The 5 W's of Bullying



Objective(s) & Context

  1. Determine what kinds of bullying participants have witnessed or experienced.

  2. Identify the building blocks (or the etiology) of bullying.

  3. Identify impacts of bullying.

  4. Collaborate on approaches to addressing bullying.

 

Bullying, or relation aggression, is a common experience for many children and adolescents.  Surveys indicate that as many as half of all young people are bullied at some time during their school years.1

Bullying behaviour can be physical or verbal. Bullying by males and females can range from the use of physical intimidation to verbal assault or threats to subtle but upsetting interactions.

Bullying can take place person to person, within and or between social groups, and in virtual or on-line space (for example: through texting, Facebook, myspace, sexting).

Bullying can also be systemic in that particular individuals or groups can be bullied by State agencies and/or institutions into conforming to or abandoning particular traditions or ways of life.

Bullying and in particular gender-specific bullying, is being recognized by young people, educators, mental health workers, and professionals who work with and/or conduct research with young people, as a major, growing concern. The effects of this and other kinds of bullying on children and adolescents can result in low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, self-injury, violence, and difficulties in personally relating with other people in school, family, or work settings.

Duration

1½ hours

 

Group Size

8–16

 

Age Group

8–16 +

 

Skills

Collaboration, communication, critical analysis

 

Format(s) & Technique(s)

Conversation, skit

 

Materials

Soft, medium-sized to large ball

Sticky notes of different colours

Flip chart

Markers

Tape

Paper

Pens

 

Facilitation Tips

  • Take your time with each of these parts.

  • If there are more stories to be heard, consider breaking this workshop into two or three meetings with your group.

 

Popular Education Prompt

  • This workshop begins with participants’ experiences of bullying, identifies common patterns and perspectives about bullying (who, what), leaves room to introduce or deepen analysis through additional information about bullying (why), and invites participants to strategize approaches to addressing bullying that they witness or experience (how, when, where).

 

Leading the Activity: Steps to Take

Preparations:

  1. This is a three-part activity.

 

Part 1: The Who and the What of Bullying

Word Association (20 minutes):

  1. In a large group, standing in a circle, ask participants to call out words or sounds relating to the word bullying when they receive the ball.

  2. Participants who receive the ball will say their word and then are invited to pass the ball to someone else.

  3. Keep going until everyone has had the ball at least once.

  4. Pass each participant 3 sticky notes of three different colours, as well as a pen or thin marker.

  5. Ask them to write down on one note WHAT bullying looks like based on what they have experienced, witnessed, or heard about (Colour 1).

  6. On the second note, ask them to write down WHAT bullying feels like for the person being bullied (Colour 2).

  7. On the third note, ask them to write down WHAT bullying feels like for the person doing the bullying (Colour 3).

  8. Each participant should have the same colour sticky note for each of these questions (for example, blue for what bullying looks like, yellow for how it feels for the bully, orange for how it feels for the person being bullied).

9. Ask participants to put up their sticky notes on the wall.

10. Invite two participants to come up to the wall and to organize the notes so that ones that are similar are put together.

Option: You can also ask participants to arrange the sticky notes about forms of bullying on a spectrum from least common to most common.

11. Ask participants to take a look at the notes. Then ask them the following questions:

  • What kinds of bullying seem to be the most common from these notes?

  • What kinds of bullying seem least common?

  • What kinds of bullying were not mentioned but do happen?

  • How does being bullied impact a person?

  • What were some of the thoughts about what the bullies might be feeling?

  • Any thoughts about why they might want to feel this way?

  • Can you tell If someone is going to be a bully?

  • Can you tell is someone is going to be bullied? How?

 

Part 2: The 5W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why) of Bullying through Stop-Theatre (45 minutes)

Hypnosis (5 minutes):

  1. This activity is a transition to this next exercise and as a warm up to using theatre. Here are the instructions you would need to give the group.

  2. Find a partner and stand arm’s length apart, facing each other.

  3. Pick one person to lead and one to follow.

  4. The person who is leading holds one hand up about a foot away from their partner’s face.

  5. They then proceed to move their hand and wherever the hand goes, the follower must follow.

  6. Tell participants that the object of the exercise is to get your partner’s bodies to move in new ways, to give them a good warm up, but not to hurt them.

  7. Everyone should remember not to move in ways that might injure them, but to try their best to follow their partner’s hand.

  8. After 2 minutes, tell participants to switch leaders and repeat.

  9. After the exercise, ask participants to reflect on what it felt to lead and what it felt to follow.

  10. Sometimes this exercise warms participants up to feelings related to control and being controlled, which can be useful in this workshop.

 

Make a Scene! (10 minutes):

  1. Ask participants to join up with another pair in order to get into groups of 4.

  2. Ask participants to create a short 2-minute scene about one of the kinds of bullying you described in the first activity.

  3. Groups should attempt to create a scene in which the main character tries to resolve the problem but is unable to.

 

Stop Theatre (30 minutes):

  1. Ask each group to title their skits and to present them one at a time.

  2. Explain that everyone will watch each scene once through.

  3. You can introduce each play by reading their original question.

4. Remind the audience to participate in the performance by raising their hands (or come up with another sign), if they see anything in the play that they relate to, identify with, or recognize.

5. After all scenes have been seen, tell participants that you will pick one to work with for the next exercise that most people could relate to (you will know this based on the show of hands from the last step).

6. Tell participants that you will show this scene again and this time, ask participants to call out “STOP!” at anytime that they feel that the person who is being bullied OR someone else in the scene could do or say something to change the outcome of the scene.

  1. Repeat the scene and this time invite those who called out “Stop” to replace the person being bullied – or someone else in the scene – to try out their idea.

  2. After they have role-played their idea, thank them and ask the audience what she did to better the outcome of the scene and to address bullying?

  3. Repeat the scene again and get at least 5 more suggestions.

  4. You can also ask your audience “Is there someone you could add to the scene who could make a difference?”

  5. Invite them to show what they would do as this person in the scene.

  6. If there is time, you could repeat this process with another scene from another group.

 

Part 3: Reflection (30 minutes)

1. Ask group what solutions were offered that could work for you or for your community?

2. Do a Go-around: what is one idea you could take with you from today to support yourself or someone who is being bullied?

 

Debrief

  • Ask participants to close the workshop by giving one word to describe the workshop

  • Thank participants.

 

Success Indicators

Participants are:

  • Able to identify forms of bullying

  • Engaged in conversation with one another about bullying

  • Able to identify one individual and one collective strategy they can use to address bullying

 

Source: Nisha Sajnani, Creative Alternatives: www.creative-alternatives.ca

1 Facts for Families, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry