Bullying and relational aggression have been receiving a lot of attention in the media lately, but it's not a new problem. What is new is society's attitude towards bullying and relational aggression. What used to be accepted as a natural part of growing up has changed because now we know that bullying has serious consequences for everyone involved.

As a primary school counselor, I am devoted to the prevention of bullying behaviors. Every student can benefit from gaining the knowledge and skills needed to safely and effectively address bullying behaviors if encountered in any setting. My goal is to empower children to stand up for themselves and each other. My bullying prevention lessons are focused on developing a school culture of kindness and compassion; communication, problem solving, and conflict management skills; strategies for standing up for yourself and others; and reinforcing the importance of reporting bullying behaviors to a trusted adult.

Trudy Ludwig's books are the core of my counseling curriculum. She is a powerful advocate for children and the author of exceptional children's books. The themes of her books are relevant and meaningful to children. I read MY SECRET BULLY, JUST KIDDING, TROUBLE TALK, CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER BULLY and BETTER THAN YOU in my counseling lessons. These books address issues of aggression and help develop empathy in children as they navigate their complicated social world.

One of my favorite activities for building empathy is "Stand Up in Silence." There are variations of this activity, but after leading them through a reading of one of Trudy’s books, this is what I do with my students:

Stand Up In Silence

Intro

You may have strong feelings during this activity, but it is important that we honor each other's feelings by doing this activity in silence.

I am going to read several statements out loud to you. If I read a statement that is true for you please quietly stand up. If I read a statement that is not true for you, please remain seated or sit down.

Activity

Stand up if you have ever been teased about the clothes you wear, your height, your weight, or the size or shape of your body, or if any of these things has happened to someone you care about.

Stand up if you have ever been teased or made fun of for how you look or talk, or if this has happened to someone you care about.

Stand up if you or someone you care about has ever been put down, teased, or excluded because of skin color.

Stand up if you or someone you care about has ever been put down, teased, or excluded because of religious beliefs.

Stand up if you have used words to hurt others by calling them names or putting them down.

Stand up if you’ve been on the giving end or the receiving end of silent treatment or intentional exclusion from a group, game, or activity.

Stand up if you’ve smiled, laughed, clapped, or even remained silent when someone was being teased or bullied in front of you.

Stand up if you’ve ever emailed, texted, or posted something online about someone that you wouldn’t say to their face.

Stand up if you’ve been told that you act or look like a boy or a girl and that’s not who you are.

Stand up if you have ever been on the receiving end or the giving end of comments like “you're a loser,” “you’re so gay,” or “you're retarded.”

Stand up if you’ve ever felt pressure from friends to do something you didn’t want to do and felt sorry or ashamed afterwards.

Stand up if you’ve spread rumors or gossiped about someone else.

Stand up if you or someone you know was physically or emotionally hurt and you were too uncomfortable or afraid to say something.

Debrief

It takes courage to stand up. Lots of us stood up many times. When you stood up, you remembered what it feels like to be the target, the bystander or the bully. That is what empathy feels like.

Everyone here knows what it feels like to be hurt, to see someone be hurt and to cause the hurt. If we can remember what we’ve learned here today—that we’ve all been hurt by bullying—we will stand up and stop it from happening to someone else. We share a collective responsibility to prevent bullying behaviors.

Remember! It's a choice! If you don’t like how you are being treated or how you are treating others, stand up and do something about it!

If you are a target of bullying, report to an adult you trust at school and an adult you trust at home.

If you are a bystander, stand up! Report to an adult.

If you are a bully, stand up and get help! Talk to an adult you trust and learn skills to manage your emotions and behavior.

Laura Barbour, M.A. has taught and counseled children from preschool through high school in a variety of educational and mental health settings for over 20 years. She presently works as an elementary professional school counselor at Stafford Primary School in West Linn, Oregon. Laura joined authors Trudy Ludwig, C.J.Bott, Deborah Ellis, and Jennifer Brown at IRA’s 2011 Annual Convention to present a bullying prevention workshop titled “From Kindergarten to High School, Bully Books Start Discussions and Create Safer Classroom Environments.”

As a writer, I like to gather inspirational or instructional quotes from other authors to spur me on, over, or through the difficulties of writing. Eventually, many of those quotes sneak into my classroom to inspire and instruct my middle school writers and readers as well. Usually the quote is short, full of meaning, and easy to remember.

The following isn’t. Short, that is. But it is full of meaning and well-worth remembering the message if not the words.

