The Cycle of Respect
For the month of March, we are focusing on Relationships and the ways in which we can sustain all types of relationships, specifically friendships. For this week, the students focused on all forms of respect. They began with an activity where they visualized what respect looks like through visual illustrations. It was very eye-opening to see snd understand the concept of respect through each students' perspectives.
The students were then introduced to the concept of self-respect, one form of respect that is oftentimes neglected by many. We watched a video on 8 signs that one can exhibit to demonstrate self-respect. We conducted discussions based on which signs we already practice and which we can continue to improve upon.
To help remind ourselves of the grace and respect we must practice for ourselves, the students created an anchor chart highlighting tips and advice to remind others to respect themselves. They then created an anchor chart detailing different experiences where they have shown themselves self-respect, and they wrote reasons for why self-respect is so important.
We transitioned our lesson toward respect for others. By focusing on both respect toward others and self-respect, the students understand how these two concepts go hand-in-hand because when we learn to respect ourselves, we can then exhibit respect toward others; and vice versa. To introduce this concept, the students were tasked to take a short quiz evaluating their level of respect. After they created their own quiz questions that was used to evaluate their peers!
We held discussions about what makes it so difficult to respect others and the situations in which it can be most difficult to demonstrate respect. One situation when it can be challenging to show respect toward others is when we possess differing opinions. To practice dealing with these situations, the students worked on a reflection allowing them to practice how they can disagree respectfully.
The students were tasked to pick a random scenario, determine whether it is respectful or not, and then support their opinions based on reasoning. Doing this activity allowed the students to really contemplate on various situations and get into the habit of contemplating about actions and whether they are respectful or not.
To advocate for kindness and respect, the students created posters detailing reasons why it is harmful to be disrespectful and then highlighted 3 tips/advice people can use to integrate respect into their lives!
We ended our week with a sorting activity where the students were assessed over how much they learned. It was a great way to determine their progress throughout the week but still integrate some fun in the assessment!