Where we sit and who we spend time with at school is more a product of norms than of guidelines, and new students often spend time making painful or embarrassing mistakes as they try to figure out their place in the school's pecking order. Some of those norms are explicitly discussed in this sequence from the 2005 film Mean Girls. 

ACTIVITY: Mapping the Cafeteria

Note that the video showcases a variety of social groups that are represented in the high school cafeteria. For now, without knowing its definition, note that these are the cafeteria’s sub-cultures.

1. Choose 3 social groups. Write down 3 qualities that define the members of each group.
2. Write down 2 ways in which each group is different from the other two groups.
3. Can you think of any meaningful similarity among the three groups? Write down at least one.
4. Write down what distinguishes each group's activities, interests and goals from the others.
5. When do these goals conflict with each other, and when do they overlap?
6. Do you suppose the cafeteria is a neutral space, or is it the home turf of one of the three groups you have chosen?

Now let’s go a step further with the activity on point of view in Flotsam to recognize similarities and differences.

1. Imagine which cafeteria group understands shared interests with other groups or subcultures, and which group is more invested in conflicting goals?
2. Write down 2 mechanisms or situations which would enable participants to negotiate among their goals and interests. If you need to, review the definition of negotiation.
3. Can you imagine a situation in which any of these groups would form an alliance with each other? Briefly write down what might happen in such a situation.

The objective of this activity is not to talk about how cafeteria subcultures should or should not function, or even about how they do function. The point of the activity is to practice working with a media text. Clearly, students encounter many of the same divisions in their everyday lives–perhaps the categories at play are different, but most cafeterias experience some kind of segregation and segmentation. It may be difficult to get students talking with each other about these issues. there will be hurt feelings at play when we consider the ways we get included and excluded in real world settings.

Having tested the activity in the classroom, you will have many take-aways for applying the activity in a real-world setting. We interviewed Judith N., a librarian at Somerville High School who worked with Project New Media Literacies to test and and give feedback on our Teachers' Strategy Guide, Reading in a Participatory Culture. The activity is pulled from the Cafeteria Sub-cultures lesson she and Project New Media Literacies staff used with students at her high school involved drawing a map of the cafeteria, showing the unofficial boundaries that formed among the various social groups and having a discussion on sub-cultures.

Asked to map the divisions in their own lunchroom, students disagreed and were offended by the way they were characterized by their peers, particularly in terms of race and culture. Such discussions will not work in many settings, though there can be real value in surfacing issues that every student experiences but rarely discussed openly. Discussions of literary works may allow such issues to surface at one level removed from the student's own experience and may make them feel safer talking through the issues.

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