Lesson 11: Goals (specific)

Objective: Each student will focus on a personal goal and evaluate his/her own current skill level. In small groups, students will research strategies and create self- management tools to apply strategies for growth and track progress. Students will present their strategies and progress in the form of role-plays that they create and practice in small groups. Social Emotional Learning Standards*: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success. Demonstrate skills related to achieving personal and academic goals. Apply strategies to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Apply decision-making skills to deal responsibly with daily academic and social situations. Set priorities in building on strengths and identifying areas for improvement. *Taken from the Illinois State Board of Education: (California has not yet adopted SEL Standards) Social Emotional Learning Standards*: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success. Demonstrate skills related to achieving personal and academic goals. Apply strategies to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Apply decision-making skills to deal responsibly with daily academic and social situations. Set priorities in building on strengths and identifying areas for improvement. *Taken from the Illinois State Board of Education: (California has not yet adopted SEL Standards) There are 9 documents on the next 9 slides. Please print out a copy of the first two documents for each student. One or two copies of the following documents will be enough.

Lesson Link: During the previous lesson, we examined what it took to be a good teacher, student or friend. We found that the answers given were all or mostly skills that a person can choose to develop. When we surveyed people to get their input, no one said that it was necessary to be tall to be a good teacher, or to be rich to be a good friend. If you are motivated to be a good friend or a good student, you have the ability to learn new skills or improve skills to make it happen. Task 1: Teacher discusses New Years Resolutions with the class. What are they? Why do people make New Year’s Resolutions? Has anyone in the class ever made a New Year’s Resolution? Discuss why goals are important. Split class into small groups (3-4 students) and have them brainstorm a list of things that might help a person be more likely to make his/her goal.

Task 2: Option 1: Students will break off into focus groups depending on their interest/area of need (teacher chooses the topic of each group). Study Skills Group: How to prepare for a test Organizational Skills Group: How to keep school materials organized Note-taking Group: (Focus during class time) How to take notes Social Initiation Group: Saying hello to and smiling at peers: (How to be initiate friendliness) Maintaining Conversation: Follow-up questions and comments Maintaining/ showing Interest in a Peer: Using nonverbal and verbal responses to show interest in someone else

Option 2: For those more capable classes, students can work on completely personal goals. The small groups help each individual person to as they choose a goal and a method for tracking that goal. Teacher may hand out a copy of the Critical skills for future success and require students to make sure that each goal chosen correlates to one of these important skills. (Attachment 1) In groups, students will Discuss their own personal challenges with their assigned skill. Groups will brainstorm strategies that will help someone to acquire that skill. If they already know what they should do to learn the skills, they can write this down. If they aren’t sure, they can do some internet research to get some ideas. Each group needs to come up with specific steps to take to increase their skills, and/ or strategies to put into place. Students will create a self-monitoring sheet to track their effort or growth toward acquiring the skills. They need to choose an observable, measurable behavior to track. For instance, if someone is working on demonstrating interest in others, the tracking sheet might target eye contact, body posture, question/comments about the other person’s interests. These monitoring sheets can be hand-written as a draft, but then created, saved, and printed from the computer. Individual groups will decide on specific times to self-monitor based on when skill deficit is most relevant. Continued….

After they have had a chance to use their self-monitoring sheets outside of this class, students will report to their group on their progress. Students will continue to self-monitor and discuss personal data with group. Group members will encourage each other to practice and build the skills chosen. Each small group will choose one skill to present to the class. They will create role-play that reflect how the skill deficit compounds with negative emotions and creates dysregulated / withdrawn behavior. (For example, before learning to initiate a conversation with peers, a person sat alone in class and at lunch. He is lonely, isolated and unhappy without friends.) The students will also create a second role-play using the strategies they applied to learn a new skill. They will show the person self monitoring and using effective strategies to succeed in the goal. (The role play shows the person practicing initiating conversations, getting better at this skill, and then making friends due to the effort and increased skill. Now the student is engaged in friendly conversation before class and at lunch: now he has friends.)

Task 3: Group Presentation: Students will present to the class their common findings though the self monitoring process as well as explain the strategies they used in attempting to improve their skill deficit. Students will perform both of their role-plays to model what their skill deficit is, as well as how they applied their strategies effectively to improve their skill. Task 4: Evaluations Students will fill out evaluation sheets. (Attachment 9) They will critique the lesson overall, each group member’s contribution to the project, and their own contribution.

Task 5: Council (Attachment 10) Tell us the goal that you (or your group) worked on during this lesson. (everyone) On a scale of 1 to 5, tell us how easy or difficult it was to work on this goal (one being very easy and 5 being very difficult, with the others being in between). (everyone) Tell us about the progress you made on your goal/ skill. (optional) What parts of this project were difficult? (optional) What parts of this project were easier? (optional) How can others help you to continue to work on developing this skill? (everyone) What happens if you were to give up on this goal? What would happen if you were to completely conquer this goal? (Everyone tries this one) Why do you think that this goal is important? - Every goal will be discussed, but if someone can’t answer it, the others in the circle will help).

Task 6: Games Hoopla Ultimate Frisbee Relays

California Common Core Content Standards: Listening and Speaking Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from data research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. California Common Core Content Standards: Listening and Speaking Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from data research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

Key Skills*: Understands and monitors the attentional focus of self and others Responds to assistance, feedback and guidance regarding behavior/emotional state Uses strategies to regulate energy level Engages in reciprocal interaction: Sharing intentions, emotions, interests Adapted from: The SCERTS Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Barry M. Prizant, Amy M. Wetherby, Emily Rubin, Amy C. Laurent, and Patrick J. Rydell Key Skills*: Understands and monitors the attentional focus of self and others Responds to assistance, feedback and guidance regarding behavior/emotional state Uses strategies to regulate energy level Engages in reciprocal interaction: Sharing intentions, emotions, interests Adapted from: The SCERTS Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Barry M. Prizant, Amy M. Wetherby, Emily Rubin, Amy C. Laurent, and Patrick J. Rydell