Introduction
What it is:
Sex, Drugs, and Violence is a discussion and discourse that influences every persons life in one way or another. Our students are members of communities that are heavily influenced by sex, drugs and violence. For our literature study we wanted to give children the opportunity to have a discussion about these topics. We have decided to define sex, drugs, and violence through a lens that addresses students exposure to these issues within themselves as addictive tendencies. In other words, we define drugs as dealing with alcoholism and drug abuse. We define sex as a topic of dealing with unhealthy relationships, sexual addiction, and heavy reliance on another for happiness. We define violence in terms of self-harm; including but not limited to, eating disorders, cutting, and suicidal thoughts.Why it's important:
The
topic of Sex, Drugs and Violence are common occurrences in YA literature as it
mirrors the lives of its young audience. Teaching and discussing these topics
in a school setting is controversial and many of the texts that are available
are on banned lists throughout the country. However, it is very important that
students have a safe-space to discuss these issues. Typically, these three
components are interdependent as each topic relies on the other in some form.
These novels are usually considered controversial and are often put on the
banned lists. However, the topic of Sex, Drugs and Violence are matters that
should be discussed in an open space for our young adolescent readers. These
young readers come across these topics on a daily basis and it is something
that we should no longer shame within our society. Based on the disputable past
on this topic, it is important to introduce this topic to younger readers—
especially the primary levels to remove the stigma by the secondary grade
level. The primary school readers’ texts consist of an introduction to this
tumultuous lifestyle whereas the secondary school readers are to read about the
complex effects and implications from this lifestyle. With the use of various
texts, novels, media and videos, the content is reachable and accessible for
all ages. The introduction of Sex, Drugs, and Violence topics will lead to a
reflective discussion in which students can truly understand the impacts of the
interdependencies of these vices. The focus of this literature study group is
finding texts that encourage students to recognize the problematic lifestyle
that occurs as a result of self-destructive choices. These texts should relay
the importance of healthy living and should in the end show how students can
overcome these issues to better their lives. By incorporating these texts into
the classroom we hope to effectively communicate with students about drug use,
violence, and sex.
Sex,
drugs, and violence heavily influence our society today. We see all of these
present in the media and students of all ages are exposed to these every day at
home and in the school hallways. As future educators, our study group wanted to
focused on these as a means of communicating about the self-inflicted parts of
these issues. In other words, we want to expose children and adolescents to a
variety of texts that encourage discussions about self-harm, self-destructive
choices, alcohol and drug abuse, and sex addiction. This discussion encouraged
us to think critically about what people at different ages experience in regard
to sex, violence, and drugs. It is easy to assume that high school students
would benefit the most from a conversation on self-destructive behavior, as
they are usually the demographic to develop a reliance on drugs and alcohol,
become sexually active, and are influenced heavily by society, causing low
self-esteem, body image issues and thus likely to be most influenced to self
harm. However, we recognized that younger children also experience all of these
things. Some may have an older sibling or parents that struggle with these
behaviors. Our research also showed us cases of drug use and self harm as early
as 7 years old. In order to help teachers discuss these issues we have selected
a variety of texts, across age-appropriateness, and reading levels.
Sex, Drugs, and Violence are issues that can be faced as individual circumstances or as compounded situations that seem to build on one another. As teens begin to mature and grow, their understanding of these topics become more vivid as their depiction of these topics are expanded as their life experiences incorporate first hand encounters. In looking to navigate students through this arena and facilitate in fostering self-awareness and equipping them to become their own defense to the underline default or snares that deter youth to otherwise make sensible choices, we have sought out literature and other resources that will be the most effective in making student equipped to be successful in coping with life in spite of their circumstances. We have found literature that not only addresses looking at these topics as situations that may be inflicted on youth but also self-destructive behavior by youth in these areas with intent to cause harm to oneself.
