Given the information provided on RAINN's website and others, we thought it was best to focus on providing texts that would work with all ages, from young children all the way up to high school students and/or adults. We believe that it is beneficial to provide texts that reach a wide network of ages so that there are materials available to be used to inform and educate no matter what age level you are working with. Though these subjects may be very mature in content for young children and therefore more suited for students who are older, providing teachers with materials to introduce these topics to younger students gives them the opportunity to introduce and begin to discuss these topics on a more basic and kid-friendly level. Young people who suffer sexual abuse and domestic violence in secret are likely to feel estranged as they try to blend while in public; expanding the menu of YA protagonists to include these victims would help to shake up the calcifying definition of literary outsiders (Garcia, 2013).
The variety of texts we chose allow teachers and students the ability to explore and learn more about these subjects through someone they can relate to, whether it is a young child, an adolescent, or even an adult. Using these characters as guides, they will be able to see how these kinds of abuse affect those who have experienced it as well as those around them and, more importantly, how they learn to speak up and overcome these hardships in order to move on with their lives and find the justice they need — or to help each other do as much (Bridgers, 2000). In addition to that, these texts can also be used as a resource to introduce and talk about the notion of finding your voice and speaking up and the power it holds especially in relation to instances involving rape, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
As fairly recent texts, they're also likely to help younger readers develop strategies they'll need to navigate post-modern texts later in their reading careers. Because a sense of self-worth is so critical to escaping domestic violence and sexual abuse scenarios, books about the topic invoke shifting notions of identity — "a central concern of postmodern authors" (Groenke & Youngquist, 2011, p. 506).
As fairly recent texts, they're also likely to help younger readers develop strategies they'll need to navigate post-modern texts later in their reading careers. Because a sense of self-worth is so critical to escaping domestic violence and sexual abuse scenarios, books about the topic invoke shifting notions of identity — "a central concern of postmodern authors" (Groenke & Youngquist, 2011, p. 506).
In addition to providing a variety of texts that can be used in regard to a wide range of age levels whether they are young children, middle school students, or high school students, we also incorporated different literary genres, including picture books, novels, non-fiction books, and a film. Certain texts can also be accessed electronically through e-book versions, adding a multimodal dimension and lending some flexibility for educators in classrooms with resource issues. We've also attached links for several of the texts to other resources such as video clips, interviews, and we included a text that has received awards because of its ability to portray and express the ideas and themes connected to these issues of rape, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
Summary: A complicated, true-life investigation of alleged abuse observed by a very alert neighbor. Momma, Stop! I'll Be Good is the second of a two-part diary series in which author Shannon Bowen catalogues the day-to-day injustices that she believes a woman in a nearby apartment is visiting upon her young son. These include arguments overheard through the walls (including the boy's titular objection, "Momma, stop! I'll be good."), charged interactions with the woman, and observations of the foot traffic through the woman's apartment. Though many of Bowen's conclusions are built on intuition and composites of observed evidence, she never actually sees what many might call "abuse."
Connection to overall theme: Many stories about abuse and domestic violence are told from participants' points of view; Momma, Stop! I'll Be Good is written from the perspective of an observer. Bowen's list of red flags — yelling, loud noises, tense exchanges with an estranged parent, a child wandering independently of her or his guardian(s) — are good ones, though one could argue persuasively that these aren't indicative of anything at all.
Practical Application: It's in Bowen's observations about the comings and goings at the neighbor's apartment that the book becomes most provocative. She jumps to conclusions that some readers will find justified but with which others are likely to have problems. For example, Bowen frequently suggests that, given the number of unfamiliar men she sees entering and leaving the apartment, the woman must be a drug dealer or a prostitute. Based on her anecdotal reports, there's good reason to take the allegations seriously, but they're hardly damning. In either case, the book works as a classroom launchpad for conversations about neighborly responsibility. When do we look the other way? When do we involve the police? When do we alert other neighbors? Momma, Stop! I'll Be Good explores all of these ideas explicitly.
