American+Born+Chinese,+bullying+and+race

While freshmen study the graphic novel __American Born Chinese__, we often discuss race and bullying. After reading the section where the main character, Jin, is bullied by white students, we ask students to think about their own roles in the everyday bullying that occurs at DHS. First, we show students the four-square grid that depicts the defferent roles in a bullying scenario: the perpetrator, the person in need, the bystander, and upstander. We ask students to write for about 20 minutes on the topic with this prompt: what role do you most often find yourself in? After the writing, we discuss, and find that the majority of the students identify themselves in the bystander role. Next, we show a 10 minute video clip from ABC 20/20, that shows a group of middle school studnets who are set up in a situation where bullying occurs. The psychologist who runs the social experiment focuses her attention on how to help bystanders become upstanders. She offers specific strategies that fit personalities of kids that are more reserved and less bold. [] I hope this link works! We watch and discuss, and connect to the text.