Quebec Competencies Chart - Introduction to Cyberbullying - Avatars and Identity

Author : Emmanuelle Erny Newton, Media Education Specialist, MediaSmarts 
Level : Elementary Cycle Three 
Subject Area : English Language Arts, Moral Education, Drama 
Lesson Link: Introduction to Cyberbullying - Avatars and Identity 

Description : With the layering of identity through the use of nicknames and avatars, as well as a sense of anonymity, it is easy for young people to sometimes forget that real people-with real feelings-are at the heart of online conversations. In this lesson, students are provided with opportunities to explore this concept and discuss the importance of using empathy and common sense when talking to others online.

Cross-curricular Competencies

• To use information
• To solve problems
• To exercise critical judgment
• To be creative
• To adopt effective work methods
• To construct his/her identity
• To work with others
• To communicate appropriately

Broad Areas of Learning

• Media Literacy
• Health and Well-Being
• Citizenship and Community Life

This lesson satisfies the following English Language Arts Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:

Competency One: Uses language/talk to communicate and learn 

Production Process: 

• Uses strategies to generate, clarify and expand ideas
• Explores a structure that will help the audience to receive the intended meaning:
  • Selects an organizational structure suitable to function of text
• Examines the relationship between context, producer of text and familiar, intended audience to identify potential problems in communication:
  • Interprets audience’s expectations to determine which features are most important
  • Analyzes the characteristics of the audience
• Presents the spoken text to audience

Action Research 

• Defines the issue to be researched by asking questions such as: what are the questions that are critical to this issue? What should we do with what we learn? Who should we talk to or interview? What other resources should we seek?
• Questions and challenges different points of view

Classroom Drama 

• Uses drama to explore complex problems and to extend the range of learning contexts
• Engages in on-the-spot improvisation and role-play in order to:
  • Represent different views
  • Experiment with possible social roles and power relationships

Social Practices of Classroom and Community 

• Examines the discourse used to present information in selected spoken, written and media texts
• Examines the characteristics of familiar dominant discourses and minority voices: whose voices are heard and whose are silenced

Competency Two: Represents his/her literacy in various media 

Production Process 

Preproduction

• Manipulates visual elements to build skills for later production activities

Production

• Communicates information, experiences, points of view and personal responses to a familiar audience
• Inter-relates the characteristics of media text in a specific context drawing on:
  • Specific communication strategies and resources
  • Images, symbols, signs, logos and/or words to communicate meaning(s)/message(s)

Text, Audience, Producer 

Audience and Producer

• Explores self as individual member of audience (use, personal biases, prior experiences) and as part of a larger target audience

Competency Three: Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts 

Reader’s Stance: Constructing a Reading of a Text 

• Focuses on the world of the text to construct an aesthetic reading of text
• Focuses on making sense of information in a text to construct an efferent reading, e.g. reads print and visual information with the intention of remembering details/examples and/or of following instructions, rereads to verify meaning(s) s/he is making, relates to personal experience and prior knowledge
• Focuses on the relationship between own world and world of the text to construct an interpretive reading, e.g. elaborates on story world or information in text, connects literature or nonfiction to life experience(s), recognizes familiar textual features, codes and conventions that confirm own meaning(s)/message(s)

Reading Strategies: Text Grammars (Structures, Features, Codes and Conventions) 

• Constructs meaning(s)/message(s) by reinvesting her/his knowledge of the text as social construct, i.e. language-in-use:
  • Draws on cues in familiar structures, features, codes and conventions to make sense of texts
  • Identifies connotation and denotation of words, images and their referents
  • Makes connections between conventions of a familiar text type/genre and own response(s) /interpretation(s)
• Applies contextual understanding when meaning breaks down:
  • Socio-cultural: draws on understanding of values and beliefs to make sense of incidents, events or message(s)

