Topic 11: Resilience
Resilience, as defined in the Adolescence Textbook, is "[the] capacity to develop normally under difficult conditions." Resilience is an important asset for students to have because it "[...] helps [an] individual to deal with consequential mental and emotional trauma, grow in self-respect and self-confidence, set realistic goals and engage in problem solving as part of surviving, thriving, and acting in the world, and build supportive, collaborative relationships" (Goldstein and Brooks, 2005a, 2005b; Grace & Wells, 2007; Taken from class notes (Cormier, 2015)).
The main role of the teacher, in supporting resilience in general, is to provide the resources and support that students need to get through the adversity that they are undergoing. One way that we as teachers can impement this into our lessons and daily teaching is to integrate the idea of the 7 C's. I have posted a brief video below that goes into detail about each of the 7 C's and how we can implement them into our classroom teachings. Furthermore, we could also provide students with different resources that could help them build-up their resilience. I have included below a series of different resources that could potentially help you as a teacher to provide the support and resources that your students need. However, it is difficult to do this, because resilience is a sequential process, often unique to a person once they undergo some sort of hardship or difficulty, as we discussed in class. For this reason, the best possible and most important role of the teacher is to be a support system and a resource network for students to feel comfortable going to, and also a place where students should be learning skills to develop resiliency. I have included some resources that coud help with resilient-skill-building in the classroom and by the individual below. These resources could be used by teachers to guide students on becoming more resilient.
The image to the left is a slide taken from Dr. Cormier's Class Notes on Topic 11. It goes through the seven C's which are attributes and skills used to help develop a sense of resilience in children. On the right, I have integrated in the Fostering Resilience website. It goes through a nice and detailed description of each of the 7 C's, if you click on the green tab at the top that say "7 C's". If you are a better audiory learner, if you scroll down the page, you can watch Dr. Ginsberg's video on the 7 C's (was provided prior to this week's class). Please feel free to explore this website. It provides helpful some helpful tips.
The above emedded website provides insight and ways of helping educate students in order for them to build resilience. Take a look by exploring the article.
The above journal article achieves many different things for teachers. Firstly it provides teachers wuth a thoughtful understanding of what resilience is, and secondly, it provides ways for us as teachers to teach and assess resiliency in the classroom. Taking a read through this may provide you some nice tips on what you can do to build resiliency in your students.
If you click the PDF icon to your left, you will be taken to an article that educates you more about how as teachers, we can not only provide resiliency programs, but we can also educate teens on how they can develop their resiliency on their own. I highly encourage you to take a read. It is extremely helpful. This article was provided prior to this week's lecture.
Resources:
Cormier, D. (2015). Class Notes on Topic 11. University of Alberta. Unpublished.
Ginsburg, K. (N/A). Fostering Resilience: The 7C's. Vimeo. http://www.fosteringresilience.com/videos.php
Ginsburg, K. (N/A). Fostering Resilience: The 7C's. http://www.fosteringresilience.com/7cs.php
Jain, R. (2013). Teaching Students the ABC's of Resilience. Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-the-abcs-of-resilience-renee-jain
McMahan, I. & Thompson, S. (2015). Adolescence: Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson.
Sagor, R. (1996). Building Resiliency in Students. Creating a Climate for Learning. 54(1): p. 38-43. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept96/vol54/num01/Building-Resiliency-in-Students.aspx
Murphey, D., Barry, M., and Vaughn, B. (2013). Positive Mental Health: Resilience. Child Trends: Adolescent Health Highlight. Print.