Introduction
As educators, one of our primary goals is to teach students essential life skills that will help them navigate social situations. One of these skills is knowing how to address annoyances calmly and politely. This blog post will provide an overview of this skill, a no-prep activity for educators to use in their classrooms, discussion questions, related skills, and next steps for further exploration.
No-Prep Activity: Role-Playing Scenarios
This activity requires no preparation or materials, making it an ideal choice for busy educators. Simply follow these steps:
- Divide students into pairs.
- Provide each pair with a scenario where one person is doing something annoying or distracting (e.g., tapping a pencil, humming loudly, or talking during a movie).
- Ask students to role-play the scenario, with one student acting as the person being annoyed and the other as the person causing the annoyance.
- Encourage the “annoyed” student to practice the following steps: remain calm, politely ask the other person to stop, explain why it is bothering them, and say thank you after the behavior has stopped.
- After each pair has completed their scenario, have a group discussion about the experience and what was learned.
Discussion Questions
- Why is it important to remain calm when addressing an annoyance?
- How can you tell if someone is not aware that their behavior is bothersome?
- What are some ways to politely ask someone to stop a behavior that is bothering you?
- How does saying thank you after someone changes their behavior help maintain a positive relationship?
- Can you think of a time when you were annoyed by someone’s behavior and how you addressed it? What could you have done differently?
Related Skills
Teaching students how to address annoyances calmly and politely is just one aspect of social-emotional learning. Other related skills that educators may want to explore include:
- Active listening
- Empathy and understanding others’ perspectives
- Conflict resolution
- Assertiveness and setting boundaries
- Managing emotions and stress
Next Steps
If you found this blog post helpful and would like to explore more resources for teaching polite communication skills and other social-emotional learning topics, we encourage you to sign up for free samples at Everyday Speech. These materials are designed to support educators in teaching valuable life skills to students in special education settings.
