I used the discussion cards from my Anti Cyber Bullying Activities resource with them this week, and one of the discussion points was about whether people have a right to say what they want on the internet. It caused quite the debate!
There's a video that went viral yesterday and has already received 2 million views in 24 hours. I think it is a fantastic tool in demonstrating to students an effective way of dealing with other peoples' mean comments. It is Barack Obama responding to #MeanTweets about himself, check it out:
You can use these prompts below with your students after watching the video, to encourage them to reflect and learn from Obama's winning technique!
- How does Barack Obama deal with the mean things said about him?
- What benefit does humor have when reading mean comments?
- Why do you think these comments don't seem to upset him?
- Why do you think he doesn't defend himself or his actions?
- Why do you think silence is often a powerful response?
- How would you feel if you had to read lots of mean things said about you?
- What effect would it have on Barack Obama if he got really upset about all the mean things said about him?
- How can you use Barack Obama's attitude the next time you read or hear something mean about you?
You could even pause the video and ask them to predict how he will respond after he reads each tweet out, or think about how they would respond if they were in his shoes - that would be really interesting to discuss and compare to what he actually says!
Jimmy Kimmel's channel has so many other Mean Tweets episodes with other celebrities that your students might enjoy and relate to (tip: proof watch them first!) You can use the prompts above to spark a really valuable discussion with any of them!
If you want to use my Anti Cyber Bullying Activities resource in your lessons which effectively compliments this activity, you can check it out by clicking either of the images below: