Movie: Remember the Titans Theme: Getting to Know You
Teaser Question: How can you teach people to respect each other?
Going Deeper: What divisions do you see around you: black/white, in-crowd/out-crowd, etc.? How can you overcome those divisions?
Making Choices: You are hanging out with a group of your friends. One of your friends tells a racist joke. What do you do?
Movie: Remember the Titans Theme: Getting to Know You
Teaser Question: How can you teach people to respect each other?
Going Deeper: What divisions do you see around you: black/white, in-crowd/out-crowd, etc.? How can you overcome those divisions?
Making Choices: You are hanging out with a group of your friends. One of your friends tells a racist joke. What do you do?
Movie: X-Men Theme: Fitting In
Teaser Question: Why do people treat those who are different unkindly?
Going Deeper: Have people ever looked down on you because of how you looked or acted? Have you ever treated someone unkindly because of how they looked or acted?
Making Choices: You see someone you don't know being bullied by three people who are bigger and stronger than you are. What do you do?
Movie: Boundin' Theme: Self-Respect
Teaser Question: How important is self-respect? Why?
Going Deeper: How do others respond to you when you don't feel good about yourself? What does it take to regain sense of your own worth?
Making Choices: A friend of yours develops acne and is embarrassed to be seen at school. How can you help this person?
Activities
Keeping a Journal
As a homework assignment or in a class activity, the students will write two entries into their journal under the heading of Respect answering the following questions:
Of all the examples of respect demonstrated in the clips, which was your favorite? Why?
Write about a time when you have shown respect to others in your life.
Write about a time when you have shown yourself respect.
Write about a time when you disrespected others.
Write about a time when you disrespected yourself.
Activity 1: In Group/Out Group
Performance Objective: The learner will experience both respect and disrespect in a game and reflect on the experience through group discussion.
Materials Needed: A simple paper crown
Instructions:
The teacher tells students that they are about to play a game, and that everything that happens after the start of the game is part of the game.
The teacher then says, "The game begins now."
The teacher divides the class into two groups: those who are wearing the color red somewhere on their clothes and those without red on their clothes.
(Note: If there are not enough children wearing red to make up about 1/4 to 1/3 of the class, pick some other surface feature that will make up two groups - like those who wear another color, those who wear glasses, etc.)
The teacher instructs those students wearing red to go to a corner of the classroom, stand there and wait without talking.
If anyone talks the teacher should very gently remind them they are to be quiet and say, "Anyone who wears red seems to have trouble being quiet."
The teacher will then take the students who were not wearing red and play a simple game with them ("Hangman," "Simon Says," etc.)
After a short time, the teacher will tell the students who do not wear red to go to the corner and remain quiet.
The teacher will say to the students wearing red, "Those who wear red are special people. Who is wearing the most red?"
The teacher gives the paper crown to the student wearing the most red (or to the student with the biggest glasses, or the most of another color, etc.)
The teacher then declares, "The game is over."
The teacher then leads a whole group discussion focusing on the feelings of the "out" group. The teacher might ask, "What was it like to be treated a certain way just because you were wearing certain clothes? What was it like to be left out of the game? What was it like to have one person get the most attention from the teacher just because of something on the surface?"
The teacher will then break the class into triads to come up with examples of the way we disrespect people based on surface things like clothes or skin color or hair style. The teacher can either have the students share these examples with the whole group or have the students write them down and hand in.
Activity 2: Debate
Performance Objective: The learner will learn to analyze a situation in terms of respect and to articulate a position in a debate.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil
Instructions:
The teacher divides the class into two groups and announces that the class will hold a debate about the following situation:
"A young man goes into a store to apply for a job as a sales clerk. The man doing the interview notices the young man is wearing a T-shirt and his jeans are dirty and torn. It looks like he has not washed his face or combed his hair recently. The young man seems very qualified for the job, but the interviewer decides not to give the young man the job because of how he looks.
One group will give reasons to support the following statement: "The interviewer showed disrespect for the young man."
The other group will give reasons to support the following statement: "The young man showed disrespect for the man who did the interview and disrespect for the job by wearing dirty, torn clothes and not combing his hair."
Activity 3: Respect and Disrespect in the School
Performance Objective: Learners will learn to recognize respect and disrespect in their school and reflect on their observations through group discussion.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil
Instructions:
The teacher will divide the class into triads.
Each group will come up with as many examples as possible of respect they have seen demonstrated in school, and then as many examples as possible of disrespect they have seen in school.
After about five minutes of brainstorming, the triads will take their lists to another triad and trade one example of respect for one example of disrespect.
The teacher will ask each triad to share with the whole group either one example of respect or one example of disrespect that another group gave them.
Optional Teaching Strategies
Set up a "mock trial" for those characters in the clips who demonstrated disrespect. The prosecutor presents a case designed to prove the characters' disrespect to a jury of their peers.
Students write a modern song or rap as a theme song of one of the clips demonstrating a clear message of respect.
Students make a list of the character traits they most admire about each of their classmates.
Involve students in peer mediation to solve conflicts.