Level: Grades 9 - 12

Overview

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This lesson helps students become more aware of the stereotypes associated with portrayals of students and teachers on television and on film. On Day One, students discuss the reasons why television producers and writers use stereotypes to represent various groups of people - and the advantages and disadvantages of doing this. Using a worksheet, they compile a list of common television stereotypes from the school-based television shows they enjoy and create a list of humorous clichés about TV students and teachers. On Day Two, students look at representation of students and teachers in movies and compare their findings to the stereotypes found on television. On Day Three, students assume the role of television producers and create a series outline for a school-based television show and perform a scene from an episode.

Outcomes

Students will:

• recognise that the media construct reality
• examine how teachers and students are portrayed in school-based television shows and explain the biases and beliefs revealed in the messages that are conveyed
• understand the conventions and stereotypes that are commonly used in school-based television shows
• analyse representations of social, political and cultural issues in school-based television shows
• examine their own perceptions of various stereotypes

Preparation and Materials

• Check copyright laws in your area and, if possible, tape excerpts from two or three programs that feature students and teachers, such as "Malcolm in the Middle," "The Simpsons," "Student Bodies," "Clueless," "Dawson Creek," "Breaker High," "Degrassi - The Next Generation," "Boston Public"
  
  
• If taping excerpts is not possible, assign your students home viewing of these, or similar programs during the week before this lesson.

Photocopy the following student handouts:

• Teacher/Student TV Stereotypes Chart 
• TV Stereotypes Chart Answer Sheet 
• Tinsel Town Teachers

Write the words stereotype and representation on the board. Ask students to define these terms.

Stereotype: comes from the old-fashioned process of making metal plates of each letter in the alphabet for printing purposes. It means a "set" or "fixed" image. When applied to people, the word means an instant or fixed picture of a group of people. Stereotypes may be based on gender, race, class, age, disability, and occupation.

Representation: is the way in which groups are presented in the media and popular culture, often through the use of stereotypes. The stereotypical images that are used to represent various groups can affect our attitudes towards them in real life.

• On television, what are the advantages of using stereotypical representations?

The average ½ hour television show has only twenty minutes to tell a story. Stereotypes offer writers and producers a 'short-hand' way of moving the story along. By using stock characters, such as the rebellious teen, the goofy sidekick, or the authoritarian father, producers can convey ideas and actions to a broad audience without having to use more complex representations.

Because many of us are familiar with these predictable stereotypes, television producers use them to reach the broadest possible audience.

• On television, what are the disadvantages of using stereotypical representations?

Television is both a mirror and a conduit. Its portrayals of groups of people reflect the values of mainstream society and at the same time, feed society's views about its members. For example, when successful television characters are continually represented as attractive, wealthy and thin, producers are not only tapping into North American attitudes about class and body image, they are also perpetuating the myth that all successful people must fit into this stereotype.

'Misrepresentation' occurs when the media perpetuates images and stereotypes that are not based on fact. Representations of youth often fall into this category.

• Ask students to brainstorm television shows that feature teachers and students. List the shows on the board.
  
  
• If you have been able to record segments from television programs depicting students and teachers, play them now.
  
  
• Distribute the Teacher/Student TV Stereotypes Chart and give students twenty minutes to complete the chart and write a brief overview. (Tell them to use the programs listed on the blackboard as a reference point.)
  
  
• Once students have completed their charts, take up their answers as a class.
  
  
• Ask students to brainstorm the issues that are encountered by characters in the school-based television programs they watch. Do these issues reflect their own lives?
  
  
• Of the programs that students have listed, which do they believe most accurately represent the lives of teachers and students, and which least accurately represents the lives of teachers and students? Why?
  

Homework Assignment:

In September 2000, Rolling Stone magazine jokingly summarized what teen shows tell us about today's teens:

• They all look sexy
  
  
• They are Caucasian
  
  
• They don't seem to have any parents
  
  
• They don't need an education
  
  
• They find high school boring and,
  
  
• They live in a world that does not resemble reality at all

Keeping this in mind, come up with your own list of ten humorous clichés about students and teachers, based on the television shows that you watch.

Day Two:

• Ask students to brainstorm movies that they have seen that feature students and teachers. (Record their selections on the board.)
  
  
• Distribute Tinsel Town Teachers and give students a few minutes to read it.
  
  
• Judging from this article, and the movies they've seen, are teachers and students portrayed differently in film than on television? How?
  
  
• Are films more or less likely to use stereotypes?
  
  
• Do students agree or disagree with the common themes that are outlined in the article? Can they think of any other themes that may be missing?
  
  
• Compare the themes from older films, like Good-bye Mr. Chips, The Blackboard Jungle and To Sir With Love to more recent films. Have the story lines changed very much over the past fifty years? (If time permits, show students a classic film such as To Sir With Love, and have them compare it to a more recent film.)
  
  
• In their journals or notebooks, have students respond to the question:
  
  "Do the teachers and students on TV or in movies influence your own attitude about learning? In what ways?"

Day Three:

Activity

Divide your class into four groups.

In this activity, students will assume the role of television producers who are creating a new school-based television series. In order to sell their series to a network, they must create an outline of their series and offer network executives a "sneak peak" at a scene from an episode. Their program can be a drama or a comedy. It can play on stereotypes, or it can attempt to "break the mould" and offer a realistic portrayal of students and teachers.

The Series Outline will contain the following:

• An introductory page with the background to the plot, the desired target audience, the program format, tone, and setting.
  
  
• The goals and philosophy behind the series.
  
  
• An overview of the central characters (students & teachers), including name, age, photo, physical description, background, personality, and how his/her character fits into the overall plot. (The goal is to create a believable character that audiences will relate to.)
  
  
• An episode guide of the first five episodes.
  
  
• Remember that this Series Outline needs to get the attention of those network executives - show some creativity in putting it together!)
  
  
• In addition, students will create a script for a scene from one of their episodes, (no more than five minutes in length) which will be presented to the class.
  
  
• Using the information in the Series Outline, have each group pitch its program to fellow classmates.
  
  
• When they have made their pitch, students will perform their scene.
  
  
• Once all groups have presented, let student's vote on the program they would most like to see on TV.

Evaluation

• Stereotype Chart
• Clichés
• Journal Entry
• Series Outline and Group performance