RESPECTisms Teacher's Pack

Review (1)

• I must admit at first I wasn't convinced by this resource. It seemed to make very big claims - "This book is without a doubt the 'bible' of teenagers" says a quotation on the front of the the book. But I gave it a try and I was stunned by the results. Ken Barnes' story book certainly hit the mark in my classroom, with the pupils sitting spellbound as they listened to the story of Robert, the teenager who was irresponsible. This led to his bad behaviour in class, and his failure to tie his little sister's shoelace, which inevitably leads to disaster. One boy in my class, the most 'streetwise', said, "That story was me" and all of the pupils, Year 9 with general learning difficulties, were able to explain the morals from Robert's story and the key themes being promoted. Excellent stuff. A second story raised powerful issues about relationships with parents and again led to an absolutely silent classroom while the story was being told, and an honest discussion afterwards. My pupils' ability to respond to the values in the book is tribute to its clarity. It is trying to give a structure to how young people think, making them aware of the choices they make, the actions they take and the consequences they have to face. The book promotes education as a key to success and the author is very brave in using teenager-talk to put across what some would perceive as an 'uncool' message. However, at a time of growing knife crime and attacks on the streets, this book is doing something very significant and trying to shape thinking and attitudes. We did have a try at the questionnaire in the pupils' workbook and wordsearch, although the questionnaire was a little wordy for my pupils. However they did find the character assessment task interesting. This would work better with more literate pupils. We were surprised by the use of a 4-letter word on the free sampler audio cd, that probably could have been taken out without any change in the message. If you visit wwww.respectisms.com you will see that this is a whole programme which can be linked with training. This was put into context when one of my pupils said, "I'm scared to go out as I worry that I am going to be the next teenager who is going to be stabbed". If Ken Barnes and 'The 7 Principles of Respectisms' can help create a better world for young people, all credit to him and what he is doing.

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  15:07
  31 May, 2008