A Primary School's National Day of Action - Part 1

Today is the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence and even if we are not ready we are going to give it a red hot go....

This continues the story of a 4 week project where Sam, the principal, and I have been working with the Grade 4 cohort to create a campaign in the school for the National Day of Action.  This includes the Grade 4 class running lessons for other students as part of being leaders in the school.

8:30am morning

I arrive just as one of my Grade 4 students arrives and he smiles at me and asks what I am doing. I smile back and ask him if he would like to help me put up posters in the hall, where we will be running the activities. He is the boy who wrote in his letter of concern: 

"I think I annoy people too much, that is why they don't like me and won't play with me. Help me on how to make friends." 

My first impressions of him at the beginning of the program was someone who was very silly, often resulting in distracting the class. I didn't think to give him a reading/facilitation part in the script (beyond his acting roles) but his friend insisted and said he would help him learn it. I watched his friend patiently coach him in the rehearsal the previous day from stumbling over his reading into greater confidence. It reminded me not to pigeon-hole kids and restrict them through a lack of my own imagination, care or trust.

Since then I have given the boy different roles and a camera and something has changed. He is not silly today, but quite dedicated in setting things up and soon he is joined by others from my group and there is a sense of purposefulness as we set up the prop table, demarcate the "stage area" with small traffic cones and do a quick rehearsal for the assembly. It is about to start.

9:00am assembly in the hall

Two girls are on the microphone with a power point introducing the day. One girl has spent hours writing the script for this. They then hand over to my students: 

Narrator: Today is the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence

All together: We take a stand together for FriendCHIPS 

Friend  CHIPS, CARING, HELPFUL, INCLUDE,  POSTIVENESS , SMILE

Narrator: We want to change meanness to FriendCHIPS

Skit: Two boys then play out a drama where one kicks and punches another when he has fallen down trying to kick a soccer ball. The audience gasps.The narrator PAUSES the action and says "That's not right! REWIND." And the boys rewind the action to where they started. The audience laughs as they watch the boys do everything backwards. She says "PLAY" and they do a version where one helps the other.






The principal then explains how the day will work - Grade 4's will be coming into classes and taking lessons and how we want people to write positive statements about others on the SAY SOMETHING POSITIVE BOARD.

Excitement is in the air.

9:15 The Grade 5/6 lesson in the hall

Introduction: The grade 5/6 class are now sitting down around the area we have set up for the stage. Three of my students come out the front and read out the definition of bullying. Then  the key narrator says:

"Things can go wrong. We have times when we are worried. We can help each other make it right before it gets really bad. Today we will be looking at some scenarios and working out how we can make it right for everyone."

Scenario 1: The girls then act out a skit. Daisy comes up to group of 3 girls and asks to play, they move away, saying mean things. The narrator says "PAUSE. That isn't right." He then asks the audience "How do you think Daisy feels?" and hands go up "Sad," "Lonely," "Upset". "What would you do to make it right?" "Rewind," "Make it up," "Play with her." 

The narrator then says "Let's see. Press PLAY." And the girls come back in saying that was a mean thing to do and they feel bad and want to make it up. And then they play ball together. "What do you think?" asks the narrator and the audience nod and then clap. 

 

Scenario 2: In the next skit a boy is sitting in a chair while a girl reads out what he is thinking (one of the letters of concern.) Other students walk by in friendship groups completely ignoring him, engaged with each other. 

I am concerned that I am being left out and people are excluding me. I just wish everyone could care about people who are getting left out like me. No one cares for me. I wonder if they think something is wrong with me. All I want is a friend to trust.

The narrator repeats a similar rhythm to the first scenario, inviting audience response. The audience suggest that someone makes friends with him.  The actors then play out an ending where someone comes and sits next to the boy, introduces himself and they find a computer game in common and talk and talk and talk, (with hand movements and explosions)  until they have to be moved off the stage, which the audience finds quite funny.

Scenario 3:  This skit requires the audience to create a suitable ending.
The skit involves 3 bystanders eating lunch while a boy takes the lunch off another boy. The narrator asks the participants in the skit how they feel - The "bully" - powerful, the "victim" scared and the bystanders horrified, sad, disturbed. 

Then the narrator asks the audience what they would do to make it right - "Make him give back the lunch box." He then gets the actors to play out an ending where they say "Bully, bully, bully," and "Give it back to him!", and the bully throws down the lunch box saying "I hate you."

The narrator says. "That is not right either. It has to be right for everyone." Then he says that we are going to put them in groups and each group has to come up with a solution that is right for everyone, and then act it out. 

