Teenagers Managing Life Crises Literacy and values education by Dr Cecilia Netolicky This book will give you the opportunity to consider whether you want to go through life as a "leaf tossed on a sea" of critical incidents, or whether you want to start making choices that will make you the master/mistress of your own future, not the victim of it. It will give you the chance to consider the repercussions of physical violence and the use of language as a weapon.

 Using this Book for Teaching Purposes

Film and television writers, and computer and video game designers, often fail to recognise the inherent social responsibility involved in the portrayal of belief systems, and modes of operating, when functioning as secondary socialisers of young people. Film, television, video clips, and computer and video games, present young people with sets of strategies to address conflict, diffuse crises, direct anger, address perceived injustice and deal with ego challenges. If we allow the media to operate in a significant secondary socialiser role, unmediated by responsible guidance, some angry young people will assume socially endorsed options to resolve conflict include the use of lethal weapons, marshal arts, revenge vandalism, vindictive behaviours, and verbal and physical abuse.

As a service provider for at-risk youth, I frequently hear stories of young people's perception of school, parental and legal system injustice. Young people who feel they have been unjustly treated by parents, school staff, police or fellow students, and lack socially endorsed conflict resolution and behaviour self-management skills, may choose to graffiti a building, smash shop windows or take a weapon to school in order to get revenge. These are 'solutions' presented to them in the media through entertainment programs and the news. As a result, a young person who has been rejected in a relationship, but lacks socially endorsed skills and strategies to deal with the rejection, may choose to stalk the target of their affection, hunt out the opposition, or use a weapon to settle the score. In some cases, these choices of action may be reinforced by observing parental behaviours. We cannot count on all children being taught appropriate behaviour strategies at home. Many young people enter the school system lacking behaviour self-management skills and leave school with these deficits unaddressed.

Frequently young people exhibiting anti-social behaviours are removed from the teaching-learning environment, so the compliant others can learn unimpeded. However, where exclusion does not involve skilling-up the offender with behaviour self-management strategies, repeat incidents are inevitable. These young people return to the learning environment with increased learning deficits resulting from the exclusion process, and no new skills to test-drive to minimise the chance of repeat offending. If behaviour issues, and behaviour self-management skill deficits, are addressed during exclusion periods, the teaching-learning environment can improve for all participants.

I believe, as service providers for youth, it is a part of our responsibility to empower these young people with skills to manage their behaviour issues and resolve conflict employing non-violent, socially endorsed 'tools' or strategies. Young people need to be given the opportunity to explore the repercussions of modes of operating and choices of action. They need a chance to develop healthy, socially endorsed strategies to get justice, win affection or get attention.

During the teenage years young people can develop healthy, socially endorsed strategies to cope with life crises and ego challenges under guidance. Adults in nurturing, or secondary socialisation roles, can provide young people with the opportunity to explore issues, develop strategies, skills and tools to manage their futures. Young people need guidance in the selection of appropriate tools and strategies to manage anger, diffuse a conflict or negotiate for better conditions. Many young people enter adult life with a minimally equipped 'toolbox' of strategies to manage life crises. This book was designed to stimulate teenagers to:

• develop crisis management, conflict resolution, anger management, life and negotiation skills necessary to adult life;
• think about issues likely to be encountered in their daily lives and the repercussions of choices and actions relating to these issues;
• review their personal ethical code and consider the repercussions of operating from their current ethical base;
• consider the benefits of modifying their ethical code if it is not getting them where they want and what they want;
• critically examine the effects of peer pressure, conformity and individuality and the associated long term repercussions of actions relating to these choices; whilst
• developing skills to construct and deconstruct literary texts.

In other words, to increase the contents of their lifeskill, anger management and conflict resolution 'toolboxes' in order to facilitate navigating life crises empowered with behaviour self-management skills and effective appropriate, socially endorsed strategies, whilst at the same time, providing them with tools to be effective authors and critical readers of literary texts.

