Healthy Relationships Teen Short Story and Work Packet

Written to raise awareness about HEALTHY and UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS in DATING: This short story and comprehensive reflection pack is for teens 14 and up. Spark constructive discussions about abusive and controlling relationships with the story and work packet. They won’t even know they are honing their inferencing skills at the same time :) The high-lo fiction story is perfect for all abilities, even your lowest-level readers can access it as it comes out at around grade 3/Year 4 reading levels (accessible to reading age 8 and up).

The story tells the first-person narrative of sixteen-year-old Dina, who falls madly in love with Jay. Despite having heard rumors about his temper, Dina is hell-bent on a relationship with 19-year-old Jay. Warnings from her best friend go unheard as she loses herself in a whirlwind romance full of toxicity, verbal abuse, and gas-lighting. You can read the first few pages of the story in the preview file.

Content warning: This story contains scenes of verbal and physical abuse, such as shoving, pushing, and hair-pulling. There is no sex in the story, just the odd mention of kissing (no details). The words mad, crazy etc are used as put-downs and are an important element of the story. There is no swearing (the British version contains ‘p*ssed off’, US version ‘pissed’. If you don’t like that, drop me a line in ‘ask a question’ and I will give you another version. You can read the first few pages in the preview file to see if it’s for you.

This is a fiction story based on personal experience and is written to hopefully stop kids getting into abusive relationships from the get-go.

What’s included:

Story with US and British Spellings. (I am British and write for the US market).

5,146 words – time to read: slow readers around 40 minutes, average readers around 17 minutes.

18 pages, single spacing.

Grade 3.4 on the Flesch-Kincaid reading level (meaning it is accessible to lower-level readers). It has a reading ease of 88% (easy to read).

12 worksheets to pick apart, understand and reflect upon the dynamics of the relationship in the story. These cover: gaslighting, rushing into relationships, lovebombing, red flags, hindsight and healthy relationships.