Before I introduce this quote to my middle school students at the beginning of the year, I introduce them to its author, Julia Cameron, a talented writer of fiction, plays, movie scripts, and nonfiction. She is most famous for her timeless bestseller, THE ARTIST’S WAY, a book famous for encouraging millions of artists—not just writers—to pursue their art. I explain to my students that her name is equated the world over with helping people learn to better access their own innate artistic abilities. And then I share Ms. Cameron’s wise words about the way to write a first draft:

“Early in my writing life I tried to polish as I went….Writing this way was frustrating, difficult and disheartening…I learned to write, setting judgment aside and save the polish for later…For the first time I gave myself emotional permission to do rough drafts and for those rough drafts to be, well, rough. Freed to be rough, my writing actually became smoother. Freed from the demand that it be instantly brilliant, perfect and clever, my writing became not only smoother but also easier and more clear.” (p. 19) –Julia Cameron, THE RIGHT TO WRITE: AN INVITATION AND INITIATION INTO THE WRITING LIFE.

After I share this with my students, I tell them that this is how I expect them to approach writing in my classroom. I expect them to know that the first draft is not the final draft, but that it is a necessary part of the creative process. I explain that they will write far more first drafts than final drafts, and that’s okay. Finally, I tell them that their first drafts should be mostly about creativity, fun, and enjoying the intoxicating freedom of getting their ideas down on paper.

And once they breathe a sigh of relief, they want to know how to go about writing such a fun, creative, free first draft.

And so I tell them.

Most experienced writers approach their first draft fast and furious. They don’t worry about conventions, or mechanics, or spelling, or coming up with beautiful language. They don’t even worry about writing in chronological order, instead, they just write down what appears in their head as it appears. The experienced writer knows that the most important thing at this point isn’t flowing language or beautiful words. No, the most important thing is to get those fleeting thoughts and ideas down on paper. Now!

Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, the same basic approach applies. Read over your notes and then set them aside and begin writing. Write until you run out of things to say. Drain the brain. Write until you are worn out. Or more likely, you will be exhilarated because this kind of low stakes, purely creative writing is fun. If you are writing along on your nonfiction piece and all of a sudden you realize that you need some particular fact or piece of information that you didn’t research, whatever you do, don’t interrupt the flow of that first draft to find those facts. Make yourself a note to look for them later, and keep writing!

If you are half way through your short story and all of a sudden you know exactly how that final scene should go, write it down. It doesn’t matter if it is out of order. You can always come back and switch things around, but you might not be able to come back later and recall that brilliant idea.

In the process of writing your first draft, it is wholly possible that you realize that it won’t work. You realize that your story isn’t completely developed in your mind so you can’t get it completely down on paper or that your nonfiction article needs more research. Oh, well. That is also what the first draft is for. Get down what you have, and now you know exactly what you have to think about in order to get it finished. No sweat.

As you write a first draft you don’t want to invest too much time in polishing and crafting something that you ultimately might be cutting out. Just keep writing, knowing that you are throwing in more than you need. It is easier to cut than to add, so don’t worry about it. As Julia Cameron advises, when in doubt, throw it in.

Don’t make a point of editing as you go along. Editing and revision are for drafts down the road. First drafts are purely creative and fun. They are a riotous garden full of all kinds of flowers that later will be culled and tamed, cut and manicured. But that is for later. The first draft is just about the purity of writing. And thinking. And putting strange and seemingly unrelated thoughts together.

A first draft isn’t complete until the structure of the story or nonfiction piece that you are writing is complete. Once that structure is there, your first draft is done. Whew! Congratulations!

One fun way to get loosened up and in the mode of this type of first-draft, edit-less writing is to sign up for NaNoWriMo, or the National Novel Writing Month, in November. This is a month-long program that encourages writers of all ages to stop thinking about writing and just get it done. In addition to the adult program, there’s a NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program as well.

Last year, 50,000 young writers took the challenge and signed up to write—and complete—a novel in the time span of one month. Imagine, a whole month devoted to writing without the worry of editing your words!

Through the NaNoWriMo program and website, the young writers who participate have many resources available to them, including help setting reasonable word count goals, workbooks to help them formulate their ideas before they actually start writing, online pep talks from published authors, and the opportunity to communicate with other young writers taking on the same challenges. The workbooks are located at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/workbooks.

For teachers, the program offers a Resources for Educators page, which includes lesson plans and the ability to set up a virtual classroom. You can even request a FREE kit to help your students log their progress.

