Lesson Cyber Choices – The Tale of Sameen the Wise
In this lesson, students learn what to do when someone is mean to them online.
Grade range: 4-6
Teacher Material: https://textbook.mediasmarts.ca/discoveringstudent/chapter/before-the-story-3/
Student Material: https://textbook.mediasmarts.ca/discovering/chapter/to-share-or-not-to-share/
Time Frame
| One class period (45-60 minutes) | Two or three class periods (90-120 minutes) | Extended Unit |
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| Activities |
Before the Story During the Story After the Story
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Before the Story During the Story After the Story Dealing with Online Meanness Guidelines
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Before the Story
During the Story After the Story Dealing with Online Meanness Guidelines You Finish the Story |
Preparation:
Cyber Choices is an interactive tutorial designed to teach students the essential digital citizenship skills they need to make safe, wise and responsible choices online. It does this by allowing students to guide characters through four stories that present them with moral dilemmas on a variety of online ethical issues. At key moments in each story students face Decision Points where they have to choose between two possible ways of resolving a situation. Because the tutorial’s focus is on the power young people have to make choices, before students decide what to do they are given a list of reasons why they might choose one action or another, and then must sort out which reasons support which actions. Only when they have sorted the reasons successfully can they choose between the options and continue the story. This forces students to think carefully about their decisions and the possible reasons and consequences of each one.
Each of the four stories focuses on a different issue and can be completed separately. All of the stories have multiple endings which students reach based on the choices they make. Students are encouraged to play each story more than once in order to see how it might turn out differently if they make different choices.
Technical Requirements
Make sure that students can access the interactive activities in the student chapters.
Cyber Choices requires the following minimum hardware and software:
Hardware Requirements:
- Internet connected desktop device (Laptop, PC) or iPad2 or higher
- Minimum screen resolution: 1024px x 768px
Software Requirements:
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7+ or Mac OSX 10.11+ or Chrome SO
- JavaScript enabled browser: Google Chrome v22 or later, Firefox v17 or later, Safari v9 or later, Internet
- Explorer 11 or later, Microsoft Edge.
Other Requirements:
- Speakers or headphones (one pair per student)
Incorporating Cyber Choices into Your Classroom
Cyber Choices is designed to allow flexibility in how you incorporate it into your classroom. Below are some suggested approaches which you can choose from based on the grade level of your class and the needs of your students. You may also wish to use a mix of different approaches, for instance completing one or more stories as a teacher-led activity and then allowing students to complete the remaining stories independently.
1. Teacher-led
If you have access to a data projector or interactive whiteboard, you can project Cyber Choices onto a screen and complete it as a class. In this approach, you or a student you designate will control the tutorial as the class collaborates in completing the different stories and activities. This approach is recommended for younger students.
2. Pair or Group Work
Depending on the number of computers available, students can complete Cyber Choices in pairs or groups, with each group member acting as a “group leader” for different stories. You may choose to use the worksheets so that students can demonstrate their learning as they complete the stories or as assessment or evaluation tools once they have completed the tutorial. Between stories, you may also choose to have students discuss their experiences as a class.
3. Remote Delivery
If some or all of your class is being delivered remotely, you may have students complete the stories on their own (or with their parents as homework) or share your screen and conduct a teacher-led session.
4. Hybrid
You can also use the Cyber Choices homework handout to have students complete some or all of the scenarios at home, then take up the questions and any extension activities you choose in class.
Learning Outcomes
Big ideas/key concepts: Students will understand that…
Interactions through digital media have a real impact
- Things that people do and say to us have an effect our feelings
- Gender perceptions are affected by media representations
Key questions:
- What can we do when people are mean to us online?
- What things are okay or not okay to do to people who have been mean to us?
- How can we get help when we need it to deal with things that happen to us online?
Essential knowledge: Students will know…
- Privacy and security: Strategies and tactics for dealing with cyberbullying; resources to turn to for help when needed
- Ethics and empathy: Ethical considerations when responding to cyberbullying
Performance tasks: Students will be able to…
- Access: Identify sources of help and support
- Use: Use digital tools safely and ethically
- Engage: Identify best practices for responding to cyberbullying
Curriculum Connections
Strand A: Literacy Connections and Applications
A2 Digital Media Literacy
A2.1 Digital Citizenship
explain their rights and responsibilities when interacting online with appropriate permission, and make decisions that contribute positively to the development of their digital identity and those of their communities
A2.2 Online Safety, Well-Being and Etiquette
demonstrate an understanding of how to navigate online environments safely, manage their privacy and personal data, and interact in a way that supports their well-being and that of others, including seeking appropriate permission
A2.4 Forms, Conventions, and Techniques
demonstrate an understanding of the forms, conventions, and techniques of digital and media texts, consider the impact on the audience, and apply this understanding when analyzing and creating texts
A2.7 Community and Cultural Awareness
communicate and collaborate with various communities in a safe, respectful, responsible, and inclusive manner when using online platforms and environments, including digital and media tools, and demonstrate cultural awareness with members of the community
A3 Applications, Connections, and Contributions
A3.1 Cross-Curricular and Integrated Learning
explain how the knowledge and skills developed in this grade support learning in various subject areas and in everyday life, and describe how they enhance understanding and communication
Strand C: Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts
C1 Knowledge About Texts
C1.1 Using Foundational Knowledge and Skills to Comprehend Texts
read and comprehend various texts, using knowledge of words, grammar, cohesive ties, sentence structures, and background knowledge
C1.3 Text Patterns and Features
Grade 4: identify text patterns, such as spatial order in a graphic text, and text features, such as type styles and hyperlinks, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
Grade 5: identify text patterns, such as cause and effect in a persuasive text, and text features, such as a preface and glossary, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
