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Note: This activity can be done over several class periods, or as a final assignment.
Materials needed: magazines, scissors, glue, markers, tape, rulers, images of Instagram pages for ideas, five copies of this Instagram template for each student:
Instagram Template (67.11 KB)
Step 1.
Tell your students that they will pretend they are Instagram influencers that regularly post advice, questions, and thoughts about sexual health topics. Share with them that, although there is so much information about sexual health on the internet and social media, often this information can be biased, medically inaccurate, or fear-based. So, as Instagram influencers they have decided to set the record straight and inform their audience about vital sexual health topics. Tell them to think about what topics they would be most interested in talking about on their page: they can be questions they have, topics they’re curious about, or topics they know a lot about and want to share with their followers.
Step 2.
After thinking about these five topics, they will then design five different posts that would go on their fake Instagram page. Instruct the students to think about the posts in two parts: the first part is the visual component of the post (this could be a photograph, a quote, a drawing, a meme, etc.), the second part is the caption that goes along with the post where they explore their questions, thoughts, and concerns around the topic.
Step 3.
Give students the chance to research their topics! If they have a question that needs answering, encourage them to talk to you or look at resources online to get answers.
Step 4.
Allow ample time for the students to write their captions and write/draw/design their posts. (Optional: if you are able to print out photographs, you can invite your class to go outside and work in pairs/small groups to create and photograph their different posts with the members of their group, then print out their photographs to paste onto their Instagram templates (download link above).
Step 5.
Once students have created their posts, tell them to tape their posts together so that they create one giant scroll (with the top of one page taped to the bottom of the other)—so that it looks like you are scrolling down through someone’s posts!
Step 6.
Hang up everyone’s posts and do a Gallery Walk of the different pages!
Step 7.
Have a dialogue with your class after the Gallery Walk by asking:
Materials needed: card stock, markers, colored pencils, scissors, lamination access (optional for durability), small magnets, glue gun, thin wooden dowels, thick yarn. To make a realistic “sea,” small swimming pool or something similar such as a large bin/plastic tray, water (optional), or a simple flat surface like student tables or large area of floor to scatter fish, Power and Control Wheel and Equality Wheel handouts:
Power and Control Wheel (672.88 KB)
Equality Wheel (538.06 KB)
Step 1.
Ask students if they’ve ever heard the expression: “There are plenty of fish in the sea.” Allow responses and help them understand what it means.
Step 2.
Tell students that they will all contribute to making a game they will play as a class. Each student must draw four different fish on a different cardstock sheet. Allow them to access the internet to get ideas of different types of fish. After they’ve added the details/color to their fish, they will carefully cut them out.
Step 3.
On two of the fish, they will clearly write an abusive or controlling characteristic on the side of the fish that is not decorated (by referring to the Power and Control Wheel handout). On the other two fish, they will clearly write a healthy relationship characteristic on the undecorated side (by referring to the Equality Wheel handout).
[Note: To not have too many repeated messages, you may want to assign students a different section of each of the Wheels to get characteristics from.]
Step 4.
Collect all completed fish. [Laminate them if you decide to use the version with a pool and water. Once they’re laminated, ask students to assist in trimming off the excess plastic.]
Step 5.
Glue a small magnet to the decorated side of each cut out.
Step 6.
Make two fishing rods out of the wooden dowel, yarn, and magnet.
Step 7.
Either fill up your swimming pool with water or designate a space in the classroom to be the “sea.” Place the fish in the “sea,” with the decorated, magnet side up so that the messages are not revealed.
Step 8.
Divide the class into three or four groups and have one person from each group standing at the edge of the “sea” with their group lined up behind them. Give the first person from each group a fishing rod. At your cue, students will begin fishing. When a fish is “caught,” the student must flip it over to read the statement on the other side out loud. If a student catches an “abusive” fish (one with a characteristic from the Power and Control Wheel), they will put it to the side. If a student catches a “healthy” fish (one with a characteristic from the Equality Wheel handout), they will keep their fish and move to the back of the line. All members from each group will take turns trying to catch fish. The first group to catch ten “healthy” fish wins.
[Note: To make it more fun and to add a sense of competitive urgency, play music in the background! Some song ideas: The Surfaris’s “Wipeout,” The Little Mermaid’s “Under the Sea.”]
Step 9.
At the end of the game, have the students in the winning group look through their “healthy” fish and read the characteristics on those fish out loud to the class. Guide the class through some dialogue:
Step 10.
Now, have students volunteer to look through their piles of “unhealthy” fish and read some of the characteristics out loud to the class. Guide the class through some dialogue:
Step 11.
Reflect on the experience with the class through dialogue:
Materials needed: paper, pen, poster paper, markers
Individual Manifestos
Step 1.
Explain to your students that they will individually create their own relationship manifesto, declaring what they demand from their relationships with others. A manifesto is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer. As the word implies, the writer makes their values, beliefs, or intentions manifest by writing them down, and sometimes by sharing them.
Manifestos are:
Step 2.
Explain that they can utilize poetry, drawing, or other visual art, movement, and/or song, or they can create a simple free write. Invite them to be creative.
Step 3.
Share some action-based sentence starters for a strong relationship manifesto, including:
Step 4.
The more personal the manifestos can be, the better. Tell them that they can use the prompts given or develop something completely different. Students should know that these are for them and that they will not be required to share anything that they do not wish to share.
Group Manifestos
Step 1.
Ask your students to underline a sentence from each of their manifestos that they are willing to share with the class and that they feel is most significant and/or representative of their manifesto as a whole. If they do not want to share any portion of their manifesto with the class, they can write a new line that they will share instead.
Step 2.
Have students stand in a circle around the classroom.
Step 3.
In the circle, have each student share, one after another, and their underlined sentence—creating a single, spoken manifesto that combines them all.
Step 4.
Students may benefit from receiving an email or handout of their classroom manifesto. To create this, you could record them reading, or collect their manifestos and simply type out each of the underlined sentences. If you do collect their manifestos, make sure to return them to the students so that they may hold on to them and come back to them from time to time, if they so choose.