The teenage years are rife with critical incidents. Yet many teenagers:

• have to face crises for which they are ill prepared. How does a young person cope with a best friend or family member dying of cancer or AIDS; relationship rejection; seeing friends or family being gunned down; or being involved in a car crash with fatalities? Young people need assistance in developing healthy coping strategies that will minimise the negative repercussions from life crises. Young people can be assisted in viewing life crises as character building and empowering, rather than as negative and disempowering.
• lack socially acceptable skills to resolve conflict or cope with a crisis. This may lead to the use of socially unacceptable tools or strategies to resolve a conflict, cope with a crisis or challenge to their ego, or release anger. These choices may in turn affect the lives of other teenagers. Young people need to be taught ways to diffuse conflict employing non-violent, socially acceptable strategies. We are bombarded on television, in movies and video clips, and in computer games with violent strategies to address a challenge or conflict situation. Adults in the youth service industries, and parents, need to facilitate the development of non-violent socially acceptable strategies to address an ego challenge, resolve a conflict, diffuse personal anger or diffuse a conflict.
• lack the essential tools to construct effective texts to deal with, minimize or diffuse crises, conflicts or critical incidents. Young people, with powerful tools to construct oral, visual and written texts can often avoid or diffuse critical incidents without employing violence.
• choices of action are shaped by strategies promoted by fact and fiction texts, without thought of the appropriateness and possible repercussions of these choices of action when applied to real life situations. Young readers, listeners and viewers of texts need to have the skills to critically examine the content, and intent, of fiction and non-fiction texts so they are not led to make uninformed, or badly informed, decisions.

The work sheet questions in this book are designed to channel class/group discussion of issues. The prime purpose of the work sheets is to stimulate dialogue on youth issues. The intention is to encourage consideration of the repercussions of choices of actions and re-evaluation of one's personal ethical code, whilst facilitating opportunity for peer pressure to operate in positive ways to shape peer choices and actions. I recommend reading each question as a class/group, discussing possible answers and issues, and only then, inviting the young people to write their answers. Answers may then be used to assess literacy or problem solving skills. In this way, the young people:

• gain by discussing issues and hearing peer solutions to crises and conflicts;
• are given opportunity to examine their personal ethical code and strategies for coping with crises and conflict; whilst
• improving their critical literacy skills.

The literacy skills addressed in this text are:

• reading and comprehension; and
• constructing and deconstructing texts in a variety of genre.

Scaffolding (in the form of "how to texts" and planning sheets) is provided to facilitate the young people's understanding of the characteristics of various literary genre. This assists both in the creation of their own texts, and the deconstruction of other people's texts.

Empowered young people will leave school with the ability to deconstruct and construct texts in a variety of genre, and possess the necessary skills to address the crises and situations they come across in adult life at home, socially and in the workplace. As secondary, or primary, socialisers of children it is our responsibility to see that these skills are acquired, and that the young people leave our care with a well equipped 'toolbox'. I have employed these stories in classrooms and time-out rooms (exclusion rooms in schools). In time-out rooms teachers can use the texts to help the excluded young person develop problem solving skills and behaviour self-management skills that will empower them with 'tools' they can employ to address the actions that resulted in their exclusion from the classroom. These young people will return to the classroom, having worked on directed texts, with a learning deficit as a result of the exclusion, but with enhanced problem solving skills, strategies and 'tools' to employ to prevent a re-occurrence of the behaviour resulting in their exclusion.

As primary or secondary socialisers of youth we have a considerable and significant responsibility. For example, as English teachers we can assume our role is merely to teach literacy, or we can take on the hard, but incredibly important task for our society, community and our young people, of empowering them with the 'tools' to critically examine both literary texts, and their values. In this way we take part in shaping powerful citizens, who can serve as future positive role models and good parents. Only through an holistic attitude to education can we generate a better society with socially conscious and empowered citizens.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sample Section

Tools of the Non-fiction Writer

 The tools of the non-fiction writer include:

Persuasive language            this tool is usually employed by journalists and speech writers. Here the authors are trying to put a particular spin on the story so they choose words that lead you to see an event or person in a particular way: as evil, good, cunning, mysterious etc.

 Expert witness:                  non-fiction writers tend to employ experts in the field of study to support their view, or the information they are presenting. These tend to be people who are regarded as having special knowledge of a subject like: a psychiatrist is expected to know about what goes on in our thoughts; a medical doctor or nurse about what goes on in our bodies; an engineer or scientist about things to do with machines or chemicals; a teacher or childcare worker about what is best for children, etc.

