Lesson 7.5: Understanding Grief and Loss

Overview

This lesson focuses on the emotions that surround death including grief and mourning.

Learning Targets

  • LO17: Describe how children understand the concept of death.
  • LO18: Explain how and why people might experience grief differently.
  • LO19: Compare and contrast grief and mourning.
  • LO20: Describe how cultural influences can affect our understanding or experience of grief and mourning.
  • LO21: Describe ways that customs and rituals may be part of the mourning.

Preparation

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the Journal Question on the board or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use:

For the Content Focus: Open the Lesson 7.5 PowerPoint slides or make copies of the Lesson 7.5 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy Lesson 7.5 Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Healthy Communication.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on task.

  • Journal Question: What experiences do you have with losing someone or something you loved and cared about? Reflect on your experience and the different emotions you felt during that time.
    • Option: Write or project the question and have students respond in their journal or on their “bell ringer” sheet as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to complete the Lesson 7.5 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 7.5 Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quiz and use it alongside a posttest to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

Lesson Focus: Healthy Communication

  1. Have students work with a partner or small group to complete the assigned task.
  2. Give each group of students a copy of the Lesson 7.5 Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Healthy Communication
  3. Have students work on the scenarios and answer the associated questions.
  4. After a reasonable amount of time has passed, have students share their responses with another student or group.
  5. Have each combined group identify what they think are the two best responses. Then have them prepare a small role-play skit that demonstrates the scenario. Groups take turns sharing their role-plays with the class.

Challenge Activity

Have students needing an additional challenge work on the following Thinking Critically task.

Identify two religious traditions and research their customs and rituals surrounding death and dying. Identify what the two customs have in common and what makes each unique.

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you...

  • Describe how children understand the concept of death?

    Understanding death requires a person to be able to understand the concepts of irreversibility, finality, inevitability, and causality. Young children cannot fully understand all of these concepts and may continue to ask about the person who has died and when they are returning.

  • Explain how and why people might experience grief differently?

    Grief is a normal emotion that occurs when someone experiences a loss. There is not one single way to grieve. Common stages people experience during grief include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages may be experienced in different ways and to varying degrees.

  • Compare and contrast grief and mourning?

    Types of grief include anticipatory, normal, delayed, inhibited, complicated, disenfranchised, absent, and exaggerated. Mourning refers to the external process and behaviors associated with grieving the loss of a loved one.

  • Describe how cultural influences can affect our understanding or experience of grief and mourning?

    Cultural and religious traditions can have significant impacts on grief and mourning, including expectations around customs and rituals. Customs are traditional ways to behave, and rituals provide specific routines to follow.

  • Describe ways that customs and rituals may be part of the mourning?

    Examples of different ways customs and rituals may be experienced when dealing with death might include how a body is handled after death, including who can handle the deceased and whether the body is buried or cremated and how people are expected to grieve a loss (alone, with others, publicly or privately).

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

Take It Home

Ask your parent or guardian if they have any special wishes for when they die. Find out what cultural or religious traditions they hope others will honor.