The document discusses a proposed classroom lesson plan and unit for 7th grade students focusing on identifying and discussing personal strengths. The proposed lesson would involve students completing a "Most Like Me/Least Like Me" activity and listing their personal strengths, with an optional introductory video. The author argues this lesson should be part of a larger unit to help 7th graders appreciate their own strengths and understand that individuals have different skills and abilities. Assessment of the lesson's impact could include a project evaluating students' use of strengths, an exit ticket question, or class discussion. The overall goals are to promote students' self-awareness and understanding of others in line with social cognitive career theory.
The document discusses a proposed classroom lesson plan and unit for 7th grade students focusing on identifying and discussing personal strengths. The proposed lesson would involve students completing a "Most Like Me/Least Like Me" activity and listing their personal strengths, with an optional introductory video. The author argues this lesson should be part of a larger unit to help 7th graders appreciate their own strengths and understand that individuals have different skills and abilities. Assessment of the lesson's impact could include a project evaluating students' use of strengths, an exit ticket question, or class discussion. The overall goals are to promote students' self-awareness and understanding of others in line with social cognitive career theory.
The document discusses a proposed classroom lesson plan and unit for 7th grade students focusing on identifying and discussing personal strengths. The proposed lesson would involve students completing a "Most Like Me/Least Like Me" activity and listing their personal strengths, with an optional introductory video. The author argues this lesson should be part of a larger unit to help 7th graders appreciate their own strengths and understand that individuals have different skills and abilities. Assessment of the lesson's impact could include a project evaluating students' use of strengths, an exit ticket question, or class discussion. The overall goals are to promote students' self-awareness and understanding of others in line with social cognitive career theory.
2 Finding classroom counseling career activities at each grade level is necessary to be an effective counselor. Each grade level will require something different and it is important that each lesson is tailored to each grade. We were shown a lot of really great activities in class that could be used in different settings, but could also be adjusted to fit different grades. For Mark and Is classroom lesson, we chose to focus on students strengths. We discussed that each person brings something to the table and knowing that with each strength comes different jobs to match those strengths. The lesson that we put together for class involved a few different activities and a video, hopefully, to catch all of the diverse learners and keep the students engaged. The first activity that we did was a Most Like Me/Least Like Me activity. I believe this would go over better in a 7th grade class versus our class because there will be more varying personalities. It would be important to stress that there is no right way to handle any of the examples we provide. For instance, we dont want the students who are never prepared to feel less than the students who are always prepared. The second activity included the student listing out some of the strengths they poses. In the lesson plan, it told us to do the activity first and then watch the video, but I could see the benefit in doing the video first. I think there would be plenty of 7th graders who would get stuck and not know what words to put or what options were available. If we wanted to keep the video second then providing the words in the video along with some other words would probably benefit the students. Overall, I think this would be a good lesson as part of a larger unit based on strengths, skills, experiences, etc. I dont know if Mark taught this as part of a unit, but I would need to ensure that I would incorporate this lesson in a unit to discuss strengths and skills. 7th graders are
Running Head: COUNSELING ACTIVITY PAPER
3 starting to get to a point where they become very self-conscious and dont believe they are good at anything and start to really compare themselves to their peers. We need to emphasize that not everyone is good at the same thing and we dont want everyone to be good at the same thing. Each student will have different skills, strengths, experiences, passions, etc. and that should be embraced. A unit like this could hit pretty heavily on the KSDE (2015) 6-8 career development standard 1 benchmark 1 standards (p. 8). Most of the knowledge base indicators could be addressed along with other indicators on different standards or benchmarks. A unit and activities included in the unit could also cover looking at multiple perspectives and really have the student become self-aware, but also help them develop an understanding of other people. When it comes to lessons, I try to kill as many birds as I can with one stone and this unit would be no different. Since there are so many changes in activities for the students and for a time the students will be out of their seats it will be necessary to have a good plan and procedure. How will you keep the students on task and how will you ensure they go from one place to the other in an efficient manner? One thing that I like to do when I do classroom guidance is see what the teacher does for classroom management and use that similar tool. I think it helps the students tremendously to see the consistency in the classroom. For this particular lesson there arent many resources needed; some way to draw the line of Least Like Me/Most Like Me, the My Personal Strengths paper, and access to show the video. I think this unit could be applied to many different theories depending on what the outcome was, but for me and the goals I would like to achieve I think I would operate
Running Head: COUNSELING ACTIVITY PAPER
4 out of Lent, Brown and Hacketts social cognitive career theory. This theory is more concerned with the specific cognitive mediators through which learning experiences guide career behavior; with the manner in which variables such as interests, abilities, and values interrelate (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2013, p.96). It is important for me that students realize each of us have different interest, abilities, and values and because of that each of us will prefer a different career. If we all had the same abilities and skills, then there would be a lot of us jobless and the market would be much more competitive. As I mentioned earlier, students at this age will heavily compare themselves to their peers and because of that they will believe they are not good at anything, but this lesson is a great opportunity to stress otherwise. The question for this particular lesson was basically how can others benefit from your strengths and there are many different ways we could evaluate that. One option would be to have the students do a small project and they are placed in a role based on their strengths and weaknesses. The objective of the activity would be to provide the students with first hand experience of using their strengths and seeing others use their strengths. A simple exit ticket would, also, be a means to measure what the students took away from the activity. Asking a question like What is a strength that you could bring to a group that your friends could not? could have the student take time to reflect on the lesson and how they are different, but still strong in different areas. Class discussion would also be a simple way to gauge what the students are and are not understanding.
Running Head: COUNSELING ACTIVITY PAPER
5 I believe this lesson/unit could achieve many different goals and could be applied to many different theories depending on the goals, but no matter what way a counselor looks at it, this is a necessary and important unit for students to see at this age.
Running Head: COUNSELING ACTIVITY PAPER
6 Kansas State Department of Education. (2015). Kansas curricular standards for school counseling. Topeka, KS: Retrieved from http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/CSAS/ Content%20Area%20(M-Z)/School %20Counseling/Kansas%20Curricular %20Standards%20for%20School %20Counseling%20Final%20Rev111015.pdf Niles, S. G., & Harris-Bowlsbey, J. (2013). Career development interventions in the 21st century (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.