Grade 6: analyze text patterns, such as problem-solution in a report, and text features, such as subheadings and pull-down menus, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
C1.4 Visual Elements of Texts
Grades 4-5: explain how images, graphics, and visual design create, communicate, and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts
Grade 6: analyze and compare how images, graphics, and visual design create, communicate, and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts
C1.6 Point of View
Grades 4-5: identify the narrator’s point of view, including first, second, or third person, in a variety of texts, and describe the advantages and disadvantages of the approach used in each story
Grade 6: identify the narrator’s point of view, including first, second, or third person, in a variety of texts, providing evidence, and explain how using an alternative point of view would change each story
C2. Comprehension Strategies
C2.1 Prereading: Activating Prior Knowledge
identify and explain prior knowledge from various sources, including personal experiences, that they can use to make connections and understand new texts
C2.2 Prereading: Identifying the Purpose for Reading, Listening, and Viewing
Grades 4-5: identify a variety of purposes for engaging with texts, and select texts from diverse creators that are suitable for the purposes
Grade 6: identify a variety of purposes for engaging with texts, select texts from diverse creators that are suitable for the purposes, and explain why the selections are appropriate
C2.3 Monitoring of Understanding: Making and Confirming Predictions
Grades 4-5: make predictions using background knowledge, text features, and evidence from the text, and pose questions to check whether their predictions were correct
Grade 6: make predictions using background knowledge and textual information, pose questions to check whether their predictions were correct, and, if not, adjust their understanding
C2.4 Monitoring of Understanding: Ongoing Comprehension Check
Grades 4-5: use strategies such as adjusting reading rate, visualizing, reading ahead, asking questions, and consulting references and other texts or sources of information, to monitor and confirm their understanding of various texts
Grade 6: use strategies such as visualizing, reading ahead, asking questions, and consulting references and other texts or sources of information, to monitor and confirm their understanding of various texts
C2.5 Monitoring of Understanding: Making Connections
Grades 4-5: describe how the ideas expressed in texts connect to their knowledges and lived experiences, the ideas in other texts, and the world around them
Grade 6: explain how the ideas expressed in texts connect to their knowledges and lived experiences, the ideas in other texts, and the world around them
C2.6 Summarizing: Identifying Relevant information and Drawing Conclusions
Grade 4: summarize the main idea of a text and the supporting details in sequence, and draw a simple conclusion
Grade 5: summarize the main idea of a text and the supporting details in sequence, and draw a well-supported conclusion
Grade 6: summarize and record the main idea and supporting details in various texts, and draw well-supported
C3 Critical Thinking in Literacy
C3.2 Making Inferences
Grades 4-5: make local and global inferences, using explicit and implicit evidence, to extend their understanding of various texts
Grade 6: make local and global inferences, using explicit and implicit evidence, to develop interpretations about various texts and to extend their understanding
C3.3 Analyzing Texts
Grade 4: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, sequencing the events of multiple plots, and explaining cause and effect
Grade 5: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, sequencing the events of multiple plots, recording relevant information, and explaining cause and effect
Grade 6: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, evaluating the quality of information and its relevance for a specific purpose, and formulating conclusions
C3.5 Perspectives within Texts
Grades 4-5: identify explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, explain how these perspectives are conveyed, give some evidence of any biases the texts may contain, and suggest how such biases could influence an audience
Grade 6: explain explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, including narrative texts, provide any evidence that could suggest bias in these perspectives, and suggest ways to avoid any such bias
C3.6 Analysis and Response
Grades 4-5: explain how various topics, such as diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, are addressed in texts, and describe what insights or messages are conveyed
Grade 6: explain how various topics, such as diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, are addressed in texts, analyze the insights or messages conveyed, and identify different positions presented
C3.8 Reflecting on Learning
Grades 4-5: identify the critical thinking skills they used to analyze and evaluate various texts, and explain how these skills have helped them better understand the texts
Grade 6: compare the critical thinking skills they used when analyzing and evaluating various texts, identify the skills that best supported their understanding, and explain why they are effective
Strand D: Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts
D1. Developing Ideas and Organizing Content
D1.1 Purpose and Audience
identify the topic, purpose, and audience for various texts they plan to create, and explain why the chosen text form, genre, and medium suit the purpose and audience, and how they will help communicate the intended meaning
D1.2 Developing Ideas
generate and develop ideas and details about various topics, such as topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to other subject areas, using a variety of strategies, and drawing on various resources, including their own lived experiences
D1.4 Organizing Content
Grades 4-5: select and classify ideas and collected information, using appropriate strategies and tools, and sequence content, taking into account the chosen text form, genre, and medium
Grade 6: classify and sequence ideas and collected information, using appropriate strategies and tools, and identify and organize relevant content, taking into account the chosen text form, genre, and medium
D2. Creating Texts
D2.1 Producing Drafts
Grades 4-5: draft texts of various forms and genres, including narrative, persuasive, and informational texts, using a variety of media, tools, and strategies
Grade 6: draft complex texts of various forms and genres, including narrative, expository, and informational texts, using a variety of media, tools, and strategies
D3 Publishing, Presenting, and Reflecting
D3.1 Producing Final Texts
Grade 4: produce final texts using a variety of techniques and tools, including simple digital design and production tools, to achieve the intended effect
Grade 5: produce final texts using a variety of techniques and tools, including digital design and production tools, to achieve the intended effect
Grade 6: produce final texts, selecting a variety of suitable techniques and tools, including digital design and production tools, to achieve the intended effect
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