4.1 Giving advice  (Page 4/4)

I don’t know what teenagers did before telephones. I suppose carrier pigeons flapped back and forth in a cloud of dust and feathers. Or arrows with messages wrapped around them hummed across the village green. They must have managed to stay in touch somehow.

Teenage telephone conversations are important, but they are never about anything important. A system of jungle drums would achieve the same effect at a fraction of the cost. What can they possibly have to say? It baffles parents when teenagers dash to telephone someone she just sat next to in the school bus.

Teenagers need solitude. They need to spend long hours mooching, dreaming and gazing into space. Sometimes they need to lie completely inert beneath their duvets. This drives brisk and breezy parents around the bend. Teenagers actually need that time to ponder and fantasise.

So a normal teenager needs to belong, in particular to another group of teenagers, and she needs to be separate from her parents. She needs to be able to let off steam, play, argue and confirm in as many noisy ways as possible that she is alive.

(Adapted slightly)

In your groups, discuss the following:

• for whom has this article been written (target reader)?
• what is the article about?
• do you identify with what the writer is saying?
• Why? In what way do you identify with his message?

• Identify 10 important points in the text. Mind map them below – very briefly.

• Now, using the points you (as a group) jotted down on the mind map, write a short summary of the article. Try not to refer back to the original text and, as far as possible, use your own words.
• Compare your notes and summary with that of other groups.

Assessment

Memorandum

p.10 : Teenager gone wrong

• T
• F
• T
• F
• F
• T
• T
• T
• F
• F

Teen words

There should be no problem in the learners providing words for the list. However, take care of ‘risky’ words – words which perhaps cross over the decency barrier.

It can’t happen to me

1. stranger : someone who is new to a place and has no friends / awkward : to feel weird or strange ; not to fit in with the rest / illega l : not legal ; not allowed to do something by law / sensation : feeling

2. to cope with everything that was bothering him

3. It made him feel ‘cool’ and one of the crowd and he was desperate to be accepted by the other guys.

4. ‘The months passed and Greg found that he needed to smoke more and more in order to achieve the same sensation.’

1. His marks deteriorated.
2. He lost interest in his appearance and his personal hygiene. He was scruffy and unshaven and only washed his hair when forced to do so.
3. F
4. … he was jogging / exercising.
5. Open memo – debatable point

Reading and viewing

With regards to the following sections : work through this section thoroughly, starting with the reading. Make sure the children discuss the questions below the reading at length. Even get them to highlight keywords (not more that 10 – 12). .