---
title: Gaslighting
description: Students will understand how to spot signs of gaslighting, a particular kind of emotional abuse.
image: https://ideas.pixton.com/hubfs/gaslighting-001-1.png
---

**Subject: ELA (English Language Arts); SEL (Social-Emotional Learning)**

**Lesson Length: 45 mins**

**Topic: Healthy Relationships**

**Grade Level: 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9**

**Standards / Framework: **

- [CASEL: RELATIONSHIP SKILLS](https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/#relationship)

**Brief Description:**  In this lesson, students will familiarize themselves with examples of gaslighting, and think about how it makes people feel or what they might do about it in real-life scenarios.

**Know Before You Start:** It is helpful for students to be familiar with the term **gaslighting**.

**Hook:**

- Ask students to explain what is meant by **gaslighting**.
- Show the poster from the film, *Gaslight*, and explain that the term gaslighting originated with the 1938 British play, *Gas Light, *which was later produced as the 1944 film *Gaslight.*

**Activity:**

- Have students create a three-panel comic describing a moment when they were inappropriately pressured to feel unable to trust themselves. 
    - How or when did you realize what was really going on?
    - How did the perpetrator benefit from your confusion?
    - What important lessons did you learn from your experience?

**Closure:**

- Ask students to share things they might do if they feel someone is gaslighting them.
- Have students share their comic with a peer, or showcase finished comics in a Gallery Walk.

**Differentiation:**

- Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
- Provide a list of phrases someone who is gaslighting might say.
- Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.

**Resources:**

- Comic to print or display: [Comic](https://share.pixton.com/qucxoge).
- Video: [Seven Phrases People Who Gaslight Say.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEPhEgW5lt4&t=3s)
- Poster: [Gaslight](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaslight_(1944_poster).jpg)

**Suggested Content:**

- [![](https://img.pixton.com/content-pack/2078531377204125696/thumbnail.png) News Station ](https://content.pixton.com/news-station)
- [![](https://img.pixton.com/content-pack/2078530841190330368/thumbnail.png) Elementary School ](https://content.pixton.com/elementary-school)
- [![](https://img.pixton.com/content-pack/2078531110531739648/thumbnail.png) Middle School ](https://content.pixton.com/middle-school)
- [![](https://img.pixton.com/content-pack/2078531138872651776/thumbnail.png) High School ](https://content.pixton.com/high-school)

Assign Activity

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