Suicide+Awareness+Week

=Suicide Awareness and Prevention = Mary Schwartz

Several years ago, I made a huge mistake. My cousin Stephanie began to exhibit signs of depression and alcohol abuse. I was incredibly close to her, as we were more or less raised as sisters. I was concerned about the changes I noticed in her, but I chalked it up to her recent breakup with her first love. One night, Steph and I were chatting on Facebook when she revealed to me that she was currently drunk and sad after going to a party at her ex's house. I comforted her somewhat, and then told her to "not do anything stupid". Little did I know, Stephanie would commit suicide several weeks later. I will never forget the night my mother called me and told me the devastating news that Steph had died. Coincidentally, I was actually planning on calling Stephanie that night to see if she wanted to meet for dinner. My mother called me just seconds before I dialed Steph's number. I will always be haunted by the echo of my mother's voice on the worst day of my life. Had I followed my heart and informed someone that I was concerned about her, perhaps she would still be here today. Steph was beautiful inside and out, and she had so much to offer the world. For example, she was fond of writing her own music and had her own Youtube channel. Here is my favorite video of hers: media type="youtube" key="FK0CW8_7uU0" width="420" height="315" I do not want any of my students (or anyone, for that matter) to make the same mistake that I did. Therefore, my literacy practices event will involve Suicide Awareness and Prevention. The event will be suitable for high school students of any age, and is applicable to any social or economic class, because suicide is an all-encompassing problem. The event will consist of educating students, parents, and teachers about suicide over the course of a week-long campaign in the school. Throughout the week, the students will hold an educational assembly for teachers, and also a school-wide assembly. Students will also create Youtube videos about various aspects of suicide that will be shared both online and in the school itself. In the weeks leading up to the suicide campaign, there will be a related young-adult novel read aloud in class. In addition, students will be encouraged to write about the issue through genres that each student will individually select.

Students will be encouraged to take on a variety of different perspectives and identities in order to deepen their understanding of the issue at hand. Examples of roles that would be assigned would include that of a suicide victim, concerned bystander, suicidal individual, parent, teacher, suicide survivor (one who has endured the loss of a loved one to suicide),and a bully. The students' identities will be the basis for creative activities throughout the event. For example, a student might write a poem to submit to the school newspaper that explores the role of bystanders in suicide, and also speak to his or her peers at the school-wide assembly to explain the importance of speaking up. A student who is assigned the teacher role would be in charge of figuring out how to educate teachers about how to respond to suicide prevention in the best way possible. The students who take on the roles of suicide victims and suicidal individuals would work to foster empathy for those who struggle with such feelings or those that have already succumbed to suicide.

Relating to and collaborating with others will be one of the most important components of the event, because planning a large-scale presentation is the ultimate goal. Students will either be assigned to work on the teacher suicide prevention assembly or the student assembly. Students will meet in small groups to plan the activities for several weeks prior to the event. In addition, it will be strongly encouraged to interview a person that actually embodies the role that the student represents. That way, students will get a very real idea of what it means to experience suicide from that individual's perspective. 

Reading will be an integral part of the event, as the class will read Thirteen Reasons Why, a young adult novel about suicide and its aftermath by Jay Asher, as a class in the weeks leading up to the event. Class discussion and reflection on each day's reading will be greatly emphasized. Students will also read related poems and narratives, such as "A Letter to the Playground Bully, By Andrea, Age 8 1/2" by Andrea Gibson: maybe there are cartwheels in your mouth maybe your words will grow up to be a gymnasts maybe you have been kicking people with them by accident

I know some people get a whole lot of rocking in the rocking chair and the ones who don’t sometimes get rocks in their voice boxes, and their voice boxes become slingshots.

maybe you think my heart looks like a baby squirrel. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">but you absolutely missed when you told the class I have head lice <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause I one hundred percent absolutely do not have head lice <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and even if I do <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">it is a fact that head lice prefer clean heads overdirty ones <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so I am clean as a whistle on a tea pot. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">my mother says it is totally fine if I blow off steam <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">as long as i speak in an octave my kindness can still reach.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">my kindness knows mermaids never ever miss their legs in the water <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause there are better ways to move through the ocean than kicking.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so guess what, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">if I ever have my own team <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I am picking everyone first

