini-play. Create a running order for the scenes, and cue students to begin by naming the scenes (see suggested order and titles in the Notes section to the right). Tell students that they may end their scene by freezing themselves, or you may cue them to end their scene by saying FREEZE. Direct students to quietly dissolve from their freeze, sit down on their spots, and observe remaining scenes as audience members.

Once students are ready and set in position, and displaying clear focus and concentration, call upon the first scene to begin the mini-play. Run through the sequence of scenes. 

Whole Class > Discussion and Reflection

Invite students to reflect on the experience of creating and performing their mini-play. Encourage students to give each other constructive feedback on their scene work. Prompt: Identify a moment that was completely believable. What stood out for you in these scenes? What surprised you? Do you have any questions for any of the characters in the scenes? Explain that the relational dynamics of bullying are very complex and sometimes we don't know what to do or who we empathize with. Ask students to take a few minutes for personal reflection and writing in response to the following questions:
 

Prompts: Which character do you most empathize with? Why? How might it be possible to feel empathy for both the bully and the target? Is there anything about Trey that you find problematic? In what ways can we identify with the bullies and bystanders in this story?

While students are writing, set up 4 chairs to represent Trey, bully, bystander, and ally. Following the reflective writing exercise, ask students to stand behind the chair that represents the character they feel they can most relate to in this moment. Encourage students to be very honest, and assure them that they will have an opportunity to explain their choice if they wish to. Allow time for students to talk with others who have selected the same character and then invite volunteers to share a little about the choices they made with the whole group.

Following this discussion, ask if there are any scenes that the students would like to see replayed?  Prompts: How might you change this scene? How might Trey, or his ally, exercise power? (e.g., leaving, asking bully to consider how it feels, involving others). Invite student volunteers to play the scene out differently. Encourage them to try different approaches, bring new characters into the scene, and work toward solutions. Discuss the impact of these different solutions. Prompt: Is there anything you understand differently now?

Individual > Writing Monologues

Ask students if there were any moments in the scenes where they wondered what a character was thinking or feeling on the inside? Remind students that this is the sub-text, or inner monologue. Ask the students to revisit the first drafts of the monologues they started to write at the end of Lesson 4 and add to them based on new understandings that emerged from the improvised scenes. Review the monologue writing prompts from Lesson 4 (see Notes section to right).

Whole Group > Reading Monologues

Invite students to walk through the space while reading their monologues. Encourage them to keep moving, frequently changing directions, while reading the monologue over and over. Challenge them to read the script in many different ways, by calling out directions, e.g., read in a whisper; shout as loudly as you can; read it as if you are reporting an emergency; sing it like an opera singer; cast a magic spell with it, etc.

Ask students to freeze and select 1-3 lines from their monologue, which they feel are the most important or dramatically significant. Once again, have them walk and read, experimenting and rehearsing the lines until they know them well.

Solos > Moving Monologues 

Have the students freeze in place, to listen to the next set of instructions.  Explain that they are going to develop simple gestures or movements that they can perform while speaking their chosen lines. Emphasize that they are not translating the words into movement, but rather are drawing on images or experiences that they associate with the line; it can be as literal or as abstract as they want. Encourage students to use different elements of dance such as time, space, energy and relationships. Give the students time to develop and practice their moving monologue lines so they know them well.

Whole Class > Choral Monologue Sharing

Gather the students in a circle, making sure that they have enough space to move. Dim the lights and play some appropriate instrumental music softly in the background. Explain that you are going to move around the room and tap students one at a time on the shoulder. When they are tapped, they can step into the circle and perform one line from their monologue, moving and speaking. When they finish their line, they rejoin the circle. 

To begin, tap a few students at the same time, so that no one is doing a solo. As the sharing progresses, time it so that some speakers/movers overlap; vary the number of people performing at a time so that the sound has changing levels of "thickness" or complexity - but, be sure to not have too many voices and bodies at once, as this will cause the message to be lost. Tap each student a few times, so that they share multiple movement lines. To finish, gradually fade out the music.

Whole Class > Choral Sharing Debrief

Key Questions for Discussion:

What common messages did you hear expressed in different people's monologues?
What common movements or gestures did you observe?
What types of messages were best communicated through words, or through movement? (reference the Venn diagram from the Consolidation of Lesson 2)
Were the movements you used akin to a public voice, i.e., the way your character would move in public for other people to see, or were they more like a private, inner voice that expressed your character's hidden thoughts and feelings?

Assessment for Learning (AfL) 

Use Appendix B: Observation tracking sheet to record anecdotal observations.

Use the Minds On discussions to assess emerging understandings of bystanders, and the powerful role they can play.  Also note if students are developing greater interpretive and analytical skills in reading media texts.

At the beginning of the task, give each group a copy of the BLM #8 Prepared Improvisation Checklist. Ask them to use this throughout their planning and creative process and at the end (for a final check). They may wish to have a pencil handy in order to check off the items on the list, or they may simply mentally check the items.

During the choral sharing debrief, observe student understanding of language, drama, and dance as unique communicative forms, as well as what types of messages tend to correlate with which media.  Draw out common issues and concerns that are arising for the class regarding cyber bullying.

Assessment as Learning (AaL) 

Following the prepared improvisations, give students time to self-reflect and share peer feedback regarding the process and product of their mini-plays. Allow a chance for shifting perspectives and questions as characters become more three dimensional and complex.

Optional: Encourage students to meet with a partner to do some peer-editing of the monologues.

The personal writing reflection and Anonymous messages in consolidation will provide space for linking private reflection to social issues, as well as a safe place to voice sensitive questions or concerns that may be arising for students.

Notes:

Suggested running order for the Prepared Improvisation scenes.

1) Mother and son
2) The phone call
3)  Mother and teacher
4) At the end of a new day at school

During the prepared improvisation scenes and monologue sharing, encourage students to experiment with the volume, rhythm, tone and pace in their speech and movement.

Also, remind them that role playing demands that they blend self and other: they are  to remain very honest and true to their character's point of view, but at the same time encourage them to consider why and how they are representing their character and advise them to draw on their own knowledge and experience.

Monologue Writing Prompts:

Who are you speaking to? 
If you could have their full attention, with no interruptions, what would you say?
How do you want them to feel? 
What inner thoughts and feelings are you prepared to reveal?
What inner thoughts and feelings must remain private and hidden?

Optional: During the choral monologue sharing, play soft instrumental music in the background to set the mood.

Hyperlinks

Individual > Anonymous Messages

Ask students to reflect on an instance of bullying or unkindness that they have observed directly at school, home, or in their community. Distribute file cards or strips of paper and ask students to compose a positive message that they would like that person to receive. Explain that these messages will remain anonymous. The goal of this exercise is to safely practice making strong, empowered statements that challenge all forms of bullying, disrespect, and oppression. Collect the student messages, and after they have left for the day, post them on a bulletin board, entitled "Empowered Voices".  

Tip

Advise students to visit and discuss the display while honouring the anonymity of the statements. Observe and note their interactions with each other and the postings on the bulletin board.