PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: BULLYING

Project-Based Curriculum Development Rationale: Bullying

Erik Mischke
Adelphi University
Masters Seminar: Inquiry in Teaching and Learning
0807-788-002
September 28, 2016

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: BULLYING

COMPONENT #1: RATIONALE

The social justice issue I focused on for my project is bullying. Although there are DASA
workshops, and lessons in some classrooms focused on being a bucket-filler, I personally
believe that more awareness on bullying needs to continue in the schools and more importantly,
in the classrooms. The essential question I will be focusing on for this project-based learning
project is Bullying: How do we stop it in our school?
I chose the topic of bullying because I wanted to focus my project on something that
means a lot to me and that is still occurring worldwide. Bullying is one type of youth violence
that threatens young people's well-being. Bullying can result in physical injuries, social and
emotional difficulties, and academic problems. The harmful effects of bullying are frequently felt
by others, including friends and families, and can hurt the overall health and safety of schools,
neighborhoods, and society.(Gladden, 2014). Growing up, there were many times I was bullied
or teased for being gay. I have a vivid memory of being at a friends birthday party in the seventh
grade and being called Erika because I was clearly different or being in the hallways at school
and being called a fag and gay. I know that I am not the only one who was bullied for being
different or even just teased because wanted to bring you down. Because of my past experience,
it has made me have zero tolerance for bullying no matter what the situation is, and it has given
me even more of a drive to take a stand on it. Even though the majority of the bullying was in
middle school, I truly dont remember being taught any lessons in the classrooms on bullying

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and how important it is to treat people the same. I believe that if we as educators start spreading
more awareness of bullying at a younger age, that it will start decreasing the amount of teasing
and bullying occurring in the schools. The students will gain a positive and beneficial learning
experience from this project in which they will develop the patience and understanding of what
to do when dealing with a bully, and to see the affects it has on other students. I would never
want my students to experience bullying like I did and anything I can do to prevent that from
happening I will.
During my first semester at Adelphi University, I wrote in my educational philosophy,
We want all of our students to be treated equal and to be accepting of other people who are
different. Students must understand the importance of racism and why we as human beings must
treat each other equal. It doesnt matter if youre black, white, Jewish, gay, Christian, and so
forth, what matters is we all have feelings and we all are the same. Although this statement is
not speaking about bullying directly, it all relates to the importance of treating people with
kindness and not making fun of people who may be different. My educational philosophy has
impacted my pedagogical decisions to pick my topic since spreading awareness of bullying has
always been dear to my heart. Through teaching my lessons, I will be able to execute some of my
beliefs in my educational philosophy and incorporate it into the classroom. I hope that my
lessons will not only inspire my students, but hopefully other teachers as well to incorporate the
social issue of bullying into their curriculum.
On the first day of school, my cooperating teacher introduced a mini-lesson on bullying
to the class. The activity included two apples that show students how they look exactly the same.
One of the apples will be called names and be thrown to the ground several times. At the end,

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the teacher sliced open the apple and showed the students how different they now appear inside.
(The apple that was called names is now has brown spots all over it, the other apple is white
inside). She then explained to the students that although both apples appear to look the same, one
is hurting on the inside from being called names. The reactions of the students faces were
priceless as it was clear that they were able to connect the apples feelings to the feelings of
human beings. They actually felt bad for the apple and were able to visually see how name
calling affects someone.
Further extending this lesson, I would also have the students take a piece of paper and
crumple it up, stomp on it, and really mess it up. Then I will have the students unfold the paper,
smooth it out, and look at how scarred and dirty it was. I will then tell the students to tell their
paper theyre sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, I will
point out all the scars left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard
they try to fix it. I will then explain to the students that this is what happens when a child bullys
another child, they may say theyre sorry but the scars are there forever. This mini-lesson will be
the perfect start to the lessons to follow and the importance of treating people with kindness.
The goals of these lessons is to learn about the importance of bullying while spreading
awareness on making it stop. The students will be taught the importance of respect, acceptance,
diversity, peace building skills, treating everyone kindly, emphasizing on treat everyone how
you would like to be treated, other ways to handle situations such as talking or speaking to a
professional and the severe consequences of bullying such as damaging the victims self-esteem
and potentially getting in trouble down the road. The students will be rewarded with positive
behavior in the school with things like the president, the vice president and the ambassador of
our classroom of kindness. The parents will also play a crucial role on spreading awareness on

