"Reading and Responding to Children’s Books About Bullying" by Kathy Everts Danielson and Jan LaBonty
 

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2009

Journal Title

Ohio Journal of English Language Arts

Volume

49

Issue

1

First Page

31

Last Page

38

Abstract

Which of the following scenarios is an example of bullying?

A. Older boys repeatedly steal a second-grader’s lunch money.
B. A group of girls start and perpetuate vicious rumours about a shy classmate.
C. On a daily basis, a boy makes fun of a peer’s old-fashioned clothes.
D. During recess, bigger kids push, shove, and taunt smaller children.
E. All of the above.

If you guessed E, you not only know a lot about test construction, you also understand the classic definition of bullying: “Bullying is a deliberate attempt to hurt another that is repeated over time,” (Craig, 1997, p. 123). Each scenario above contains a truth about bullying: bullies tend to be older and/or bigger than their victims; bullying involves both physical and verbal abuse; victims are usually different in some way from their peers, whether it involves dress, size, language, or social skills; and bullying occurs most frequently on the playground or in isolated locations where there is no adult supervision (Craig, 1997; Olweus, 1993).

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