Essential Question:

How does online cruelty affect the people involved?

Lesson Overview:

Students learn about the dynamics of online cruelty and how it affects all of the people involved. Students begin by exploring a scenario from the TV show Friday Night Lights, in which a teen girl creates a hate website about another girl. Students take the perspective of different characters and brainstorm alternative decisions each character could have made. Finally, students discuss what actions they can take when they encounter online cruelty in their own lives, including how to be an upstander. (Note: The term “online cruelty” encompasses what is often referred to as “cyberbullying,” but it covers a broader range of behaviors and may speak more effectively to teens than the term cyberbullying. We use the term “online cruelty” throughout this lesson.)

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to ...

articulate why it’s important to consider the perspectives of others in online (and offline) communities.
consider the motivations and feelings of all the parties involved in an incident of online cruelty.
draw conclusions about how they should respond when someone is the target of online cruelty.

Standards Alignment – Common Core: grades 9-10: RL.1, RL.2, RL.4, RL.7, RL.8, RL.10, RI.1-2, RI.4, RI.10, W.2a, W.3a-e, W.4-6, W.8-10, SL.1a-d, SL.2-5, L.4a, L.6