Cyberbullying Health unit

Stage 2 (Year 4)
Stage/Age Group
Theme/Topic
Title
Location of selected
Outcome(s) and Indicators
within a Learning Sequence
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying: Understanding and Countering
Assumed Prior Knowledge (previous Stage)
Outcome(s): IRS1.11 – Identifies the way they communicate,
cooperate and care for each other.
Indicators: Demonstrates actions they can take when they
feel frightened, lost, upset or bullied and identifies who can
help them.
Focus for this Unit (current Stage)
Outcome(s): IRS2.11 – Describes how relationships with a
range of people enhances wellbeing.
Indicators: Recognises behaviours that are threatening, such
as bullying, being bribed and identifies people who can help.

Where to next? (subsequent Stage)

Outcome(s): IRS3.11 – Describes roles and responsibilities in
developing and maintaining positive relationships.
Indicators: Models behaviour that reflects sensitivity to the
needs, rights, feelings of others.

Rationale:
This unit of work is imperative in today’s modern classroom. Social media has become a
prolific factor in the daily lives of students and with this comes the need for teachers to be
educated about the dangers of social media and how to keep their students safe and to
teach them the skills they need to stay safe online from both strangers and from their fellow
students that might use social media as a tool in bullying other students. There are many
studies that show that cyberbullying is becoming an increasing problem in our society, Just
some examples include research that suggests;
- Over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same
number have engaged in cyber bullying.
- More than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyber-threats online.
- Over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their
cell phones or the Internet.
- Well over half of young people do not tell their parents when cyber bullying occurs.
(Teen Help, n.d.)
 And this is just part of a much longer list of statistics that surround cyberbullying in today’s
society. Therefore it is our responsibility as teachers to inform students of the threats that
face them and give them the tools that they need in order to neutralize bullying and
cyberbullying in their lives.
Cyberbullying has been shown to have seriously detrimental effects on the mental
wellbeing of students at alarmingly younger ages in recent years. One of the most
disturbing statistics I have come across is from a government website that states, “Young
people over the age of 15 are less likely than students between 10 and 15 years of age to
be involved in online bullying” (Australian Education Authorities, 2018). Which goes to
prove that early intervention is a very important step in preventing a further rise in
cyberbullying in our schools. Because of this increase in relevance over the past few years
and because of the detrimental mental health ramifications that cyberbullying brings it is of
significant importance that we as teachers teach students to recognise the signs of
cyberbullying, understand the dangers of cyberbullying and to come up with effective
strategies to counteract cyberbullying and in turn due to their close relation the students will
become more resilient to all kinds of bullying they will come across during their schooling.
This unit of work provides vital information and introduces the students to these concepts
and equips them with the tools they need to face cyberbullying in their lives.

Overview of Content:
This unit is designed to give students the tools that they need to counteract cyberbullying in their
environment. By the end of this unit the students will be able to recognise cyber bullying and
implement effective strategies for countering and reporting cyberbullying that they are victims of
or are witness to.
The first activity introduces the students to the concept of cyberbullying, linking it to bullying that
they will have learned about in the previous stage. This activity is designed to demonstrate to
the students the consequences of actions and how social media and the internet might be used
in a hurtful way. The video used in this activity is a useful resource because it gives the teacher
a chance to pause the video and begin a class discussion about the characters and what they
might be feeling as well as actions they might take. This is a great tool for the teacher as they
can write up ideas on the board for all the students to see and give them prompts for later
activities, not only this but it gets the students thinking about cyberbullying and its effects which
will be useful to them in further lessons.
The second activity differentiates between bullying and cyberbullying and is ultimately designed
to allow the students to realise that cyberbullying is just as hurtful and dangerous as physical
bullying on the playground. The students will have the advantage of working in small groups to
complete the Venn Diagram which they can draw ideas from the answers given in the previous
lesson if they have been recorded somewhere in the room. It also gives the students and
chance to discuss and share ideas about the topic. From a teacher’s standpoint this gives them
a chance to organise some informal assessment as well as prompting Higher Order Thinking
Skills from the students by asking the groups to elaborate on ideas and to explain their answers
in conversation with the teacher as they walk around the class between groups.
The third activity allows the students to get creative with the information that they have learned
and demonstrate their knowledge to other students and the teacher. This activity also
encourages the students to build communication skills and to showcase other talents such as
drawing or putting together some basic dialogue. Some students will be able to carry out this
task with little help and others will often need to be prompted by the teacher.
The assessment task allows the students to demonstrate what they have learned throughout
this unit of work by explaining how the students in the scenarios might be feeling as well as
steps that they might take in those situations. This task gives the teacher an idea of what the
students have learned and where the next unit needs to pick up from. This task also allows the
teacher to give valuable feedback to the students and their parents which will aid in their future
education.

