Title: Concerned Citizens Tackle Bullying

Cassandra Hull

Profile Sheet

Teacher: Ms. Hull

Primary Subject Area: Social Studies

Outside Subject Area: Language Arts

Class: Honors Social Studies

Grade level: 10th grade

Adaptations for Non Western Student:

1)Allow student to incorporate elements of their culture into their presentation

2)Bring in guests and other resources from the students culture

Adaptations for an ESOL student:

1)Provide instructions both verbally and in writing. This will give students exposure to language in multiple ways. They will see the instructions as well as hear them. Directions may also be provided in the student’s native language along with a translation.

2)Pair ESOL students with students who are more proficient with language so they have a model to follow and they can work together to help each other.

Title, Learner Characteristic, Sunshine State Standards

Teacher: Ms. Hull

Title: Concerned Citizens Tackle Bullying

Primary Subject Area: Social Studies

Outside Subject Area: Language Arts

Class: Honors Social Studies

Grade level: 10th grade

Sunshine State Standards:

-SS.912.A.1.5: Evaluate the validity, reliability, bias, and authenticity of current events and Internet resources.

- SS.912.C.2.11: Analyze public policy solutions or courses of action to resolve a local, state, or federal issue.

- LA.910.5.2.2: The student willresearch and organize information for oral communication appropriate for the occasion, audience, and purpose (e.g., class discussions, entertaining, informative, persuasive, or technical presentations);

Learner Characteristics of High School Students:

Physical:

*Most students reach physical maturity, and virtually all attain puberty.

This characteristic is important to this unit because adolescence specifically the high school years is a crazy time. Hormones are kicking in. Everything is changing. They’re just trying to figure themselves out. It’s hard to maintain focus on school work. People start to notice more the differences between ourselves and others and it’s those unique little quarks that are often the target of bullying.

Social:

*Many high school students are employed after school.

This characteristic is important to this unit because many students are working after school or have other activities and may not have a lot of time to devote to working on this project at home so I will need to make sure I allow plenty of opportunities to work on this project during class.

*Parents and other adults are likely to influence long range plans, peers are likely to influence immediate status.

This characteristic is important to this unit because peers are a very important part in a student’s life and they can influence academic performance. So many students just want to fit in and be considered cool in the eyes of their fellow students.

Cognitive:

*High school students become increasingly capable of engaging in formal thought but they may not use this capability.

This characteristic is important to this unit because I want my students to expand their horizons and really think out of the box. They are capable of engaging in deeper thought and I want them to do that in this unit. Coming up with solutions to our nation’s problem of bullying is going to require them to not be lazy and really use their creativity and critical thinking skills.

Emotional:

*The most common type of emotional disorder during adolescence is depression.

This characteristic is important to this unit because many times bullying can lead to depression and many of the students can relate to that extremely low feeling that comes from being bullied

Learning Outcomes, Student Roles & Problem Situation, Meet the Problem Method

Teacher: Ms. Hull

Title: Concerned Citizens Tackle Bullying

Primary Subject Area: Social Studies

Outside Subject Area: Language Arts

Class: Honors Social Studies

Grade level: 10th grade

Sunshine State Standards & Learning Outcomes:

-SS.912.A.1.5: Evaluate the validity, reliability, bias, and authenticity of current events and Internet resources.

Learning Outcome: Given a rubric and the problem of bullying to try to solve students will use the internet to research information about the problem and generate solutions to the problem with 70% accuracy

- SS.912.C.2.11: Analyze public policy solutions or courses of action to resolve a local, state, or federal issue.

Learning Outcome: Given the ill stated problem of bullying students will research public policy on bullying and analyze its effectiveness with 70% accuracy

Learning Outcome: Given a rubric, students, working in groups, will organize a presentation of their solutions to a problem with 70 % accuracy

Description of student Roles & Problem Situation:

Students will act as local parents, students, teachers, administrators and local school board members. They will report to Arne Duncan, the US Secretary for the Department of Education

Meet the Problem Method:

Students will receive the following memo and documents related to bullying. One is an article in the New York Times, the other is an article published in the Journal of the New Jersey Psychological Association

Memorandum

To: Bill Husfelt, Superintendent of Bay County Schools

From: Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary, Department of Education

Date: May 21, 2012

Re: Student Bullying in Our Nation’s Schools

As you know, bullying is quite prevalent in our nation’s schools.

Bay County has been selected to participate in a task force to combat the issue of bullying in our schools. I would like for you to assemble a team of local parents, teachers, students, administrators and local school board members to research some possible solutions. We have a budget of $2 million to implement these solutions nationwide

The task force committee will meet on June 29, 2012. We would like for your team to present their recommendations to the committee at this meeting.

