Support Resources

 📣 Article link

Audience: Upper Elementary

Main Idea: The article is about how to cope with the death of a loved one, including allowing oneself to grieve without judgment, reminding oneself that there is no right way to grieve, making time in one's life to process grief, accepting help and support from others, spending time with friends and family, taking care of one's body while grieving, looking for positive ways to remember the loved one, using the funeral as an opportunity to celebrate their life, moving forward gradually on one's own timeline, getting back into daily routines at one's own pace, being prepared for anniversary reactions, finding a support group to talk about feelings with others and talking to a counselor if intense grief or sadness won't go away.

Vocabulary:

• Grief - (noun) Deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death.

• Coping - (noun) The ability to deal effectively with something difficult.

• Support - (noun) Assistance and advice given to someone in need or trouble. 

• Mourning - (noun) A period of time during which a person expresses sadness after the death of a loved one.

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What is grief? 

2. How can people cope with the death of a loved one? 

3. What are some strategies for dealing with intense emotions after a loss?

Discussion Questions: 

1. How can we find a support group to talk about our feelings with others? 

2. What are some positive ways to remember a loved one after their death? 

3. How can we help children cope with the loss of a loved one?

 📣 Article link

Audience: High School

Main Idea: The article is about how everyone grieves differently and how parents can help children process their grief without pushing them. 

Vocabulary:

• Grief (noun): Deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death.

• Permanence (noun): The state or quality of lasting forever; eternal existence.

• Transparency (noun): The quality of being easy to see through or understand; openness.

• Developmental Place (noun): A stage in the process of physical, mental, emotional, and social development.

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What is grief?

2. How do people typically express grief? 

3. What are some strategies for helping someone process a loss?

Discussion Questions: 

1. How can parents help their children process the loss of a loved one?

2. What is the difference between how adults and children grieve? 

3. How do societal expectations of grief affect how people cope with loss?

 📣 Article link

Audience: Middle School

Main Idea: The article is about how the author's children taught her to embrace both sadness and joy in the wake of a family tragedy. 

Vocabulary:

• Grief (noun): Deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death.

• Tragedy (noun): A very sad event or situation, typically one involving death or suffering.

• Cartwheels (noun): A physical exercise in which a person stands on their hands and throws their feet up into the air while turning over.

• Joy (noun): A feeling of great pleasure and happiness. 

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What do we know about grief? 

2. What do we want to know about grief? 

3. What have we learned about grief? 

4. How can parents help their children cope with loss? 

5. What strategies can parents use to support their children's emotional wellbeing after a tragedy? 

6. What are some common reactions to grief and how should they be addressed?  

7. How does joy and happiness fit into the grieving process? 

8. What is the role of joy in helping us move through our sadness and pain? 

9. How can we embrace moments of joy even while dealing with grief and loss? 

Discussion Questions: 

1. What do the books the author ordered teach her about how to help her children cope with grief? 

2. How does the author's daughter show her brother that she remembers him after his death? 

3. What is the significance of the moment when Lizzie turns cartwheels on her brother's grave? 

 📣 Article link

Audience: Upper Elementary - High School

Main Idea: The article is about the different types of stress, causes of stress in the workplace, and strategies for managing it. 

Vocabulary: 

• Stress (noun): A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.

• Fight-or-flight response (noun): The body's automatic physiological response to a perceived threat, preparing it to fight or flee.

• Stressor (noun): A stimulus that causes stress.

• Chronic stress (noun): Prolonged stress, which can cause physical and mental health problems. 

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What do we know about stress? 

2. How does stress affect the body? 

3. What are some strategies for managing stress? 

Discussion Questions: 

1. What are some major types of stress?

2. What are some problems associated with chronic stress? 

3. What strategies can people use to manage their stress? 

 📣 Article link

Audience: Upper Elementary - Middle School

Main Idea: The article examines why Kobe Bryant's death had such a profound effect on so many people who didn't know him, and suggests three main reasons grounded in psychology. 

Vocabulary:

• Parasocial bonds (noun): A one-way emotional relationship between a person and someone else (such as a celebrity) whom they have never met or interacted with.

• Counterfactual thoughts (noun): Thoughts about how an event could have happened differently, often leading to feelings of anger, sadness, or frustration.

• Terror management theory (noun): A psychological theory which suggests that reminders of mortality evoke an existential terror in people, causing them to search for ways to give their lives meaning and seek comfort and reassurance by connecting with loved ones.

• Existential terror (noun): An intense fear caused by the realization of one's mortality. 

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What do we know about the power of grief? 

