The Misadventures of Bully-Boy & Gossip-Girl

Teacher's Section:


Brett talking with a class

Brett talking with a class about bullying.

What is bullying?

Bullying is a nasty, nasty business! Bullying can take many forms, and bullies can have many faces. Bullying in its simplest terms is the harmful act of picking on others. This harmful act is often carried out repeatedly over a period of time generally out of the presence of adults or in the presence of adults who fail to intercede.

Bullying has not always been considered a problem in society. For years, bullying among children has not been taken seriously by adults and educators alike. This fact is reflected in studies that show the gap between the actual incidence of bullying in schools and educators' perception of its frequency or magnitude.

Bullying not only harms its intended victims but also negatively affects the climate of schools and the opportunities for students to learn and achieve.

Who gets bullied?

Any child, through no fault of the child, may be bullied.

Victims of bullying can be popular and out going children, or they may be children who unwittingly invite attacks by behaving in ways that cause tension and irritation among their peers.

The major players

The bullies

Bullies intentionally pick on those who are smaller or perceived as weaker. Bullies aim to hurt, frighten, or isolate their victim. Bullies, often with a circle of supporters who condone or promote bullying, will not stop bullying unless they lose their support or are forced to face consequences for their actions.

The bullied

The victims of bullying tend to be reserved, shy, and quiet; or they tend to be loud, obnoxious, and irritating. Many are repeat victims, and consequently feel that they do not have the support of their teachers or their peers. Often, victims are picked on because they seem different from their peers and don't quite 'fit in'. Victims often blame themselves for the bullying, and can take drastic action if the problem persists.

The bystanders

By passively or actively condoning bullying, bystanders choose by their tolerance to be just as much a problem as the bullies are. Bystanders often live by a code of silence that can sustain or deepen the damage to the victims. However, bystanders have the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the prevention of bullying by speaking up against bullying. For instance, they can report incidents of bullying to adults, or they can condemn bullying as mean and wrong.

How do you know when someone is being bullied?

There are several tell-tale signs that should lead you to question if someone is being bullied:

  • unexplained bruising, cuts or damaged clothes
  • loss of or damage to personal property
  • unexplained sadness or outright depression
  • unwillingness or refusal to go to school
  • out-of-character comments about students or teachers
  • reluctance or refusal to say what is troubling him/her
  • an uneasiness about joining children in less supervised surroundings (playground, school bus, hallways, washrooms)
  • loss of enthusiasm for life or a wavering interest in school and school work
  • requesting drives or supervision from parents

How can I make my school safer for students?

The school environment has the power to make or break a child.

Schools can be exhilarating places where children are nurtured, respected, and stimulated - providing an enjoyable environment for all. On the other hand, schools can have a negative impact on children when they are stigmatized, abused, excluded, and forced to go through their days in misery.

Children's positive attitudes towards themselves and towards each other must be encouraged and reinforced. A positive social climate is what prevents bullying in the long term. The children of a school should know that they have the right to feel safe and comfortable and should be assured that verbal and physical attacks are unacceptable.

Students should have opportunities for discussion, writing, role playing, or other suitable activities which help to clarify the issues of bullying and to build coping strategies to deal with it if and when it occurs.

The teacher must make a conscious effort to enlist the help of students and their parents in stopping bullying in the school. Teachers cannot single-handedly stop all the bullying in the school. But, if students with their parents agree that bullying has no place in the school and playgrounds, then they will be more likely to try to stop it from happening. By engaging students and their parents in a combined effort to make bullying "un-cool" in the school, the teacher might empower them to make a positive difference in their schoolyards and in their communities.

Lesson Plan #1

(Total time: 90 Minutes)

Objectives

To identify ways to deal with bullying behaviour and to establish when and how to prevent that behaviour.

Materials

  • The MisAdventures of Bully Boy & Gossip Girl Comic Book.
  • Flipchart or Chalkboard

Activity #1: Read the Comic (20 minutes)

Have students read the comic and complete the activities on pages 17 & 18 of the comic. Then on the blackboard or flipchart, list words that come to mind when students think of bullying. ie. peer pressure, teachers, mean, insults, bystander, physical, emotional, parents, speak up, rumours etc.

Activity #2: Explore Bullying (20 minutes)

Ask these questions of the students.

What is bullying? How do you recognize it? Where does it happen? Does it happen only at school? Does it happen only among children?

Explain the following to your students:

Someone is being bullied when he or she is repeatedly made fun of, picked on, called names, hit, kicked, shoved, pushed, pinched, threatened, or excluded from a group. Bullying also includes theft, gossip and, increasingly, harassment via the internet and telephone.

Activity#3: Bullying Discussions (20 minutes)

Have one half of the class work with a partner to determine some things that a bully might do ie. steal, insult, attack, spread rumours etc. Have the other half of the class, working with partners, discussing why children might become bullies ie. family problem, overconfidence, underconfidence, lonely etc.

Ask students to report on their group discussions to the class as a whole. Then ask the whole class to recall the comic, and try asking the following:

How many of you have ever seen or heard about situations like the ones presented in Bully-Boy & Gossip-Girl? How did you feel about the situation? What did you do about it?

Using a flipchart or blackboard, brainstorm with students a list of things that can be done when someone is being hurt or bullied. Answers may include: report bullying to an adult, refuse to join in, be a friend to the victim and show you care, take a non-aggressive stand against the bully to show your disapproval of his/her actions. Stress that students should not physically intercede when they see someone being hurt, but rather immediately get a teacher. Impose on your students that sharing an incident of bullying with a teacher is not tattling.

Activity #4: Bully-Boy & Gossip-Girl Pledge (5 min)

Have students recite the pledge found on page 19 of the comic and then have them sign their names to it.

Activity #5: Wrap Up (25 minutes)

Using the pledge listed in the comic book as a model, have your students come up with their own pledge poster that explains how they plan to make their class and their school a better, more friendly place, free from bullying.


Group discussion on bullying

Brett in a group discussion about bullying.