Op-Ed Contributors

Bullying as True Drama

By DANAH BOYD and ALICE MARWICK

Published: September 22, 2011

THE suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, the 14-year-old boy from western New York who killed himself last Sunday after being tormented by his classmates for being gay, is appalling. His story is a classic case of bullying: he was aggressively and repeatedly victimized. Horrific episodes like this have sparked conversations about cyberbullying and created immense pressure on regulators and educators to do something, anything, to make it stop. Yet in the rush to find a solution, adults are failing to recognize how their conversations about bullying are often misaligned with youth narratives. Adults need to start paying attention to the language of youth if they want antibullying interventions to succeed.

Jamey recognized that he was being bullied and asked explicitly for help, but this is not always the case. Many teenagers who are bullied can’t emotionally afford to identify as victims, and young people who bully others rarely see themselves as perpetrators. For a teenager to recognize herself or himself in the adult language of bullying carries social and psychological costs. It requires acknowledging oneself as either powerless or abusive.

In our research over a number of years, we have interviewed and observed teenagers across the United States. Given the public interest in cyberbullying, we asked young people about it, only to be continually rebuffed. Teenagers repeatedly told us that bullying was something that happened only in elementary or middle school. “There’s no bullying at this school” was a regular refrain.

This didn’t mesh with our observations, so we struggled to understand the disconnect. While teenagers denounced bullying, they — especially girls — would describe a host of interpersonal conflicts playing out in their lives as “drama.”

At first, we thought drama was simply an umbrella term, referring to varying forms of bullying, joking around, minor skirmishes between friends, breakups and makeups, and gossip. We thought teenagers viewed bullying as a form of drama. But we realized the two are quite distinct. Drama was not a show for us, but rather a protective mechanism for them.

Teenagers say drama when they want to diminish the importance of something. Repeatedly, teenagers would refer to something as “just stupid drama,” “something girls do,” or “so high school.” We learned that drama can be fun and entertaining; it can be serious or totally ridiculous; it can be a way to get attention or feel validated. But mostly we learned that young people use the term drama because it is empowering.

Dismissing a conflict that’s really hurting their feelings as drama lets teenagers demonstrate that they don’t care about such petty concerns. They can save face while feeling superior to those tormenting them by dismissing them as desperate for attention. Or, if they’re the instigators, the word drama lets teenagers feel that they’re participating in something innocuous or even funny, rather than having to admit that they’ve hurt someone’s feelings. Drama allows them to distance themselves from painful situations.

Adults want to help teenagers recognize the hurt that is taking place, which often means owning up to victimhood. But this can have serious consequences. To recognize oneself as a victim — or perpetrator — requires serious emotional, psychological and social support, an infrastructure unavailable to many teenagers. And when teenagers like Jamey do ask for help, they’re often let down. Not only are many adults ill-equipped to help teenagers do the psychological work necessary, but teenagers’ social position often requires them to continue facing the same social scene day after day.

Like Jamey, there are young people who identify as victims of bullying. But many youths engaged in practices that adults label bullying do not name them as such. Teenagers want to see themselves as in control of their own lives; their reputations are important. Admitting that they’re being bullied, or worse, that they are bullies, slots them into a narrative that’s disempowering and makes them feel weak and childish.

Antibullying efforts cannot be successful if they make teenagers feel victimized without providing them the support to go from a position of victimization to one of empowerment. When teenagers acknowledge that they’re being bullied, adults need to provide programs similar to those that help victims of abuse. And they must recognize that emotional recovery is a long and difficult process.

But if the goal is to intervene at the moment of victimization, the focus should be to work within teenagers’ cultural frame, encourage empathy and help young people understand when and where drama has serious consequences. Interventions must focus on positive concepts like healthy relationships and digital citizenship rather than starting with the negative framing of bullying. The key is to help young people feel independently strong, confident and capable without first requiring them to see themselves as either an oppressed person or an oppressor.

Danah Boyd is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and a research assistant professor at New York University. Alice Marwick is a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a research affiliate at Harvard University.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on September 23, 2011, on page A35 of the New York edition with the headline: Bullying as True Drama.

Youth Bullying: Incidence 1

Running head: Incidence, Impact, and Interventions

Citation for this Publication:

Boyle, D.J. (2005). Youth Bullying: Incidence, Impact, and Interventions. Journal of the New Jersey Psychological Association, 55(3), 22-24.

Douglas J. Boyle, J.D., Ph.D.

Research Administrator

Violence Institute of New Jersey at the

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Newark, New Jersey 07103-1709 Youth Bullying: Incidence 2

Youth Bullying: Incidence, Impact, and Interventions

While most research on bullying has been conducted in European countries, American researchers have recently turned their attention to this subject. Researchers conducting the first nationally representative survey in the U.S. estimated that nearly six million children (or roughly 30%) in grades 6 through 10 were involved in moderate or frequent bullying (i.e., as target, bully, or both) during the school term in which they were surveyed (Nansel et al., 2001). Bullying is generally defined as repeated negative actions (i.e., physical, verbal, and/or psychological) directed at a target over time, where there is a power differential (either real or perceived) between the target and the bully/bullies (Olweus, 1993; Olweus, Limber, & Mihalic, 1999).