2. How does grief affect us emotionally? 

3. What are some common reactions to a tragedy? 

Discussion Questions: 

1. How does the concept of parasocial bonds help explain why people felt so connected to Kobe Bryant? 

2. What role do counterfactual thoughts play when processing a tragic event like Kobe Bryant's death? 

3. What does terror management theory suggest about how people cope with the death of someone they have never met? 

 📣 Article link

Audience: Middle School - High School

Main Idea: The article explores how writing and reading stories can be used to heal, help us empathize with others, and communicate better. 

Vocabulary:

• Empathy (noun): The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

• Narrative Medicine (noun): A movement that seeks to improve emotional well-being through the use of storytelling.

• Vicarious (adjective): Experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another.

• Purge (verb): To rid oneself of an emotion, memory, or desire. 

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What is the role of storytelling in human history? 

2. How does reading fiction help us empathize with others? 

3. What are the benefits of writing for emotional well-being? 

Discussion Questions: 

1. What is the purpose of writing and reading stories for healing? 

2. How does reading fiction and nonfiction affect our ability to empathize? 

3. What role do doctors play in the movement of narrative medicine? 

 📣 Article link

Audience: Grades 3rd to 5th

LESSON INFO:

Compelling Question: How can processing grief sometimes feel like a rollercoaster of emotions?

Student Instructions: Processing strong feelings, like grief, is sometimes described as an “emotional rollercoaster”. Here, you will read about a girl named Izzie who feels sad when thinking about happy memories. You will identify these conflicting emotions to better understand the ups and downs of grief.

1. Think-Pair-Share with the following prompt: People have happy memories and sad memories, but sometimes even happy memories can make us feel sad. Think about some reasons why a happy memory might make a person feel sad.

2. As you read The Sun Stands Still, highlight the happy emotions that Izzie feels during the story in one color. Choose a different color to highlight the sad emotions Izzie feels.

3. After reading, respond to the following using specific details from the article:

1. Why do you think Izzie experiences sad emotions when thinking about happy memories of her grandfather?

2. Can you share a time when you felt a mix of happy and sad emotions? How did you deal with those feelings?

3. What are some healthy ways Izzie can cope with her grief and the rollercoaster of emotions she's experiencing?

4. Return to the Compelling Question: How can processing grief sometimes feel like a rollercoaster of emotions?

Extensions:

• Emotional Rollercoaster of Grief: Draw a rollercoaster track by drawing a line across a piece of paper that includes ascending and descending lines. Label the different parts of your rollercoaster with some of the different emotions Izzie experienced during the story. Describe emotions by inferring. For example, as Izzie’s hand shakes, they can infer that she might be feeling nervous.

ARTICLE INFO:

Main Idea: The article is about Izzie's experience of celebrating the winter solstice with her family in the absence of her grandfather. 

Vocabulary:

• Winter Solstice (noun): The day of the year with the shortest period of daylight and longest night, occurring annually around December 21.

• Luminaries (noun): A light or lights placed in a window, especially at Christmas.

• Mistletoe (noun): A parasitic plant that grows on certain trees, bearing white berries and having leathery leaves and small yellowish flowers.

• Fiddle (noun): A bowed stringed instrument similar to a violin but with a typically flatter bridge and a lower pitch. 

Activating Prior Knowledge:

1. What do we know about family traditions? 

2. What do we want to know about family traditions? 

3. What have we learned about family traditions? 

4. What is the winter solstice? 

5. How does the winter solstice affect our lives? 

6. What are some common ways people celebrate the winter solstice? 

Discussion Questions: 

1. What is the significance of the winter solstice to Izzie and her family?

2. How does Izzie's family honor Grandpa at the winter solstice? 

3. How does Izzie find the courage to play Grandpa's fiddle in front of her family on winter solstice? 

 📣 Resource Direct link   *You will need to create an account to access this link.

Audience: Upper Elementary

Novel: The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

Printable - Document with text sets, vocabulary, and activities

Companion Passages:   *These can be used independently as source material for classroom discussions and activities

• Army Dad

• Lost in Flight

• Unexpected Fortune

• Leaving Nashville

• What to Say

 📣 Resource Direct link   *You will need to create an account to access this link.

Audience: Middle School - High School

Novel: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Printable - Document with text sets, vocabulary, and activities

Companion Passages:    *These can be used independently as source material for classroom discussions and activities

• Cabin in the Woods

• Letters from the Past

• The Beekeeper

• The President has been Killed

• Closure in the Darkness

• The Makings of a Man

• Lost in Flight