When we visit schools with our Anti-Bullying Workshops, we also provide supporting lesson plans, PowerPoints and Resources. This makes teachers lives easier, providing them with content to deliver before and after the workshop.
This year the theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2022 is Reach Out. That’s why we created the lesson plan below, in the lesson students create a Reach Out Support Map, helping them to identify who they can Reach Out to if they see or experience bullying.
Anti-Bullying Lesson Plan – Reach Out Support Map
Learning Outcomes
- I know who can I speak to for help if I see or experience bullying.
- I can identify the people I can speak to for help in the different places that I spend my time.
Aims
- Students will create a Reach Out Support Map
- Students will talk about where and who they reach out to and ask for help.
Time
- 60 minutes
Resources
- Flipchart paper if available, or A4 Paper.
- Pens, pencils and felt tips to decorate.
Introduction
If your students have recently taken part in an OpenView Education Anti-Bullying Workshop, you can start by asking:
- What was one thing that you learnt from the workshop today?
- How could you use what you learnt in the workshop?
Talking about bullying can be a challenge topic to discuss, you may wish to start this lesson by allowing your students to check in with how they are feeling. Try starting the lesson with the following steps:
- Five Big Breaths: Do a short mindfulness exercise by getting your students to close their eyes, then take a breath in through their nose and out through their mouth. Do this five times. Explain to your students that the Five Big Breaths exercise helps us to calm down and let’s us notice how we are feeling.
- Two Feeling Words: Go around the room, each student can say how they are feeling use two words.
Reach Out Support Map Activity
This activity supports students in identifying their support network by looking at the places that they spend time. This can help to remind them of the different people that they can reach out and speak to if they see or experience bullying behaviour.
Start by defining what we mean by the word ‘Bullying’. You can discuss this with the following questions:
- What do you think bullying is?
- How is bullying different from an argument or a conflict?
You can use the Anti-Bullying Alliance definition of bullying to support your discussion, and play the video below:
‘Bullying is the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online.’
Explain that in this lesson you will be thinking about how you can reach out to help stop bullying from happening. We can reach out in different ways:
- We can reach out and offer kindness and support to someone who is being bullied.
- We can reach out and tell a trusted adult if we see or experience bullying.
Ask your students:
- Who are the people you could reach out to if you see or experience bullying?
Now encourage your students to think of all the different places that they spend their time, to do this you could say:
‘I’d like you to start thinking about all the different places that you spend time during the week. This can be at school, at home, but also any classes or after school clubs that you go to.’
Hand out A4 paper, or flipchart paper if you have it available. Ask students to draw a map that shows all the places that they spend their time.
For each of the locations on the map, you can ask students:
- Who are the people at that place?
- Who could you reach out to and ask for help in that place?
Students can then write a name, or a label for the people who are at that place above each of the locations on the map. You could also create your own map as an example.
Once your students have labelled the people they can reach out to in these places, they can then decorate their Reach Out Support Maps using any art supplies that you have available.
Conclusion
The Reach Out Support Maps can then be used to create an Anti-Bullying Week 2022 Reach Out Wall Display. The Reach Out Support Maps can also be referenced when talking about who we can speak to if we need help on any other occasion.