First published in 1991 but available today in print and as an ebook, Please Tell is nine-year-old Jessie's true story about her uncle and godfather, who assaulted the girl when she was four. He demands secrecy and threatens to hurt Jessie's family if she tells anybody, but Jessie decides to talk with her parents about the attack. She expects them to be angry, but "when I looked up, all I saw was that Mom and Dad loved me." Authorities become involved, justice is served, and professionals continue to help Jessie deal with the fallout from her abuse.
Connection to overall theme: Please Tell gets to the courage necessary to dismiss the voice commanding her to stay silent. Jessie weighs the pros and cons of reporting what happened to her and takes action — a step too many victims of abuse never reach.
Practical application: The book, which Jessie wrote at 9 and illustrated at 11, is accessible enough for very early readers, and it cuts quickly to the issue that complicates and prolongs so many abuse stories — secrets. It frames the decision to tell a responsible adult in a positive, non-threatening way, which seems a better way to convince children to talk about their abuse than do books that categorize secrets as "good" or "bad," "fun" or "hurtful." That Please Tell is written from the perspective of a peer — a nine-year-old — also makes it a more relatable treatise on the issue than similar books written by adults.
Bentrim, W. G. (2009). Mommy's black eye. Lexington, KY: Bearly Tolerable Publications.
Bentrim, W. G. (2009). Mommy's black eye. Lexington, KY: Bearly Tolerable Publications.
Summary: Unlike Please Tell, Mommy's Black Eye is a picture book by created by an adult for children. Author William Bentrim says in the foreword that the book is pitched at learners from pre-school to middle-school, which is why he decided to tell this story (about a mother battered by the father of their children) using a family of bears instead of people. In the book, two "child" bears come home from their friend's house to find their mother crying in the dark. She's drawn the shades because she doesn't want the children to see her bruised eye, but she can't hide it for long. The mother explains what happened and why she asked the children's father to leave, but she makes sure the children understand that their father is redeemable and that they can continue to see him.
Connection to overall theme: This short book focuses less on the nature of the abuse (which even the title makes evident) and more on the most important question in these dilemmas: What's next? The "Mommy" bear in this story takes swift action without condemning her abuser outright, which, in a more adult text, likely would lead to important questions about compassion's place in an abuse scenario.
Practical application: Though Bentrim notes that he wants to keep the text age-appropriate, he and illustrator Christi Schofield don't shy away from some of the thorniest discussions that a family struggling with domestic violence is likely to have — the way an abusee decides to break the news to her or his children, for instance. It also raises the possibility that an abuser can be rehabilitated. The mother bear in Mommy's Black Eye is almost too magnanimous in her account of what happened and her discussion of the family's next steps, which could offer a springboard to a critical investigation of her decision-making.
Connection to overall theme: Getting out from under an abusive situation isn't easy. The movie makes clear that Tina had multiple opportunities to leave Ike, but it also catalogs in heartbreaking detail the circumstances that compelled her to keep coming back. Ike's dominion over Tina was so strong for so long because he had complete control of his and Tina's children, as well as the legal rights to every piece of music Tina sang and every dollar the two of them made together. Only after a knock-down-drag-out battle in a limousine does Tina realize that she has to cut her losses and start over.
Practical application: What's Love Got to Do With It? lends itself easily to classroom character investigation. Angela Bassett absolutely smolders as Tina, and an educator would be smart to challenge students to ask themselves why Tina puts up with so much abuse before she takes control of her life, but as a portrait of domestic violence, Lawrence Fishburne's Ike is the performance to watch. He's irresistible and magnetic at first, as abusers often are, but once he shows his hand, he is an appalling, pathetic, frightening, unholy menace. For that reason and others, the movie is appropriate only for older adolescents.
