Lesson 5:

Negative attitudes
Overview Learning objectives
This lesson starts with a thinking skills activity which aims to reveal Understand that people have
students own prejudicial and stereotypical views in order to introduce negative attitudes and what
the concepts. Students then explore stereotypes of different genders and is meant by prejudice and
of teenagers to appreciate how it feels to be labelled. This enables them stereotypes.
to empathise with other groups that can be stereotyped and to challenge Be able to recognise my own
the negative labels. You can then explore prejudice through the media. and others’ stereotypical and
Extension 1 provides a role-play activity that could be a separate lesson prejudiced attitudes.
and effective way of developing learning through drama. Although this
Be aware of the negative
lesson is focussed on negative attitudes rather than behaviour, which is
consequences of prejudice and
explored further in lesson 6, you may find that discrimination is introduced
stereotypes.
through your discussion

Starter Subject links

Activity 1 (10mins): Choose your apprentice (Slides 3-13)
Use the slides for this thinking skills activity which aims to reveal some subtle Citizenship
prejudicial thinking and stereotypes within the class. Provide each student PSHEE
with the six cards from worksheet 14 that each contains a first name and line
English
them up in front of them. Alternatively they could just write their names on
paper. Explain that students are working in the role of an entrepreneur, like Drama
Alan Sugar, on The Apprentice. They need to recruit an engineer to go into RE
space and set up life on the moon. Each time you reveal a layer of information
on the slides, they have to ‘fire’ someone by removing them from their line
up until they have one left who is ‘hired’. The final slide reveals each person’s Resources
qualifications. Discuss their choices, highlight any prejudice and stereotypes
and conclude you can’t prejudge on such little information. Worksheets:
14 - The Apprentice
Main 15 - Prejudice news
Activity 2 (Option 1) (10mins): Gender stereotypes (Slides 14-19) 16 - Prejudice script (Extension 1)
Using imagery from Billy Elliot, explore students’ attitudes towards a boy Slides: Lesson 5
doing ballet. You could play a clip from Billy Elliot to engage them. You can
Video 3
find footage on You Tube. Introduce gender stereotypes. Students work
in pairs, introducing themselves as stereotypical ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ using Video background notes
statements on the slides. Discuss the stereotypes and the associated Stop Sexual Bullying extension
problems with these labels. Highlight that we are all individuals. Video 3 resource (Extension 8 & 9)
shows a scenario of gender discrimination. If you have time, you could play
this and use the discussion points in the video background notes to explore
the issue.
Activity 2 (Option 2) (10mins): Labelling teenagers (Slide 20-21)
Students work in pairs to create stereotypical views of teenagers or different
groups of young people. Select some students to present their images /
statements and explore how it feels to be labelled in that way. Discuss
issues relating to prejudice against young people, e.g. hoodie wearers
being banned from shops, young people gathering in large groups being
considered intimidating etc. How is this reflected in the media, and how
does it affect adults’ attitudes and behaviour?
Lesson 5:
Negative attitudes
Activity 3 (10mins): Challenging stereotypes (Slides 22-23)
Useful links/further information
Now that students have an appreciation of how it feels to be stereotyped, they
should explore the negative effects of labelling other groups of people. Using Visit the useful information section
a list of statements on the slides, students work in pairs to role-play one of Equal Rights, Equal Respect to
person making a stereotypical statement and the recipient explaining how it access this information:
makes them feel, and why it is wrong or unfair. They choose five statements
www.equalityhumanrights.
each. Select some students to perform to the class and discuss.
com/equalrightsequalrespect/
Activity 4 (20mins): Read all about prejudice (Slides 24-26) usefulinformation
Using worksheet 15, students read extracts from newspapers that feature How fair is Britain? -
prejudicial views towards a particular group. Students should use pens to www.equalityhumanrights.
highlight the prejudicial views and think about the negative consequences of com/key-projects/how-fair-
this attitude. Use the slides to discuss. is-britain/ - The Equality and
Human Rights Commission
Plenary Triennial Review provides lots
Activity 6 (5mins): Gender riddle (Slides 27-31) of statistics that demonstrate
As a fun plenary, quickly present the riddle on slide 28 followed by the inequality and discrimination in
questions that will reveal prejudicial and stereotypical thinking. Highlight that the UK.
it is important to be aware of our own prejudicial and stereotypical attitudes Glossary - definitions for
and to think about how they will make other’s feel. stereotypes, prejudice and
discrimination.

