Breathing Underwater

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Identifying Abuse”

In this activity, students will identify patterns of abuse in Nick’s behavior and develop research-based coping strategies to assist Nick in breaking his patterns of abuse.

Nick is raised in an abusive home and continues the cyclical nature of abuse in his relationship with Caitlin. Using research to support your ideas, analyze and identify Nick’s abusive behavioral patterns. Then, provide advice for Nick based on proven strategies to end the cycle of abuse.

• Conduct research to identify types of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.
• Identify the type(s) of abuse present in Nick’s behavior.
• Create a written comparison of Nick’s behavior to the research points you have discovered; include strategies that might help Nick to overcome the cycle of abuse.

Pair with a partner to briefly compare the points you identified.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it beneficial to discover and compile reputable sources so they may conduct research on the types of abuse and what qualifies as abuse before identifying Nick’s abusive tendencies. Students might add links to a shared doc so that all might benefit from a class-created library of resources. Additionally, students may wish to conduct research on strategies used by professionals to help those who have suffered from the cycle of abuse. To close the activity, students might construct a brief journal-style entry to record their reactions to new information learned, any surprising or unexpected information discovered, and thoughts on the process of analyzing Nick’s behavior.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who feel information anxiety or difficulty focusing on the prompt due to the broad nature of the research, one strategy may be to narrow the research to one aspect of Nick’s behavior, such as his verbal abuse or emotional manipulation. Students can then analyze Nick’s behavior regarding that form of abuse and create a strategy to help Nick overcome the cycle of abuse.