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ENGLISH
TEACHER SUPPORT UNIT 9
ANXIETIES AND FEARS
English Teacher Support Unit 9
2
Teacher Support Unit 9
Theme
ANXIETIES AND FEARS
BEFORE WE START...
The Ninth TSU
This TSU deals with a theme that the students may not exactly ‘like’, but it concerns them intensely –
Anxieties and Fears.
Teenagers face an increasing number of anxieties and fears in the course of growing up. Many of them
have to deal with situations like, a lack of friends, fear of being bullied, fear of the teacher, a quarrel with a
‘best’ friend, anxieties about academic performance, etc. At this stage, they begin to get anxious about
their future. Problems such as, leaving school, going to work, need to support their family, going to
college, career, relocation to another town or city for higher studies, lack of money for funding
education, etc. are now becoming more real. The fact that they have to become more responsible for
their actions will also start sinking in.
Some anxieties may be reasonable and others, not so. As a teacher, if y ou can understand and empathize
with what is happening in your student’s life – for e.g., if her father, the lone bread -winner for the family,
suffers from a major illness – you may be able to appreciate the student’s conduct and academic
performance from a different perspective and help her deal with her fears and anxieties better. In this
process, you would help her learn better too.
What’s more, anxieties and fears have the potential to bring out deeper expressions from the students
than ‘feel good’ themes. All it requires is an empathetic listener – you!
The starting point
If you have completed the eighth TSU, we can assume that our students are now able to:
English Teacher Support Unit 9
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· Listen to and understand talks, speeches, views and commentary on TV
· Read the newspaper and understand basic information from reports
· Take part in conversations, discussions and debates
· Express views and opinions, in oral and written forms
· Convert one language form into another, e.g. converting information from tables to text
· Predict outcomes (i.e. ‘if ’ questions)
· – with attention to punctuation, period, comma
· Read a text carefully – identifying meanings of words from their context
· Select better ones from given summaries
· Organize ideas
Do you agree with the statements given above? Are your students able to do much more than this? Or
less than this? How will you align the suggestions here with the level at which your students are?
At the end of the ninth TSU, your students would be able to:
· Read interesting reading material like stories and novels with eagerness
· Take notes on books and articles, and summarize information
· Refer to materials and collect useful information
· Read written instructions
· Discuss the actions of the characters, developing and expressing opinions on the appropriateness
of their actions
· Appreciate prose and poetry, being able to say whether a piece was liked or not, and why
· Write down their thoughts and feelings
So do go through the ninth TSU and let us know how well your students responded.
English Teacher Support Unit 9
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Did it work?
Everyone has his or her own share of fears and anxieties. However, if you are in a certain profession, you
should not have certain anxieties or fears. For example, a mountain climber should not have fear of
heights. Shall we map particular fears and an ?
Activity 5: Ask your students what fears one should not have if one were a pilot? Give them a few seconds to think and
appreciate the ones who answer. If there is no response, ask a question like, 'What fears should a pilot of an
airplane
of landing…)
Now, what kinds of fears should people ente ring the following professions not have?
Doctor (surgeon in particular)
Car driver
Sailor (ship captain)
Fisherman
Fireman
Policeman / Policewoman
Lawyer
Farmer
School teacher
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
English Teacher Support Unit 9
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Did it work?
Everyone has his or her own share of fears and anxieties. However, if you are in a certain profession, you
should not have certain anxieties or fears. For example, a mountain climber should not have fear of
heights. Shall we map particular fears and an ?
Activity 5: Ask your students what fears one should not have if one were a pilot? Give them a few seconds to think and
appreciate the ones who answer. If there is no response, ask a question like, 'What fears should a pilot of an
airplane
of landing…)
Now, what kinds of fears should people ente ring the following professions not have?
Doctor (surgeon in particular)
Car driver
Sailor (ship captain)
Fisherman
Fireman
Policeman / Policewoman
Lawyer
Farmer
School teacher
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
English Teacher Support Unit 9
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Somniphobia – fear of falling asleep
Ablutophobia- fear of washing or bathing!
