Coping Power Teacher Overview Course
Classroom Teacher Lesson Overviews

Lesson 4- Self-Control and Active Coping

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Lesson Overview

Lesson Goal:

Students will be introduced to and practice behavioral coping strategies that support the regulation of negative emotions.

Lesson Objectives:

  1. Students will explain the purpose of the PICC model and list its steps, explaining how these relate to the Thoughts, Actions, Feelings Triangle.

  2. Students will identify healthy active coping strategies they can use to manage more challenging emotions at varying levels of intensity.

  3. Students will identify when to use healthy proactive strategies to reduce intense, challenging emotional experiences such as anger or stress.

  4. Students will describe how healthy coping strategies relate to using the PICC model to solve social problems.

  • Welcome back to another Coping Power Classroom Power Up Video. We’re glad you’re back.

    This week, your students are learning about active coping. Active coping works by directing our attention toward activities we enjoy, and therefore temporarily taking our attention away from a strong emotion or a difficult situation, with the goal of helping us regulate our emotion or mood so that we can be calm enough to process the situation and make a healthy decision.

    Some examples of active coping strategies include playing a game, exercising, playing sports and weightlifting, spending time outside, singing, dancing, drawing, or spending time with friends or family. These activities can take a long time, or they can be a short burst of activity to stay emotionally regulated.

    These active coping strategies can also be used before a strong negative emotion or challenging situation arises to help keep us low in our emotional intensity, and therefore more prepared to take care of ourselves and face challenges as they come up in our lives.

    It’s important to note that the goal with these active coping strategies is not to resist or deny strong emotions or avoid a conflict altogether. Instead, students are learning to press pause when they get to a point where they recognize their emotions are too strong and are getting in the way of their ability to manage or resolve a problem. Active coping will help them calm down and regulate their emotions so they can work on fixing the problem in a healthier way.

    Students are learning that changing their actions, thoughts, or feelings can impact their overall emotional intensity. Active coping works by changing the action, or behavior, component of our emotions. This lets us get back to a lower intensity emotional state, which is so important for making helpful decisions.

    Again, students are referencing the emotion thermometer graphic here to help conceptualize and explain how they are feeling at a given time, and before and after engaging in active coping. 

    This week’s challenge task asks you to find time when students can practice using active coping skills. For example, before a long lesson, test, or activity that students could potentially find frustrating, challenging, or boring, give them 3-5 minutes to practice an appropriate active coping skill, like drawing a picture, listening to music, or doing jumping jacks. You could also implement this right after a difficult or stressful task.

    You can use these opportunities to remind your students that they can practice these skills daily, even when they aren’t experiencing intense emotions. Periodically check in with the students about their own experiences using the active coping strategies throughout the week, both at school and at home.

    Good luck, and we’ll see you next week!