Mr. Zamarrón then selected an instructional setting and method. Because Todd consistently became annoyed with peers and not adults, he decided role play with peers would be a good way to practice handling annoyance appropriately. Additionally, Mr. Zamarrón decided this instruction would be best in a small group setting, which would replicate the small groups in which students congregated at lunch and before and after school. 

• Instructional Setting: Small Group
• Instructional Method: Role Play

Mr. Zamarrón’s Lesson on “Handling Annoyance”

 

Recruiting Peer Support

Before the lesson, Mr. Zamarrón met with a small group of four peers from Todd’s lunch bunch. He selected these peers because they were generally well-behaved and he noticed Todd appeared to enjoy spending time with them. He explained what Todd was learning and asked the peers if they would be willing to help teach him by acting as peer coaches. Mr. Zamarrón told the peers that Todd was working on asking people to stop and/or leaving an activity instead of yelling at others when he was annoyed. He told them that Todd might need some help leaving an activity when a peer annoyed him, and he taught the peers to prompt Todd to leave the area with them. They practiced saying things like, “Hey Todd, let’s go see what [another peer’s name] is doing” or asking Todd to engage in a different activity. The peers practiced this skill in mini role play scenarios.

Preparing the Role Play

Mr. Zamarrón prepared for the role play by writing 12 short scripts to teach multiple examples of ways in which Todd might handle annoyance. Each script focused on one of three situations. Four scripts depicted situations where a peer annoyed Todd and Todd left right away. In four other scripts, Todd nicely asked the peer to stop engaging in an annoying behavior, and the peer stopped right away. The final four scripts depicted situations where a peer did not stop an annoying behavior after Todd asked. In these scripts, Todd walked away from the peer when they continued the behavior. 

Within the small group setting, Mr. Zamarrón first picked one of each type of script and Todd watched while the peers rehearsed. He had Todd wait, and told him when it would be appropriate to leave the area or nicely ask the peer to stop. After watching his peers rehearse three scenarios, Todd participated in the nine remaining role plays. After the role play, Mr. Zamarrón prompted the students to think of other, similar situations that might occur. They talked about how they should react if someone is annoying them, and what to do if the person persists.