(Click link above to learn more about this novel)
Relating what I read for use in my classroom and application of the Common Core:
I have just begin reading, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I am amazed at the story line and how well the story is written. After reading the first few chapters, I am left feeling extremely sad and depressed; a feeling that I believe middle and high schoolers would also feel. I think this book would be a great asset to add into the curriculum in order to teach students the deadly affects bullying can have on their peers. I feel that it is too mature of a novel for my grade 3 class, but the idea and message of the book is one that could easily be adapted to their level of understanding. I would use the book as a guide in my classroom to explain to students how and why to have empathy for others, the importance of treating others with kindness, and the price of inaction. As a teacher, this book is also teaching me how inaction can have serious consequences. As a result of this book, I am reminded about my responsibility to my students to take all of their complaints of bullying and suicide serious.
Relating what I read to Technology:
In researching more about this book online, I came across this web site, where you can listen to someone reading the tapes aloud, posing as Hannah. While listening to tapes I had just read about, I was left with an extremely different experience. Hearing the eerie and emotional voice dictate the reasons why Hannah felt she had no choice but to take her own life based on the bullying of her schoolmates, was very powerful. If I taught an older grade, I would also add into my curriculum the chance for students to explore this more hands on application of auditory learning.
It was also be neat for students to create their own stories of bullying with the recordings of their voice to share with peers!!
Relating what I read to The 4 C's:
Collaboration: This book incorporates how Hannah's peers were all a little responsible for her suicide due to their actions and in-actions. It is interested that throughout the book the students who were responsible, end up teaching others about how what they all did was wrong and why. This sends a message too late for students to do anything about, which I do not like. I would like to send the message to students that being proactive and telling people you are upset with them, is a much better message!
In order to accomplish students learning how to tell peers how they feel, I would have the class act out scenarios where they have to practice using I-Statements. I would have the students write down on a post it different situations where they have had a hard time telling someone they were upset with them. We would use the noted situations as a starting off point for students to act out and give each other advice on how an I-Statement could have been used to remedy the situation.
Communication: This book incorporates how students interact with one another on a daily basis, without regard how what they say can leave other people feeling. By communicating without kindness, Hannah was left feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and alone. If Clay, or another character, had gone out of their way to talk to Hannah, maybe the ending wouldn't have resulted in death. Students need to be taught how to talk to one another when they can tell their friends or classmates are upset!
I think it is important to show students how to tell their peers they have hurt their feelings after a situation has already past. I would have students write their peer a letter explaining that they aren't currently upset, but in the future it would be helpful if they didn't say or do what they had previously done, because it had left them feeling upset. I would have students exchange letters and practice writing back and forth in a constructive way that used I-Statements and empathy for others.
Creativity: Jay Asher does an amazing job writing this story from the point of view of Hannah and the students who contributed to her death. The way that the story reads, really sets the stage for how real a problem bullying is for Hannah, and students today. Students need to be taught the creative ways to avoid being bullied and becoming a bully!
In regard to my post about 13 Reasons Why: The Responsive Classroom approach really comes to mind in teaching students creative ways for dealing with bullies and how to avoid becoming a bully. In my classroom, I teach my students to respect and embrace differences among students in our classroom. We talk about how everyone has things in their lives that make it hard to come to school and concentrate. Therefore, we need to always strive to make someone’s day better, not worse, because we don’t know what hardships they already face. At the beginning of the year we all made a list of things that a bully might want to make fun of us for. Then we exposed our weaknesses, making it hard for a bully to want to make fun of something we already had shared with everyone. Some students talked about not being able to afford cable, having a relative in jail, sick grandparents, parents who are always at work, siblings who bother them at home, etc. I taught my students that it is okay to have a bad day, yell at someone by accident, not want to participate with everyone once in awhile, because some days all of our stresses add up and make us feel not like ourselves. I taught my students that the key to being in control of any situation is to recognize how you are feeling and tell someone right away. Using I-statements and taking a break is what is practiced in my classroom. As long as you are communicating about your own feelings and how someone else is making you feel; it puts you in charge. If a bully is bothering you, tell them why you want them to stop. Then tell an adult and ask for help in talking with the bully to find out what happened and what can be done to fix the situation. Having share times in class is also a creative way to avoid bullying and being bullied. Allowing students a chance to share about their lives brings students closer together and then it becomes less likely they will want to hurt each other.
