What’s the Buzz with Teenagers?

A universal social and emotional literacy resource

Mark Le Messurier, Madhavi Nawana Parker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367149772
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429623448
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Pre-teens and teenagers are faced with a continually changing and complex social world that not only involves face-to-face action, but also online and social media interaction. What's the Buzz with Teenagers? offers a highly practical programme designed to explicitly teach young people to get along and maintain healthy relationships with their friends, family and the broader community.

Embracing current thinking on 'self-awareness and behaviour transformation' in adolescents, it uses highly interactive role plays, film-making, thinking exercises, quizzes, group discussions and confidence-building games to improve social skills and promote inclusion in a fun, effective and appealing way. Easy to implement in upper primary and middle schools, in healthcare settings and beyond, What's the Buzz with Teenagers?:

• is a deeply structured resource to teach young people in the 12- to 15-year-old developmental range;
• offers a connecting approach to bring young people together to learn without the pressure of 'getting social interaction right' all the time;
• aims to normalise the anxieties, sensitivities and loneliness that many young people experience during adolescence by sharing thoughts and exploring this common ground;
• explicitly teaches how to 'read' the emotional needs of others, show empathy and build relationships; and
• uses a developmental model that ensures relevance and inclusion to young people with a broad range of backgrounds, abilities and challenges.

The programme provides lessons that educators and health professionals can adapt to suit their individual circumstances and time frames, and creates a framework for a warm, engaging and interactive space in which learning is optimised.

The book is complemented by the website www.whatsthebuzz.net.au, which offers online downloadable resources and a further six lessons.

Also available are What's the Buzz?: A Social Skills Enrichment Programme for Primary Students and What's the Buzz? For Early Learners: A Complete Social Skills Foundation Course.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Photocopiable and Online Resources
• A Quick Guide to the Games
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Practical Considerations for Implementation
• Lesson 1: The Ins and Outs of Friendships: “New Beginnings”
• Lesson 2: What is a Friend? “A Good Friendship, It’s Bigger Than Being Popular”
• Lesson 3: Switching on Positivity: “This is the Last Place I Want to Be”
• Lesson 4: Wellbeing and Social Media: “Archie, Get Off Your Phone! You’Re Addicted to It!”
• Lesson 5: Empathy: “Thanks for Understanding”
• Lesson 6: Resilience: “Going With the Flow”
• Lesson 7: Dealing With Disappointment (Loss and Grief): “They Loved Each Other”
• Lesson 8: Handling Anxiety: “I Don’T Want to Talk About It!”
• Lesson 9: Responding to Dominating Behaviours: “Put Your Hand Up If You Don’T Want Rafi to Be in Our Group”
• Lesson 10: Being Hurt, Trolled or Abused Online: “Tick Tock, We’Re Waiting for Your Head to Rock”