Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Testing self-knowledge

20 minutes

Find Out: Triggers

30 minutes

Take Action: Calming anger

10 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Testing self-knowledge

Preparation

Some students may find this content challenging or triggering. They may not find it so simple to keep their anger under control. Meet with your wellbeing team prior to the lesson to identify if there are any students who may find this content challenging and create a plan for them. If you notice any students struggling with this content, check in with them in private. They may be struggling with their own, or another person’s anger and require additional support. At all times, try to reinforce that anger is not in itself a negative expression, but that when it gets out of control, it can have major negative consequences.

Step 1

Ensure you have a clear space in your room where students can move from one end of the room to another. Label one side of the room with 'Agree' and the other side 'Disagree'.

Note: If you do not have enough space, you could have students sit and stand or place their hands on their heads or hips to indicate whether they agree or disagree. For better privacy, you could ask students to close their eyes during this activity.

Read the following statements, allowing time for students to move to either Agree or Disagree. After each statement, you might like to invite one or two students to share why they agree or disagree. You might like to explore their beliefs surrounding the statement and their expectations about the behaviour of others and themselves.

I am calm most of the time and can manage my emotions
I hate it when people walk slowly in front of me at the supermarket
I get angry when something seems unfair
I’m fine with getting in trouble
I don’t like it when people touch me or my stuff without permission
I often think other people are rude or nasty
I usually think that people are doing the best they can and have good intentions
I find it takes a long time to calm down when I get cross or upset
I find it easy to communicate what is ok and not ok with me
I have a strong picture of how I think I should be treated.

Find Out: Triggers

Step 1

Invite the class to share what they know about the word ‘trigger’.

If the students don’t arrive here on their own, explain that a trigger is an activating event that sets off a reaction of some kind. For example, pressing a literal ‘trigger’ on a gun activates the mechanism that propels the bullet. From there all kinds of consequences can ensue.

Step 2

Explain that today we will be exploring anger and how it can be triggered and managed. Play this video:

What Triggers Anger | Anger Management (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRuXWtmCC8)

Step 3

Play this video and have students complete the table below:

A Coward's Punch Can Kill - Danny Green (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH79j9BQjDE)

A Activating event	B Belief	C Consequence
Suggested answer: being knocked by the man carrying the drinks.	Suggested answer: he did it deliberately and showed me disrespect.	Suggested answer: got angry, wanted payback, so he punched him.

Step 4

Invite students to recall an incident in their lives that happened in the past few weeks and made them feel angry. Have them fill out this chart:

A Activating event	B Belief	C Consequence

You might like to invite volunteers to share their incident and response. Ensure that they know there is no pressure to share.

Step 5

Play this video once through:

The Fight Flight Freeze Response (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEHwB1PG_-Q)

Play the video again, instructing students to answer these questions on their Student Worksheets:

What happens in the body when our FFF mechanism is triggered?
Suggested answers: breath quicker and more shallow, heart starts beating very fast, chest pain, blood is diverted, need to pee, mouth goes dry, nauseous, cold hands, sweaty palms, trembling, tension in big muscles, dizzy, lightheaded.
What happens in the brain?
Suggested answer: scans memories, tunnel vision, can’t recognise facial expressions.
How do we relieve these reactions?
Suggested answers: breathing exercises, meditation.

Step 6

Ask students to reflect in pairs on this question:

In the coward punch video and your own event that you wrote about, why do you think the flight, fight, freeze response might have been activated?

Take Action: Calming anger

Step 1

Explain to students that anger is a very normal emotion and that it’s completely fine to feel angry sometimes. Anger can be our friend. It tells us something is wrong and it can help us work out how to communicate our needs and feelings more effectively.

Anger only becomes a problem when it becomes too easily activated and impacts on our ability to control our reactions to everyday situations.

Step 2

Allow some time for students to read through this website and play this video for the class:

Why is Anger Getting the Better of Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBpoLZH4woc)

Website link: openarms.gov.au/signs-symptoms/anger-and-violence/anger

Invite students to summarise the information under each of these headings as they read:

What can I do about it?
- Take time out
- Relax
- Identify unhelpful thoughts
- Put things in perspective
- Does your anger turn to violence?

Invite students to highlight any points that seem particularly useful or relevant to them.

Note: If any students express concern about their anger being unmanageable or turning to violence, ensure you refer them to your school's wellbeing team. We have provided a 1 -on-1 session to assist students who need additional support in managing their anger.

Step 3

Explain that there are many other approaches used to manage and direct anger towards a positive outcome, such as discharging anger through sport, music or dance. You can also develop a meditation or mindfulness practice, or use breathing techniques to slow down your nervous system. Over time, many of these strategies can reduce overall nervous system elevation.

As we learned from the fight, flight or freeze response video, stress can build up in our body like a battery. When the battery becomes too full, we can explode in anger. Discharging and managing this stress in safe and healthy ways can help us to bring our body systems back to homeostasis - or the rest and recovery state.

Step 4

Play this video:

The Science Behind Mindfulness Meditation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTA0j8FfCvs)

Invite students to spend a few minutes working with a partner or small group to come up with some ideas for how to creatively manage and/or discharge their stress and anger.

Learning extension: Students could read this article (mindful.org/cooling-the-raging-fires-of-anger/) and keep a journal of their anger and self-help strategies over the coming month.

Step 5 (optional)

Practise a mindfulness meditation with your class. Here are some ideas:

Headspace: Meditation for stress (headspace.com/meditation/stress)
Teen Meditation | 10 min Guided Meditation for Teens & Kids (youtu.be/fogItGIpbT0)
Meditation for Anxiety - Yoga With Adriene (youtu.be/4pLUleLdwY4)

Reflection

Invite students to complete the below questions:

“It is better to let anger out rather than keeping it in.” Agree or disagree?
Looking back at your reflection chart, how do you think a different belief might have created a different consequence?
What strategies would you prefer to use to discharge or manage your stress or anger?

Learning Support: This resource might provide some helpful information for students who want to learn more about their anger: youngminds.org.uk/young-person/my-feelings/anger/

Coward Punch - Anger Management 101

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