One of the girls read out the instructions and another passes around cards to the audience with a number on it and soon there are groups around the room and the noise level increases. Each group has one facilitator or two from my students. Later I realise I have not prepared them for this role and some are finding it hard knowing their role. One boy acts as a director, script writer with starring role, while another rolls his eyes at me seemingly disconnected from what is going on in his group. 

Somehow after about 10 mins it all comes together. Groups are ready to present their endings and the audience settles back into position. My students re-enact the beginning. The narrator calls up the first group. Again there is a rhythm - asking the audience what do they think - "Is it right for everyone?" encouraging hands up if they think it is. Not all endings are right for everyone and it becomes obvious to most people. 


Students come up with:

• supporting the person who has been harmed  
• "How do you think he feels? You should give it back and apologise!" In which case the bully reluctantly and disrespectfully gave it back.
• asking what the bully would do to make it right
• getting a teacher to intervene
• putting the bully in the position of the person who was bullied
• the person who is the victim pushes his icecream into the face of the bully
• saying "Nobody will be friends with you if you do this."  

One group finds their bully does not respond to any of their interventions and have a bit of a meltdown and the narrator suggests they go and work out how to fix it. It highlights that sometimes it is quite difficult and strategies you hope might work may not. 

At the end my students act out their ending where they say to the bully "That isn't right." "How do you think they are feeling?" "What can you do to make it right?" The narrator asks again what people think and someone speaks up about the experience of being bullied and that it is hard to stop it. At this stage I realise that the nuances of this might be beyond our narrator and decide to step in. Up to now I have been sitting on the side acting as a prompt when needed.


What are important key messages: 

"These scenarios are focussing on how to prevent people from turning into bullies who do it again and again. It is about helping people who do something wrong to make it right. As part of our work-shopping of these scenarios our narrator came up with these three key things that can help the person who does wrong:

• realising it isn't right, 

• imagining how someone else feels, and 

• then being able to make it right. 

It is important NOT to tell the person who has done something wrong HOW to make it right, but give them the choice. Part of the reason people turn into bullies it to get control, so the solution needs to allow them some control. Now if there is a bullying dynamic that is happening again and again then that is where it is important to get help - from a parent or teacher. It is too hard usually to solve by yourself and you need other people helping." 

Saying something positive

One of the girls reads out the instructions for writing on a sticky note something you appreciate about another person to go onto the wall. The audience write...

 

What have you learnt? 

Then the boy (who used to be silly) and now was prop manager and archive videoer and actor and helper stood up in front of the class, after practicing and practicing, and said in a confident voice, with no hesitation or stuttering over the words - "Thankyou. We hope you have learnt something. What is something that you have learnt?"  And then took answers calmly and confidently:

• make sure everyone is happy
• it is not nice to be mean
• make sure you help everyone to make sure everyone is happy
• don't be mean to the person who has bullied or they will be too
• bullying won't get you anywhere
• make sure the bully gives back what they have taken and are nice
• maybe bring your own lunch

What will you do to build better friendCHIPS?

Be nice.

And with that my students grab the CHIP cards and hold them out "We stand together for friendCHIPS" and take a bow. 

PHEW! 

My group reflects

The Grade 5/6 class leave and we put everything in order again for the next session. I call my students together for a tribe circle and ask them to share something positive, letting them know that they will then have the opportunity to talk about something that might not have worked as well and discuss how they could improve it.

They were hyped up and the first speakers found something good to say - but as soon as we got round to the boy who has critiqued my teaching in the past, he couldn't hold it in - "The groups! How can we do better with the groups!" This is when I had a deju vu moment of sitting after a major learning event with Fire-fighter trainers who could not stay on the question what have we valued from today, but straight away went into what didn't work so well and problem solving. And from then on these 9/10 year olds seemed no different from these very experienced 50+ year olds in the way they took apart what they had done and talked about how they would do it better. 

I realised how critical this moment was. There was a point of ownership. The opportunity to do it again was a critical part of this learning. It is not enough to have a culminating event - the unpacking of it and the opportunity to better it is also important. This was such a strong indicator of their sense of pride, ownership, sense of responsibility. Following this they interviewed each other about how they thought it had gone, and practised their elements again. 

Getting Feedback

At lunch time, the boy (who is no longer silly) asks students from the Grade 5/6 class if he can interview them about the program. He talks to 3 pairs of girls,  asking terrific questions that he has made up. This gives an interesting window into how these students have made sense of the scenarios. It seems to have made a telling impact, with the opportunity to act out being memorable. The boy tells me later he has missed his lunch, but not to worry.

"I thought the program was very good, because it teaches kids what is the right thing to do when you are in that situation. I liked the play but it wasn't just about what they did but how they said it."

You can read the collated answers for the interviews here.