Christy+M.+Video+Lesson+Plan

6-C-1 - Christy McCanna's Primary Source Video Lesson Plan


 * Lesson: Stanford Prison Experiment – Roles and Status **

1. Students will understand the concepts of role and status. 2. Students will analyze how roles and status relate to each other. 3. Students will analyze how people’s statuses affect their attitude and behaviors.
 * Objectives **

· YouTube video – Zimbardo shows how most evil comes from hierarchy - [] · SEA Method Chart · Venn Diagram
 * Required Materials **

Lesson – 81 minutes · Review definitions of key sociology terms – status and role (status is the position a person holds while the role is the behavior associated with the status)
 * Introduction **


 * Body **
 * Students should list at least ten statuses that they currently fulfill in their lives
 * Once they have listed their statuses, they should choose five of the ten statuses to list the roles that accompany each of those statuses. We will then discuss as class their statuses and roles – why do the roles they described relate to the statuses they hold? Does status affect behavior?
 * Students will watch the primary source video “Zimbardo shows how most evil comes from hierarchy” – students will complete an SEA method form to go along with the video – in the video, Philip Zimbardo remembers his controversial “Stanford Prison Experiment.” This video includes an interview with Zimbardo as well as archival footage of the actual experiment. In their analysis portion, students will be required to analyze the way in which assigning someone a status can affect their role (behavior), even when the status is assigned completely arbitrarily
 * Students will complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two statuses in this experiment – prison guard and prisoner.

· Journal Prompt – How can assigning someone a status affect their behavior and attitude? How does the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrate that? In your opinion, was this study ethical? Why or why not? Please use concepts covered in today’s lesson in your answer.
 * Conclusion **

· Students will be assessed on the following: SEA chart, Venn diagram, and journal prompt.
 * Assessment **

This lesson directly covers part of the sociology curriculum. We spend time talking about statuses and roles in society prior to our unit on prejudice, racism, and discrimination. Students will have to think critically throughout this lesson – the SEA method, the Venn diagram, and especially the journal prompt all ask for students to use higher order thinking skills.
 * Critical Thinking / Lesson Integration **

This is a great lesson plan. I like how the students are required to think of roles. This would be particularly helpful when we do our career education lesson. Students have great difficulty identifying their skills. Perhaps using roles they fill would help them identify their skills. I have also used posters of Batman, Superman, Oscar the Grouch etc and other characters and had students identify the characters' skills before attempting to identify their own skills. (Pat)

Christy, Our school is very small, so we offer the bare bones as far as courses. Sociology is not one of them, and after reading your lesson plan, I really wish it were! The kids miss out on so many interesting classes and topics simply because we're a small, rural school that can't offer them a wide range of classes. At any rate, I love the personalizing you have involved in this lesson. Anything taken to a personal level with kids seems to be learned and retained so much better! I'm interested to hear how they handle the ethics involved--my 10th graders have formed strong opinions at this stage in their careers, but often when challenged, they become uncomfortable and unable to defend their views. Great lesson for critical thinking! jess