Selenophobia – fear of the moon
Now, ask them to form groups and discuss unusual fears.. Each group should come up with at least 4 ‘unusual’
fears. You could get the rest of the class to decide if the fear mentioned by a group is really ‘unusual’. (If required,
you could talk about fears of cats, buses, trains, cycles, snakes, milk, colours, darkness, wind, rain, etc). Make sure
the students write their responses in their notebooks.
Did it work?
The students may have a number of home-based anxieties and worries. These may pertain to parents’
income, illnesses of family members, lack of facilities at home, etc. The next activity is related to fears of
this nature.
Activity 3: Home Ask the students what kinds of worries and anxieties related to home and family they REALLY have. These could
be like:
· Of being scolded / beaten for NOT doing something – ask them for examples
· Of being scolded / beaten for doing something – ask then for examples
· Of being alone at home
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
Did you make
variations?..............................................................................................
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· Of strangers entering the house
· Of there not being enough food to eat, for all
· Of father / mother / sister / brother falling ill
· Of an elder sister getting married and leaving home
· Of being pushed to do odd-jobs to help parents
· Of breaking an expensive object
· O
· Of elder brother / sister doing very well in academics, thus increasing pressure to perform on the student
· Of relocation to another city
You might want to write down what the students say on the board. If there are not enough responses, prompt
them, based on the suggestions given above.
Now, ask each student to write down the top most anxiety that he or she has, among all those listed, providing
details in two or three sentences. If there is a reason for the anxiety – based on some incident, perhaps – they
should be encouraged to narrate it in a few sentences.
Ask a few students to share what they have written with the class. If they speak in Hindi, don’t forget to translate
what they said into English.
Did it work?
All of us have anxieties and fears. However, there i two.
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
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English Teacher Support Unit 9
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Anxiety is a rather vague sense of apprehension. It is often a response to an unknown threat. For
example, if you are walking in a street in complete darkness, you may feel a little uneasy. The sensation is
related to the possibility that a stranger may jump out from behind, or approach you in some other way,
and harm you.
Fear is an emotional response to a known threat. Using the scenario above, let’s say you’re walking down
a dark street and someone points a knife at you and says, 'Give me your purse,' The danger is real,
Extreme fear is called panic.
Activity 4: Is this anxiety or fear? Once you explain the difference between anxiety and fear, you could take them through these sentences and ask
them to say if it is anxiety or fear that is involved. Read the sentences slowly, clearly. (
then say it in Hindi, if necessary).
· Looking at the clouds, Ram thought i t might rain and he would get wet.
· Ahmed shrieked when he saw a scorpion on the bench.
· Raju saw the bull running towards him.
· Sohail put the glass on the table carefully.
· Manav waited for the bus and kept looking at his watch.
· Nirupama was sitting on the tree branch. When she looked down, she saw a tiger.
· The manager asked Bahadur to come for an interview next Monday morning at 10’o clock.
You may ask the students to prepare a chart of the list given above and display it in a prominent place in the
school. At the beginning of the chart, explain anxiety and -3 sentences. Then ask anyone who
attempts to answer and wants to know if he/she is right, to contact a student of your class.
Now that we know the difference between anxiety and fear, would you like to revisit the earlier
activities to check if we used the right term - fear or anxiety – at the right place?
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Did it work?
Everyone has his or her own share of fears and anxieties. However, if you are in a certain profession, you
should not have certain anxieties or fears. For example, a mountain climber should not have fear of
heights. Shall we map particular fears and an ?
Activity 5: Ask your students what fears one should not have if one were a pilot? Give them a few seconds to think and
appreciate the ones who answer. If there is no response, ask a question like, 'What fears should a pilot of an
airplane
of landing…)
Now, what kinds of fears should people ente ring the following professions not have?
Doctor (surgeon in particular)
Car driver
Sailor (ship captain)
Fisherman
Fireman
Policeman / Policewoman
Lawyer
Farmer
School teacher
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
English Teacher Support Unit 9
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Plumber
Carpenter
Cook
You could organize this into a group activity. F orm groups with 3-4 members each and ask them to consult each
other and draw up the list of fears that a person entering any profession listed above should not have. The groups
may then read out their lists to the class and come up with a master-list of fe
professions should not have. You may convert these into a few charts and hang them in a prominent place in the
school.
