I got this idea from my high school health class and have used it ever since in the classes I teach. The fish bowl activity is for any class that you want to have a orderly discussion for most of the block. The way it works is that you have some students sit in a circle facing each other then you have the rest of the class sit out side them facing them listening. You then have a jar or a fish bowl and  you pick questions or topics from the fish bowl for the inner circle to discuss with each other. The outer group cannot say anything until it is their turn. Then the groups switch and the inner group moves to the outside of the circle to listen. This kind of discussion works especially well if you know you have groups that are already divided such as men vs. women or right vs. left. It is a way for these groups to have a private discussion without having to defend themselves and let the other side hear their thinking.

• Relationships & Sex Fish Bowl Questions

• Morals, Spirituality, Ethics, & Religion Discussion

Print the questions or come up with y0ur own and cut them apart and put them in a fish bowl. Then you’re ready to have a vibrant class discussion!

Fish Bowl Steps Simplified

1. Break the class in half. Some common divisions are by gender or age.
2. Set up half of the chairs in a circle facing one another.
3. Set a second circle of chairs around the center circle facing the center circle.
4. The way the discussion works is that the people in the center most circle talk about the issue/topic while the outside listens and may not speak.
5. Then allow the inner and outer circles to change places.

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Time Frame: Minimum 2 days in class project work + presentation days

Objective: Evaluate the effects of gender on life in America and around the world.

Set

• Using the Smart Board or a white board ask the class to brainstorm and create a web around the word “GENDER.” Write responses on the board.
• For the second class, use the journal questions under “Attachments”  to start the class.

Materials

• Have your students pick a topic below and teach one full class (1 ½ hours) teaching the class about their topic. You may choose to allow them a partner or teach by him/her self.
• Assign Gender an Autobiographical Exercise (below) as homework and start the following class with a discussion of the student’s findings.

Topics:

1. Gender & the Media
   1. Impact of gender role stereotypes by Media Awareness Network
   2. Discuss different advertisement pictures
2. Gender & the Workplace
   1. Sexual harassment
   2. How should a male interact with a female boss?
   3. How do men and women work differently?
   4. Are there differences in pay scale between sexes? Why?
3. Gender Around the World
   1. Are women’s rights the same around the world?
   2. Does a culture bring out a man or woman’s ability?
   3. Do some cultures limit men or women?
   4. Does order come from gender roles?
   5. Is there oppression of either gender in countries around the world?
   6. Have there been any uprisings combating gender oppression?
   7. What is the history of men and women’s traditional roles and how they have changed with time?
   8. Are country leaders always one or the other gender?
4. Gender & Religion
   1. What are women’s roles in religion (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism)?
   2. Are there similarities across religions?
   3. Do women take leadership roles? In what ways?
   4. Is one gender considered higher than the other in each religion?
   5. What gender is the “head” or god of each religion?
5. Gender & Body Image
   1. What are the differences in the way men and women view their bodies?
   2. What are the differences between men and women when it comes staying healthy? Like going to the doctors, eating healthy, etc?
   3. Eating disorders and how they occur.
6. Gender & Friendships
   1. What are the differences between a guy-guy friendship and a girl-girl friendship?
   2. Do guys and girls make friends the same way?
   3. How do girls that are friends interact?
   4. How do guys that are friends interact?
   5. How do girls and guys handle betrayal differently?
7. Gender & Marriage
   1. How to finding a spouse that is healthy & good person
   2. True love
   3. Stages of marriage
   4. How to keep a happy marriage
   5. Divorce proofing a marriage
   6. Benefits of marriage

8.  Gender & Stress

1. What things stress out women that don’t stress out men?
2. What things stress out men that don’t stress out women?
3. What are life’s biggest stressors?
4. What are some strategies for men and women to handle stress together? Ex. How would a couple handle the death of a child
5. How do men and women handle stress differently? Work stress, marital stress, internal stress?

Activities

• Students should create a lesson plan for their lesson. Lesson plans should be approved for content, length, and depth of information. See Creating a Lesson Plan attachment.
• Give students a few days to put together their lessons.
• Assign presentation dates.

Evaluation

• Gender Lesson Project Grading Sheet (Word)

Attachments

• Gender an Autobiographical Exercise (Word)
• Creating a Lesson Plan Instructions (Word)
• Blank Lesson Plan (Word)
• Male/Female Journal Questions (Word)
  

Websites

• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
• Gender Articles
  

Similar Lessons

• Stereotyping/Labeling
• Sexual Violations
  

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Objective

So often our view of what love is comes from the stories we’ve read or watched as a youngster. Heck, even weddings these days are fairy tale themed. But is love like a fairy tale or are we merely setting our students up for “love failure” if fairy tales, Hollywood and television are the primary sources of their expectations. This lesson challenges students to reread romantic fairy tales with their relationship glasses on to see how the characters’ relationships would hold up in the real world and determining the realities of “happily ever after” for each story.

