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Level icon
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Time

Several days. May be done in segments over several days

Level

Intermediate

Material

Index cards (1 or 2)

Purpose

To help students be aware of their own needs and preferences, to self-advocate, and to build their help-seeking behaviours

Students reflect on the following questions and share their reflections with their educator.

  • How do I know when things are not going well for me? (Things that I do/ways that I feel.)
  • How could someone else tell when things are not going well for me?
  • What can I do to help myself cope in school?
    • Listen to music
    • Take a walk
    • Self-affirmations/Mantras
    • Deep breathing
    • Tangles/Silly putty
    • Journal/Doodle/ Mandalas
    • Self-talk/mindfulness
    • Read
    • Other: ____________
  • If the coping strategies listed above are not helping, my next step is: ______
  • What I wish my educator knew about me.

NOTE: there might be self-disclosures, please know your responsibility to access support.

Revisit at least every three months.

Help-seeking in the classroom “allows students to constructively re-engage in academic activities when they run into difficulties.” (Marchand & Skinner, 2007). Highly motivated students are more likely to seek help, therefore, allowing them the opportunities for increasingly challenging learning. Those students who do not seek help are likely to then conceal their difficulties. This impacts not only their classroom learning but also their school connection/engagement. Motivation for help-seeking in the classroom can be attributed to student’s internal motivation, anxiety (both error or public knowledge of difficulty) or educator support (Marchand & Skinner, 2007).

Marchand, G., & Skinner, E.A. (2007). Motivational Dynamics of Children’s Academic Help-Seeking and Concealment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(1), 65-82.