Title – Do Something about… School Violence Unit

Day 3: Mean Girls

By – Do Something, Inc. / www.dosomething.org

Primary Subject – Social Studies

Secondary Subjects – Other

Grade Level – 9-12

Do Something about…

School Violence

10-Day Unit

The following lesson is the third lesson of a 10-day

School Violence Unit from Do Something, Inc.

Other lessons in this unit are as follows:

Day 1: Bullying Students will be introduced to the unit and learn the definition of bullying.

Day 2: What’s life like in my shoes? Students will learn about bullying in the news and take on the perspective of someone being bullied.

Day 3: Mean Girls (See the lesson below) Students will explore the differences and similarities of female and male violence.

Day 4: School Zones Students will talk about safety in their own school.

Day 5: Groupthink Students will learn about gangs and the theory of groupthink.

Day 6: Stand Up! Students will learn about diffusion of responsibility and discuss how they should play a role in protecting others.

Day 7: Responsibility Students will learn about the principal of diffusion of responsibility and techniques that can help them if they are ever a victim of violence.

Day 8: Zero Tolerance Students will investigate zero tolerance laws and learn about the difficulties schools face when deciding how to handle school violence.

Day 9: Still I Rise Students will learn about how to find inner strength and cope with bullying.

Day 10: Bully Pulpit Students will launch an anti-bullying campaign in their school.

More student resources for this cause are at:


www.dosomething.org/causes/school_violence

For more Service-Learning Curricula check out:


www.dosomething.org/oldpeople

Day 3: Mean Girls

Goal:

Students will explore the differences and similarities of female and male violence.

Process:

Ask students if they think male and female bullying is different. Split students into groups and have them read one of the following articles on girls and violence.
• ERIC resource on girls and violence
  

  http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/2a/2d/9a.pdf

• Institute for Urban and Minority Education “Overview of research of Girls and Violence.”
  
  

  http://iume.tc.columbia.edu/downloads/choices/choices01.pdf

After reading the articles, students should be regrouped to form discussion groups. Write the following questions on index cards (1 per card).

1. Do you think male bullying is different than female bullying? How?
2. Do you think that the media is creating female characters that are more physically aggressive than they have been in the past? What impact if any does this have on youth?
3. Is it cool for either girls or boys to be nice? Is it cool to be mean? Discuss.
4. Why do you think female violence is on the rise?

Allow students to read the question on the index card and discuss it with their group. After eight to ten minutes, the teacher should have each group pass the card to another group and discuss their new question.

Additional Activities:

1. Have students create scenarios that address girls and violence and present these as skits to younger students.
2. Have students create a female superhero. What attributes should she possess?

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Do Something, Inc.

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