In regard to my post about 13 Reasons Why: The Responsive Classroom approach really comes to mind in teaching students creative ways for dealing with bullies and how to avoid becoming a bully. In my classroom, I teach my students to respect and embrace differences among students in our classroom. We talk about how everyone has things in their lives that make it hard to come to school and concentrate. Therefore, we need to always strive to make someone’s day better, not worse, because we don’t know what hardships they already face. At the beginning of the year we all made a list of things that a bully might want to make fun of us for. Then we exposed our weaknesses, making it hard for a bully to want to make fun of something we already had shared with everyone. Some students talked about not being able to afford cable, having a relative in jail, sick grandparents, parents who are always at work, siblings who bother them at home, etc. I taught my students that it is okay to have a bad day, yell at someone by accident, not want to participate with everyone once in awhile, because some days all of our stresses add up and make us feel not like ourselves. I taught my students that the key to being in control of any situation is to recognize how you are feeling and tell someone right away. Using I-statements and taking a break is what is practiced in my classroom. As long as you are communicating about your own feelings and how someone else is making you feel; it puts you in charge. If a bully is bothering you, tell them why you want them to stop. Then tell an adult and ask for help in talking with the bully to find out what happened and what can be done to fix the situation. Having share times in class is also a creative way to avoid bullying and being bullied. Allowing students a chance to share about their lives brings students closer together and then it becomes less likely they will want to hurt each other.
Critical Thinking: This book really makes you think about what affects bullying has on students that are in our current schools. It asks a lot of questions, such as: does Jay Asher glorify suicide with this novel, how should an innocent bystander like Clay feel about being on a pre-suicide tape, how should the students be left feeling after hearing the tapes; should these students commit suicide now too? Students need to be put into situations where they can practice thinking critically about the affects of bullying often!
In my classroom, I teach a unit on how to be a good citizen. Within this unit, the students are given ingredients to make a good citizen trail mix. As we add in each ingredient, I tell students that a good citizen is someone who possesses many different characteristics. A good citizen is someone who works hard to help make their community a better place. Explain to the students that their classroom is a community, and that they should strive to have a classroom full of good citizens, not bullies. I show the students the bowl I prepare the trail mix in. I explain that we are going to let the bowl represent our classroom, and we are going to fill the bowl with all the things that good citizens do. As I fill the bowl, I tell the students what each ingredient represents: honesty, respecting others, doing your personal best and responsibility. After all of the ingredients are in the bowl, we mix them together and I explain to students that a good citizen would have all of these qualities. There is no room for bullies in our bowl or in our classroom.
In my classroom, I teach a unit on how to be a good citizen. Within this unit, the students are given ingredients to make a good citizen trail mix. As we add in each ingredient, I tell students that a good citizen is someone who possesses many different characteristics. A good citizen is someone who works hard to help make their community a better place. Explain to the students that their classroom is a community, and that they should strive to have a classroom full of good citizens, not bullies. I show the students the bowl I prepare the trail mix in. I explain that we are going to let the bowl represent our classroom, and we are going to fill the bowl with all the things that good citizens do. As I fill the bowl, I tell the students what each ingredient represents: honesty, respecting others, doing your personal best and responsibility. After all of the ingredients are in the bowl, we mix them together and I explain to students that a good citizen would have all of these qualities. There is no room for bullies in our bowl or in our classroom.
1 comments:
Jessica, I also heard the taped "recordings" posted online by "Hannah" and agree that it adds a different sort of eerie depth to the story. I found your connections to the four "C's" of technology and I really appreciated how you summed each up into a concise statement of understanding.
Specifically, I felt fully in agreement with your statement that "Students need to be taught how to talk to one another when they can tell their friends or classmates are upset!" Even though we teach very different grade levels, I have noticed that my own students really struggle with expressing their emotions, especially when they are sad or angry. Many of them would rather storm out of the room, or pick a fight, or cuss loudly, than to calmly discuss what is at the heart of their feelings. I think this is largely because they have grown up with the reality world mentality of "drama is good" and neither parents nor educators have taught them anything different. This book definitely goes a long way towards helpng students to see a very specific and concrete example of how their actions and words can have an impact on one another.
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