Education Standards
K-6th scope & sequence
Internet Safety and Media Balance- grade 6
Overview
This Digital Citizenship unit was created by the Snohomish School District. This strand in the unit focuses on: Internet Safety & Media Balance.
Overview
This Digital Citizenship unit was created by the Snohomish School District. This strand in the unit focuses on: Internet Safety & Media Balance.
Grade
Sixth Grade
Duration
Two lessons, 20-30 minutes each
Standards and Learning Objectives
Washington State Ed Tech Standards:
- 2.a. Students manage their digital identities and reputations within school policy, including demonstrating an understanding of how digital actions are never fully erasable.
- 2.b. Students demonstrate and advocate for positive, safe, legal and ethical habits when using technology and when interacting with others online.
- 2.d. Students demonstrate an understanding of what personal data is and how to keep it private and secure, including the awareness of terms such as encryption, HTTPS, password, cookies and computer viruses; they also understand the limitations of data management and how data-collection technologies work.
Washington State SEL Standards:
- BENCHMARK 4A - Demonstrates awareness of other people’s emotions, perspectives, cultures, languages, histories, identities, and abilities.
- BENCHMARK 4B - Demonstrates an awareness and respect for similarities and differences among community, cultural and social groups.
- BENCHMARK 4C - Demonstrates an understanding of the variation within and across cultures.
- BENCHMARK 5A - Demonstrates a range of communication and social skills to interact effectively with others.
- BENCHMARK 5B - Demonstrates the ability to identify and take steps to resolve interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
- BENCHMARK 5C - Demonstrates the ability to engage in respectful and healthy relationships with individuals of diverse perspectives, cultures, language, history, identity, and ability.
Washington State Computer Science Standards
- 1A-01: Select and operate appropriate software to perform a variety of tasks, and recognize that users have different needs and preferences for the technology they use.
- 1A-03: Describe basic hardware and software problems using accurate terminology.
Lesson One: Media Balance (20-30 minutes)
Materials
- Links to two videos below
- Premade example of a Big Rocks Word Cloud (if doing)
- Vase, Rocks, Pebbles & Sand for Big Rocks Activity (if doing)
Formative Assessment
Student responses during discussion times will serve as formative assessment and guide the remainder of the lesson. Exit Tickets will be used for the same purpose.
Procedure:
Media Balance Video (5 minutes) Show the following video for the students.
- FOMO: Our Relationship with Social Media, GCFLearnFree.org, February 2020 (Length: 2:18)
Discussion Questions (5-10 minutes) Lead a discussion using the following questions as a guide and allowing for student comments and participation. You may want to create a place to write student answers.
- Who can explain what FOMO stands for?
- What are some ways that people make their lives look more exciting than the reality when they post online?
- If you find that you are being affected by FOMO, what is something you could do (or encourage a friend to do) to help strengthen your mental health and make a positive choice?
Media Balance Video (5 minutes) Show the following video for the students.
- Wise Tech Choices: Finding Balance Part 2, iKeepSafe, February 2016 (Length 3:16 minutes)
Discussion Questions (5-10 minutes) Lead a discussion using the following questions as a guide and allowing for student comments and participation. You may want to create a place to write student answers.
- We already know the “Sand” is the things you like to do, but that are not as important to your wellbeing and health. What are examples of some “Sand” that you have in your life?
- What about examples of “Pebbles”?
- And finally, what are examples of some “Big Rocks” that you need to fit into your life?
“Big Rocks” Activity and Discussion Choice #1 (5-10 minutes)
- Lead a “Big Rocks” activity with the students. You will need a see-through container (jar or vase,) several big rocks that fit inside, a handful of pebbles, and sand. Make sure before you do the activity that you can fit all the material inside the container by putting in the big rocks first, then the pebbles, and then the sand.
- Have a volunteer come up and try to fit everything into the jar
- Lead a discussion as you go. The ultimate take-away is that the big rocks need to be put in first, followed by the pebbles and then the sand, otherwise it doesn’t all fit in the jar and something is left out.
- Finish-Up Centers (Optional)
- If there’s time, you can put out centers such as: sand tables or zen gardens, plain paper brushes and water, materials for making glitter jars, or any other centers you have that might encourage a meditative experience.
“Big Rocks” Activity and Discussion Option #2 (10 minutes with more time given later to complete the project)
- Lead a “Big Rocks” activity with the students. Begin by brainstorming things that could be Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand. Write them down in a Word document for the students to see.
- Show a premade example of a Word Cloud to demonstrate how they will make their “Big Rocks” artwork. (Example image below.)
- Demonstrate how to use the Word Clouds website. www.wordclouds.com
- Give students work time.
- Final discussion: what are some ways that you can make sure when you wake up every morning, that you make time for the Big Rocks that you need in your life?
- Students can save and email online word clouds to be printed.
Image created by Jenny Banker using www.wordclouds.com, 01/2021
Example of brainstorm sheet created by Jenny Banker, 01/2021
Lesson Two: Online Safety & Citizenship (20-30 minutes)
Additional Resources
Digital Drama Unplugged by Common Sense Media | CC BY NC ND
Materials
- Why Do People Troll? video
- Teen Voices, Dealing with Digital Drama video
- Sticky notes or printed sheets for exit tickets
Formative Assessment
Student responses during discussion times will serve as formative assessment and guide the remainder of the lesson. Exit Tickets will be used for the same purpose.
Procedure:
Videos (6-8 minutes)
- Why Do People Troll?, GCFLearnFree.org, January 2020 (Length 2:20 minutes)
- Teen Voices: Dealing with Digital Drama, Common Sense Education, January 2019, (Length: 4:14)
Discussion Questions/Exit Ticket (5-10 minutes) Lead a discussion using the following questions as a guide and allowing for student comments and participation. You may want to create a place to write student answers. You can also choose to have them write this on their own.
- Can someone explain a little bit about why some people choose to troll?
- Discuss briefly how students think they could deal with trolling or digital drama. They can use examples from the video, from real life, or things they think would work.
- Point out that often, not responding is the best way to make someone who’s bothering you move on, but it’s tough. What could you do to help yourself not respond?
- You can point out that this happens to adults too. Many authors have bad experiences of people trolling them on social media, being negative and hurtful about their work.
- Brainstorm with students, what are some things that we can do to help outweigh the negative stuff out there? (For example, it can be important for everyone to see positive messages on social media whether they are your friends or an author you’ve never met.)
- You may want to brainstorm as a class answers to the following questions below so students are prepared to complete the exit ticket.
- EXIT TICKET: Have students use the following questions as an Exit Ticket. They can answer these questions on a sticky note, or you can use the table (below) and copy into a Word document to print out response sheets.
My Name: |
What do you think is one reason people troll or cause digital drama?
|
What would you encourage someone to do if they experienced trolling or digital drama? (You can think about a friend, someone in your family, or your favorite author.)
|
What is one thing you can do to help? |