Resource for teaching how to navigate social awkwardness

Social awkwardness is a part of life, especially for young people as they grow and change during adolescence. This lesson helps to break the stigma of talking about social awkwardness, or ‘cringe’ moments, and supports students to identify practical strategies to help them navigate social awkwardness.

Learning Intention

Students understand what social awkwardness is and identify practical strategies they can use in social settings when feeling awkward.

Key Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• recognise the different feelings and behaviours associated with social awkwardness
• identify practical strategies they might like to use when feeling awkward in social settings
• reflect on the effectiveness of any strategies they have used to navigate social awkwardness, both inside and outside of the classroom.

ACTIVITY 01 (20 minutes)

Look, sound and feel: Social awkwardness

1. Draw a large Y-chart on the whiteboard with the labels:
   • ‘Looks like’
   • ‘Sounds like’
   • ‘Feels like’
2. Give students time to think about times they might have felt socially awkward and what this looked like, felt like and sounded like for them.
3. Students share their thoughts with a partner, pick their top answers for each label, and write them on the board. Students also have the option of doing this activity individually in their notebooks.
4. As a class, discuss some of their answers, reminding students that it’s common to feel socially awkward at times.

ACTIVITY 02 (30 minutes)

Think, pair, share: Navigating social awkwardness

1. Have students access and read the ReachOut article A guide to conquering social awkwardness. This includes tips and strategies for managing and overcoming feelings of social awkwardness.
2. Use a ‘Think, pair, share’ routine to give students the chance to practise some of these tips and strategies while talking about them.
   • STEP 1: Students identify what their favourite, or most useful, tips and strategies are in the guide, and why.
   • STEP 2: Students pair up with a partner to discuss their answers, making sure to ask each other questions, and to listen carefully to their partner and be mindful of their body language.
   • STEP 3: Pairs then take it in turns to share a summary of their answers with the whole class.

ACTIVITY 03 (10 minutes)

Take-away activity: Exit tickets

1. Students write down on a blank piece of paper a strategy they could use if they were to find themselves feeling socially awkward outside of class – e.g. in the playground, at an event, or when meeting new people.
2. Collect students’ tickets as they leave the classroom.
3. In a follow-up lesson, give students a Post-it note to write down their thoughts about any scenarios where they used their own or another strategy.
4. Students can then add their Post-it note to the whiteboard as a summary and reflection.

Content has been created by ReachOut. To view more information about ReachOut click here.