Updated: Notice to Educators Evaluating the Student Guides

Updated June 7, 2017. The CirclePoint team is currently revising What YOU Can Do About Bullying By Max & Zoey, the guide for students in grades 3–6, and All About Bullying, the guide for students in grades 6 and above. The revisions focus on two areas. First, abstract terms used in the guide are being replaced with concrete ones. Specifically, “dominance aggression” is being replaced with “physical bullying” and “verbal bullying,” “relational aggression” is being replaced with “friendship harming,” and “bystander intervention” is being replaced with “helping a bullied person.” While the original intent of using the abstract terms was to provide a common language for all program participants (students and adults alike), we have found that some students, while grasping the concepts, have a difficult time using the terms. In addition, we have found that some of the younger students have difficulty understanding the nuance between “aggression” and “bullying,” so we are deemphasizing this concept at the youngest grade levels. This will not have an impact on achieving the program’s goals.

The second area of focus is a complete review of the texts to find additional opportunities for Plain Language compliance. We are taking this step because of the increasing number of health care organizations, which are required to provide materials in Plain Language, that are using this guide.

The second editions of both guides should be available in late June 2017.