Asking For Help!

At a Glance:

Grades:	4, 5, 6, 7
Subject:	SEL (Social-Emotional Learning); Special Education
Topic:	Stress Management
Lesson Length:	15 - 20 mins

Standards / Framework:

Students will practice how to ask for help.

Students should understand that there are many tools to help manage stress.

Discuss with students when they last asked someone for help.
- Why did you ask for help?
- Did you ask for help right away or did you wait until something became too stressful to handle it yourself?
Explain that asking for help can be challenging for adults, too.
- Why do you think it’s hard?
- Possible answers may include: feeling weak, scared because it might involve punishment, being unsure of who to talk to about it, fear of being picked on because you asked for help, pride, etc.

Read and discuss the sample comic.
- Who would they ask for help?
- What would they say to ask for help?
Have students create a comic depicting themselves or a character asking for help.
Students may use the following sentence frames to support their answers:
- “I’m having a hard time with_______, Can we talk about it later?"
- “I’ve been trying really hard but still don’t get this. Can you help me?"
- “I’m not sure how I feel about something. Can we talk about it?”
- “I could really use some advice about_______. Can we talk it out together?

Give students some time to reflect on their own or journal.
- Who is someone in my life I can trust and will always be able to ask for help?
- Do I feel comfortable asking my teacher(s) for help? Why or why not?
- What is something right now in my life where I could use some help? How can I ask for support?

Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
Provide sentence frames.
Use role-play to provide an opportunity to practice using dialogue to ask for help.
Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.