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Component:  Handling Stress
Component Description:  learning the value of exercise, guided imagery, relaxation methods.
 

GRADES K-3
Specific Session Objective:
    Students will use brainstorming to create an age appropriate definition of stress and use non-verbal dramatic form to explore stress in their lives.
Terms
    Stress Source - an activity or situation which causes the person in question to experience stress.
Session Content
1.  WARM-UP
    Following a brief physical stretch which ends with relaxing and tensing specific muscle groups, discuss and demonstrate ideas of how our bodies look when we are relaxed versus not relaxed.
2.  DISCUSSION/BRAINSTORM
    Introduce the word "stress" by writing it on the blackboard.  Ask students to brainstorm on what they think the word means and scribe all student input on the board.  Narrow ideas down using consensus and guiding questions about vocabulary choices until students develop an age and language appropriate definition of the word stress.
3.  TABLEAUX
    Ask for ideas from the students on when and where they might feel stress, returning to the physicalization of stress addressed in the warm-up if necessary.  Scribe lists of ideas on the board and use brainstorming process to narrow choices.  Explain that these situation written on the board can be called "stress sources".  Explain that the class is going to be participants and audience at a Stress Exhibit at the Museum of Science.  Divide students into groups of three and ask them to choose one situation from the board and create a "Polaroid picture" (tableaux) of this stress source.  Take turns looking at each group's sculpture and describing what is seen.
Session Assessment
    Come to a circle and lead discussion on our definition of stress developed at the beginning of the session.
    What words or ideas would you change?
    Ask for demonstration of an example of a stress source at students' age level.
    Ask for an example of how you could tell that someone was experiencing stress without
    asking them with words.
                                                                                Developed by E. O'Hara
 

GRADES 4-5
Specific Session Objective
    Students will use creative drama techniques such as hot seating and interviewing to recognize and identify stress sources not only in their own lives, but in a larger contextual environment such as home and school.
Terms
    Stress Source - an activity or situation which causes the person in question to experience stress.
Session Materials
    15 index cards, each with a description (who, what, where) of a stress source which
    takes place either at home or at school
Session Content
1.  WARM-UP
    "The Stress Machine" - Explain the guidelines of "machine making" in drama, each person coming up with a repetitive sound and movement which they will incorporate with those of the other students to create a "human machine."  Explain that this machine will be a Stress Machine - a machine depicting how bodies and voices appear when we are experiencing stress.  Ask students to add on to the machine one by one; then have the machine speed up, slow down, and come to rest.
2.  INTERVIEWING
    Begin this activity with a brief discussion of stress and what a stress source is: In what situations do you experience stress?  How is the stress you experience related to that experienced or perceived by other people in a specific environment such as a classroom?
    Divide students into pairs and ask hem to choose who will be the interviewer.  The other person will choose a situation like the ones just discussed, and the pair will conduct an interview during which the interviewers will try and find out as much as they can about the stress source which the other person is experiencing.  Encourage interviewers to use open ended questions such as:  Can you describe how the stress you are experiencing changes the way your body of voice looks, sounds, or feels?  Share each pairs' work through spotlighting, one group at a time.
3.  HOT SEATING
    Ask for three volunteers to improv a scene based on a stressful situation written down on prepared index cards.  Freeze the scene at points of tension and invite audience to "hot seat" characters to find out how they feel and how the other characters' actions affect them.
Session Assessment
    Revisit Warm-up:  Re-create the stress machine worked on during the warm-up.  This time, however, the machine will focus on expressing how the stress of someone else can affect our own physical feelings.  The students' movements and sounds should be more inter-connected, as they are literally cueing off each other's actions.  Relax and discuss differences and similarities between this Stress Machine and the first machine.
Relevant References in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: pp. 65-69
                                                                            Created by E. O'Hara
 