As more and more teens are moving to reading literature that they identify with the literature centered on Sex, Drugs and Violence could mostly be found in the adult section of libraries. There has been an understanding by authors of the need for todays’ youth to have literature that explores current issues youth face and they have answered they have responded by writing on these topics. As Urban Fiction has become more popular there is now a variety of novels that more youth can turn to. Urban Fiction also known as Street Fiction or Street lit has grown in stature and had gone from selling 4,000 books in 2005 to 82,000 books in 2008 (V. Jones). Seeing the response by urban teens several series have been developed like Bluford, Hotlanta, and Kimani Tru. As mainstream writers are also following suite youth now have a greater chance at finding literature that meets their need. We now have the opportunity to delve deep into exploring the issues around how students encounter Sex, Drugs and Violence in their lives.
Who it's for:
Everyone.To meet the needs of younger readers, we thought it best to select texts that address sex, drugs, and violence through their home life. We wanted to focus on how students may have seen this self-destructive behavior in their families or friends families and have a discussion about how that affects their lives. We recognized that these conversations would not be easy for young ages (8-12), as they may not fully understand what alcoholism, drug addiction and self-harm are. However, we know that these are issues that they see and it is our ethical obligation as teachers to provide our students with a means of discussing these. For this reason we have selected the following texts for children of ages 6-10.
·
- When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry (2004)
- A Caldecott Honor book and Jane Addams Peace Award recipient
- Bully by Patrica Polacco (2012)
To meet the needs of students that are older, we broke our
book choices into Middle School, grades 6-8 and High School level grades 9-12.
The main difference that we focused when separating these texts was
text-complexity and content. For students in grades 6-8, we have chosen the following
texts:
·
- Demi Lovato: Stay Strong (2012)
- An MTV Choice Most Influential Documentary Winner
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (2006)
- The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith (2010)
For
students 9-12:
- By The Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead (2011) by Julie Anne Peters, C.J. Bot
- An ALA Sticks and Stones ALA Popular for YA Winner
- Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler (2011)
- Teen Choice Book Award Recipient
- 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (2007)
- IRA Young Adults’ Choice Book
Annotated Bibliography
The Summary:
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous is a non-fiction diary that
grapples with the interdependencies of self-inflicted violence, sex and drugs.
In this coming to age story, the diary formatted novel revolved around a
fifteen year old teenage girl that becomes addicted to various drugs, while
coming to terms with her sexuality. Alice often comments about her distress of
her body image, boys, friends and her family. In attempts to connect with her
peers, Alice uses LSD at a party and begins her drug experimental phase. Alice
loses her virginity on drugs and believes she may be pregnant which results in
a wave depression while feeling alone and disconnected to the world. Alice
begins to sell drugs and marijuana with the help of her new friends and decides
to run away. During her runaway stage, Alice is introduced to heroin and under
the hazy midst of the drugs she was raped and assaulted. With this new
realization, Alice attempts to end her tumultuous lifestyle and return home for
a short-lived happiness without drug abuse. But her cyclistic usage and abuse
of drugs continue as she embarks on a road tip by hitchhiking to fuel her drug
abuse. In desperate need to purchase more drugs, Alice prostitutes her body to
continue her life style. Throughout this time, Alice is unhappy and yearns to
return home to her parents but is worried that her parents and friends will not
accept her. When Alice moves back with her family, she struggles with the
isolation from her peers— she
can no longer be with her old drug user friends and others are reluctant to
socialize with her. Through another relapse experience, Alice entries a mental
asylum in attempts to improve her condition. Alice stops writing in her diary
as she feels that her family and new found friends can be her outlet for
communication and is happy to be clean and free of her past. Three weeks after
the last diary entry, it is stated that Alice died of a drug overdose.
To Teach It/ Why It's Relevant:
In this young adult diary, Alice grapples with the issues of drug
abuse and her sexual identity. To continually fuel her drug induced lifestyle,
Alice begins to prostitute herself to afford drugs and maintain an unhealthy
lifestyle. This affects Alice’s
mental health, in which she self-harms herself through cutting and other forms
of abuse. In the format of a non-fiction diary, the content is accessible to a
wide range of readers in non-formal writing. This book can be used a
self-discovery unit as Alice grapples with her identity in terms of sex, drug
and violence. Her personal accounts and diary entries show the result of drug
abuse and the relationship with self-harm and sex.