Section 1

Name of Strategy Cyberbullying Video

Bloom’s Taxonomy Understand

thinking level
This activity is a class activity that requires a computer and projector so
Detailed Instructions that the whole class can see the video and a whiteboard and markers
for Use for the class to brainstorm. The teacher will divide the board into two
sections as there are two parts for brainstorming throughout the
duration of the video. The video will begin and the students will have to
pay attention to the story in order to give answers when the first round
of brainstorming begins. At 3:01 the teacher will pause the video and
ask the students ways that the friends can help Ming. After a few
minutes of brainstorming from the class in which the teacher will write
up their suggestions on the board the video will continue. This process
is repeated at 4:15 where the students will brainstorm actions that Ming
could take.
 After the video has finished the teacher and the students will have a
discussion about the effects of cyber bullying and the actions they can
take in order to prevent it from happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYytzjmeyQU

This activity is valuable to the unit because it is a simple strategy that

Justification of its value allows the students to explore the topic and discover the opinions and
as a health education ideas that they already have before they begin the unit content.
strategy Cyberbullying is becoming more relevant by the day as more and more
different social medias and ways of cyber-communicating are being
developed. This activity shows the students that even something that
might seem like a harmless joke can be a cruel form of cyberbullying.

This activity will be utilised as one of the beginning lessons for the unit.
Justification of where it It offers a soft introduction for the students in which they can allow their
will be used in the unit opinions to be voiced and they can begin to demonstrate that they
and why it will be understand the concepts of the unit. It will be a valuable component of
valuable there the lesson progression because it will form a basis from which the
students can begin to form opinions and ideas about the topic as well
as feed off of each other’s ideas to gain a clearer understanding of
what cyberbullying means.
Section 2

Name of Strategy Venn Diagram

Bloom’s Taxonomy Analyse

thinking level

This lesson focuses on the similarities and differences of bullying and

Detailed Instructions cyber bullying to show the students that they are at the core the same
for Use concept.
Students will be split into small discussion groups. Each group will be
given a blank Venn diagram with bullying above one side and
cyberbullying above the other side. The students will be given ten
minutes to fill out the Venn Diagram. The teacher will walk around the
 classroom helping the groups and prompting the students to expand on
their answers. Once the time has expired the class will be brought
together and the teacher will draw a large Venn Diagram on the board
which the students will fill out as a class. The teacher will close the
lesson by highlighting the middle column of the diagram, reinforcing the
lesson that bullying has different forms and cyberbullying is one of
them.
This activity is important because it highlights to the students that
Justification of its value cyberbullying is just an extension of bullying and it can have the same
as a health education adverse effects on their psyche. “Cyberbullying is an emerging
strategy international public health concern, related to serious mental health
concerns, with significant impact on adolescents’ depression, anxiety,
self-esteem, emotional distress, substance use, and suicidal
behaviour” (Nixon, 2014).
This activity will be the culmination of information that has been
Justification of where it presented to the students in previous lessons that will organise and
will be used in the unit arrange their data in preparation for the “create” activity at the end of
and why it will be the unit. This lesson requires previous knowledge of the similarities
valuable there. and differences between bullying and cyberbullying and through group
work the students will organise and correlate their data to reinforce
their learning throughout the unit in preparation of the final activity.
This activity allows the students to analyse information from previous
lessons and realise the similarities between the two different types of
bullying.