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">even the worst kid <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and the kid with the stutter like a skipping record <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause I know all of us are scratched, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">even if you can’t hear it when we speak, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">my mother says most people have heartbeats <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">that are knocking on doors that will never open, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and I know my heart is a broken freezer chest <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause I can never keep anything frozen.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so no, I am not “always crying.” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I am just thawing outside of the lines. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and even if I am “always crying” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">it is a fact <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">that salt is the only reason <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">everything floats so good in the dead sea. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and just ‘cause no one ever passes notes to me <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">doesn’t mean I am not super duper. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">in fact, my super duper might be a buoy or a paper boat <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">the next time your nose gets stuck up the river <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause it is a fact <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">that our hearts stop every for a mili-second every time we sneeze <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and some people’s houses have too much dust.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">some people’s fathers are like attics <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’ve heard attics have monsters in their walls and shaky stares. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I think if I lived in a house with attic, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’d nightmare a burglar in my safety chest <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and maybe I’d look for rest in the sticks and stones <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause my mother says a person can only swallow so much punch <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">before he’s drunk on his own fist

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">but the only drunk I ever knew <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">was sleeping in the alley behind our church <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and jesus turned water into his wine

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so even god has his bad days <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">but on your bad days couldn’t you just say

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“hey I’m having a bad day,” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">instead of telling me I’m stupid or poor, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">or telling me I dress like a boy <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">‘cause maybe I am a boy AND a girl <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">maybe my name is Andrea Andrew. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so what. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">it is a fact that bumblebees have hair on their eyes <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and humans, also, should comb though everything they see.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">like <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">an anchorman is not a sailor. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">like the clouds might be a pillow fight. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">like my mother says, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“every bird perched on a telephone wire <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">will listen to the conversations running through its feet <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">to decide the direction of its flight.”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so I know every word we speak <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">can make hurricanes in people’s weather veins <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">or shine their shiny shine

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so maybe sometime you could sit beside me on the bus <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and I could say, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“guess what, it is a fact that manatees have vocal chords <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">but do not have ears.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and Beethoven made music <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">even when he could no longer hear.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and I know every belt that has hit someone’s back <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">is still a belt that was built to hold something up. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and it is fact that Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">but it’s not hard for me to dream <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">that maybe one day you’ll write me back <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">like the day I wrote the lightening bug to say, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I smashed my mason jar and I threw away the lid. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I didn’t want to take a chance that I’d grow up to be a war.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I want to be a belly dance or an accordion or a pogo stick <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">or the fingerprints the mason left <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">in the mortar between the bricks <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">to prove that he was here, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">that he built a roof over someone’s head <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">to keep the storm from their faith, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">my mother says that’s why we all were born.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">and I think she’s right. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">so write back soon. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">sincerely yours. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">While the preceding poem is not directly related to suicide, it speaks of bullying, which will be a large portion of the educating that students will be doing throughout the week. It will also likely provoke an emotional, strong response about students who might now be able to relate more to the activity. Synthesis and connection of texts will occur as students write journal responses and discuss similarities and differences between works and their perspectives in class.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Writing will constitute a large portion of the activities as well. Students will be writing journal entries reflecting on their journeys in researching suicide, and also writing reflective entries about works read in class. They will also be writing the outlines of both the teacher and student assemblies. Furthermore, a script will need to be written for the promotional Youtube video that will be made. Students might also write to a senator in favor of greater resources for depressed and/or suicidal students in schools. Throughout the weeks leading up to the event and the week of the event, students will be writing creatively based on the identities they have adapted. Writing will be multimodal because students are using various forms and genres of writing.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The event will involve social change and critical thinking because students and faculty alike will be forced to face an issue that many are content to simply sweep under the rug. Through educating students, staff, and the community, there will truly be a greater awareness, sensitivity, and attitude about suicide among the school community and perhaps even the outside community.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Metacognition will primarily occur through reflective journal writing. Students will write about the novel read in class, research they have conducted, personal experience with suicide, and also about their feelings about how the assemblies went after they were complete.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Common Core Standards that will be addressed include: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reading Standards for Literature 11-12

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">5. Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text (e.g. electing at what point to begin or end a story) shape the meaning of the text.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Writing Standards for 11-12 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources using advanced search features; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the evidence, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Speaking and Listening Standards 11-12 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Initiate and participate effectively in group discussions on grades 11–12 topics, texts,andissues <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">being studied in class. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Prepare for discussions by distilling the evidence or information about the material <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">under study and explicitly draw on that preparation in discussions. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. Cooperate with peers to set clear goals and deadlines, establish roles, and determine <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ground rules for decision making (e.g., informal consensus, taking votes on key issues, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">presentation of alternate views). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Propel conversations forward by asking questions that test the evidence and by sharing <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">findings that clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Summarize accurately the comments and claims made on all sides of an issue and <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">determine what additional information, research, and tasks are required for the team to <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">complete the task. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. Evaluate whether the team has met its goals.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. Plan and deliver focused and coherent presentations that convey clear and distinct <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">perspectives such that the line of reasoning and sources of support are clear and alternative <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">perspectives are addressed, adjusting presentation to particular audiences and purposes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">5. Make strategic use of digital media elements and visual displays of data to enhance understanding. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">