This is my promised blog entry that includes anti-bullying curriculum components utilizing Carol Gorman's Games: The Tale of Two Bullies and Dori Hillestad Butler's The Truth About Truman School. The ideas involve all school reads, author visits, and much discussion. But first a little background.
CASE #1: Several bullies harass an overweight
female (high school) student in the classroom.
Instead of dealing directly with the harassment, the teacher moves the
female student to the other side of the room to separate her from the bullies. This does nothing to stop the bullying behavior
in the hallways and tends to perpetuate the idea that it is the fault of the
person being bullied rather than putting the blame where it should land – on
the bullies.
CASE #2: An intermediate student does not deal
well with loud unexpected noises. They
frighten and cause her great discomfort and she visibly reacts to loud
unexpected noises. Fellow classmates
delight in coming up behind her and make loud noises. The teacher’s efforts to curb this is to have
the girl work with a mentor who will regularly surprise her with noises and
thus, eventually “condition” her to the loud noises. While this might be a compassionate
conditioning for other situations; the students maliciously making the loud
sounds were not dealt with. That should
be a FIRST step. Meeting the situation
head on should be the norm not the afterthought.
CASE #3: A
sixth grade class had two female students in the class. One had a congenital eye deformity and the
other had a very scarred face and arm caused by a kerosene fire when she was a
toddler. The student with the scarred
face never smiled nor was she a pleasant student to have in class. The girl with the eye deformity smiled a lot
(but it seemed to be a "put on a brave face" defensive move) – neither girl was treated well by their classmates. They teased, ignored, did not include them in
playground games, did not choose them for games, in general they mostly showed
that each of them was a big bother and too insignificant to be part of their
“circle.” The teacher in this case
arranged to send the girls to the library (with instructions that they not be
allowed to return until the all clear signal was sent). Then she proceed to “read the riot act” to
the remaining students. Of course, the one girl was not pleasant to be around –
would you be if no one was ever nice to you?
How would you feel if you were ignored and teased and shunned throughout
every day? Once it was clear, that
future incidents of the negative behavior was NOT going to be tolerated the
class settled down to create a list of actions that they could take to include
the girls positively. When the girls
returned the classroom, the teacher explained forthrightly that the class had
been discussing their collective bullying behavior and that collectively they wished to
apologize and hoped each of them (the girls) would accept the apology and allow each of the
members of the class to begin to show their friendship as the days went
on. This forthcoming approach
embarrassed the girls for a moment but even that day other members of the class
were quick to extend a new welcome to each of them. Students vied for the girls to be in their
group. By the end of the semester both
were smiling daily and by the end of the school year each of the girls had made
some lasting friendships. And new
students and students in other classes took their cue from these girls’
immediate classmates. There was no
bullying, no exclusion, no ignoring — each was treated as a valued member of
the class and the school community.Case #3 exemplifies the type of progress we can make if we just discuss and talk about the effect bullying has on those that are being bullied and if the group as a whole shows that bullying will NOT be tolerated within their learning community.
As a teacher you may not be able to pinpoint the subject as clearly as in Case #3 – the bullying was so concentrated on these two girls that the discussion focus was pretty clear. However, there are other successful methods of starting a conversation about bullying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A common experience can bring a discussion into focus. Award winning authors have written books that deals with incidents of bullying. These incidents, the personality of the bully, the vulnerability of those being bullied, the background of all of the incidents, and so forth can all play into the discussions that come about because of the focus on bullying.
Several lists of books exist which contain ideas for starting discussions about bullying -- The Pirate Tree. The blog is maintained by a collective of children's and young adult writers interested in children's literature and social justice issues. Two posts by Ann Angel concentrate on bullying:
Annangel. (5 April 2012) "We Can Learn About Ways to Stop Bullying from Teens in the Civil Rights Movement." The Pirate Tree. (WEB) http://www.thepiratetree.com/2012/04/05/we-can-learn-about-ways-to-stop-bullying-from-teens-in-the-civil-rights-movement/
Annangel. (4 May 2012) "More Thoughts on Books, Bullying and Standing Up." The Pirate Tree. (WEB).
http://www.thepiratetree.com/2012/05/04/more-thoughts-on-books-bullying-and-standing-up/
To find the other posts about bullying, use the search function on The Pirate Tree's blog.
Penguin Young Readers Group has published a booklet authored by Jerry Michel, titled Think Twice Play Nice. The booklet is available from the Penguin Group teacher/librarians website at http://penguin.com/teachersandlibrarians or from this archival depository.To start that process one successful method is to hold an “all school” read. Each child would read, or have read to them--the same book as each of the other students in the school. After the book has been read or throughout the reading discussions for the events in the book can be shared and solutions/ideas sought.
One of the most effective culminations to an all school read is arrange for students to have the perspective of the author who wrote each book. One author, Dori Hillestad Butler often uses a previsit bullying survey to elicit what is going on in their schools in regard to bullying. These comments/facts are then incorporated into her presentation/discussions with those who have read her book. Carol Gorman elicits discussion about the “games” that were being played in her book about two bullies. Games played by all bullies as well as those who merely stand by and provide passive approval/encouragement to the bully are also discussed.
An author appearance by either Carol Gorman or Dori Hillestad Butler is a powerful element in focusing on anti-bullying efforts.
Carol
Gorman — Games: The Tale of Two Bullies
The story of Mick Sullivan and Boot Quinn is written from two perspectives in alternating chapters — From the publisher: "Mick Sullivan likes reading thrillers, daydreaming about Tabitha Slater, and teasing his archenemy, Boot Quinn. Boot Quinn likes playing his guitar, daydreaming about Tabitha Slater, and punching his adversary, Mick Sullivan. The two eighth graders are rivals in every way, and with two fights in the first week of school, they've set the stage for a yearlong showdown. That is, until a new principal arrives on the scene and forces Mick and Boot to spend an hour and a half each day playing games together. Two enemies, one small room, and no adult supervision--battle lines are bound to be crossed. As the wins and losses are tallied, the boys find themselves fighting for their classmates' attention, a cute girl's affection, and their own fathers' respect. But how far are they willing to go to win? And who are they really fighting? There's only one way to find out.
Game on."
The story of Mick Sullivan and Boot Quinn is written from two perspectives in alternating chapters — From the publisher: "Mick Sullivan likes reading thrillers, daydreaming about Tabitha Slater, and teasing his archenemy, Boot Quinn. Boot Quinn likes playing his guitar, daydreaming about Tabitha Slater, and punching his adversary, Mick Sullivan. The two eighth graders are rivals in every way, and with two fights in the first week of school, they've set the stage for a yearlong showdown. That is, until a new principal arrives on the scene and forces Mick and Boot to spend an hour and a half each day playing games together. Two enemies, one small room, and no adult supervision--battle lines are bound to be crossed. As the wins and losses are tallied, the boys find themselves fighting for their classmates' attention, a cute girl's affection, and their own fathers' respect. But how far are they willing to go to win? And who are they really fighting? There's only one way to find out.
Game on."
Carol Gorman is an exciting and accomplished author presenters who engages students in active and involved conversations. Invite Carol to your school to be part
of the anti-bullying discussions as part of your all-school reads and your
anti-bullying curriculum. Plan an all-school read, schedule a date for the author's appearance, and begin now to promote a no-bullying tolerance in your school community.
smc
