For our last lesson on skills for learning, we talked about how plans can help students be successful. We started our lesson by reviewing our skills for learning: focus attention, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive. Next, we moved into a Brain Builder called Sentence Switcheroo. In Sentence Switcheroo, students have to pay close attention to the words I say and use their bodies to show whether I said the sentence the same way or a different way. After Sentence Switcheroo, we talked about the different skills for learning that helped us to do well in the game.
For the rest of the lesson, we talked about a student named Cheng. Cheng had a problem: his teacher was asking him for his homework, and he forgot to take it home
again! We talked about how Cheng felt about the situation: upset, embarrassed, frustrated, disappointed. We also used thumbs up to show if this had ever happened to us before. Because most of us have experienced this before, we are able to show empathy for Cheng!
We decided that Cheng needs a plan,
or something that tells you the steps to get something done, to help him to take home his homework. We talked about the importance of a good plan and the three criteria we must look for:
- The plan makes sense
- It's Simple
- You can do it
If any of these criteria are missing, it is not a good plan. Next, students brainstormed ideas for the first step of Cheng's plan with their partners. Cheng decides to put a post-it on his desk that says "REMEMBER HOMEWORK!!!" so he will remember to take it home. Next, students shared with their partners where they thought he should place the post-it as a reminder. Many students thought Cheng should put it on his desk, and that's where he decided to put it. Finally, he decides for his final step that he will put his homework in his backpack as soon as he sees the reminder. We went over the Good Plan Checklist to make sure it would work, and we agreed it was a good plan. We concluded the lesson by brainstorming areas where students could use plans to be more successful.
