a.

Movie Mobs Jigsaw

i. I will begin this activity by dividing students into three groups. In each
group, I will assign a specific movie that makes use of mob mentality. The
three movie options will be Hunger Games, Beauty and the Beast, and
Mean Girls. I will pull up a clip from each movie that shows an example
of mob mentality in action. I will also divide the board into three sections
with each movie listed at the top.
ii. In their groups, I will have them each write about how they see the mob
act in that movie keeping in mind the following questions:
1. How did the mob originate?
2. What kind of people are in the mob?
3. What actions or rules does the mob abide by?
4. Is there a clear leader of the mob? What is their role?
5. What does the mob accomplish?
6. Is the mob overpowered?
iii. After individually responding to the questions above, I will have students
divide into groups with their peers who choose the same movie and
discuss their responses.
iv. Then, students will rotate groups so they are now grouped with at least one
student from each different movie option. These groups will compare and
contrast how mobs work in each of their chosen films.
v. Finally, students will return to their original groups and decide on which
traits to write on the board under their assigned movie.
vi. Assessment: Students will be assessed on the traits and information about
the mob from their chosen movie they write on the board.
b. Magnifying Mob Mentality Presentations
i. Divide students into groups and ask each group to pick two psychological
causes of mob mentality. In order for the whole class to gain a better
understanding of mob mentality, I will ask that each group pick two
causes that do not overlap with other group choices. To accomplish this in
a fair manner, I will ask groups in order of where they are sitting for their
 first choice of topic. Then, I will ask groups starting at the other end for
their second choice of topic. Groups may choose from the topics listed
below:
1. Deindividuation—people lose their self-awareness when they
become part of a group
2. Identity— as people become part of a group, their individual
identity is lost
3. Emotions— being in a group can cause one’s emotions to be
heightened such as anger, excitement, hostility, etc.
4. Acceptability— behaviors or actions that are normally viewed as
unacceptable become acceptable when they are carried out by
others in a group
5. Anonymity— within a large group, people feel like they are
anonymous which decreases their sense of responsibility and
accountability
6. Diffusion of responsibility— in a group, there is the feeling that
unacceptable or violet behavior is a group responsibility, not a
personal one
7. Size— as the size of a group increases, so does the likelihood there
will be diffusion of responsibility and deindividualization
ii. Once the groups have made their selection, I ask that they create a
presentation to the class with three main parts: 1) definition and
explanation of their topics, 2) where/how their topics can be seen
occurring within The Lottery, 3) where/how their topics can be seen within
society. I will suggest dividing up tasks between different group members.
iii. Then, I will ask for students to present their findings to the class
requesting that each student talk about the information they found.
iv. Assessment: I will determine how much students understand about the
causes of mob mentality by the ability of the groups to fully answer the
three questions I posed in the assignment. I will also provide a student
 feedback sheet to the group asking them to explain who did what and how
well they worked together as a group.
c. Acting as Author
i. Before introducing this assignment, I will ask students in groups to talk
about how Shirley Jackson uses structure, character descriptions, and tone
to accomplish the purpose of her writing. I will also ask students to
describe what they think the purpose of this short story is. Then, I will ask
groups to share their ideas with the class and compile a list of these
strategies on the board.
ii. Keeping in mind all that they have learned about mob mentality,
specifically how it is caused, and different strategies for structure,
character building, and tone within writing, I will ask students to complete
a creative writing assignment placing themselves in the world of The
Lottery. I will give them the following prompt:
1. After reading The Lottery and exploring the nuances that make up
mob mentality, imagine you are a part of the village Jackson writes
about. You can assign yourself a character, or make up your own,
and place yourself at any time in the short story. How would your
character change the course of the story?
iii. Then, in small groups, students will share their stories and compare their
plot to the text and to each other's stories. Students will share how they
manipulated mob behavior and mentality in their own stories allowing
them to gain a deeper understanding of both Jackson’s writing and how
individuality works within a large group.
iv. Assessment: I will assess the structure, character descriptions, and tone of
their writing and their ability to use what they have learned about mob
mentality in their pieces.
d. Finding Mobs Today in Interviews
i. Introduce this activity with a “what would you do” scenario. Pull up a
powerpoint slideshow with the following different situations described and
ask students to share what their responses would be with the class:
 1. A snapchat video goes viral on TikTok of a student in your school
falling down in the cafeteria. Everyone seems to be sharing it on
their social media accounts and laughing at the content at the
individual student’s expense. What would you do?
2. On an anonymous social platform that shares “tweets” with people
in your location, Yik Yak, a pattern of “yaks” degrading a teacher
at your school starts trending. What would you do?
3. One student fails an assignment and everyone finds out. Your
classmates begin bullying this students for “being dumb.” What
would you do?
ii. Have students interview each other in pairs and record each other’s
responses. Students will ask the following questions as well as come up
with 2 questions of their own.
1. When you think of a mob what comes to mind?
2. Where are areas in our everyday lives where you see mob
mentality being used?
3. How would you describe a leader's role in a mob?
4. After learning about mob mentality, will you approach being part
of a group differently now? If so, how?
iii. After the interview, students will work with a different partner and discuss
what they learned from the interview keeping in mind the following
questions:
1. How was your perspective expanded upon from listening to
someone else’s point of view?
2. Was there anything that surprised you?
3. Was there anything mentioned that you might disagree with?
iv. Assessment: Students will email me their video clips and I will confirm
they asked and answered each question to the best of their ability. I will
ensure that they are making connections about mobs and their lived
experiences by expanding upon real life situations. Additionally, by
 listening and talking to other students, they will expand their perspectives
on how mob mentality works in their everyday lives.
e. Mob Mentality in Social Media
i. I will begin this activity by asking students to think about different ways
they have seen mobs form through social media. I will ask for students to
share those experiences.
ii. Then, I will pass out a brief article, Social Media Mob Mentality, and have
students read and discuss its content in groups. I will ask the groups to
think about the following questions:
1. Do you agree with the author’s claim about mob mentality and
technology?
2. What example of mob mentality through social media do you find
the most surprising and why?
3. Choose one example of mob mentality from the article and discuss
how you think it escalated.
iii. Next, I will ask students to find their own example of mob mentality in
social media. This can be on a micro scale, like an extreme argument in a
comment section, or a larger scale, like significant gains or losses in
followers or support. Once they have chosen their example, I will ask
them to write a 1-2 page written response about their example and give a
brief presentation to the class. Their writing and presentation should focus
on answering the following questions:
1. What aspect can you point to that identifies this as mob behavior?
How do you know this is an example of mob mentality?
2. How did this example of mob mentality start? Analyze the
“leader(s)” role in this event (this might require some outside
research).
3. How do people act in a “group” on social media in ways that they
would, or could, not if they were interactive one-on-one in person?
 4. What kind of impact does the specific social media site you have
chosen to explore have on mob behavior? Would the example you
have explored be different if it was on a different platform?
5. How will you use this information moving forward as you continue
to partake in social media throughout high school?
iv. Assessment: I will be monitoring students’ work within their groups and
individually. In their groups, I’ll look at how much they are participating
and collect their group answers to the questions to ensure they learned
how social media can exacerbate mob mentality. For the individual
assignment, students’ ability to answer each question and the depth of
their responses will be assessed. Additionally, their ability to communicate
effectively with their peers the information they have learned from this
assignment will be evaluated. The individual work will help students
analyze how mobs are formed and utilized in their everyday lives.