A Lesson Plan from Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program

Purpose: To learn how discrimination feels and to identify strategies for combating it

Material: Newsprint and markers or board and chalk; masking tape

Time: Session 1: 40-50 minutes; Session 2: 40-50 minutes

Planning Notes:

Write the questions for Step 2 on newsprint or the board.

Procedure:

Session 1

1. Remind everyone that discrimination takes many forms. Ask teens to brainstorm about examples of discrimination. List answers on newsprint or the board. Include any ones of the following they omit teasing, name calling, excluding from activities, ignoring, denying requests, making On or laughing at, attacking verbally or physically, treating unequally in education or the workplace and public places.
2. Ask teens to think of a time when they, or someone close to them, were treated unfairly or unequally because they were members of a particular group. Ask volunteers to share experiences and to answer the questions displayed on the newsprint or the board:
• Have you, or has someone close to you, ever been discriminated against? If so, what happened”
• Did anyone helps If so, how?
• If not, what would you have wanted someone to do?
3. Record the main idea of each experience on a single sheet of newsprint (You will use these in Session 2.) If teens are hesitant to start the discussion, describe a situation in which you were discriminated against, or one you witnessed. Ask participants to identify what would have helped the situation. Then encourage others to share their stories.
4. Once teens have given their stories, post the newsprint sheets on the wall and solicit comments, asking how teens feel about these incidents. Could they have helped if they had witnessed the discrimination? Continue the discussion until the session ends. Tell teens you will come back to their stories at the next session.

Session 2

1. Review the situations from the last session. Have teens recall the feelings people shared about being the subject of discrimination. Ask what strategies and techniques they could use to confront and combat similar discrimination, if it occurred today. Help them identify effective techniques, including the following, and list them on the board:
• Speak up. Use “I” language to point out the discrimination and say it is wrong.  (For example, “I don't like it when you kick the girls out. I think it's wrong.”)
• Give information when someone is discriminating against a person or group. (For example, “He's dumb to refuse to be friends with Jeremy because he has AIDS. You can't get infected from just hanging around with him.”)
• Refuse to participate in discriminatory behavior and say why. (For example, “Those jokes about being fat make some people feel bad. I won't stay here and listen to them. They aren't funny.”)
•  Take action to remedy discrimination. (For example, “It isn't fair that Silvia can't use the public telephone in the lobby just because she's in a wheelchair. We need to make the school install a new phone that she can reach.”)
2. Explain that the group will work on ways of confronting and combating the discrimination they have experienced. Divide into groups of four or five and assign each group one of the posted discrimination situations. If necessary, add one or more situations of your own.
3. Go over instructions for the activity
• Decide as a group what an appropriate response would have been to the discrimination in your situation.
• Practice role-playing that demonstrates your response.
• Be prepared to perform role-play for the rest of the group.
4. When groups have finished, have them present their role play. Invite other teens to make additional suggestions for confronting and combating discrimination, and add your input as necessary.
5. Conclude the activity using the Discussion Points.
   

Discussion Points:

1. Have you discriminated against an individual or group of people, knowingly or unknowingly? How do you feel about it now?
2. Can you think of a situation involving you or someone you know where discrimination is happening currently? What will you do about it?
3. Is it easy or difficult to speak up when your friends are discriminating against someone and you are present?  Why?
   

Adapted with permission from Teen Outreach: Youth Development Through Service and Learning, Association of Junior Leagues Intemational, New York, N.Y.