Summary: Written by clinical psychologist Patricia Kehoe, this non fiction text is written for young children who may be a suspected victim of sexual or physical abuse. The story features a child who has been sexually abused and is now afraid and unsure of what to do. A lion, who acts as a friend, helps the child to understand exactly what he experienced and how none of it is their fault. The child feels like they are not good enough anymore to play with or be someone’s friend because of what has happened to them, their self-image damaged by the abuse they have experienced. The lion, representing someone he can talk to and trust, continues to tell him that the abuse is not his fault, encouraging him to talk about what has happened to him and tell someone so that the “scary things stop”. He emphasizes that he should keep telling what happened until somebody listens whether it is one of their parents, a teacher, their doctor, etc. As the conversation between the child and the lion progresses, the lion defines what sexual abuse is as well as what physical abuse is. He talks about why people might do these things, explaining that they don’t know how to express their feelings correctly. In the end, after talking with the lion, the child starts to feel better about themselves stating that they are going to tell someone. The lion, who is very proud of the child, tells him that it will take time for these feelings they are having to go away but talking about them with someone can definitely help.Connection to overall theme: This text offers teachers a great way to introduce young children to these concepts of sexual or physical abuse. The illustrations and having a lion represent someone you can talk to about these issues and the feelings that arise from them allows children the ability to connect easily with the story as they see that they lion is trying to help the child. In addition to introducing these terms, it talks about rebuilding a child’s self-image and the importance of speaking up and telling someone what happened reiterating this idea of finding your voice and the power that it holds.
Practical application: The kid-friendly nature of this text easily allows it to be appropriate to use with young children in grades K-4. As said previously, this topic can be very hard to introduce into a classroom because of the topics and questions that may arise. Using this a class read-aloud may not be the best idea because of the response you may receive, but one way it can be used is if it was in connection to a health lesson or as an activity where the school psychologist came in to address this. Because of the androgynous features of the child in the story, it can be used in reference to both boys and girls which allows no one to be left out. The story also features children from different ethnic backgrounds as well, another way to use this text to talk to all your students showing them that anyone can feel like this. Working with the school’s psychologist can allow you to find a way of addressing these ideas of physical and sexual abuse so as to not go too in-depth which could lead to some backlash from the parents of your students. One way is to use this to talk about feelings with your students. You could use the illustrations of the child and some of the dialogue to talk about how the child is feeling and maybe why he/she may be feeling that way. Since the book encourages the child to tell someone, you could use this to also highlight how you should also talk to someone if you are feeling sad or mad or even unsure about something because they can help you figure it out. With enough support from another professional like a school psychologist, a teacher could use this text as a brief introduction to sexual or physical abuse but if this approach is too controversial then using it to talk about feelings and how to deal with those feelings is another way this text can used with younger students. Of course, if a teacher does suspect one of their students is being physically or sexual abused, they can also use this as a resource to try and talk to them about it or even go about reporting it.
Summary: In this 1998 revised edition, Janet Bode updates her text by returning to those she interviewed bringing their stories up-to-date. This non-fiction text focuses on the human beings affected by rape whether they are survivors, offenders, the professionals who helped, the law enforcement involved, and even the judges and lawyers who fought for justice. With the many perspective captured in this text, readers are able to learn more about this crime, how it affects those who have been raped, and what certain agencies like the police and the law are trying to do to prevent it from happening. This text also provides viewpoints on how not only girls/women can prevent themselves from being put into these kinds of situations but also how boys/men can prevent themselves as well. It is through this text that readers can encounter the factual aspect involved with rape as well as the more personal side through interviews and other mediums such as comics. It enables readers to be educated on this issue, bringing to light the human element that is sometimes forgotten amongst all the statistics.
Connection to overall theme: The material and information provided within this text can easily be used to educate students on rape. The personal element found throughout this text allows students to see from how rape affects those involved, expanding to include not just the victim but also the perpetrator and the agencies involved in order to help and prevent it from happening. By addressing teens directly, this text can be used to show them how they at some point could fall victim to perpetrators of rape giving them the necessary information on how to prevent it and protect themselves. It also gives teens who may have been raped a resource to see how they are not alone and how over time they can find the courage to overcome that experience and work on a brighter future.
