Outcomes
CC B10.2 Create and present a visual or multimedia presentation supporting a prepared talk on a researched issue, using either digital or other presentation tools.
Digital Citizenship Skills
Use digital technologies to engage as active citizens.
Curricular Themes
Equity and Ethics
How This Topic Fits with ELA B10?
For years, there has been a sharp rise in hate speech that is spread online, and this rise only got worse during the pandemic, when it was believed there was at least a 20% rise in hate online (BBC, 2021).
The way many people talk online is hateful, and there are real world consequences because of this kind of speech. In ELA B10, students have to engage with questions of equity and ethics, including if the way people are being treated online fits with our definition of equitable treatment. If online spaces are going to be considered a part of public life, then they should abide by the same rules of decency and respect that are present in the rest of society. Students should engage with these types of lessons so they can gain a better understanding of what online hate speech is, and what they can do online to help combat it.
Overview of the lesson
Like all Common Sense Education lessons, there are a set of slides, and a worksheet to go along with the lesson.
The lesson begins with having students watch a short video where other teens speak about their experiences with online hate speech. As students are watching the video, they should be listening to the experiences of the teens to try and create their own definitions of what hate speech is. Students should share their definitions so a class definition of hate speech can be created. Before moving on to the additional texts for this lesson, students will need to have a definition for hate speech and xenophobia.
Hate Speech= An attack using any form of communication targeting a person or people because of a group they belong to — race, gender, religion, ability, sexual orientation, etc.
Xenophobia= he fear or distrust of someone or something that is foreign or unknown.
Students will use this definition when they are reading or watching the two sources they choose for the next phase of the lesson. As students read or watch their texts, students will need to explain what their sources say about xenophobia and hate speech online, and how online hate speech can be addressed.
The sources students can choose from are:
Xenophobia: The Fear of Strangers– a guide that tries to give readers a basic overview of what xenophobia is, different kinds of xenophobia, and how they can see it in themselves.
Is YouTube Radicalising You? – a video from CBC News that includes an interview with a sociologist who tries to explain the role YouTube can play in spreading hate speech online.
Instagram Has A Problem With Hate Speech And Extremism, ‘Atlantic’ Reporter Says– An NPR News Story about how extreme content and memes has migrated onto Instagram, and what Facebook, Instagram’s owner, should do about it.
Common Sense did a good job here of providing a wide variety of sources students can choose from. These sources include multiple forms of media, including print, audio, and video mediums. Students can experience the medium they are most comfortable with and use that to go deeper into the topic. After reading with a partner, students can share their findings with the class, and this can help to students to understand why xenophobia and hate speech are problems.
The lesson concludes with a discussion of “counterspeech.” Counterspeech are messages that challenge extremism (Common Sense Education, 2019). Students begin with a video from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue about how online hate speech can be different from offline hate speech, and it provides a definition for what counterspeech is.
After this video, students will watch a piece from YouTube from the creator Hamza Arsad about how his life has been impacted by hateful ideas about Muslims, and how he tries to combat these ideas through comedy. As they are watching the videos, students are to note how Arsad uses counterspeech, and asks them to start to think of ways that they could use counterspeech in their own lives. Students are asked to think of broad areas of discrimination, such as racism or sexism, and students will then describe how they could use online platforms to go against these narratives.
How to extend the lesson
The lesson ends on a good note, students beginning to think about how they could use counterspeech to go against negative ideas. However, while it is great to have students begin to think about how they can use social media platforms to combat hate speech, it would be even better to see them actually try to do it.
To extend this lesson, students could have to actually create a social media campaign about one of the areas of discrimination they spoke about. Students could work in groups to create a campaign for their school to help combat racism they may see in their community, or they could create a vignette to talk about the dangers of hateful talk online. This would help to take the theoretical ideas presented in the lesson and make them more real.
Other Resources that Could be Used in this lesson
The Making of a Youtube Radical– the story of Caleb Cain, a West Virginia junior college student who feel down a rabbit hole of right wing online content, fits well with the ideas of how YouTube can feed viewers extreme content, and how consumers can be passive in their viewing as it becomes too late for them to combat the ideas they are presented with.
References
Baggs, M. (2021, Nov. 15). Online hate speech rose 20% during pandemic: We’ve norlamised it. British Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-59292509.
Common Sense Education. (2019, August). Countering Hate Speech Online. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/countering-hate-speech-online.
Couros, A. & Hildebandt, K. (2015). Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools. Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. file:///Users/jordanhalkyard/Downloads/83322-DC_Guide_-_ENGLISH_2%20(5).pdf.
Laud, Z. (2019, June 7). Hate Speech on Social Media: Global Comparisons. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hate-speech-social-media-global-comparisons.
Roose, K. (2019, June 8). The Making of a YouTube Radical. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radical.html
Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. (2011). Saskatchewan Curriculum: English Language Arts 10. https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/CurriculumHome?id=37.
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