Set

• What was your favorite fairy tale growing up? Why did you like it?
• In fairy tales always end with “and they lived happily ever after” do you think that is true for real life? Real relationships? Why or why not?

Materials

Instruction

• If at all possible work through one story completely as a class to help students understand how to analyze the story with “relationship glasses” on.
• Have students work with a partner and choose a fairy tale to read.
• Tell your students to read the fairy tale completely. Then give them the assignment.

Activities

• Following a long on the worksheet students will write a summary or synopsis of the story and then analyze the characters of the fair tales answering the following questions:

1. What characteristics does each character have that are negative/positive? Which characteristics if taken to extremes could be negative?
2. What insecurities might these characters have?
3. What things can you assume about the character based on stereotypes? Ex. Prince Charming in Cinderella was an only child therefore he probably got every thing he wanted, didn’t have to share and a lot of attention.
4. What problems would the main characters that fell in love encounter in the real world? Ex. The likelihood of Cinderella and Prince Charming staying married is 50%.
5. How good of an example is the love that is depicted? Is it true love? Explain why or why not.
6. Rate their potential to live “happily ever after” from 1-10. Explain your reasoning.

Extensions

• You can have students bring in movie clips or provide movie clips (How to take a movie clip) to analyze clips that portray more real situations than fairy tales. Current movie clips are often where teenagers learn how to behave in relationships so questioning what they have seen is often an eye-opening experience for you and your students.

Closure

• Which fairy tale do you think was the best depiction of a healthy romantic relationship?
• Which fairy tale was the worst depiction of a healthy romantic relationship?
• What are some red flags or warning signs that someone may not be a good potential partner?
• What are some warning signs that a partner may have abusive tendencies or anger problems?

Assessment

• Grade the worksheet (below) that they hand in for completeness and depth of story dissection.

Attachments

• Love is like a Fairy Tale WORD

Websites

• How to Avoid Marrying a Jerk
• Healthy vs. Abusive Relationship Characteristics
• Healthy Relationship Characteristics

Similar Lesson Plans

• Dating-What is Love?
• Dating & Mate Selection
• Bowl of Milk

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Time Frame: 1.5 hour block

Objective

• Students will read a non-fiction self-help book and write a book report summarizing the book and applying the information to their lives.

Set

• This project is a part of a senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.
• I always warn my students that self help books a lot of times are written by religious authors that may have opinions different than yours. If you disagree with what what your authors say please explain that in your book report.

Materials

• Go over the Life Long Learning Book Report Directions & allow students to either choose a book from the book list that you provide or get their book approved by you. I let my students choose from a collection of books that I have and if they are not satisfied with my selection they have to purchase a book from the book list or one that I approve that is a minimum of 200 pages.
• Depending on your students you can assign the project and have them complete it entirely on their own or you can do parts of it in class. I happen to have a group of students that were frank with me and said they pretty much wouldn’t do it if I just assigned it. Although I hate the fact that some students refuse to do homework, I knew that I was basically setting them up to fail if I didn’t rethink the assignment. So I made a deal with them that we would have reading day every Friday for a quarter so they c0uld get most of it done in class. The incentive of class time is that if they were productive with their class time they won’t have to do any of it at home.

Activities

• Read the book in class and have students fill out the Reading Comprehension Chart – the chart is in the Life Long Learning Book Report Document under “Attachments.”
• Pass out one sticky note per student. Have students find at least one interesting idea or quote that they read to share with the class at the end of the reading day.

• At the end of each reading day save about 15 minutes at the end of class to have each student talk about a main idea or quote that they found interesting from their reading.

Assessment

• Life Long Learning Book Report Rubric (Word)

Attachments

• Life Long Learning Book Report (Word)
• Life Long Learning Book List (Excel)

Websites

• Amazon.com : Usually a cheaper place to buy self help books than a physical bookstore
• Half.com : A good place to find cheap used books
  

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Dibble Fund: a research based organization that provides educational tools for educators to educate teens on how to be emotionally healthy and have healthy relationships. Their latest

Icebreakers: it is important to lay a good foundation for a class that hits very personal topics. Icebreakers are activities that help students get to know one another and develop trust and group cohesiveness.

How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk: a program that educates young people in how to “pick a partner.” The program discusses the 5 main bonding forces (Know, Trust, Rely, Commit, Sexual Touch), familial patterns, and questions to ask oneself about potential partners before tying the knot or getting too involved.

Love U2 Lesson Plans: Relationship curriculum for teenagers. Sample lessons are provided for the following subjects: Relationship Skills, Sex, Communication, and Teen Parenting.

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