The widespread and chronic nature of bullying suggests that the impact on children both short and long-term can be considerable. Psychologists, given their skills and expertise in matters of human behavior, are uniquely qualified to work with school systems to implement research-based prevention programs, and with individual clients to address the adverse impact of bullying on both targets and bullies.

In this paper, I further describe the incidence of bullying, including gender differences, as well as characteristics of targets and bullies. Next, an outline of the short and long-term impact of bullying is provided. Finally, I discuss assessment issues, and effective interventions, both at the systems and individual levels. This article is intended to be an introduction to the subject with particular focus on issues of concern to psychologists. Therefore, many issues which could be discussed in much greater detail will only be briefly outlined with references to allow the reader to further explore a subject. Youth Bullying: Incidence 3 Incidence and Characteristics

Boys are generally more likely to be involved in bullying as both bullies and targets, and are more likely to both engage in and be subjected to physical violence (Nansel at al., 2001; Olweus, 1993). Alternatively, girls are more likely to use indirect or relational bullying which can involve, for example, social isolation of the target and spreading rumors about the target. (The topic of relational bullying is discussed in greater detail in the article by Carlson-Gotz and Berry in this special issue).

Characteristics of Targets

There are two types of targets identified in the bullying literature (Olweus, 1993). The first, and by far the larger subgroup, are passive targets. These children are generally characterized as anxious, insecure, and unassertive. There is, of course, a reciprocal relationship between these characteristics and being bullied. That is, for example, these individuals may be insecure and anxious before being targeted, and these characteristics are likely to increase as a result of the bullying.

A second, smaller subgroup of targets labeled “provocative” targets are characterized by both anxious and aggressive behavior (Olweus, 1993). These children may also be characterized as hyperactive. Frequently, they are bullied by and disliked by an entire classroom of their peers. Provocative targets also often in turn bully other children. Thus, they can be both targets and bullies.

Characteristics of Bullies

Contrary to popular belief, bullies are not more likely to have low-esteem, and are not unpopular with their peers (Olweus, et al., 1999). They are, however, more likely to Youth Bullying: Incidence 4 have positive beliefs about the use of violence, use alcohol and other drugs, have lax parents, and have abuse histories (Limber, 2002; Olweus, et al., 1999).

Short and Long-Term Impact

Impact on Targets

Targets of bullying often experience internalizing (e.g., sadness, distress, anxiety) and somatic (e.g., stomach aches, headaches) symptoms, as well as physical injuries. Targets may also experience confusion, anger, lowered self-esteem, and feelings of insecurity (Olweus, et al., 1999). These students may also suffer academically, as they may avoid attending school, or their psychological symptoms may negatively impact their ability to learn while at school (e.g., due to decreased ability to concentrate resulting from anxiety and/or depressive symptoms). In extreme cases, students may experience suicidal ideation, and may in fact attempt suicide, if they do not receive support and treatment (Olweus, 1993).

Targets may also suffer long-term consequences of persistent bullying. Olweus (1993) followed up with boys targeted by bullies from grades six through nine, and reassessed them at age 23. He found that as adults, these individuals were more likely to experience depressive symptoms and poorer self-esteem when compared to peers who had not been bullied.

Impact on Bullies

When bullies are allowed to engage in aggressive behavior at a young age, without effective intervention from parents and/or the school system, they are at significantly greater risk for negative outcomes later in life. In addition, the bullying behavior is often accompanied by other conduct disordered behaviors. In fact, Olweus Youth Bullying: Incidence 5 (1993) has found that bullies were more likely than non-bullies to engage in vandalism, shoplifting, truancy, and substance abuse. This behavior pattern during childhood and adolescence greatly increases the likelihood that these individuals will engage in antisocial behavior as adults. This assertion is supported by one of the most consistent findings of longitudinal research: aggressive and antisocial behaviors are among the most stable behaviors across the lifespan (Eron, 1994; Eron, 1997; Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984; Olweus, 1979). Furthermore, Olweus (1993) has found that individuals who bullied during grades six through nine, were significantly more likely to have criminal convictions at age 23, when compared to individuals who had no involvement in bullying.

Assessment and Interventions

When doing clinical assessments with children who are targets of bullying, it is important to keep in mind that they are often reluctant to report what is happening because of concerns that adults will only make the situation worse, and because of feelings of embarrassment for being targeted (Limber, 2002; Olweus, et al., 1999). In particular, older children and boys are least likely to report being bullied. Psychologists, parents, and others need to be aware of this and specifically ask about the child’s experiences, since if we do not ask, children often will not spontaneously report it.

The presence of some indicators suggests the need for further assessment for bullying victimization. These include: torn, damaged, or missing belongings; unexplained cuts, bruises, or other injuries; social isolation; fearfulness of going to, and avoidance of school; loss of interest in school work; decrease in academic performance; somatic complaints such as headaches and stomach aches; difficulty sleeping and/or Youth Bullying: Incidence 6 nightmares; depressive symptoms; anxiety and/or low self-esteem; and passivity (Limber, 2002). The presence of any or all of these factors should be followed by a more thorough assessment for bullying victimization.