Go Ask Alice is a powerful tool that can teach an array
of readers about the harm of drug use and it’s effects. The main character is a female which can be
relatable for the female readers. Alice deals with her sexuality in terms of
growing up and finding her mesh to fit in the school social ladder. As Alice
deals with sexual abuse and rape, this content may not be as relatable for the
male audience. Most of Alice’s
pain is caused by boyfriends or male friends which ostracizes the male reader.
Although this novel is mostly focused for a female audience, there are various
lessons included in this novel. Readers are introduced to the down-spiraling
lifestyle caused by drug abuse and its ultimate effects. The audience may
appeal to Alice’s struggle
to find her knit in the school’s
social hierarchy and her unhealthy attempts to make friends. Alice’s attempts to break of the
three interdependencies of drugs, sex and violence is a common occurrence in
high school and middle school communities. Readers may be able to relate to one
of these components or know others that struggle with some time of abuse. This
diary can serve as a tool to educate the audience of the effects of this
lifestyle and its potential outcomes.
There is a full movie that could be used to support the text. The full movie is available on YouTube.
The Summary:
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a fiction young adult novel
about a girl named Hannah that recently committed suicide. The narrator, Clay
Jensen, unwraps a package of Hannah’s
self-recorded tapes documenting her reasons to end her life. Each tape is
intended for a specific person that was involved in her reasonings to commit suicide. As the listener hears the content
of each tape, Hannah describes her self-inflicted violence as an affect of
drugs, drinking, sex and bullying. Many of the mentioned rumors deal with her
first kiss, labeling the hottest girls in the freshman class, sex toys and
parties. Hannah’s
reasonings for her suicide revolve around the gossip and actions of her peers
and classmates in the daily high school setting.
To Teach it/ Why It's Relevant:
This young adult novel often references to suicide, depression,
drugs, alcohol and sex in the high school setting. Hannah is a relatable
character for most teens as she combats negative stereotypes, rumors, high
school parties, gossip, depression and her sexual identity. These are common
occurrences in most high schools and the implications of these actions are not
openly discussed with students. This novel can serve as an educational tool to
spark discussion about the high school culture and the monumental problems that
students face on a daily basis. Readers can learn the implications of gossip
and that a small rumor can trigger in life-threatening issues. As Hannah deals
with her sexuality and is labeled the school slut, she comforts herself with an
abidance of alcohol and ultimately commits suicide. In this story, Hannah
describes her reasoning for her suicide as a series of events in the high
school culture. This book can teach readers that each action has a consequence
and serve as a vehicle to talk about the life-threatening implications of sex
and drug abuse. This book can also talk about prevention of the abuse, bullying
and sucidal tendencies.
The content in this fiction young adult novel can be difficult
for many readers. Although this novel includes sensitive topics of drugs, sex
and suicide, it can be an informational tool for high school readers. The
audience for this novel would be high school readers as the content can be
sensitive for many readers and the narrator uses some of offensive language.
This book would be recommended for high school readers as many of the issues
revolve around the common occurrences in today’s high schools. A younger audience may not be able to
understand the full effects of this novel if they have not been exposed to this
culture yet. As the content also deals with dense issues, the emotional
implications and affects of drugs, violence and sex would be more relatable to
the high school audience.
Possible Lesson Activities:
- First Impressions: We begin the book with the word, “Sir” and a question mark. In one word the author hints at questions of maturity for our main character, who, we later learn, is named, Clay.
- Explore the words that set the mood of this novel.
- What else does the author do to entice reader participation?
- Technology Integration: Find chapter samplers of some newly released YA titles online (Amazon, Goodreads, Scribd) How do the first pages of other novels accomplish the same task?
Correlates to Common Core Standards RL.CCR.4; Key Ideas and
Details (College and Career Readiness Anchor Standard); RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.5,
RL.9-10.7.
2. Beware of Surprise Gifts: Clay is initially thrilled to
receive a package, but quickly changes his tune.
- With the entire class, discuss some potential consequences of Hannah’s tapes. Could the consequences be worse than she hoped?
- Discuss in small groups and as a class whether or not the gift will do what Hannah expects.
- What are the desired effects, and could there be other reasons?
