Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What are some of the characteristics of healthy relationships? How might healthy relationships approach difficulties? What might be some of the characteristics of unhealthy relationships?

Teaching Suggestion: Nick, the protagonist, is abusive toward his girlfriend and sentenced to write in a journal and attend a family violence class. With sensitivity in mind for the individual circumstances that might be represented with group members, consider discussing aspects of healthy and unhealthy relationships. These or similar resources might be helpful in providing ideas or language for discussion or in responding to students’ written answers.

• This article describes the aspects of a healthy relationship and identifies unhealthy patterns in relationships.
• This 2-minute video explains the difference between healthy and unhealthy teen relationships.

Short Activity

Create a T-chart to compare healthy and unhealthy ways that people can cope with intense emotions.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may wish to complete this activity individually for the sake of privacy. Students can create this comparison with a T-chart (dividing healthy coping mechanisms in one column and unhealthy coping mechanisms in the other column), but other graphic organizers would work as well.