Practical application: Given the subject matter and topics discussed in this text, it should be used with older students, 11th/12th grade. The material in this book can be very intense and emotional so using it with students who are old enough to understand and grasp the weight that this issue brings will enable teachers to enter into a more open dialogue and/or discussion. A general discussion about rape is good method to use to start because it allows for teachers to gauge how much their students know about the subject. In addition to the discussion, you could also use a copy of the comics provided within the text to give to your students as a reference that will hopefully spark their thoughts and feelings about the subject enabling the narrative on this subject to continue. From there, you could split up the class into groups, assigning them each a perspective to focus on: the victims, the offenders, the professionals who help, the law enforcement, and the individuals of our justice system. Using the information from this text as both a resource and a guide, you could have them create a group project that they could present to the class, allowing them to educate each other on the different perspectives and viewpoints involved with this issue.
As an additional tool, teachers can turn the website “Rape Is…” for more resources and ideas. As said before the severity of this topic may be too much or too controversial to be used in a classroom, so the level of material you choose to provide may vary. In addition there is also a documentary entitled, “Rape is…” produced by Cambridge Documentary films that can be used in connection to the website, which has a discussion guide that can be used alongside the documentary.
Summary: For Melinda Sordino, freshman year at is not starting off the way she had hoped. She has become an outcast, continuously ridiculed at school because she called the cops at an end-of-summer party. Now friendless, she is hated by her so-called friends and everyone else and as the months go on it becomes worse. She becomes a pariah, hiding out in an abandoned janitor’s closet during school, coping with what happened to her at that party something she has not told anyone about. She knows that what she experienced that night is the reason why she has had troubling speak and why she remains mostly mute. It is in art class, with the help of her teacher, where Melinda begins to come to terms with what really happened at that horrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman. Her recovery and healing process do not come easy especially when that same upperclassman who still attends her high school decides to attack her again. But this time Melinda refuses to be silent, fighting back and finally allowing herself to be heard. Connection to overall theme: This text allows reader to see through the eyes of Melinda what the effects of being raped can have on a person. It enables them to see how they can lose their voice especially in this circumstance when Melinda is also trying to survive high school. Victims of rape often feel alone and in this instance Melinda is because she becomes an outcast at school. Throughout the novel, we can see her come to terms with what happened to her, leading to her finding her voice, speaking up and confronting the “beast” when he decides she needs to be silenced once again.
Practical application: Speak is a great text to use to study character development as students can see how being raped affected Melinda, and what the aftermath of her decision to call the cops has on her transition into high school. Students can be asked to keep a journal as they read the novel, writing down instances in which she develops as the story goes on as well as their responses to the text. As the story progresses, the students will be able to map out how Melinda begins to recover and heal from what happened to her. As an added reference, teachers could use clips from the movie that was made to see how her progression compares to the one written in the book. Using this medium could also spark a discussion on if the movie stayed true to the book and if not, what were the differences allowing students the chance to voice their thoughts and opinions.
An important message that comes from this text is having the strength to speak up and find your voice. Discussing Melinda’s moment of finding her voice and fighting back against Andy, or “the Beast”, can allow teachers to come together and talk about the final stage of Melinda’s development as a character with their students, comparing how she was in the beginning to how she is at the end of the novel. Continuing with this theme of finding your voice, teachers could discuss with students how they would feel if they were put into Melinda’s situation. Would they feel and act the same way Melinda did, finally speaking up when faced with another similar situation or would they find the courage to confront those who ostracized her and speak the truth from the very beginning? From here teachers could have their students write about a time where they found their found and spoke up against an obstacles or issue they were facing. These applications could be used with high school students mainly 9th and 10th graders, with the option to delve more into the issue of rape, date-rape or being sexually assaulted with the more older students such as 11th/12th graders.
