For educators, counselors, therapists and familes

The goal of Building Character Through the Expressive Arts: The Power of Inclusion is to use the languages of the expressive arts to provide effective strategies and techniques to prevent bullying in schools. Participants learn the definitions of the four major roles in the bullying cycle and strategies to raise student awareness of the four major kinds of bullying. "Forum Theatre" and movement techniques give participants tools to help transform the bullying cycle by demonstrating the power of inclusion to turn witnesses into heros. Participants have the opportunity to practice these drama and movement techniques through small group improvisations and performances. These theatre arts and movement skills can easily be used in the classroom or in after school programs to help build character through the power of inclusion.

Teachers are also instructed in how to use the bully prevention book: New to the Forests of Selay: Witnesses Transforming into Heroes to reinforce the Inclusion Technique, help students develop empathy, and provide them with a clear example of how to use inclusion to effectively intervene to stop bullying.

As Augusto Boal, (2002), the Brazilian playwright and theatre director said, "What we act in the life of theatre is practice for what we live in the theatre of life."

Programs - Building Character and Community through the Expressive Arts: The Power of Inclusion

For elementary students

The three main learning objectives of the program are: 1) To teach the four main roles in the bullying cycle i.e. the Bully, the Target, the Witness, and the Hero, 2) To teach the four main kinds of bullying i.e. physical, verbal, relational, and cyber-bullying, and 3) To teach the Inclusion Technique i.e. how Witnesses can transform into Heroes when they unite to invite the Targets out of the reach of the Bullies to join a fun activity. This strategy and technique maximizes the chances of keeping the Targets and Heroes safe by avoiding confrontation with the Bullies.

The Building Character and Community Through the Expressive Arts: The Power of Inclusion accomplishes the three main learning objectives through the use of a multidisciplinary approach to the arts which involve three major components:

1) The first component involves reading comprehension and story writing. Students have the opportunity to read "New to the Forests of Selay: Witnesses Transforming into Heros" and then make their own illustrations of the story. The narrative demonstrates the Inclusion Technique i.e. how Witnesses can transform into Heroes when they unite to invite the Targets out of the reach of the Bullies to join a fun activity. Students are then prepared to write and illustrate their own bully prevention story showing the application of the Inclusion Technique.

2) A visual art component involving story illustrations.

3) A theatre arts component involving instruction in movement and drama strategies and techniques to help students build character and resolve conflicts. Students practice the arts interventions skills by informally acting out their inclusion stories for their peers.

Group members gain literacy, visual, and theatre arts skills to help build character and community that can be used effectively in school. The interdisciplinary use of the arts supports and deepens the learning objectives. The Building Character and Community through the Expressive Arts: The Power of Inclusion concludes with an evaluation of the program's effectiveness.