- Technology Integration: This may be a good time to read O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” to understand how gifts often have unintended effects: http://www.online- literature.com/donne/1014/.
Correlates to Common Core Standards RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.6;
SL.9-10.1.
3. Where is my GPS?: Hannah directs Clay and other people on
Hanah’s list to follow her mental
journal by creating a map.
- Make a map and include a key for places that signify the important events in your life.
- Technology Integration: Create an audio guided tour of your map, using a Walkman (ideally) or a smart phone.
- Use Google Maps to help create templates of your neighborhood. Imagine your neighborhood as Clay and Hannah’s neighborhood. Convert your icons to places mentioned on Hannah’s map.
Correlates to Common Core Standards SL.CCR.6 (College and Career
Readiness Anchor Standard); Reading Technical Subjects, Integration of
Knowledge and Ideas, RH.CCR.7 (College and Career Readiness Anchor Standard);
SL.9-10.5.
 |
The Summary:
A girl named Sophie is angry a lot of the time. She tries to cope with her angry but she just ends up hurting those around her until she finds a tree to climb that calms her down.
From Demi:
To Teach/ Why It's Relevant:
To Teach It/Why It's Relevant:
This book teaches children how to cope with their anger. It provides educators with the opportunity to discuss how people process their anger. This book is relevant to the topic of sex, drugs, and violence because anger is often a trigger for the abuse of all three of these things. Students are likely exposed to negative environments in regard to dealing with anger. This book gives teachers the opportunity to encourage students to share their own experiences with their anger, their parents anger, and their siblings anger. This is a conversation that could lead to an instruction on unhealthy ways to deal with anger. In teaching this story, teachers should be looking at 4 main objectives:- To validate feelings of anger that we all have
- To explore the different ways of dealing with that anger
- To differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable ways of dealing with anger
- To recognize that anger is temporary and extreme measures to deal with anger is not healthy nor beneficial.
The link provided in the annotation above directs you to the authors website where she explains a very interesting game to foster a conversation about anger.
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The Summary:
In Reno, a young Junior in High School,
Kristina meets two boys Brendan and Chase at a water-park, and they exchange
numbers. They both promise her Crank.
Chase and Kristina begin to get closer to one another, and they begin dating,
though not exclusively. Kristina goes to see the Brendan one night, asking for
more Crank. She has now become addicted to the drug and to the attention that
the two boys give her. Brendan drives Kristina into the woods, where they get
high together. While in the woods, Kristina is raped by Brendan.
At
home Kristina, still high and shaken up from the rape, Kristina calls Chase to come over
while her parents are out. Chase comes over and she tells him about Brendan
before trying to persuade him to have sex with her. She is emotionally hurt by
the rape and wants to have control over her body and her choices.
Kristina eventually does have sex with
Chase and becomes enthralled with being sexually active, especially when she is
using. She is sent to Juvenile hall to get help but she meets a man that shows
her how to get meth from Mexico. Kristina uses her mom’s Visa card to pay for
the illegal narcotic and now becomes a drug dealer, which she describes as
making her instantly more “popular.” Kristina now has a very large amount of
Crank on her hands, so she is gets high everyday. This leads to her becoming
more irritable, causing her relationship with her mom to become even more
strained and her relationship with Chase to become increasingly physical.
Kristina is also does not attend school while she is using, limiting any type
of positive future.
To Teach It/Why It's Relevant:
This novel could be taught to middle/high school students (7-12th
grade) dealing with drug abuse. The novel does not glorify sex and drugs. The
story is raw and incredibly relatable to all students, even those that do not
use drugs. As an educator, it is important to remember that even if your
students are not directly affected by drug use or sexual addiction, it is
likely that they have friends or acquaintances that are.
This novel could be used to have a critical discussion and
raise awareness of drug use. Questions to ask:
- Why does Kristina call Crank “the monster” even though she continues to use it? How do you think her renaming the drug affects her attitude toward it and her sense of responsibility regarding it?
- The author wrote this story in verse. Why do you think that she chose this format? What effect does this have on how you feel about the characters?
- Do we think this story acts as a deterrent for teens who consider drugs? Why?
- Drug research- How does it affect the body? How long? How much does it cost? Why do people use it?
