Free Lesson Plans for Teachers: Intimidation

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Free Lesson Plans for Teachers
Alpha Stage

Intimidation
April 30, 2007

The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Sexual Threats Stifle
Some Female Bloggers."

The article states, "A..study on chat rooms found that female participants
received 25 times as many sexually explicit and malicious messages as
males. A 2005 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found
that the proportion of Internet users who took part in chats and
discussion groups plunged from 28 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in
2005, entirely because of the exodus of women.."

Obviously the anonymity of the blogosphere makes it far too easy to
threaten people without consequence.

Read the article!

Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

Have your students ever felt afraid of what somebody might do to
them? Ask them what they think they should do if they are afraid
of what somebody might do to them.

Consider making a collaborative list of strategies that
students might attempt when they are afraid of something.

Have your students ever made fun of somebody, or talked about
somebody, behind their back? Why did they do this behind the
person's back instead of right in front of them? How do your
students think the other person would have felt if he/she had
known that he/she was being made fun of? Why?

Consider asking students to develop skits as if they were
the ones being made fun of. How would they feel? What
can they learn from this?

Do your students like to write? Do they wish they knew how to
write? If your students could write a book about anything in the
world, which in fact, they could do, what would they write the
book about? Why?

Consider writing short books with students. They could
even be published here!!

Blogging is a new word. Spell-checkers mark it as an incorrect
word. People make up words all the time. Ask your students to
make up a word. What does the word mean? If they wanted other
people to learn the word, what would they have to do? Why?

Consider asking students to draw a picture of something
about the word. They could also write the word on this
page.

Discussion-Starters for Older Students

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Harassment; Anonymity; Censor;
and, Solidarity.

Do your students think that blogging could contribute something
positive to the world? If so, what? Why would blogging
contribute this? Do your students think that blogging could
influence the world in a negative way? If so, how? Why would
blogging influence the world in this way?

Consider asking students to identify blogs that positively
contribute to the world. They can explain how the blog
makes the contribution.

Ask your students why anybody would threaten somebody else.
What does it say about people that they can threaten one another?

Students could respond to these questions in reflective
essays.

If a blogger asked your students how they would respond if
somebody threatened them on-line, what would they say? Why?

This question could prompt an interesting class discussion.
Alternatively, students could write their own blogs in
which they respond to these questions.

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