Say Something by Peggy Moss: Extension Activities

Say Something: Extension Activities

Follow up your reading of Say Something with one or more of the extension activities below, which can help to increase awareness about bullying and encourage ally behavior.

Say Something Campaign
After reading the story, introduce the idea of a class or school-wide campaign to "Say Something" when teasing or bullying occurs. Work with students to identify interventions and strategies that are helpful and appropriate (click here for examples of Constructive Responses to Bullying). Next divide students into small groups and challenge them to come up with a slogan and logo or graphic for the campaign. Allow each group to present its ideas, and then help the class to settle on a final concept. Allow students to create posters and decorate the classroom with the final slogan and graphic. Hold follow-up discussions at least once each week where students can share instances of teasing or bullying that they may have encountered and how it was handled. Read additional stories and literature that reinforce positive ways of responding to and intervening in bullying situations. If there are opportunities to take the campaign school-wide, publicize it at a school assembly and through the school newsletter or website. Work with colleagues to implement the campaign in their classrooms, and train responsible students to read stories and lead discussions with their peers in younger grades.

Social Grouping Game
Help students to explore the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion by examining the patterns that they use to group themselves. Place a colored sticker on each student's forehead without letting them see the color. Use four different colors-one white sticker and an even mix of the other three. (The student who receives the white sticker should be capable of handling a simulation about exclusion, and not someone who is typically teased or excluded). As each student receives a sticker, direct him/her to roam around the room in silence. Once all of the students are "roaming," instruct them to "find their group" without asking any questions and without verbal communication of any kind. When students are finished, use the following questions to debrief:

What were the strategies you used to find your group? Why did you group in this way?
What did it feel like to be pushed into a group or told by someone else to go into a group?
What did it feel like to direct people to go into a group or not go into another group?
Did you like the group you were in? Would you rather have been in another group?
What about the person who is not in a group? Why didn't anyone accept that person into their group? What did it feel like for the person who wasn't accepted into the group?
Are there any similarities between the way you grouped and treated one another during this activity and the way you group and treat one another in the playground and other social situations?

Help students to see that they grouped by color because it seemed natural or easy, or because they assumed it was the "right" way to satisfy the task. Make the connection to the "easy" or superficial ways in which they often group socially, and to how this may lead to exclusion and cliques. Give students an opportunity to try the dot game again, and to group in a variety of creative ways that do not exclude anyone. Challenge students to think about the ways that they group outside the classroom, and to work toward inclusive behavior in social situations.

One Person, Many Roles
Help students to explore the roles that they have played in the past when teasing or bullying has occurred. Distribute the worksheet, One Person, Many Roles, to each student and ask them to spend 5-10 minutes filling in each square (with words or pictures). Tell students that you will not be collecting the worksheets or asking them to show it to others, and encourage them to be completely honest. When students have finished, introduce the vocabulary that corresponds with each square (A-target; B-perpetrator; C- bystander; D-ally). Ask for volunteers who would like to share one of their squares with the class. Ask each volunteer why s/he chose that particular square, how it felt to be in that role, and what was positive or negative about the way s/he responded in that particular situation. Help the class to see patterns in the way different students have behaved when teasing or bullying occurs. Highlight constructive responses to bullying that come up, and reinforce the importance of being a friend and ally to peers who are the targets of bullying.

Adapted from A WORLD OF DIFFERENCEŽ Institute Anti-Bias Study Guide (Elementary/Intermediate level. New York: Anti-Defamation League. Š 2000.

Being an Ally
Help students to explore safe and realistic ways in which they can act as an ally to peers who are the targets of name-calling and bullying. Read the scenario, The New Girl, to the class and ask students how the story makes them feel. Introduce the term ally and ask students to define it (someone who helps, supports, or speaks out on behalf of someone else). Ask if anyone in the story acted as an ally to Jane. Label a sheet of chart paper, "Being an Ally," and divide it into two columns titled "Risks" and "Benefits." Ask what risks Stephanie took when she spoke out in defense of Jane (e.g., losing friends, being teased herself). List students' ideas about the risks of being an ally. Ask students what benefits may have come from Stephanie's behavior (e.g., the teasing stopped, Jane felt supported, Stephanie felt proud, both girls made a new friend). List students' ideas about the benefits of being an ally. Tell students that although there are risks involved in being an ally, there are always safe ways that we can help others. Ask students to suggest high-risk and low-risk ways that students in the story might have been an ally to Jane. Divide the class into groups of four and provide each with the Pyramid of Alliance. Instruct each group to brainstorm low, moderate, and high levels of alliance. Allow each group to share their ideas and hang the pyramids on a bulletin board. Reinforce the importance of finding ways-small or large-to be an ally to others when name-calling or bullying occurs.

Adapted from A WORLD OF DIFFERENCEŽ Institute Anti-Bias Study Guide (Elementary/Intermediate and Secondary levels. New York: Anti-Defamation League. Š 2000 and 1999.