Building Resilience

Lesson Overview

Objective: To teach Year 6 students in a Catholic school in New Zealand about bullying and resilience, using the video "How to Stop a Bully" by Brooks Gibbs. Students will engage in role-play to practice emotional resilience.

Duration: 30 minutes

Curriculum Links

Achievement Objectives:

• Develop resilience and perseverance.
• Explore how values shape behaviour and interactions.

Key Competencies:

• Managing self: Encourage students to monitor their reactions.
• Relating to others: Practice empathy and effective communication.

Lesson Structure

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Greeting and Prayer: Begin with a brief prayer to set a respectful and reflective atmosphere.
• Hook: Introduce the topic by asking, "What is bullying, and how can we respond to it?"

Video Presentation (7 minutes)

• Watch Video: Play "How to Stop a Bully" by Brooks Gibbs.
• Discussion Questions:
  • What strategies did the video suggest?
  • How can we apply these strategies in our school?

Role-Play Activity (10 minutes)

• Instructions:

  • Divide students into small groups.
  • Assign each group a scenario involving bullying.
  • Each student practices responding with resilience (e.g., staying calm, not reacting emotionally).

• Scenarios:

  • A classmate makes fun of your clothes.
  • Someone excludes you from a group activity.
  • A peer spreads a rumor about you.

• Debrief: Discuss as a class how it felt to respond with resilience and what was challenging.

Reflection and Sharing (5 minutes)

• Circle Time:
  • Encourage students to share one thing they learned about handling bullying.
  • Discuss how these strategies align with Catholic values of kindness and forgiveness.

Conclusion (3 minutes)

• Wrap-Up: Summarize key points and thank students for their participation.
• Prayer: End with a prayer for strength and guidance in treating others with kindness.

Cultural Responsiveness

• Bicultural Foundations: Incorporate Māori perspectives by using te reo Māori terms for emotions (e.g., "ngākau māhaki" for calmness).
• Multicultural Inclusion: Encourage students to share experiences or strategies from their own cultures on dealing with bullying.

Assessment

• Observation: Monitor students' participation in role-play and their ability to articulate strategies.
• Reflection: Collect students' thoughts on what they learned and any personal strategies they plan to use.

This lesson plan integrates the New Zealand Curriculum's focus on key competencies and cultural responsiveness, aiming to develop students' resilience in a supportive environment.