The Summary:
This
228 page novel is about a High-school student Melissa Miller wears black and cuts
herself, seeking refuge in self-harm and soccer. After being humiliated at a
party, Missy must choose between dying and meting out death to others as War,
one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Over four action-packed,
angst-filled days, Missy faces her teenage tormentors and witnesses the
injustices of war. Unlike her series predecessor Lisa Lewis—now Famine—Missy is
slow to accept her role and unimaginative about using it for alternative
purposes. But Missy can neither return to her life nor ride as War until she
learns to control her rage. This
dark humor novel depict some realistic situations and the causes and warning
signs of cutting are clearly established and sympathetically narrated, but the
graphic descriptions may unsettle some readers.
To Teach/Why It's Relevant:
As bulling and suicide are becoming more
and more prominent among teens it is important to address this topic with our
youth today. You would
need to discuss how emotional health and how feelings, thoughts and actions
interact. How we can promote our own emotional health and build up our
resilience to cope with difficult times and address how sometimes pressures can
be too great and lead to emotional health problems.
We recommend that this book be used at
the 7th -12th
grade level the Lexile is 780. The
text falls in both Realistic Fiction
and Science Fiction/Fantasy genres. It covers a variety of subject headings:
The Summary:
This YA novel is
about a teenager named Daelyn Rice who can’t be left alone. Following her most
recent suicide attempt, her well-meaning parents have her on suicide watch.
They follow her when she goes for walks, pick her up from school, and monitor
her online computer use. Daelyn has found a way around them, though, with a
website called Through-the-Light.com, which promises to evade detection by the
kind of monitoring programs that her parents use. Through-the-Light also
promises something else: to give users contemplating suicide a discussion
forum, frank advice, and a countdown clock to their own date of death.
Daelyn
is obsessed with suicide but just not sure which method will provide the best
combination of minimal pain and maximum effectiveness. As Daelyn counts down
the days to her appointed “Date of Determination,” she recalls the events that
have led to her current state of despair and desperation. Daelyn, who is
overweight, has been bullied her whole life, ranging from fat jokes to a sexual
attack by a group of boys in a school bathroom. She has been physically and
verbally abused at “fat camp,” made the object of cruel pranks at school, and
ignored or pitied by teachers and school administrators. Just
one thing is getting in the way of Daelyn’s single-minded progress toward a
successful suicide attempt: a boy named Santana. He’s kind of a pain, engaging
her in ridiculous conversation when all she wants to do is escape into the
pages of the latest romance novel. It turns out that Santana has a secret of
his own, one that might change Daelyn’s perspective on life and death.
To Teach:
This
novel can be used to address the issues of bullying and resultant suicide
“bullycide”. The novel comes with
a brief lists resources and provides suggestions for combating bullying. This
addresses the issues faces for those who have been bullied and for those who
have been bullies. You can also use this novel to do character analysis of the
main characters as well as main focus identification.
We recommend that this book be used at the 7th -12th
grade level the Lexile is not determined. It can be used across curriculum in
ELA, Health, and Social Studies . The text falls in the Realistic Fiction
genre category. It covers a variety of subject headings:
A book trailer for the novel. A nice introduction to a unit. Leads to a discussion on what it means to self-harm and to think critically about why people bully and hurt themselves.
The Summary:
The main character, Lyla, a new sixth grade student, becomes
friends with another new student, Jamie during the first day of school. Jamie
teaches Lyla how to become more connected to make friends by buying a
cellphone, laptop and creating a Facebook page. But when Lyla becomes a
cheerleader, her new found friends invite Lyla and don’t allow Jamie to
tag along. Her new popular friends form a powerful clique that viciously tease
classmates in class and on Facebook, including Lyla’s new friend Jamie.
After Lyla realizes the implications of her actions and hurting kids like
Jamie, she tries to break free of the popular crowd. Now the popular crowd seek
revenge on Lyla to destroy her life.
To Teach/Why It's Important:
This picture book is intended for audiences for grades 2-6.
