Stories of Us: P3R (USA)
Classroom Program (Middle School)
This interactive film-based resource is one of the classroom components of our Promoting Positive Peer Relationships (P3R) bullying prevention initiative in America.
Format
Two Videos and Extensive Teacher’s Guide
Objective
This middle school Classroom Resource is designed to help students and teachers develop effective strategies to enhance awareness and understanding, and reduce bullying behaviors among students.
Audience
Middle School Students.
Overview
The Classroom Resource is composed of two videos and an extensive Teacher’s Guide – which provides multiple Lesson Plans. The two separate films each have their own corresponding section in the Teacher’s Guide. These 23 minute films were produced with students in distinctly different school environments, in different states. Teachers using the resources can choose to work with the film most relevant to their students.
Each film presents the story of two “students” (one boy and one girl) as they deal, in their own way, with a progressively worsening case of bullying. The films serve as a catalyst to explore the subtle dynamics in the development of bullying incidents, and help the students develop an understanding of what happens and why. Unlike other more information-based films, the objective is to engage, rather than tell. With the aid of this Teacher’s Guide, the students are asked a series of open-ended questions to stimulate a dialogue as they explore the bullying dynamic in depth. The Guide provides detailed support information for teachers, and links to further resources for understanding and reducing bullying in schools.
As they progress through the Guide’s Lesson Plans, the students will engage in group activities, role play, and written work. Because of their realism the films also form an excellent basis for extension activities in English or can be used as a model for student Drama and video productions.
A preview of the Teacher’s Guide can be downloaded here as a PDF document.
The Films
There are two versions of each film provided.
The Play Version is played without interruption, with a prompt at the end to refer to the Teacher’s Guide for questions to begin the discussion. In this version the story is left intentionally unresolved to maximise student engagement in the discussion.
The Segmented Version repeats the main program but with a series of pause points (with Teacher’s Guide questions) for a more in-depth discussion. At the end the main characters tell us how they resolved their situations – with a positive outcome.
Overall, every effort has been made to maximize the fit with school curriculum.
The host schools, and more specifically the collaborating students, were carefully selected to (as much as practicable) represent the broader community of students in America, and care has be taken to ensure the films sit comfortably within the collective school ethos.
A 5 minute preview of one film is available above on this page.
Production Information
This program’s films were produced at two schools in two states in the US Midwest. Over a two month period in each school, filmmaker Christopher Faull worked with the students to explore the subject, develop characters, then workshop the scripts. The students performed all the main acting roles in the dramatised videos, and fulfilled all of the secondary roles in supporting the professional film crew. Every detail of the story and its staging was approved by the students, and every word of dialogue is their own.
The Promoting Positive Peer Relationships (P3R) resources were produced by Readymade’s American subsidiary Stories of Us (USA) LLC, with support from the universities of California (UCSB), Illinois (UIUC) and Nebraska (UNL).