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THE ROLE OF THE
BYSTANDER
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The purpose of this activity is to teach students who the bystander is, what their role is in bullying situations and how bystanders can help other students that are being bullied. By the end of the activity students should be able to define what a bystander is and identify the harmful and helpful behaviours of a bystander. At the end of the day you would want the students to leave with some ideas and thoughts about positive ways to respond as a bystander. The activity will end with the students signing off a pledge for ethical bystander behaviour.
Teacher Prompts
- What is a bystander? (Not the bully or victim but someone caught in between.)
- Why do other people go along with the bully?
- Is it better to do nothing or something?
Read Aloud
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Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Plot:
- teasing children in school
- bystander encourages victim to stand up to bully
- victim's grandma teaches her to walk away proudly
activity
Once students have finished reading:
- Have students define bystander.
- Provide students with the Bullying Circle handout to create a discussion on bystander behaviour and outline
different roles the bystander can play.
- Using the story, talk about how common it is for bystanders to watch and not do (such as the Potential
Witnesses, Disengaged Onlookers, Passive Supporters) and about active supporters as outlined on the
handout.
Ask students about their thoughts on the following:
- It takes a lot of courage to be the one person in a group to do something different than the rest of the group.
They may fear that if they speak up, the bully will turn on them. What should they do if this happens to them?
- Have students share their experiences of being a bystander to bullying. How did they feel?
- Did anyone speak up or do something different? If so, what happened, what was that like? If no, why not?
Ask students to write down some things they think a bystander could do to make it worse for Molly and things they could do to help her. On the board, create a class chart to organize the points made, including the following:
- behaviours to make it worse (laughing, nothing, encouraging bully to do it again)
- behaviours to make it better (distracting the bully so victim has a chance to escape, standing up to bully and
tell him/her to back off, helping the student being bullied by asking them to play, standing next to the victim to
show support, sitting with victim at lunch or in class, telling an adult, or offering to go with the victim to report
the bullying, refusing to go along with bully if recruited to help)
At the end of the lesson/activity students will sign a Pledge to be a better bystander.
“ I pledge to do my best to reduce bullying in my school or community. I will continue to learn about bullying so that I am prepared to recognize, prevent and intervene when it occurs. I have a responsibility as a bystander to protect other kids from being bullied and I will do this by reaching out and lending my support when I see bullying happening. I believe that one person can make a difference.”
- Have students define bystander.
- Provide students with the Bullying Circle handout to create a discussion on bystander behaviour and outline
different roles the bystander can play.
- Using the story, talk about how common it is for bystanders to watch and not do (such as the Potential
Witnesses, Disengaged Onlookers, Passive Supporters) and about active supporters as outlined on the
handout.
Ask students about their thoughts on the following:
- It takes a lot of courage to be the one person in a group to do something different than the rest of the group.
They may fear that if they speak up, the bully will turn on them. What should they do if this happens to them?
- Have students share their experiences of being a bystander to bullying. How did they feel?
- Did anyone speak up or do something different? If so, what happened, what was that like? If no, why not?
Ask students to write down some things they think a bystander could do to make it worse for Molly and things they could do to help her. On the board, create a class chart to organize the points made, including the following:
- behaviours to make it worse (laughing, nothing, encouraging bully to do it again)
- behaviours to make it better (distracting the bully so victim has a chance to escape, standing up to bully and
tell him/her to back off, helping the student being bullied by asking them to play, standing next to the victim to
show support, sitting with victim at lunch or in class, telling an adult, or offering to go with the victim to report
the bullying, refusing to go along with bully if recruited to help)
At the end of the lesson/activity students will sign a Pledge to be a better bystander.
“ I pledge to do my best to reduce bullying in my school or community. I will continue to learn about bullying so that I am prepared to recognize, prevent and intervene when it occurs. I have a responsibility as a bystander to protect other kids from being bullied and I will do this by reaching out and lending my support when I see bullying happening. I believe that one person can make a difference.”
VIDEO CLIPS
Here are two YouTube videos to raise awareness of the importance of bystanders:
references
Lovell, Patty (2001). Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon. New York, NY: Putnam.
MultiVuOnlineVideo. (2012, October 18). Be More than a Bystander. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92I8mHy4N4
gothogirl7. (2012, October 12). You Can Be More Than A Bystander. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquawu1d_Gs
MultiVuOnlineVideo. (2012, October 18). Be More than a Bystander. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92I8mHy4N4
gothogirl7. (2012, October 12). You Can Be More Than A Bystander. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquawu1d_Gs