 Real case studies         non-fiction writers tend to use real case studies to support their opinion, or view of a subject. A real case study is usually an example of a person or incident that relates to their story/report. For instance: “Casey, the four year girl, had battled cancer since she was two”; “Jimmy Black, who plays for the Eagles, has had repeated knee injuries”; “Two boys from the housing estate said the man was always weird”; “Dolly, the sheep, who was produced by cloning, has arthritis”.

 Statistics, figures and   Here non-fiction writers use numerical facts and

research data                       research data to support their argument. For example: “65% of the people killed in the bomb blast were children”; “25% of year 12 failed the exam”; “as demonstrated by the research data half of the people interviewed prefer drinking coffee in the morning”.

 Use of quotes,           non-fiction authors use quotes (written or

acknowledgement          spoken information from variety of people and or

of authorship             texts) to support their views or argument. The people may be researchers, experts in the field, victims or eye witnesses. This information is generally inserted in the main body of the text using quotation marks. For example: Dr Brown, an expert on infectious diseases, said “HIV is spreading in the community because most people would rather believe their partners are safe” (Norton, 1999: 10). In most non-fiction writing authors put the source of the information in brackets. In the above example the book was written by Norton, published in 1999 and the relevant information can be found on page 10. This makes it easy for other people to go and check the source of the information.

 Analogy, metaphor, etc Author’s of non-fiction texts also use literary techniques such as figures of speech (analogy, metaphor, symbolism), tense (past, present, future) etc.

 Scientific and historical Non-fiction authors rely heavily on what has been

proof                      written in other texts, and what people have said happened in the past, to support their views. They will quote other people, research, books, papers, magazines, newspaper articles and figures to back up their arguments.

Illustrations, photographs      Visual images are included by authors of non-fiction

maps, diagrams, graphs   texts to support their position or view.

Very appropriate titles,  Journalists tend to use catchy titles such as “Twins

headings and subheadings die in landslide”; or “School a hotbed of trouble”, whilst researchers use titles such as “The Long Term Repercussions of Marijuana Use: a longitudinal study” or “ACDC: a history of their music”.

 Examples                 Examples are employed by all non-fiction writers to support their arguments. These may be: “six of their ten records made it to number one”; “most children reported they would like to quit smoking as it is so expensive”; “there have already been ten violent incidents at this school in the past month”.

These tools are easy to remember by using the mnemonic (memory trigger) “PERSUASIVE”, employing the first letter of each “tool”. Non-fiction is enriched and made more powerful and believable by the use of these tools.

We’ll begin by looking at Conrad Hocking’s newspaper article on the next page based on the incident in “Jumping to Conclusions” (page 30).

13 April 2004

 Smash up after School

 By Conrad Hocking

1. Newspaper articles are generally viewed as non-fiction (that is telling about real events and people), but newspaper articles tend to put a particular spin on events, that is, they use the events to make a point. What point do you think the journalist (a writer of newspaper articles; magazines; ezines; television programs; documentaries; non-fiction films or television programs) is trying to make here?
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2. Is the journalist a teacher or student at the school? __________________________

3. Do you think this influenced the way in which the story was told? Why?
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4. Go through the article carefully. Identify all the tools that Hocking used to try and persuade us to come to his meeting after school? For example:

Persuasive language: “nasty”; “punch up”;_______________________________________
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Expert witnesses: ______________________________________________
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5. What other tools could Hocking have employed to make his article more powerful? (look at the Tools of the Non-fiction Writer on pages 34-36).
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To write up this incident as a police report you would have to report what happened (the facts/non-fiction) and eliminate persuasive language and other tools employed by journalists to persuade you to their view. For instance you might say, “At 3pm on Friday 13^th April 2004 Sandy Morrison hit Jane Fletcher in the face outside the grounds of Milford Grammar School”. You could still give information you heard on how the fight began, and why it happened, but it would have to be presented as an eye witness account (using the words or information gathered from someone who saw or heard about the incident) eg “Miles said that Sandy was angry because…”. You can also still quote from expert witnesses (such as teachers, nurses, principals, doctors).

6. Write up the incident as if you are making a police report. Remember: police want the facts – who, what, when, where and why (the five “w”s).

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