Through the use of watercolor, the illustrations portray the realistic emotions
and feelings caused by bullying and cyberbullying. The text addresses the
implications of violence, bullying and cyber bullying and can be served as a
discussion tool within the classroom. This book mostly connects to the topic of
violence as most topics revolving around sex and drugs are not common in the
elementary school setting. In terms of violence, bullying is a common
contextual issue in the primary school setting and the most relatable for the
intended audience’s grade
level. In addition to this book, educators should teach the differences between
up-standers and bystanders about bullying. This could be through various
informational tools such as videos and collaborative assignments to build
community within the classroom.
Students reflect on cyber bullying and the damaging affects that it has on them:
The Summary:
Demi Lovato is a platinum artist. In this documentary, the pop-singer takes her fans through her constant struggle with cutting and bulimia. She takes the viewer into her home, recording studio, rehab facility and discusses her triggers and how she works everyday to continue to fight against her addiction. She speaks candidly and honestly about her experiences, and thanks all of the people that made it possible for her to be alive. She explains that without the support of her family, she would not still be here. It is a confessional and an in depth look at self-harm on a very personal level.
To Teach It/Why It's Relevant:
This documentary addresses all of the issues that we want our students to become comfortable with. Students can connect to Demi. She is their peer and many of them likely idolize her. To teach this, we would begin the unit with a discussion on self-harm. It is important that students recognize the behavior as negative. Demi does not glorify her experience. She takes us through a very hard and relatable time in her life. This would give students the opportunity to speak openly, in a safe space, about these issues. This text would be a great introduction to any of the other texts about these issues that we have provided in this literature study. Demi Lovoto speaks openly about her struggles in the media and is a great resource for young people to cope with these issues. Her song, Skyscraper could be used as a resource in the classroom as well.
Lovoto also has a book that she wrote called "Staying Strong 365 Days A Year." She takes the reader through each day of the year, setting a goal for herself and her personal happiness. It would be interesting to use a similar activity in the classroom where students can journal their experiences with these issues.They could document times they see self-harm by their peers or every time they see it in the media.
From Demi:
The Summary:
This YA novel involves kidnapping, sexual abuse and revenge gone wrong.
Sixteen year old Jack Whitmore is the victim, but he and his best friend Connor
Kirk enact a terrible revenge. The result is a downward spiral into an
alternate reality of violence and survival. The boys escape their deed and
their California hometown for a trip to London to check out the school in Kent
they plan to attend. Jack leaves first and while settling into the hotel near Regent
Park he puts on a pair of glasses given to him earlier by a strange man. The
glasses take him to Marbury where a horrific war is underway. In Marbury, Jack
is responsible for the survival to two other boys, Ben and Griffin. More
distressingly, Jack awakens hours and then days later, sick and confused. The
glasses soon become an obsession. Even meeting Nikki doesn't stop him from
sneaking off to Marbury. She knows that something is not right and later begs
Jack to get help, but Jack is only interested in getting back to Marbury. Jack
pretends things are fine when Connor arrives, but it is obvious to Connor that
his friend is acting strangely. When Connor looks in the glasses, he sees
Marbury and even his obsession with Rachel does not keep him from fighting with
Jack over the glasses.
To Teach/ Why It's Relevant:
As
violence is a has become a major draw for youth either in YA novels, video
games, YouTube postings, or real life experiences it is important that this
topic be address in an environment were positive guidance and processing can
occur; in the classroom. Violence is a major, recurring theme in the book.
Jack’s story begins with brutality; and the cruelty inflicted on innocents by
others resurfaces again and again in Seth’s story, and in what happens to
everyone in Marbury. You could challenge students to asses Jack and Conner’s
feelings about the brutal nature of his universe and have them pose their own
views on violence and where do they see violence happening in the world today. They
can then write an essay or create small group presentations on how media
promotes violence. They could also explore the dynamic found in relationships
Between
the males and identify the relationships between characters in the novel. The use
a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the characters issue would help the
class process how the characters issue is similar/different between the
three of them.
We recommend that this book be used at the 7th -12th
grade level the Lexile 720. It can be used across curriculum. The text falls the Adventure
and Horror genre category. It covers a variety of subject headings:
- Violence
- Kidnapping
- Sex Abuse
- Emotional problems
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