Kindness - Novice High

Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize acts of kindness, discuss ways to be more kind, discuss how kindness affects others, and evaluate how kindness feels for self and others. Language Learning Outcomes: Students will connect content to background knowledge, actively participate in conversations through proper responses, and recognize high frequency general and academic vocabulary.

Lesson Information

Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes

Students will...

  1. recognize acts of kindness.
  2. discuss ways to be more kind. 
  3. discuss how kindness affects others. 
  4. evaluate how kindness feels for self and others. 

Language Learning Outcomes

Students will...

  1. connect content to background knowledge.
  2. actively participate in conversations through proper responses.
  3. recognize high frequency general and academic vocabulary.

Materials Needed

Overview

Explain that today’s lesson is about kindness.

Activate Background Knowledge

Introduce kindness to students by asking them what the word means.

Ask them to give examples of kindness that they have seen or done. 

Activity 1: Listening/Speaking

Before watching the following video, explain that it will show people being kind to each other. Tell students to make a list of kindness acts they see in the video. 

  • Sample list items: 
    • People helping each other 
    • Picking something up for someone 
    • Helping with groceries 
    • Giving people food 

  • After watching, have students share their list with a partner. 

Activity 2: Speaking

Show the following link on the projector: people being kind. 

  • In partnerships, students should take turns describing a picture and their partner has to guess which picture they are describing.
  • If necessary, review the grammar using “to be” verbs, specifically “there is” and “there are,” with descriptive adjectives. 
    • “There are ____ (two people)”
    • “There is _____ (a happy woman)” 
    • “She is ______(smiling)”

Activity 3: Vocabulary 

Ask the students to list some words that are kind and make a list on the board. 

  • Sample answers may include
    • Help
    • Give
    • Thank
    • Smile
  • Help students to learn new words associated with the kindness, such as: 
    • donate: to give something (like money) to a person or organization to help them
      • Other things you can donate: blood, food, clothes
    • generous: someone who is generous is willing to give money, spend time etc, to help people or make them happy
      • Who do you know that is generous? 
    • support: to help someone by being kind to them during a difficult time in their life
      • Who shows you support? 
    • give a hand: to help someone do something
      • Who has given you a hand? 

Have students match each picture to the correct vocabulary word: 

Retrieved from: Donations_Charity_Clothing_Drive_MI600.jpg (600×338) (mcshin.org)

Retrieved from: A man feeding the cats, street, Lyon, France - People & Portrait Photos - N'importe Nawak by L. Despres (aminus3.com)

Retrieved from: Helping Someone Who's Grieving - HelpGuide.org

Helping hand

Retrieved from: MGAA'S Peter Staddon on giving young entrepreneurs a hand up 'the greasy pole' - Insurance Post (postonline.co.uk)

Activity 4: Speaking

Use the following situations as role-play scenarios for students to do in groups of three to four. Give the students 5-10 minutes to prepare (based on time). Their role plays should be about one minute, and all the group members should participate. 

  • You see a mother at the store with her child, and the child won’t stop crying. You can tell the mother is stressed. 
  • You see an old lady walking down the sidewalk alone with a walker. 
  • One of your classmates makes a mistake, and everyone laughs at him/her.
  • You see a group of children making fun of another child who looks very sad. 
  • Your sibling is being mean to you for no reason.

Homework

Do something kind for another person. Note: students should be prepared to share about this tomorrow in class. 

Follow-Up

Tuesday: 

Students should share the kind acts they did for another person.

Wednesday: 

Self-compassion: discuss why it’s important to be kind to ourselves. 

Thursday:

Show the following quotes below and have a short discussion about what they mean:

“When words are both true and kind, they can change the world” —Buddha

“Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.

Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/PositivePsychologyintheClassroom/kindness_novice_high.