Guidance Lesson: Understanding Peer Relationships

Understanding Peer Relationships

By: Melissa Pierson 

Grade Level: 6th Grade 

During this guidance lesson, students will explore the different types of peer relationships as they are related to types of weather. Four weather forecasts will represent different types of relationships: sunny, partly sunny, cloudy and a tornado. Sunny weather represents healthy and supportive relationships. Partly sunny occurs when relationships are healthy, but there may be times of conflict or unhappiness. The cloudy forecast is when the relationship is no longer healthy and instead is filled with animosity and angst. The tornado represents the drama that sometimes stems from a cloudy relationship. During this lesson, students will explore what each relationship looks like through role plays. Students will articulate what constitutes a healthy relationship and what unhealthy relationships looks like. Students will understand how it is normal for relationships to move between different forecasts and will learn how to cope with the drama tornado. Role plays and scenarios will equip students with real-life situations and spark conversation about what is happening in the relationship. The key learning target is for students to recognize healthy relationships and learn what to do when relationships are laden with drama. These learning objectives will be met through classroom conversation, role plays and the completions of an individual worksheet. 

The lesson will begin with exploring each of the weather patterns shown to class using the document camera. Students will use their previous experiences with peer relationships and interpret what each of the weather patterns represent. After this brief discussion, students will break up into groups and will be assigned a scenario representing different types of relationships. Groups will have 10 minutes to prepare a short skit of the scenario. Students will present their skit to the class and after the class will identify what weather pattern occurred in the scenario. If applicable, the class will determine ways to avoid or resolve the scenario. The learning objectives for the students will be to recognize and articulate different types of relationships.

            

 

Guidance Lesson: Decision Making

Decision Making Guidance Lesson

By: Alana Pazevic

Grade level: High School Special Education

Rationale and clear purpose for the unit:  This lesson is aimed at students who are enrolled in special education elective classes.  These students are able to take direction and follow instructions of adults, but when faced with having to make their own real-life decisions, they struggle.  This activity is designed as a game to begin the process of thinking about different possible decisions one could make, without yet being in a real life situation where they freeze.  The learning objectives here focused on practicing the decision making process, and beginning to think of how different decisions create different outcomes.

Applicable standard(s), objective(s), competency(ies): 

-Students will begin to understand that different decisions can create different outcomes.

-Students will begin to explore real-life decision-making in a game environment.

Introduction:

Overview: The focus of this lesson is to promote decision-making in special education high school students.

-In previous decision-making activities, students have been overwhelmed in real-life situations.  Through a game in class, we can still activate the decision-making areas of the brain without having the added pressure of it being real-life decisions.

-This game – The Decision Making Road Map – will take place on the floor of the classroom so students can physically move from one decision to the other with their car, and write in their decisions as they make their way through the game.

Developmental Learning Activities designed to meet the objective(s):

-The class will be divided into pairs. Each pair will have their own “Road Map” laid out on the ground and Hot Wheels car for each student to drive on the map.

-As each pair of students comes to a “speed bump,” there will be a situation that they will have to make a decision about.  On each side they will write a positive decision and outcome, as well as a negative decision and outcome

-As they make their way through the road map, they will be using critical thinking skills to help create different possible decisions and outcomes for each situation

 



 

Assessment/Evaluation:

-After the activity, we will talk about the activity and how it was for each student to think of different decisions they could make.  We will also talk about how this is something they can do everyday when they have to make a decision about something.

-Students can keep the Hot Wheels cars, as reinforcement that they are “the drivers of their own lives.”

-If this activity is taking students a long time and they cannot get through the 9 decisions or they are getting frustrated, this game can be split up into sections, as it takes place over 3 pieces of paper.  The game can be done in 3 sections to continue reinforcement of decision making in more than one lesson.

 

 



Closing and Follow up:

Each of the Road Maps will be hung in the class as a reminder that students can make their own decisions.  It can also be an aid when a student is having a hard time making a decision to go back to the Road Map and see what they wrote down for possible decisions they could make to reinforce that they are capable of critical thinking.

Resources:

-Hot Wheel cars for each student

-Decision Making Road Map

-https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Decision-Making-Road-Map-876889

-Markers/Colored pencils for writing in decisions