Bring bullying out into the open with an involved lesson surrounding the animated version of Shane Koyczan's spoken word poem "To This Day." Class members discuss images related to bullying and watch the video without sound. They write a brief piece about bullying and perfect their work for homework. The next day, the class watches the film with sound and homes in on specific lines in the poem.

Concepts

poetry, bullying

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Additional Tags

short film, Poem, bullying, bullying vocabulary, shane koyczan, to this day, english language arts

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Classroom Considerations

• Be aware that there is some explicit language in the print version of the poem
• This is a sensitive topic, and some individuals may be strongly affected by the poem and the images provided

Pros

• Comes complete with links to two videos, related images, and questions for pupils to answer
• An important topic to talk about
• The poem and video are both powerful pieces

Cons

• There are some very minor typos in the written procedures for the lesson

Common Core

W.9-10.3.a W.11-12.3.a SL.9-10.1.a SL.11-12.1.a