Support notes Visit the training section of Equal

Extension/homework/extra activity ideas Rights, Equal Respect to access
this information:
Use these ideas as inspiration for alternative, differentiation or homework
activities, or to develop learning in other subjects or lessons. www.equalityhumanrights.
com/equalrightsequalrespect/
Extension 1: Prejudice party
usefulinformation
Working in groups of 6, get students to role-play a script on worksheet 16
Equality and human rights
where young people are thinking about who to invite to a party and making
training video - training tips
prejudiced comments about different people. Each group should then present
for delivering sensitive and
their sketch and you should have class discussion around what is wrong with
controversial topics.
some of the people’s attitudes.
Extension 2: Prejudging disabled people - celebrity interview
Play the interview of Alison Lapper talking about how society judges her as
disabled and ‘different’ before her talent as a famous artist: www.youtube.
com/user/EqualityHumanRights#p/search/1/z9kdCqTlVW4
Discuss society’s prejudiced views towards Alison. How do people treat her?
How does it make her feel? Were your attitudes challenged by the video?
You could also play the Tanni Grey Thompson (famous athlete) video: www.
youtube.com/user/EqualityHumanRights#p/search/2/I_7gQE5bRw8
Extension 3: Gay love poem
Provide students with the love poem written by W H Auden, Stop all the clocks:
www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/poetry/aude.html. The author is a
man talking about his love for another man. After students have read the article,
question them to reveal that they assume it is about a man and woman and
then reveal it is two men. Explore their reactions and attitudes.
Lesson 5:
Negative attitudes
Extension 4: Religion and stereotypes
In RE, explore how different religious groups can be labelled. What
prejudiced attitudes and behaviour does this lead to? Are these true or
fair? What can be the problem with these attitudes? How could these
stereotypical and prejudicial views be tackled?
Extension 5: Freedom of expression
If you have studied human rights (lessons 8-10), in activity 4, discuss
whose human rights are being breached and whose are conflicting.
How could their rights be balanced? If they respected each other’s rights
and differences, would they have the same negative attitudes? Debate
the conflicting nature and limits of specific rights, such as Freedom of
Expression (Article 10) and Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion
(Article 9). More information on balancing human rights can be found in
lesson 10.
Extension 6: Can’t judge a book
Following on from activity 1, you could discuss the statement ‘You can’t
judge a book by its cover’. Is this true? Is it right or fair to judge people on
face value? Highlight the importance of understanding and finding out facts.
Extension 7: Gay!
Extending from activity 3, discuss what the word gay means. When do
students use it? How do you think that makes a gay person feel? Imagine if
someone was acting in a negative way, and your name or identity was used
to call them a name. How would you feel? Students could pledge to not use
the word in inappropriate ways.
Extension 8: Gender debate
Refer to page 2 of the Stop Sexual Bullying resource, produced by
Womankind Worldwide, and use the stats to debate whether the gender
statements are stereotypes or biological differences in girls and boys.
Extension 9: Gender questionnaire
Refer to page 6 and 7 of the Stop Sexual Bullying resource, produced by
Womankind Worldwide, and get students to complete the questionnaire
about gender equality and sexual bullying in your school. Gather the results
and discuss students’ answers. If gender inequality or sexual bullying does
exist, what ideas do students have to improve it?

Differentiation ideas
All activities will be differentiated by outcome.

Prior learning
No essential prior learning.
Understanding of human rights (Lessons 8-10) could enable extended
discussions around human rights – see Extension 5.
Understanding of characteristics and identities will aid learning (Lesson 3).
Lesson 5:
Negative attitudes
Preparation and planning
Review the PowerPoint slides and tailor them to suit your teaching and
class ability.
Photocopy worksheet 14 and cut out the cards so that each student has
seven cards with the seven different names.
Decide which activities you will deliver for activity 2.
Consider any sensitivity amongst students. You could inform students that
you will be exploring some controversial subject matter and it is not your
intention to upset anyone but if anyone is affected during the class, they
can speak to you or email you afterwards. If any disclosures are made,
you will need to follow your school’s child protection procedure.
Be aware that some students may express negative attitudes. It is
important to allow them to voice their views and they should be probed,
but this should be followed by clearly stating that as a community of
learners, you don’t tolerate offensive and harmful attitudes and promote
the importance of respect towards difference. If any remarks are directed
toward specific students, then it may be necessary to follow up after the
class, following your school’s bullying policy.