Bullying Lesson 2

Expanding your Circle of Concern

Objective: Help students realize who is inside and outside their circle of concern. People who are on the outside can feel excluded, lonely, or disconnected from a community. Expanding your circle could help you make new friends, learn new interests, appreciate people who are different from you, and improve the closeness of a community. Exclusion is vicious form of bullying that may not be obvious.

Check In-Circle up Possible Topics:(10-15 min.)

(It may be helpful to start by sharing your own response)

Tell us a time when you really felt you belonged? Team?Class?Group?

Tell us a time when you felt left out?

In what setting or situation do you feel least powerful?

Activity: (20 min)

Distribute the circle of concern handout. Make sure students understand what the “Circle of Concern” means. You may want to give some examples from your own life.

Give students time to work on this individually.

Bullying using Exclusion tactics (10 min.)

Teachers and parents tend to talk about the obvious when they talk about bullying. Playground scuffles, name calling, stealing personal items and damaging property are commonly cited examples of bullying behavior. But there are other methods that aren’t obvious, but just as vicious.

  • spreading rumors online or “liking” negative comments about someone
  • playing jokes or tricks designed to embarrass and humiliate
  • deliberate exclusion of other kids for no real reason
  • whispering in front of other kids with the intent to make them feel left out
  • being friends one week and then turning against a peer the next week with no incident or real reason for the alienation
  • encouraging other kids to ignore or pick on a specific child
  • inciting others to act out violently or aggressively

Why is this form of bullying so hard to deal with?

  • People struggle to stand up against bullying by exclusion because they feel like they’d need to go against an entire group rather than just one person
  • They may be afraid that they’ll be the next target or kicked out of the group
  • The person being excluded starts to feel like everyone is out to get them
  • People start making bad decisions just to fit in

Wrap Up (5-10 min)

Have a few students share some of their responses.

Encourage students to reach beyond their circle of concern, and also be aware of exclusion tactics. You should follow up after a week or two and ask students to share times they have fought against exclusion or reached out to include someone that was on the outside.