5) Explore what you already know. Access Leading Issue summaries ("Topic Overview" or "At Issue" Pages) and Timeline (under Research Tools) from the SIRS Leading Issue you have chosen. In 3-5 sentences, summarize the background and historical information of the Leading Issue you selected. Include main controversies, key figures, important organizations, and key events.

Briefly list what you know about your topic already. Consider the following:

• Surprising facts or statistics
  -Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:Leaving someone out on purpose, Telling other children not to be friends with someone, Spreading rumors about someone,Embarrassing someone in public.
  -Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school, in the youth’s neighborhood, and on the internet. 

• the extent of the problem

          -The extent of the problem is that to this day bullying continues to happen whether it is over the internet or face to face.

• important people or institutions involved

         -The important people or institutions is people getting bullied by anyone.

• key schools of thought

         -Schools are trying to do anything to change bullying around the United States

• common misconceptions

       -Some common misconceptions are someone who thinks they are being bullied when in reality they are not.

• observations you've made

        -I have noticed that a lot of people on the United States have been going through bullying or have been affected by it.

• major controversies