Jake and Bobby's Bullying Outline

Summary Response Outline

Summary:  Bully by Lee Hirsch supports the idea that bullying is a major problem in schools today. Lee endorses the problem of bullying by showing several students that have been affected by this issue. Additionally, Hirsch illustrates his point by showing that a teenage boy is scared to go back to school because of severe bullying.  Hirsch shows through this examples that bullying is becoming a serious problem for students.  

• Topic sentence: title, author, strong verb, main idea
• Supporting ideas and explanations to prove main ideas
• Concluding sentence: restate main idea

Response:

• Topic sentence: title, author, strong verb,correctly portrays/ incorrectly portrays___________ because ___________ .
• Claim 1:  Bully by Lee Hirsch correctly portrays that bullying is a major problem because many students have gone to extreme measures such as cutting, suicide, and murder.  Hirsch, in his documentary, illustrates how big of an issue bullying is by showing a 12 year old named Alex and all his struggles.  Alex states, “Most kids don’t want to be around me, I feel like I belong somewhere else” (Hirsch).  20 years ago people never would have imagined how cruel teenagers could be to each other.  Unfortunately, at this rate almost every student will be bullied several times each year.  However, bullying is just regular behavior for teenagers.  Dean Donehoo, the dean of Murray County, had a conference with parents.  In response to being criticized for the bullying problems in his district he said, “Boys will be boys” (Hirsch).  This shows that boys aren’t really trying to be mean and hurtful, but they are just doing what all boys do.  Bullying is made to be a bigger deal than it really is and the teenagers are being the obnoxious teenagers they are.   
• Set-up
• Evidence: Lead-in  “ quotation” (Shakespeare 1.2.13-17).
• Explanation of quotation to prove claim: explain quote, connect to claim
• Counterclaim 1: However, ....
• Set-up
• Evidence: Lead-in  “ quotation” (       )
• Explanation of quotation to prove counterclaim: explain quote, connect to claim
• What are the strengths/ flaws of this argument? (use rebuttal progression language)
• Concluding sentence: restate main idea

A common view is that boys are just being boys, or girls are just being girls and therefore bullying isn’t a big problem.  It is just how teenagers act.  This position seems reasonable because bullying happens in all schools, and it is nearly impossible to stop it from happening.  However it’s more complicated than that, more students than ever before are being bullied to a point where they want to hurt themselves.  It is viewed as not a big deal to bully, so more teenagers are doing it because they aren’t told to stop.  Teachers don’t always attempt to prevent bullying from happening in schools.  Thousands of people every year commit suicide, almost always because of bullying.  This shows how bullying is a major issue.  In conclusion, bullying happens too much and it is a very big problem which needs to be stopped as soon as possible