Issue 149: july 2011

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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