Spatial Requirements: Regular classroom setup; little or no space required
Activity Type: Group
Grades: 5-12
Group Size: 2 or more
Time: 20 minutes

Introduction:

This relatable activity helps students to connect one student’s story to real-life Rock Bottom moments they experience. They will understand different types of situations that could lead to Rock Bottom moments in their own lives, and share alternative solutions for dealing with these problems.

Materials:

• “Graffiti Resilience” story – 1 copy for each student
• Whiteboard and marker

Activity:

Have each student silently read the story, or you may read it out loud as a class.

Discuss the types of problems that the young man in the story was experiencing, then talk about the different ways that he exhibited resilience.

Do a group brainstorm. Ask, “What kinds of situations in our school might put us or our fellow students in ‘Rock Bottom’ moments like the ones experienced by the young man in this story?” As students discuss, write a list of these situations on the board.

Break students into small groups. Assign each group one of the situations from the brainstorm to discuss amongst themselves. They should determine the following:

• How could a student deal with this scenario in a resilient way?

Give students time to discuss and come up with several ideas. When time is up, have a representative from each group share their solutions with the class.

Processing the Experience:

• What strategies for dealing with rock bottom moments did you learn from this activity?
• How can we apply these strategies to our own rock bottom moments?