Well, people do overcome their fears. Some deliberately face situations that make them afraid in order to
overcome their fears. (For example, if you suffer from fear of heights, you could go to the terrace of a tall
building or a hillock and looking down (carefully, of course!). Can we look at an activity that encourages
students to overcome their fears?
Did it work?
Activity 6: How can anxieties and fears be overcome in the following contexts?
Fear of drowning (swimming in shallow waters, learning to swim really well in shallow waters, having company
while swimming so that there is someone to take care of you in an emergency, etc .)
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
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Fear of being alone at home
Fear of speaking in English
Fear of standing in front of the class and talking or fear of being on stage
Fear of making friends
Fear of asking strangers for help / direction
This too could be a group activity. After forming groups of 3-4 each, you could allocate one particular anxiety or
fear to each group and ask the group to suggest ways to overcome the fear / anxiety. You may choose
from the list above.
If the suggestions are good, they might be displayed on a chart with the title 'Conquer your fear of _____ in 5
easy steps!'
We now move to an activity that is closely connected to fears and anxieties – it is about three
perceptions: Illusion, Delusion and Hallucination. What are these? Let’s take an example.
· Watching a TV show – strongly believing that a TV show is on – when the TV has been switched
off – hallucination (seeing, smelling or hearing things that are not there)
· Watching a TV show believing tha t it is about YOU when it is not – delusion.
· Watching a TV show, mistaking an actor in it for your brother - illusion
Some knowledge of these terms will help them analyze their own anxieties better and with some efforts
overcome them. This would also hel p improve their self-awareness.
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Did it work?
Activity 7: Ask your students if they have heard of these terms – illusion, delusion and hallucination. Then mention the
example given above. Make sure they understand the terms. Now mention the following scenarios and ask them
which of the three terms applies to each situation:
· Hearing a loud noise when there is only silence (hallucination)
·
· Hearing the wind blowing and thinking that birds are chirping (delusion)
· Thinking that an old man who is cycling behind you is a policeman spying on you (illusion)
· A man claiming that he went to the Sun and came back (delusion)
· Believing that a girl / or boy is in love with you, when that is not the case (delusion)
· In the movie 'Munna Bhai MBBS', the hero talk s to Mahatma Gandhi (hallucination)
· From a distance, mistaking a woman who sells vegetables to be your aunt (illusion)
You could now ask the students to form groups of 3-4. Each group should come up with at least one
example each for delusion, illusion and hallucination .
You could get your students to do this interesting activity to help them understand how the brain thinks.
This is an example of illusion. It is called the Aristotle Illusion.
While the
believe? Let’s check it out.
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
Did you make any
variations?..............................................................................................
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Did it work?
Activity 8
I feel it in
pencil back and forth along the side of the teeth. Even though the teeth are moving from side to side in a
wave-
This works because the unfamiliar motion of the teeth causes a similar skin deformation to the more usual
Making your brain believe that you have two noses
imes called the po -
matter which hand you use.
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
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English Teacher Support Unit 9
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s in the
using your left hand, this wi ll be reversed. You will probably notice a strange sensation, as though you have
two noses. (Don’t you?)
ou haven't already felt the two
noses sensation, you probably
focused on a separate nose.
Which is heavier?
Here's one to try out on your family and friends. Get hold of two cardboard / paper boxes of different
sizes – one small and one at least twice as big - and put a 500 g salt packet in each one. Check that they
weigh the same, close the boxes so that no one knows what is inside and then bring them to the
classroom. (Your students should NOT know what is inside. This is critical to the success of this
experiment).
Get a student to lift the boxes and tell you which the heavier box is. Most students in your class will say
that the smaller box is heavier, even though it isn't .
The exact reason for these illusions remains a mystery.
Now, after doing the experiments, following your ORAL INSTRUCTIONS, can they write down the steps for
doing these experiments in their notebooks and show them to you?
Did it work?
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interesting
In TSU 9
· Which activity did your students like the most?
· Can you think of other interesting activities related to the theme of fears and anxieties? Do write
them down and share them with us.
What is the focus of this activity?...................................................
variations?..............................................................................................
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English Teacher Support Unit 9
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