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bullying throughout the lessons. Families play a critical role in bullying prevention by providing
emotional support to promote disclosure of bullying incidents and by fostering coping skills in
their children (Edgerton, 2016).
The objectives for these lessons are students will learn how to identify different types of
bullying, the causes and effects on bullying, how to create campaigns for target audiences, and
how to use teamwork to create solutions to bullying. These lessons will help the students be well
acquainted with the topic of bullying which will prepare them for their final project. One
strategy with the potential for lasting benefits is to engage students as critical thinkers about the
issue. Inquiry projects will get students to examine the causes and consequences of bullying and
encourage them to generate their own solitons for change (Boss, 2015). The main project the
students will be doing is creating a public service message on spreading awareness of bullying.
In their message, they will include the definition of bullying, characteristics of a bully, examples
of bullying and legal consequences, and possible solutions to the bullying problems for our
school. The project will give students free range to be creative and choose to their own bullying
scenario. The students will be assessed on their final project using a presentation rubric and a
public service message rubric. Along with the teachers guidance, the students will be reflecting
on their own PSA by making sure theyve met all of the requirements needed on the rubric. If the
student feels like they have not reached their full potential, or are eager to meet all of the
necessary requirements with this project, they may re-edit and re-submit. At the end of the day,
the responsibility and creativity is in the students hands.
The topic of bullying is important for students of all different learners. Therefore, it is
imperative that differentiated lessons are included in this project based unit. In order to do so, I
will have differentiated instruction for many of the lessons as well as accommodations to those in

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need. These accommodations which include, working with a high level learner, having larger text
in handouts, having them write less and verbalize more throughout assignments, having all
assignments read to them, and giving them extra time to complete assignments will benefit not
only the ELL students, but also those who may be struggling in certain content areas. For the
main PSA project, the ELL students will be able to express the importance of bullying in their
native language, or if they choose English, they will have a different rubric and presentation
rubric from the other classmates.
As a future educator, it is my job to make sure all of my students feel safe and enjoy
being in my classroom. This especially includes students of diversity to ensure they are being
treated as equally and fairly as their peers. In order to do so, I will make sure that all of my
students are getting along by monitoring their behavior and observing their actions in or out of
the classroom. I will also be aware of student friendship in the school, establish guidelines for
consequences for students who are bullying, enforce parent education on bullying to the parents,
and find ways to involve all students in activities. The intervention program is built on four key
principles. These principles involve creating a school - and ideally, also a home - environment
characterized by: (1) warmth, positive interest, and involvement from adults; (2) firm limits on
unacceptable behavior; (3) consistent application of non-punitive, non-physical sanctions for
unacceptable behavior and violation of rules, and, (4), adults who act as authorities and positive
role models (American Psychological Association, 2014). What we teach these children in the
classroom is crucial in terms of the development and acceptance of how they view things. It is
crucial for teachers, like myself, to be someone the children can trust and turn to when they are
feeling victimized or need someone to help lift their spirits. At the end of the unit, the students
will sign a Take the Pledge on bullying handout that will be displayed in the classroom.

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Works Cited
Boss, Suzie. Learning Inquiry Projects to Combat Bullying (2015) Retrieved from:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/leverage-inquiry-projects-combat-bullying-suzie-boss

Edgerton, Beth. Webinar Series on National Academics Report: Key Findings (2016) Retrieved from:
http://www.stopbullying.gov/2016/09/21/webinar-series-national-academies-report-key-findings

Gladden Matthew R. Bullying Surveillance Among Youths: Uniform Definitions for Public
Health and Recommended Data Elements (2014) Retrieved from:
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-definitions-final-a.pdf

School Bullying is Nothing New, But Psychologists Identify New Ways to Prevent It. (2014) Retrieved from:
http://www.apa.org/research/action/bullying.aspx

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: BULLYING