There’s no excuse: confronting moral disengagement in sexting Lesson Plan

Level: Grades 11-12

Duration: 1 hour, plus time for assessment and evaluation activity

Author: MediaSmarts and TELUS

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

In this lesson, students learn about the “sneaky excuses” that can convince us to do things that we know are wrong. After learning about the different types of these excuses, students watch and discuss a series of videos in which the excuses are used to justify forwarding sexts without the original sender’s consent. Finally, students create their own videos in which the excuses used to justify sharing sexts with other people are illustrated and most importantly, countered.

This lesson is part of the There's No Excuse program.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • Learn to recognize and counter moral disengagement mechanisms.
  • Discuss the role of moral disengagement in sext sharing.
  • Create a media text.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.