GRADES 6-8
Specific Session Objective
    Students will explore potential solutions and ways to address handling stress in their everyday lives.
Terms
    Stress Source - an activity or situation which causes the person in question to experience stress.
Session Materials
    15 index cards with scene starters printed on them
Session Content
1.  WARM-UP
    Ask students to move around the room, shaking out arms and legs as they go.  Ask them to focus mentally on one thing in their lives which is causing them to experience stress, one specific stress source.  Tell them to imagine that the stress they feel about that issue right now is at level 5; use guiding questions such as: How do you feel this stress in your back?  In your arms? Shoulders? etc., to encourage students to become conscious of how their bodies process stress.  Next ask them to imagine that the volume level on this stress is now up to 6, then 7.  We should see the stress rising in our bodies; it should affect how we walk, breathe, talk, etc.  Allow students to interact briefly with each other as they go to 8-10, then back down to level 1, where the stress of the activity or situation is virtually gone from their minds.
2.  DISCUSSION
    Circle the class and explain that what they went through is one way of handling stress, called guided imagery - where we use our imaginations to address the physical and emotional symptoms of stress.  Summarize Goleman's section on the medical effects of stress and brainstorm about possible ways of short circuiting stress situations such as exercise or relaxation.
3.  BEGINNINGS AND ENDS
    Divide students into small groups and give each group time to come up with an ending to a scene starter provided for them on index cards.  Scene starters should include at least the number of people in the group and offer a playable depiction of stress in the lives of students.  Each group should come up with at least two different endings, each one expressing a different solution to stress such as exercise, imagery, relaxation, or ones they invent.  Share and discuss each groups' work.
Session Assessment
    Journals:  Ask each student to write a one page response to the session addressing the following questions:  What is a situation you found yourself in recently in which you experienced the kind of stress we worked on today?  Which of the solutions we discussed would have helped you out of the situation and why?  Which ones would not have worked and why?
Relevant References in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: p. 72-75
                                                                            Created by E. O'Hara
 

GRADES 9-12
Specific Session Objective
    Students will discuss and explore patterns relating to stress in their own lives and use verbal communication (Forum Theatre) and non-verbal communication (mirroring movement activity) to explore action and consequence as they relate to stress management.
Terms
    Stress Source - an activity or situation which causes the person in question to experience stress.
Session Content
1.  WARM-UP
    "Mirror Movement" - Begin by explaining a simple mirror exercise; pair students up to take turns mirroring each others' movements.  Encourage simplicity in movement and a slow pace.  As students' comfort with the activity grows, shape it to now focus on reaction to each other's movements.  The leader will count to three, during which time all of the A's will move and come to freeze on three.  On the next count of three, the B's will move in response to the movement and posture of the A's.  Encourage students to focus on the images that come to mind during their partner's movements as well as the emotions and tension levels they experience.
2.  DISCUSSION
    Explain that the warm-up was addressing an important part of handling stress:  the recognition of it as part of our day.  Each partnering experienced tension and stress in reacting to each other's movement.  Ask for examples of this from the group and offer leader's observations.  Discuss the patterns which tend to form in how we interact with other people and how that relates to handling stress:  Do we tend to back away when confronted by an aggressive move, figuratively or literally?  Do we experience "fight or flight"?  How does this affect our stress levels?  Do we avoid stressful situations or do we navigate them once it is too late?  When do we find ourselves doing each of these things?
3.  FORUM THEATRE
    Explain the basics of Forum Theatre (beginning a scene, stopping the action and reworking or discussing the action before replaying it, giving students the opportunity to step in).  Ask for volunteers to come up and begin an improv based on a set of given circumstances offered by the audience:  Where are we?  What is the relationship these people have?  What is the conflict?  Ask students to watch for the generation and expression of stress patterns in each of the characters and encourage them to stop the action when they see the opportunity to break these patterns by finding some way of "short circuiting" the situation.  Continue in this manner with the next group until all students have had a chance to begin a scene.
Session Assessment
1.  LETTERS TO A CHARACTER
    Have students choose one character they saw in the Forum Theatre exercise to whom they will write a letter, expressing their opinions on how the character acted and reacted to the stressful situation they were in:  Do you feel you might react the same way?  Why or why not?  Was the character's choice effective?  How would it apply itself to other contexts?  Students may choose to write more than one letter if time permits.  Regroup and share letters on a volunteer basis.
                                                                            Developed by E. O'Hara