the role of the adult
rationale
Adults can feel helpless when intervening in bullying situations. Children have the right to feel safe and secure in the classrooms, at school, in the community, and at home. As responsible adults, including parents and teachers, it is your responsibility to ensure that you create and maintain a positive climate so that the children in your care can flourish in their environment and be able to positively relate to others. The suggested tips and picture books aim to instill, in children, a trust in you and other adults so that children can feel comfortable and be able to come forth to an adult whenever they need help in a bullying situation.
teacher prompts
1. Who are some people you can trust? Why do you trust them?
2. Who can you talk to when you have a problem? Or when you are bullied?
3. What is the difference between tattling/snitching/ratting and telling/reporting?
4: During/After reading of the suggested book titles:
2. Who can you talk to when you have a problem? Or when you are bullied?
3. What is the difference between tattling/snitching/ratting and telling/reporting?
4: During/After reading of the suggested book titles:
- What are some ways that the adult in the book helps the victim?
- What are some ways that the adult in the book helps the bully?
related classroom activities
In creating a space of trust between children and adults, you can set up a box with a slit where your students can write and submit anonymous reports of inappropriate behaviour or bullying.
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The Region of Peel – Public Health has an excellent lesson plan that helps primary students distinguish the difference between tattling/ratting/snitching and reporting/telling an adult and assessing the degree of danger in a bullying situation. A puppet show script is provided in this lesson to illustrate different scenarios that have children assessing whether the character is tattling or telling. The lesson can be found here.
Refer kids to Kids Help Phone and peruse the website with the entire class, telling students that they can call anonymous adults who can help them with bullying or any other situations where they may face danger. Peruse and refer parents of bullying victims to the websites suggested in the Resources page of this toolkit. |
book suggestions
Thank You, Mr. Falker
Author: Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Philomel Books
Year: 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23166-8
ISBN 13: 978-0-399-23166-7
Synopsis: While Tricia is eager to learn to read, she is finding difficulties in learning to read, which makes her feel different from her fellow students who are in advanced reading levels. Her peers in her former and new schools have teased and ridiculed her because she is “slow.” Her teacher, Mr. Falker intervenes, telling her classmates that Tricia is a great artist, which stops the teasing in the classroom. Mr. Falker also intervenes in a bullying situation that was happening outside of the classroom when Tricia’s bully is sent to the office. Mr. Falker and the reading teacher help Tricia overcome her reading difficulties.
This book highlights the power of the adult to intervene in bullying, as well as address underlying causes to the bullying, such as the differences between student’s achievement levels in this book, which was remedied by extra instruction from Mr. Falker and the reading teacher. For a sample preview read-aloud of the book, please refer to the video below:
Author: Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Philomel Books
Year: 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23166-8
ISBN 13: 978-0-399-23166-7
Synopsis: While Tricia is eager to learn to read, she is finding difficulties in learning to read, which makes her feel different from her fellow students who are in advanced reading levels. Her peers in her former and new schools have teased and ridiculed her because she is “slow.” Her teacher, Mr. Falker intervenes, telling her classmates that Tricia is a great artist, which stops the teasing in the classroom. Mr. Falker also intervenes in a bullying situation that was happening outside of the classroom when Tricia’s bully is sent to the office. Mr. Falker and the reading teacher help Tricia overcome her reading difficulties.
This book highlights the power of the adult to intervene in bullying, as well as address underlying causes to the bullying, such as the differences between student’s achievement levels in this book, which was remedied by extra instruction from Mr. Falker and the reading teacher. For a sample preview read-aloud of the book, please refer to the video below:
Mr. Lincoln’s Way
Author: Patricia Polacco
Year: 2001
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN 10: 0399237542
ISBN 13: 978-0399237546
Synopsis:
Mr. Lincoln is a popular principal who tries to reach out to the school bully, Eugene, by capitalizing on his interest in birds. When Eugene, who is no longer with his beloved grandfather and now experiences a home life that is not conducive to acceptance and tolerance for others, gets sent to the office for calling an African-American student a racial slur, Mr. Lincoln tries to relate diversity and acceptance to the differences in birds and the resulting beauty of these differences in changing Eugene’s attitude.
Mr. Lincoln’s Way is an excellent book that highlights the impact that an adult can make on a student in reflecting on and changing his or her behaviour. For a sample preview read-aloud of the book, please refer to the video below:
references
Martinez, Alexis. (2012, May 21). Mr. Lincoln’s Way, Martinez. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqKhFmvgasw
Polacco, Patricia. (2001). Mr. Lincoln's way. New York: Philomel Books.
Polacco, Patricia. (1998). Thank you, Mr. Falker. New York: Philomel Books.
StorylineOnline. (2012, May 21). Thank you, Mr. Falker. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abN2aP_Dzd0
Telling an Adult about Bullying is Not Tattling - Region of Peel. (n.d.). Region of Peel - Health. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.peelregion.ca/health/bullying/pdfs/February-K-LPRF.pdf
Polacco, Patricia. (2001). Mr. Lincoln's way. New York: Philomel Books.
Polacco, Patricia. (1998). Thank you, Mr. Falker. New York: Philomel Books.
StorylineOnline. (2012, May 21). Thank you, Mr. Falker. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abN2aP_Dzd0
Telling an Adult about Bullying is Not Tattling - Region of Peel. (n.d.). Region of Peel - Health. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.peelregion.ca/health/bullying/pdfs/February-K-LPRF.pdf