cab u lary and stu dent
aware ness of a spe cific
self-con trol skill (i.e., frus tra tion tol er ance)
are high lighted. The method is ed u ca tional
and straight for ward. Uti liz ing re -
search-based tech niques for teach ing so cial
skills such as brain storm ing, role play ing, and
chil dren’s lit er a ture, the teacher in tro duces
the term “frus tra tion.” Stu dents’ feed back is
used to dis cuss the many faces of frus tra tion,
and stu dents are en cour aged to de velop
their own frus tra tion-tol er ance strat e gies.
Introducing the Concept
Lynn Pot ter, an as sis tant spe cial ed u ca -
tion teacher at Swift River El e men tary
School in Belchertown, Mas sa chu setts, in -
tro duced the con cept of frus tra tion
tol er ance to a group of third grad ers in
the following manner:
1 wrote “frus tra tion” on large,
col ored paper, and put it on a board
with mag nets. We tried to de fine it.
Stu dents brainstormed ideas about
what frus tra tion was. Some ex am ples
were “when some one both ers me,”
“it is a feel ing,” “when 1 get angry,”
“when 1 feel shaky,” “when my
mouse gets lost,” “my sis ter
frus trates me,” and “a funny feel ing 1
get when mom yells at me.”
Next, the stu dents looked up the
word “frus tra tion” in the dic tio nary.
We wrote the def i ni tion on the
board. We then pro ceeded to dis cuss
“things that frus trate us in school.”
Some of their frus tra tions in cluded
home work, math facts, “when the
teacher makes me write ‘Don’t talk
out loud,’ 20 times,” and not going
out side for recess.
With our school list on the board, 1
asked the stu dents to think for a few
min utes about things in their lives that
make them frus trated. They made
lists and drew pic tures. This went
over well. We had lots of dis cus sions
about feel ings-why we feel frus trated
and how we can cope. We have our
pic tures on the wall, and
con ver sa tions about frus tra tions have
con tin ued daily since.
As this les son in di cates, Lynn rec og -
nized that the first phase in teach ing
stu dents how to tol er ate frus tra tion is to
help them un der stand what frus tra tion is
(e.g., “that funny feel ing 1 get when mom
yells at me”) and how frus tra tion af fects
their daily lives.
Teaching Self-Control within the
Curriculum
The next phase of the Self-Con trol
Cur ric u lum is merg ing self-con trol in struc -
tion with el e ments of the gen eral
cur ric u lum. Teach ers can not be ex pected
to set aside a part of each day for “so cial
skill” train ing time. There are too many
de mands on teach ers in terms of proper
use of in struc tional time for them to take
on new re spon si bil i ties. At the same time,
stu dents need to see how self-con trol
skills such as frus tra tion tol er ance are rel -
e vant through out the day, in and out of
school. Merg ing self-con trol in struc tion
with the gen eral cur ric u lum is not only the
most ef fi cient way to teach self-con trol, it
is the best method for help ing stu dents to
gen er al ize their social-skill development
to other situations.
Colin Har ring ton is the lan guage arts
teacher at Hillcrest Ed u ca tional Cen ter, a
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res i den tial school for ad o les cents with
spe cial needs in Lenox, Mas sa chu setts.
What fol lows is Colin’s ap proach for
merg ing cre ative writ ing with frus tra tion
tolerance.
“I have found that get ting stu dents to
write who have low self-es teem and a his -
tory of fail ure with writ ten lan guage taps
di rectly into their prob lems with tol er at -
ing frus tra tion. When asked to write
any thing, their be hav iors range from
groans of dis ap proval to out right op po si -
tion. This gen er al ized at ti tude can dog an
en tire les son. But I know these kids want
to write. They tell me all the time. They
want to write let ters, they want to write
sports sto ries, and they want to write per -
sonal nar ra tives. But the self-con scious
fear of failure stops them cold!
I have found so lu tions to this in tol er -
ance for frus tra tion in writ ing from cues
pro vided by my stu dents. First, they need
to relax be fore they begin writ ing. Sec -
ond, they need to know the whole class
sup ports them in their ef forts. Third, they
need to have a sense of ac com plish ment
with every attempt.
Re lax ation
When stu dents come to my class, I
stop each one in di vid u ally at the door. I
greet them, and they greet me in re turn.
This shifts the focus from the chaos of the
hall way to one of re spect and order. They
all seem to want to know that I am tak ing
charge of the class from the start. I di rect
each stu dent com ing through the door,
one by one, where to sit and how. They
should have feet on the floor, eyes for -
ward, and they should not touch the
pen cil al ready placed on their desk. Once
ev ery one is in the class room, I im me di -
ately re quest a mo ment of quiet. We all sit
at least one full min ute in si lence. Next,
we take a deep breath through the nose,
hold for three sec onds, let ting go with a
sigh. I play some quiet, sooth ing music.
When stu dents begin their writ ing in this
re laxed state, frus tra tions are much less
likely to arise or be so troublesome.
Sup port
When stu dents be come frus trated be -
cause they are hav ing trou ble imag in ing a
story to write, I sup ply them with vivid
stock photo books eas ily found at pro fes -
sional print ers or pub lish ing agen cies. I
pair up stu dents to make a story about a
pic ture or two of their lik ing in the book.
Or, we look through the book as a class,
and as I hold up var i ous pic tures, we go
around the room and cre ate de tails, big
and small, that make up a story. I may
begin writ ing the story on the board and
allow the stu dents to copy the first part.
Al low ing stu dents to copy parts of sto ries
also helps them to get through the ini tial
frus tra tion of writ ing. To keep the mo -
men tum roll ing, I allow stu dents to help
each other re search spell ing and gram mar
rules. It often helps to have an other group
breath ing ses sion and a mo ment of quiet
when the writing gets tough.
Ac com plish ment
I often give easy as sign ments for writ -
ing. I may ask the stu dents to tell me a tall
tale, some big lie, or to write me a story
about wishes or dreams. I allow them to
nar rate these sto ries ver bally, some times
for the en tire class. Stu dents feel ac com -
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