Key Learning Points

  1.Introduce the concept of “avoidance”: Anxiety almost always involves avoiding situations.  Depression does too in some cases.  We have a powerful drive not to put ourselves in situations that lead to uncomfortable feelings.  So, avoidance is a natural strategy. 

2.Introduce CBT Core Principle #4 – Avoidance seems like it helps, but it actually makes the problem worse (you can’t overcome your fears if you don’t face them):  You have no chance at mastering a situation without facing it.  Worse, avoidance can perpetuate faulty beliefs that a situation is dangerous.  Confronting our fears will make us feel worse in the short-term but better in the long-term. 

3.Introduce strategies for helping students face their fears: CBT asks people to expose themselves to their fears which can be very challenging.  In this chapter, Professor Lupin introduces key CBT strategies to increase the chance of success including support from others, the need to practice your skills, and that humour can help.

4.Continue to help students understand cognitive distortions:  In the last chapter, the main cognitive distortion was fortune-telling.  Chapter 7 ends with Harry displaying two different types of thinking errors – emotional reasoning and mind reading – when he worries that Professor Lupin thinks he cannot handle the boggart.  Invite students to consider whether Harry’s worry thought is correct and if there may be other possible explanations (Spoiler: we find out he is wrong in Chapter 8).

This brings us to our 4th CBT Core Principle:

CBT Core Principle #4

Avoidance seems like it helps, but it actually makes the problem worse

(you can’t overcome your fears if you don’t face them)

When a student avoids giving a speech in front of a class because he worries he will look stupid (cognitive distortions: mind reading, catastrophizing, labelling), he will often feel a sense of temporary relief.  ‘Phew!  I don’t have to stand there nervous with everyone watching’.  This feeling actually results in learning.  The learning is that giving a speech really is dangerous and that he cannot handle it.  This student will think that he is not and cannot be as effective as his peers.

This is the problem with avoidance.  It diminishes personal efficacy and one’s ability to function.  It also promotes a sense that the situation is truly dangerous and that the person could not have coped in the first place which diminishes self-esteem.  Note that avoidance can happen in depression as well and usually arises because a person has a sense she is unworthy to be with others, has nothing to contribute, or does not want peers to see that she is depressed. 

In CBT, we ask people to do “exposure” exercises.  That is, we want them to avoid avoidance and instead face their fears to prove to themselves that situations are not as dangerous as they seem and that they can be conquered.  This is really difficult and it requires help.  Lupin’s lesson outlines many of the principles and strategies necessary to be successful:

Key CBT Principles Introduced by Lupin’s Lesson

1. Everyone is different (the boggart takes a different form for everyone)

2. These skills can be learned by anyone (even Neville!)

3. It is important to practice difficult skills

4. Sometimes we need support – especially initially – when trying something new*

5. Humour is an important tool that we can use to reduce anxiety**

   *“it’s always best to have company when you’re dealing with a boggart”

   **notice also how laughing at the absurdity of Professor Trelawney’s predictions in the last chapter made Harry feel better

The boggart lesson in this chapter is also similar to the technique of visualization which can be a powerful method to help students practice arriving at a desired outcome.  When the students in Harry Potter begin to visualize the boggart as something that makes them laugh, they learn that they can overcome challenges and feel more assured and skilled in dealing with their feared situations. 

Cognitive Distortions: Emotional Reasoning and Mind Reading

It is a fact of life that we are all stuck inside our own heads.  We cannot access others’ thoughts directly.  We can only ask or make guesses as to what other people are thinking.  Sometimes these guesses are correct but often they can be partially incorrect or sometimes even wildly off.

When we are sad or distressed, our own thoughts can involve negative judgments about ourselves and we may assume that others are thinking in the same way.  Therefore the cognitive distortions of emotional reasoning and mind reading can combine leading to an incorrect assessment of what others are thinking.  We will see Harry make this error at the end of the chapter.

Core Lesson Plan - Strategies for Dealing with Boggarts(greatest fears)

Battling Boggarts

Duration: 1 to 2 50 min periods, plus follow up throughout unit.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

• Introduce the concept of avoidance.

  Discuss successful approaches to facing fears.

  Review the concept of cognitive distortions through Harry’s thoughts at the end of the chapter.

SUMMARY OF TASKS/ACTIONS

Create your boggart (various options)

• Visual – Create a picture either via drawing, collage, or digitally of your boggart

• Written – Create a list, mind map, descriptive paragraph, or write a letter describing your boggart

• Oral – As a class, brainstorm a list of what scares ‘people’ (so it isn’t as personal, if that would be uncomfortable for your students) and then branch out with why that would scare them, and how to make it silly

Follow Up Activity:

How to battle a boggart

 Discussion topics:

• Boggarts aren’t real, so they can’t hurt you

• Exposing boggarts makes them disappear

• Talking with friends can make boggarts less scary

Possible discussion prompts:

• Why do boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces? (Think about why we have dark spaces/thoughts)

• Can a boggart change? (Does what truly scare us change?)

• How can we confuse a boggart? (Being with friends, talking about what scares us)

• Why do you think Snape specifically is Neville’s boggart? His grandmother? (They are people who make him feel small or like a disappointment)

 Activity:

Using your boggart creation as inspiration, create a list of ways you could battle that specific boggart. As a group activity, you could have the students place their ideas for battling the boggart into a world or an anchor chart, which could be displayed in the classroom. Revisit the list as you go through the rest of the novel and see if any of their ideas worked, have changed, or if they have come up with new coping strategies.

Optional:

Watch the boggart scene from the film (approx. 3 minutes). While it differs from the text in some ways, the overall impression is there for the students to visualize a boggart.

Optional Lesson Plans and Activities

The following lessons and activities are optional. You may download the full set of optional lesson plans, activities, and chapter questions. Alternatively, you can download each activity or worksheet separately.