Module One: Coping Power Lesson Overviews
Lesson Overview
Lesson Goal:
Students will be introduced to and practice behavioral coping strategies that support the regulation of negative emotions.
Lesson Objectives:
Students will explain the purpose of the PICC model and list its steps, explaining how these relate to the Thoughts, Actions, Feelings Triangle.
Students will identify healthy active coping strategies they can use to manage more challenging emotions at varying levels of intensity.
Students will identify when to use healthy proactive strategies to reduce intense, challenging emotional experiences such as anger or stress.
Students will describe how healthy coping strategies relate to using the PICC model to solve social problems.
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Welcome back to another Coping Power Classroom Power Up Video. We’re glad you’re back.
This week, your students are learning about active coping. Active coping works by directing our attention toward activities we enjoy, and therefore temporarily taking our attention away from a strong emotion or a difficult situation, with the goal of helping us regulate our emotion or mood so that we can be calm enough to process the situation and make a healthy decision.
Some examples of active coping strategies include playing a game, exercising, playing sports and weightlifting, spending time outside, singing, dancing, drawing, or spending time with friends or family. These activities can take a long time, or they can be a short burst of activity to stay emotionally regulated.
These active coping strategies can also be used before a strong negative emotion or challenging situation arises to help keep us low in our emotional intensity, and therefore more prepared to take care of ourselves and face challenges as they come up in our lives.
It’s important to note that the goal with these active coping strategies is not to resist or deny strong emotions or avoid a conflict altogether. Instead, students are learning to press pause when they get to a point where they recognize their emotions are too strong and are getting in the way of their ability to manage or resolve a problem. Active coping will help them calm down and regulate their emotions so they can work on fixing the problem in a healthier way.
Students are learning that changing their actions, thoughts, or feelings can impact their overall emotional intensity. Active coping works by changing the action, or behavior, component of our emotions. This lets us get back to a lower intensity emotional state, which is so important for making helpful decisions.
Again, students are referencing the emotion thermometer graphic here to help conceptualize and explain how they are feeling at a given time, and before and after engaging in active coping.
This week’s challenge task asks you to find time when students can practice using active coping skills. For example, before a long lesson, test, or activity that students could potentially find frustrating, challenging, or boring, give them 3-5 minutes to practice an appropriate active coping skill, like drawing a picture, listening to music, or doing jumping jacks. You could also implement this right after a difficult or stressful task.
You can use these opportunities to remind your students that they can practice these skills daily, even when they aren’t experiencing intense emotions. Periodically check in with the students about their own experiences using the active coping strategies throughout the week, both at school and at home.
Good luck, and we’ll see you next week!
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Academic Extensions of Lesson Content
Looking for ways to include this week’s Coping Power content in your classroom lessons? Check out our suggestions below:
Math
After introducing students to a new math concept that may feel frustrating and challenging initially, remind students of the active coping strategies they learned in Coping Power (count backwards from 100, think about a favorite place, etc). Invite students to practice these coping strategies if they notice their emotion thermometer rising as they try a new math skill.
English/ Language Arts
Combine students’ learning about writing short narratives with descriptive language and clear event sequencing with what they learned about active coping and self control. Ask students to write a short personal narrative about a time they were feeling an intense emotion and used active coping strategies to work through it. The narrative should use detailed language to vividly guide the reader through the emotions the writer was feeling, as well as describe at least one active coping strategy used.
Social Studies
How did historical figures cope in times of challenge? Have students practice perspective taking as they learn about important leaders in history. Discuss as a class:
If you were _____ during _____ event, where would your emotion thermometer be?
If you were _____ during _____ event, what active coping strategies would you use to cope during this challenging event?
How do the actions of these leaders during times of challenge and stress show that they knew how to cope with intense emotions in a healthy way?
Science
Scientific method process through exploration of active coping strategies: Using the active coping strategies discussed in lesson 4 (talking with friends/family, being creative, pressing pause, etc), have students form hypotheses about which strategy they predict will be the most successful in different situations. Task students with trying a few active coping strategies throughout the week, either at home or in school, journaling about the results of each. At the end of the week, have students analyze their journaled “data” and practice drawing conclusions about their initial hypothesis.