- Video of Laurie Halse Anderson addresses the book and the subject of sexual assault: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m14IWZQPIAZLFM/ref=ent_fb_link
- Laurie Halse Anderson talking about Speak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJU7b3C8QMk
- A Lesson Plan that can help brainstorm more applications on how to use this text in a classroom: http://www.viterbo.edu/perspgs/faculty/GSmith/LessonPlanforSpeak.htm
Summary: For fifteen year old Coley Sterling life is pretty normal, she has her friends, her dance team, and Reece, her crush who keeps her equally distracted. In addition to that, she has a great family she can lean on, a mom and stepdad who would do pretty much anything to see her and her siblings happy. But beneath the well-crafted facade that Coley has been maintaining lies a secret she has been holding onto for the last decade. A relationship with her brother that has crossed the line and yet, she holds it in burying the shame and guilt that she feels. Escaping from the abuse they once experienced from their biological father, Coley’s connection with her brother and the level it has progressed to confuses her especially when her response does not match up with thoughts in her head telling her it is wrong. Her secret and the lies she has told begin to unravel when she and Reece grow closer and her chance at having a real boyfriend becomes a reality. In the end, it becomes too much, leading Coley to finally speak the truth about the abuse she has experienced for the last decade at the hands of her brother.
Connection to overall theme: This book connects to the overall theme by allowing the readers to experience how another form of sexual abuse can affect someone and how they learn to deal with it. Readers can relate to Coley on the level of discovering a new romance and dealing with high school while also viewing how keeping this secret affects her and the relationship she has with her brother. The subject of incest may be taboo but it still falls within the realm of sexual abuse including the physical abuse mentioned at the hands of their biological father that most likely caused this kind of relationship to unfold between Coley and her brother Bryan. This text also shows how Coley found her voice and in the end decided to tell someone what has been happening which connects back to this overarching theme of speaking up found in many of the other texts in this annotated bibliography.
Practical application: Like Speak, this text can be used to study character development as students read about Coley and the secret she is hiding involving the relationship with her brother that has crossed the line. This text, which is more appropriate for high school students, allows students to map out the different elements of Coley’s life that contribute to her overall progression and decision in the end to tell someone the secret she has been holding onto for the past 10 years. From here, teachers could introduce and discuss sexual abuse with their students, allowing them to see what the students may know about it, especially incest since it is a topic explored in the book, and how they feel about the subject in general since it can be very emotional and controversial. An exercise to go along with this would be to have students step into Coley’s point of view and have them imagine what it would be like to experience what she does in the book and how she copes with the emotions she feels. Because of the confusion Coley feels, not truly understanding that what her brother is doing is abuse, teachers could follow up with a discussion asking the students to share what they wrote if they were put into Coley’s shoes. With an older audience, the discussion could continue, connecting back to the topic of sexual abuse asking the students if this how they would respond if they were sexually abused whether it was by a family member like Coley or if it was by a stranger.
Because of the topics introduced in this book (and the others referenced above), and the feelings attributed towards them, it is important for teacher to have enough resources on these subjects so they have the information available in order to address and educate their students in a way that will allow them to talk about these issues as well as think about them critically.
- Behind the book: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Live-Through-This/Mindi-Scott/9781442440593/behind_the_book?tab_index=0
- Information on incest: https://www.rainn.org/get-information/types-of-sexual-assault/incest
- Information on sexual abuse: http://www.pandys.org
Garcia, A. (2013). Critical foundations in young adult literature: challenging genres. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.: Sense Publishers.
Groenke, S., & Youngquist, M. (2011). Are we postmodern yet? Reading monster with 21st-century ninth graders. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(7), 505-513.
Who are the Victims? | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. (n.d.). RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims
For more information: https://www.rainn.org/get-information
No comments:
Post a Comment