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= **Cyberbullying Unit Overview** = Tamar Arnold, Corrie Ball, Leslie Compere

=** Purpose **= School District 630 is requiring all Middle Schools to address the topic of Internet Safety in their curriculum for 2011. The principal of Mayo Middle School has decided that our school will focus on the topic of Cyberbullying via a required unit for all 7th grade students. Principal Castro chose to focus on this issue because it has become an increasingly pervasive problem with 8th grade students at Mayo, as well as becoming an unfortunate trend in middle schools and high schools across the country, often leading to very serious consequences such as teen suicide.

She hopes that educating students at a younger age will help promote a safer, more respectful environment for students as they begin to delve deeper into the virtual world. Principal Castro wants to make sure that students aware of the types of behaviors that are deemed unacceptable by Mayo Middle School, ways to guard against being subjected to inappropriate treatment (as well as procedure to follow if they do become victims), and the ramifications of their actions should they choose to participate in cyberbullying (in terms of school and state laws as well as in terms of being the arbitor of emotional abuse resulting in lasting emotional pain).

**Topic** Bullying is harmful to students and school culture. There are now three kinds of bullying: direct or physical bullying (face to face aggression), indirect or relational bullying (smear or exclusion campaigns), and cyberbullying (bullying using the internet or portable electronic devices). Cyberbullying is a school problem because in a recent survey, 30% of students who had been cyberbullied had it happen at school (Cyberbullying: Q&A, 2007). According to a 2007 Pew Research Trust Survey, about one third of teens who use the internet say they’ve been victims of a form of cyberbullying. Chibbaro (2007) states that cyberbullying is “one of the most prevalent forms of harassment among students of grades 6, 7, and 8” (p. 65).

According to Nancy Willard, an expert on the use of technology to commit social aggression, cyberbullying is particularly insidious because: “online communications can be extremely vicious and ongoing, 24/7; cyberbullies can be anonymous; harmful material posted online has the potential to be widely distributed and very difficult to ever remove; teens are very reticent to discuss any online issues with adults-fearing that adults will overreact or respond to the situation in ways that will ultimately make matters worse.” (Cyberbullying: Q&A, 2007) Willard suggests that students should be engaged in influencing their peers to disapprove of cyberbullying behavior. According to the cyberbullying research center ( [|www.cyberbullying.us] ), one of the best prevention methods is to foster a positive school culture, a culture “of respect and integrity where violations result in informal or formal sanction.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s “Stop Bulling Now!” website, the following are best practices in bullying prevention and intervention:
 * 1) Focus on the social environment of the school – to reduce and prevent bullying, the school culture must be changed to make intolerance of bullying and helping victims of bullying the “normal” culture.
 * 2) Assess bullying at your school – it is important to know the level, kinds, and places of bullying currently taking place to demonstrate it is a problem and monitor progress of anti-bullying campaigns
 * 3) Administration, staff and parents need to understand and support the bully prevention efforts
 * 4) Form a group to coordinate the school’s bullying prevention efforts.
 * 5) Train all staff (not just teachers) in bullying prevention
 * 6) Establish and enforce school rules and policies related to bullying
 * 7) Increase adult supervision in places where bullying most often occurs
 * 8) Intervene consistently and appropriately in bullying situations
 * 9) Focus regular class time on bullying prevention (at least every other week throughout the year)
 * 10) Continue efforts over time.

Additionally, HRSA has identified the following practices ineffective in bullying prevention
 * zero tolerance and three strikes you’re out policies – bullying is too prevalent, policies discourage reporting and don’t help change the culture or the individual’s behavior.
 * Conflict resolution and peer mediation – puts the victim further at risk and sends the message that the victim may have deserved the treatment
 * Group treatment for bullies – bullies tend to reinforce each other’s behavior
 * Quick fixes – a one-time intervention won’t stop the problem, this requires ongoing efforts and a cultural change

**Teaching Philosophy**
The 7th grade teachers met to decide how to best create a unit that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and centered around student inquiry and discussion. They decided that the best format for this would be to provide daily, short assemblies and discussion about Cyberbullying over the course of a week. This way, students would be encouraged to slowly digest information about cyberbullying, giving them time to think about the issue and get questions answered. In order to ensure that students feel comfortable and discussions progress, teachers decided to have the discussions with the same group of students each day in study hall so that all teachers will have an opportunity to get involved in the unit. They also made sure to invite local experts (the librarian, social worker and law enforcement) to speak to students in addition to the 7th grade teachers.

Teachers agreed that in addition to providing information and discussion, students should be given an opportunity to practice online behavior in order to reinforce positive behaviors. Teachers felt that strongly that this experienced-based approach would allow students to learn much effectively than just providing them with a list of rules for proper netiquette behavior. The Language Arts teachers agreed to take this portion of the unit by allowing students to do their next literature circle project in an online environment.

To gain a better understanding of the online environment for students at Mayo Middle School, the teachers also decided to administer an anonymous survey. The librarian suggested that this resource be available to students online. She volunteered to create the survey, link it to the library website and compile the results into a report for the PSA showcase. Students who would prefer to take the survey during school (rather than at home) can take it in the library.

The teachers also wanted to incorporate a service-learning project into the unit so that students were given the opportunity to share their newly acquired knowledge and perspective with their peers. At Mayo Middle School, teachers believe that students are the ideal advocates for promoting anti-bullying behaviors because they are able to reach peers in a unique way; teachers do not moderate the virtual world and directives from authority figures (with a generation and cultural gap) rarely have as much influence as messages garnered from peer advocates. Exploratory teachers offered to take this on by creating Public Service Announcements with students in their classes, followed by a unit reflection paper. After completion of the PSA projects, they will be presented to all Castro Middle School students in a showcase. Students will view the showcase during their gym class, and parents will be invited to view the showcase during Family night, so that parents will also be made aware of the problems surrounding cyberbullying.

Unit Components

 * Anti-bullying Week Assemblies & Discussion
 * Assemblies will occur in the gym; discussions in study hall
 * Speakers include the Principal, social worker, librarian and local law enforcement representatives
 * Netiquette practice via blogging in Language Arts
 * Anti-bullying Public Service Announcement (PSA) created in Exploratory Classes
 * Student showcase of PSA's during gym class (all grades)
 * Parent showcase of PSA's in the gymnasium during Family night
 * Reflection paper about the unit (assessment by Exploratory teachers)
 * Survey (all students encouraged to participate anonymously; created and analyzed by librarian)

**Learning Objectives**

 * 1) Students will understand the terms bullying, cyberbullying, bully, target, and bystander.
 * 2) Students will understand how bullying and cyberbullying can make student targets feel.
 * 3) Students will understand that bullying (including name-calling) and cyberbullying are harmful, even deadly
 * 4) Students will learn the importance of behaving responsibly online
 * 5) Students will participate in building a positive culture of respect at Mayo Middle School
 * 6) Students will work with teachers to create a culture of disapproval of all forms of bullying behavior

Resources (see resources )

 * The librarian will post a page of resources for students and parents on the library website
 * The librarian will also assist teachers by acquiring book resources on the topic, photocopying relevant articles and distributing to teachers, and compiling a list of online resources (websites, lesson plans, sample PSAs, powerpoints, etc) to assist with lesson planning and student support.

Educating Parents

 * Because bullying offer occurs outside the walls of the school, parents need to be aware of the problem and dangers. By providing resources for them via the parent showcase and the library webpage, we hope to be able to bring parents onboard to help us create a respectful, safe learning and online environment for all students. The showcase will also ensure that they can recognize warning signs that their student may be a victim, and that they are aware of the consequences for students that are found to be bullying others.