Section 3

Name of Strategy Advertisement

Bloom’s Taxonomy Create

thinking level

The aim of this task is to allow the students to process the information
Detailed Instructions that they have learned throughout the unit and to show their
for Use understanding by creating an advertisement that will be filmed and
presented to the rest of the class. The students will be split into small
 groups of 3 or 4 and be tasked with creating a storyboard that outlines
the different scenes in their advertisement. The video will run for 30 –
45 seconds and will demonstrate what the students have learned
throughout the unit thus far. This task will be conducted over 2 or 3
sessions.
This task is valuable as a health task because it not only allows the
Justification of its value students to demonstrate their understanding in a fun and creative way
as a health education but allows the students to collaborate and further their own ideas by
strategy working together as well as teaching them important social skills that
are needed for working with other people.
This task is valuable because it begins to get the students reflecting on
Justification of where it what they have learned in the unit so far and to formulate their own
will be used in the unit opinions on decisions that they might make in real life. This lesson is
and why it will be placed towards the end of the unit as the students must have a clear
valuable there. idea of the concepts of cyberbullying and how it affects the people
around them as well as the actions they can take in order to combat
cyberbullying in their lives.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Name of Assessment
Strategy Action Plan
Design
Bloom’s Taxonomy
thinking level
Students will be given a scenario that entails two different forms of
Detailed Instructions cyberbullying. They will be given a scaffold outlining each of the
for Use scenarios they students will have to write down how each of the victims
would be feeling and will be told to create a series of steps that counter
cyberbullying in each of these scenarios. The Scenarios are:

- Samantha was told by her friend that Jane has been talking about
Samantha on social media and telling people to ignore her.
i) How would Samantha be feeling?
ii) What should Samantha do?
 - Joe has been sending mean messages to Tristan through a
messenger service.
i) How would Tristan be feeling?
ii) What should Tristan do?

This activity culminates the information that the students have been
Justification of its value learning throughout the unit. The answers that the students give to the
as a means of prompts will outline what the students have learned and will inform the
collecting useful teacher how to proceed with the next unit of work.
information about what
students have learned
from this unit.
Students will receive feedback on their assessment through a general
How will students group discussion in which the teacher will gather the class and point
receive feedback about out general mistakes that many students in the class made as well as
their learning? improvements and expansions on smaller ideas. Throughout this
feedback activity no student is to be singled out or named when stating
examples for the rest of the students. The second more personalised
form of feedback will be a marked assessment with suggestions on
what to improve written next to the student’s answers.
Parents will receive feedback on their child’s work through the students
How will parents taking their marked assessment task home. An accompanying note will
receive feedback about be taken home by the students also explaining the class’ previous work
students’ learning? and informed evidence on how their child can improve (NESA, 2018).
 REFERENCES
Australian Education Authorities. (2018). What is Bullying: Facts and Figures. Retrieved from

https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/SiteInformation/Pages/Copyright.aspx

eSafety Office. (2016, May 22). Cyberbullying – You’re Not Alone [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYytzjmeyQU

New South Wales Education Standard Authority (NESA). (2018) Effective Feedback. Retrieved

from http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-

curriculum/assessment/effective-feedback

New South Wales Education Standard Authority (NESA). (2007). Personal Development Health

and Physical Education (PDHPE) K–6 Syllabus. Retrieved from

http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/f63e7d9d-fa2a-471b-bf3c-

d5b362fddb00/k6_pdhpe_syl.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

Nixon, C. (2014). Current perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health.

Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4126576/

Teen Help. (N.d.). Cyberbullying Statistics. Retrieved from

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html