Breaking the Silence

In this lesson we are going to show students how to effectively communicate with each other via social media or texting. We will ask the class if they have ever sent or received a message through technology that was unkind. We will then ask them if they think they would say that same message to someone’s face. Relay to them that you should NOT say anything online that you wouldn’t be willing to say to someone face to face. Then we will talk about three forms of communicating: Passive, Aggressive, and Assertive.  The class will be given different scenarios and they must do a short skit to act out the scenario in a passive, aggressive, or assertive way. We hope this activity will make them understand effective ways of communicating to one another without being hurtful. We also want to make it clear that nobody is perfect and sometimes we say hurtful things to people we care about. We also want to stress to them the importance of forgiving people and will teach them how to apologize and resolve conflicts peacefully when relationships run into trouble.