Third Grade: Being Assertive

For my final lesson with third grade for this rotation, I taught students the final skill for learning: being assertive.  We started by reviewing the previous skills for learning we had discussed so far: focus attention, listen, and use self-talk. We went back over the expectations with each of these skills because they would be important in that day's Brain Builder.

For this lesson's brain builder, we did an activity called "The Doodle Dance." For the Doodle Dance, students must pay attention to my directions as they are vital to the success of this activity. Students are shown six different doodles that correspond with a particular dance move. Students must do this activity silently. I hold up the doodles in a certain order, which is very imporant because: all dancing must be done in reverse order of when the doodle was held up.

The dance moves are as follows:

• Red Bug - Shoulder Shrug
• Yellow Squiggle - Hip Wiggle
• Green Clover - Shake All Over
• Blue Tree - Lift Knee
• Purple Drops - Foot Hops
• Orange Star - Air Guitar

After the activity, we discussed which skills for learning had helped the students to be successful and how they had implemented these skills for learning. For instance, what were they focusing on? How did they use self-talk? Next, we talked about our final skill for being assertive: asking for what you want or need in a calm, firm, respectful way.

We looked at a photo of a student named Naomi who had gotten to school late. Her classmates were working in groups to complete an assignment, and the teacher told Naomi to go join a group. Naomi stood by her group, but none of them noticed that she was standing there. I modeled three different ways Naomi could ask for help.

• Passive: shoulders and head down, asking in a quiet voice
• Aggressive: aggressive stance, loud, rude voice
• Assertive: head and shoulders up, calm, firm, respectful voice

We talked about why each way for working would or would not be an effective way to get what we want or need. We finished the rest of the lesson by having students practice asking for help in an assertive way.

Be Assertive:

• Face the person you're talking to
• Keep your head up and shoulders back
• Use a calm, firm voice
• Use respectful words