Reader, Text, Context: Interpreting Texts 

• Interprets the text for a familiar audience by drawing associations between own world of personal experiences and knowledge and the world of the text by considering:
  • Own characteristics as a reader and the constructed world of a text, e.g. comparison of own values and experiences with those presented in the text; issues, ideas or questions the text raises for her/him; experience with similar texts; attitudes towards subject/topic/character; personal interests
  • Initial, tentative impressions about the statement(s) or view of the world the author/narrator /producer is making
• With guidance, examines text in its literary and/or socio-cultural context:
  • Identifies features, codes and conventions used to achieve a recognized social purpose and/or function and/or effect and impact on self as reader, e.g. in a popular television commercial, in a humorous text
  • Connects, in a trial-and-error fashion, her/his understanding of some characteristics of narrator/writer/producer to what s/he notices about the view of the world presented in the text, e.g. reads “between the lines” to locate apparent values/beliefs of a character/narrator in a story, understands the intent of a fast food ad, sees that an opinion excludes certain points of view
• Communicates interpretation(s) of a text in an individual voice, referring to prior experience, own reading profile and understanding of texts as social constructs:
  • Follows a process to compose, i.e. writes or produces own interpretation(s) of a text
  • Expresses own interpretation(s) with clarity, openness and confidence

Other subject-specific programs 

Moral Education

Competency One: Constructs a moral frame of reference 

Puts life situations and moral references into perspective: 

• Makes connections between meaningful situations, their requirements, the influences at play, and the presence of known values or social precepts
• Identifies his/her own moral references
• Explores the diversity of beliefs, customs, visions of human beings, values and social precepts related to the same situation
• Identifies differences, similarities and tensions between different opinions and viewpoints

Deliberates on the elements of a moral frame of reference: 

• With others, looks for the words to define moral references
• Compares definitions, opinions and viewpoints
• Questions values and social precepts, their validity and how they are applied depending on the context
• Considers the effects of diverse visions of human beings on community life

Competency Two: Takes a reflective stance on moral issues: 

Identifies the ethical issues of a situation 

• Describes the situation
• Explains how and why the situation poses a moral or ethical problem
• Identifies the consequences of the problem on himself/herself, on others and on the environment
• Draws upon a variety of information sources and the viewpoints of experts
• Analyzes the tensions that exist among different viewpoints, opinions, visions of human beings, values and social precepts
• Situates himself/herself in relation to the problem
• Expresses feelings generated by the problem
• Considers the viewpoints of classmates and those primarily concerned by the problem, and takes cultural references into account
• Identifies the reasons put forth in support of opinions and viewpoints
• Highlights the underlying visions of human beings and the social precepts and the values in question
• Explains the differences that exist

Imagines possible options and their consequences 

• Proposes possible options and considers those of others
• Examines the consequences on himself/herself, on others and on society
• Makes a summary of the options and their possible consequences

Translates his/her choices into action 

• Uses criteria to evaluate different options
• Expresses his/her preferred choice and gives the reasons and emotional factors behind his/her decision
• Delineates the individual and collective responsibilities entailed in his/her choice of options
• Explores individual and group ways of taking action

Drama

Competency 1: Creates Dramatic Works 

Uses ideas to create a dramatic work 

• Is open to a stimulus for creation
• Is receptive to ideas, images, emotions, sensations or impressions evoked by the stimulus
• Explores various ways of conveying creative ideas through dramatic action
• Chooses dramatic actions that hold his/her interest and envisions his/her creative project

Uses elements of dramatic language and technique 

• Experiments, through improvisation, with elements of performance, playwriting and theatricality
• Makes use of his/her dramatic experiences

Organizes his/her dramatic creation 

• Experiments with ways of linking dramatic scenes
• Organizes the improvisation material based on the creative intention

Shares his/her dramatic creation experience 

• Analyzes his/her creative intention and process
• Identifies the important elements of his/her experience and its characteristics
• Identifies what he/she has learned and the methods used

Competency 2: Performs Dramatic Works 

Shares his/her performance experience 

• Analyzes his/her communicative purpose and progress
• Identifies the important elements of his/her experience and its characteristics