NaNoWriMo begins one month from today. Consider taking that time to introduce NaNoWriMo to your students, and encourage them to accept the challenge it presents.

After all, it’s definitely a great way to encourage your students to experience the fast and furious fun of a first draft!

Julie Danneberg has learned all about first drafts through the writing of many books for children including, FIRST DAY JITTERS and her newly released picture book biography, MONET PAINTS A DAY. In addition, she has taught reading and writing in both elementary and middle school. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, where she teaches 7th grade reading. Visit her website at www.juliedanneberg.com.

Are you a teacher whose class is participating in the 2012 NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program or has in the past? We want to hear from you! Send us an email at engage-membership@reading.org

© 2012 Julie Danneberg. Please do not reproduce in any form, electronic or otherwise.

Music is often the catalyst I need to jump start my own writing for the day. I choose my playlists based on subject matter. For example, when I’m working on my young adult manuscript, I listen to the edgier contemporary artists. I add a layer to my listening criteria depending on my protagonist; if it’s a male character, I’ll choose male vocalists, and if it’s a female, I’ll pick female artists. The music provides a rhythm and a flow by which my words form their own rhythm and make music on the page, only in words.

Music can trigger a memory that will in turn add authentic realism to the words on the page. Music can also inspire a certain mood. For example, upbeat tunes will likely bring pep to your writing. The opposite is also true. Listening to melancholy songs brings out the sadness in my characters’ lives.

As a classroom teacher and now as a private tutor, I’m always striving for ways to help my students find inspiration to write. The blank page is especially daunting for young writers learning the writing process. The page gets bigger and whiter the longer it goes without words. When I’m stuck behind my writer’s block and inspiration to write is lacking, I turn on my music and watch the words dance onto my paper. I do the same for my students when they’re faced with writer’s block, too.

Bringing music into your writing lessons is simple to do and doesn’t cost anything extra. The following are a few ideas to help get you started:

Lower Elementary Students

For the younger students, I suggest selecting music for the whole class to listen to. Classical or New Age music—basically anything without lyrics—provides a good place to start. The students can focus on the sounds the instruments are creating and, in turn, the mood of the music.

One of my favorites is the FANTASIA soundtrack. The music is generally recognized by the students and sounds lively and adventurous. On a piece of poster paper, you and your students can brainstorm adjectives and adverbs to describe the mood of the music. They can then use that list of words in their stories. This is a simple lesson but one that will jump-start your students’ writing on a positive note.

For Middle Grade Students and Older

I like to give my students choices in what they want to write about so with that comes choosing the music they want to listen to while they write. As long as the lyrics are kid-friendly, I’m game. When I taught in the classroom my school didn’t have fancy audio visual equipment. I only had my good ol’ boom box that played CDs and cassette tapes. I was limited to choosing one particular artist and then switching CDs and tapes. Today, teachers have more options with playlists on iPods and MP3 players. You can even create your playlists to reflect and inspire the genre of writing you want your students to write.

Just yesterday I was working with a student who wanted to write a story about how she convinced her parents to get her a cell phone. She brought a favorite mix of artists on a CD—her mother told me she was getting the phone but not an iPod (yet). I cued the mix up on my computer and my student went right to work on a realistic fiction story. This is a student who is not fond of putting pencil to paper. Still, throughout the session she wrote nonstop, except to look up words in a dictionary to check her spelling. She told me the music helped to keep her motivated on her writing.

For Musician Students

Using music to inspire writing also works in the reverse. I have a student entering third grade. He is a very accomplished pianist and writes his own music, but he’s not too fond of writing words on paper. My student enjoys reading Shel Silverstein poems, so I asked him to pick a favorite and then write the music to go along with the poem. No problem! A week later, at our next session, he had a wonderful melody that perfectly matched the story in the poem.

Next, I asked him to play one of his favorite songs. Then I asked him to tell me the story that the music was telling. He verbally explained a beginning, middle, and end. Onward to our next assignment, which achieved my ultimate goal: to get him to write a story. I gave him the option of writing about an original song or to use one he already studies in his music lessons. He chose “Jazzy Toccatina” for his story. Here is what he wrote:


As you can see, my student outlined the plot into a beginning, middle, and end, as well as noting the location and characters. Without realizing it, he had written a story with words!

Music is a universal language. No matter what the mood you are feeling or trying to create, there is a melody to be heard and transposed into words.

Kathleen A. Hunter, MS is a literacy tutor and aspiring children's book author. You can visit her online at www.KathleenHunterWrites.com.



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