Guidance for Grown-Ups
June 2008
No More Drama!
This Discussion Guide contains the following Activity Sections:
- The Answers to Your Questions
- Problem Solving: Exploring Options, Giving Advice
- Make a Historical and Global Connection: Changing Options
I. The Answers to Your Questions
The purpose of this activity is to help teens explore the root causes and patterns of the drama in their lives.
- What is drama anyway? Go around the room and give each teen a chance to say the first word that comes to mind in relation to drama. No repeat words allowed. Teens who take more than two seconds are disqualified. (This game can be played like musical chairs until only one teen remains.)
- Ask teens to break into groups of three or four. Ask one member per group to volunteer to be a “field investigator.” The investigator’s job is to research teen drama, in order to file a report back to the “adult world.” To create her report, the investigator can ask the other teens questions like: How often does drama occur? How does one know when a situation is drama as opposed to no big deal? How many people are normally involved in drama? What are some common dramas? What is at stake? What time of day does drama typically unfold? Is there a certain setting or day of the week that seems more likely to produce drama? How long does drama last? How does it get resolved? Are there certain people who are always in the middle of drama? What kinds of personality traits do those people have? Do adults get teen drama? Why or why not?
- Give the investigators a chance to report their findings to the group.
- Give teens time to write privately about an experience of drama that they would like resolved. They can either keep the description for future reference or tear it up. The idea is to get their frustrations down on the page in order to move on to resolution.
II. Problem Solving:Exploring Options, Giving Advice The purpose of this activity is to give teens concrete strategies for dealing with drama.
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Ask the teens to read “Top 10 Ways to Avoid Drama in Your Life.”
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Ask for any additional tips on how to avoid drama.
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Have each teen review the list (including the new additions), pick her own number one tip for avoiding drama, and defend it with either a real or fictional example.
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One of the tips suggests getting a referee. Ask the teens in what other ways do people referee each other’s behavior out in “the real world?” (Examples include: referees, umps, and judges in sports contests; judges in courts of law; counselors who specialize in conflict resolution; etc.)
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Ask the teens to write a job description for the ideal teen drama referee. What kinds of skills or experience does she need? How much should a drama referee get paid? Would the teens recommend that their school hire a drama referee?
Resources
National Association of Sports Officials - www.naso.org
List of careers with links of descriptions, including “judge” - www.kids.gov/6_8/6_8_careers.shtml
III. Make a Historical and Global Connection: Changing Options The purpose of this activity is to examine how gender influences drama.
- Ask the teens to think of a real-life example of drama at school or at home. Ask them to write down the names of all the persons involved in the conflict. Next, ask the teens to write a “D” next to those directly involved and an “I” next to those indirectly involved in the drama. (In other words, if the drama was about boyfriend, but he never participated in any of the fights or conversations, he gets an “I.”) Now ask the teens to count the overall number of persons and calculate the percentage of female and male participants. Now ask them to do the same for the category of “D” and the category of “I.” What do they make of the results?
- Ask the teens to imagine a typical conflict among all male peers. Who are the players? What is the problem? How does the problem get resolved? Does this count as drama? (If you want, ask the teens to close their eyes and you can walk them through visualization for this activity.)
- Ask the teens to write five observations about how they think gender and drama relate.
- Ask the teens to write three things teen men can learn from how teen women resolve conflicts; then ask them to write three things teen women can learn from teen men. (You may want to acknowledge that this activity requires generalization and that there are differences among groups.)
Resources
Definition of “girl drama” according to Urban Dictionary - www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=girl+drama
Have you used Guidance for Grown-ups with your class or teen group?
Tell us which ones you used and what kind of success you had with it. Did you put your own spin on it? Let us know.
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