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Framing questions

The two questions that run through all the units in the Transitions to Adulthood program are:

  1. What is an adult?
  2. How (and when) do you become an adult?

I like to put those questions early on to the group as a way of placing on the table early on many of the major points that will surface over the course of the program. In addition to these two questions, I also asked the group where they got their ideas about adulthood, since for some reason they were reluctant to mention it during the ice breaker/word association exercise.

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By Ysette, ago

Adult vs. not adult

I began the first day of the Transitions to Adulthood program with a word-association exercise around the concepts of “adult” and “not adult.” Here is what the YC group came up with: You will notice that, by and large, the column of “adult” characteristics is overwhelmingly positive, whereas the “not adult column, with few exceptions, is comparatively negative. When I asked the group about it, one person made the distinction between “childlike” and “childish” attributes, Read more…

By Ysette, ago

What young people are capable of

I’m still digesting the experience of my two-day program at Youth Communication, but what I will say for now is that the group I worked with managed to surprise me with their stamina in the classroom. Yesterday we effectively had a working lunch because they asked to see a documentary related to a discussion we were having on rumspringa. These kids managed to sustain their engagement for almost five hours straight. There were five-minute breaks Read more…

By Ysette, ago

Transitions to Adulthood: 2-day program for Youth Communication

I’m excited to share with you the overview of the program I’m running for Youth Communication. I’ve put together a workbook for the participants, with activity sheets and space for notes and freewriting.

TRANSITIONS TO ADULTHOOD:

YOUTH COMMUNICATIONS WRITING WORKSHOP 2012

Overview

This sequence of discussions is designed for a group of young people (ages 15 to 20) attending Youth Communication’s 2012 Summer Writing Workshop. In line with this year’s theme of identity, this two-day program gives participants a rich and structured context in which to explore their own passages to adulthood.

The underlying premise is that becoming an adult is not something that happens overnight (on your 18th or 21st birthday), but rather something that takes place gradually and not without some amount of heartache and hardship.

Together we will discuss the concept of adulthood, beginning first with major institutional definitions coming from the legal and scientific fields, and moving through developmental psychology toward cultural definitions in the realms of sociology and anthropology.

The goal is for participants to use this knowledge as a framework for formulating personal definitions of adulthood that resonate in their own lives, and also for generating stories for YCTeen or Represent.

Syllabus (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Teenagers: the good, the bad, and the ugly

After reworking my original teen brain workshop for one of my Youth Communication workshops on identity, I realized that it might make sense to link the two versions together as a look at the downsides and upsides of the teenage years. A really good example of the two sides of adolescence is how teenagers can be especially tight-lipped with their parents, but can spend hours shooting the breeze or sharing their deepest secrets with friends. Read more…

By Ysette, ago

At what age do we reach adulthood?

Having just sent off a draft of my lesson plans to Youth Communication, I saw this debate in the Times: “When Do Kids Become Adults?” The discussion touches on a lot of the issues that I bring up in my workshops: recent findings in neuroscience on the time it takes for the brain to reach maturity; how the law sets up different—and often arbitrary—age limits for activities such as drinking, driving, and voting; and more Read more…

By Ysette, ago

Grappling with identity

This year’s theme for Youth Communication’s Summer Writing Workshop is identity, so I’ve been working on tailoring my workshop material around that topic. In discussing adolescence, for example, I won’t be focusing on the teen brain. Instead, I want to emphasize what child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Ruth Talbot has called the “tasks of adolescents,” which are namely to: •cope with physical changes •establish a gender identity and sexual orientation •establish an identity •establish autonomy Read more…

By Ysette, ago

Figuring out what “good” teaching means

Yesterday I read a post on the American Scholar where the author declares both herself and her sister as being “against educational reform.” It’s a short piece that’s worth reading for yourself, but in sum, Paula Marantz Cohen recounts a discussion with her sister, also a college professor, about their views on educational reform. Although their teaching styles differ, they both possess enough knowledge of U.S. educational history, as well as experience in the classroom, to recognize that most reforms in education come and go, only to return once more as the next big thing. Against her sister, who subscribes to Dewey’s model of experiential learning, Cohen considers herself more of a traditionalist—one who is more oriented, as she puts it, “toward product rather than process.” Importantly, it’s not that Cohen objects to the more open-ended inquiry that her sister orchestrates in her classroom; rather, she admits that in the progressive model “too much would be going on; I would get confused and, being confused, would likely confuse my students.” She thus concludes that “teaching—and learning—can proceed through any number of methods, provided that the teacher is engaged, knows something about the subject, and cares about the students.” The best method, in short, is that which plays to an individual teacher’s strengths.

Cohen’s piece is a refreshing read precisely for it’s teacher-centered concern. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Zits and the Teenage Brain

I’ve been trying to develop a workshop on the teen brain for quite some time now, but I had some trouble finding an engaging way of presenting all the research I’d collected on adolescent brain growth and its effects on teen behavior and learning. Mind you, I wasn’t seeking to present that much information in so much detail. I simply want participants to be aware that beginning in adolescence, and continuing into their early twenties, their brains undergo a second growth spurt (comparable in significance to brain development in the first two years of life), which will affect their mood, behavior, and ability to learn. This period of growth is accompanied by pruning and myelination (for greater processing speed and efficiency), and all this happens largely in a back-to-front fashion, meaning that the prefrontal cortex, or the rational, executive center of the brain, is the last to mature. This leaves young people more reliant on the amygdala, or the emotional and reactive center of the brain. Because the brain operates as a “use it or lose it” system, where the skills that are most used are strongly reinforced, this period of brain development is a great opportunity to learn new things and focus on what is most important. (Are your eyes glazed over yet?)

I’d considered showing some clips of a documentary that included both scientific views and more personal perspectives from teenagers, parents, and teachers, followed by some sort of role play where participants could offer solutions to some of the problems posed in the program (lack of sleep, moodiness, etc.), but I just didn’t feel like I could make the session dynamic enough. It was only recently that I finally figured out a “hook” engaging enough for teenagers: Zits comics. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Youth Communication’s Summer Writing Workshop

I’ve been neglecting this blog, I know, but it’s been for good reason. I’m developing a couple new workshops, one on the teen brain for New Alternatives for Children (more on that later), and two for Youth Communication‘s Summer Writing Workshop (apply here). This year’s theme is identity, so they asked me to do two workshops on coming of age and adulthood. Keith, Virginia, and Luisa (the founder and the co-editors of Represent, their magazine Read more…

By Ysette, ago