Whats the Buzz with Teenagers?: A universal social and emotional literacy resource

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.

Table of Contents

List of Photocopiable and online resources

A quick guide to the games

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Practical considerations for implementation

1. The ins and outs of friendship - "New beginnings"
2. What is a friend? - "a good friendship; it's bigger than being popular"
3. Switching on positivity - "This is the last place I want to be"
4. Wellbeing and social media - "Archie, get off your phone! You?re addicted to it!"
5. Empathy - "Thanks for understanding"
6. Resilience - "Going with the flow"
7. Dealing with Disappointment (loss and grief) - "They loved each other"
8. Handling anxiety - "I don?t want to talk about it!"
9. Responding to dominating behaviours - "Put your hand up if you don?t want Rafi to be in our group?"
10. Being hurt, trolled or abused online - "Tic, tock we?re waiting for your head to rock."