Overcoming Obstacles
Being Accountable
Taking responsibility for our actions is the topic of a lesson about being accountable. Middle schoolers engage in a series of games and activities that ask them to demonstrate accountability as they create solutions to dilemmas.
Overcoming Obstacles
Developing a Positive Attitude
Be positive! That's the take-away from a lesson about how a positive attitude influences actions and increases one's ability to succeed. To conclude the lesson, participants create a plan for how to respond positively to obstacles.
Overcoming Obstacles
Stepping Stone Goals
Often the most challenging part of any journey is the first step, the getting started and figuring out where to start. Middle schoolers engage in a series of games and activities to learn the importance of setting short-term goals,...
Overcoming Obstacles
Defining Goals
Having goals is important. The opening, two-day instructional activity in the Goal Setting module teaches middle schoolers the importance of setting meaningful, realistic goals. Through a series of activities, participants practice...
Overcoming Obstacles
Weighing Options and Consequences
When making decisions, it might be wise to revise Newton's Third Law of Motion to read, "For every decision, there are options and consequences." Although in decision-making, not all these forces may be equal. The third lesson in the...
Overcoming Obstacles
Speaking
Words! Words have meaning and power, and using them leads to consequences. The activities in this lesson are designed to remind participants to choose their words wisely when they speak.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Walden and "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau
According to Henry David Thoreau, every citizen must object to unjust laws. The teacher's guide to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" begins with a detailed essay synopsis to help readers understand Thoreau's rationale in the challenging...
Overcoming Obstacles
Being Responsible
A lesson all about responsibility details the importance of building trust. Scholars discuss and create posters about responsibility and explore strategies to become more responsible. Peers work collaboratively to craft a rainbow of...
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Voting and Participation in Decision Making
"If you don't vote - you don't count." That's the big idea in this resource about voting and participation in the democratic process. The three included activities focus students on being informed voters, practicing voting for their...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health Journals
Eight prompts, designed to accompany the Health Smart series of lessons, provide high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the issues raised by the various activities.
Department of Education (Ireland)
Consequences
11 lessons, designed to be used in consecutive order, ask middle and high school scholars to consider the effects of various drugs and the consequences of taking them for themselves and their families. They also develop the communication...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Decision Making
Making decisions, while maybe scary, is a skill that can be learned. Introduce teens to a five-step decision-making process that makes what may seem overwhelming possible. Pupils learn the steps and practice them by playing games,...
EngageNY
Using Multiple Resources of Information: Creating a Cascading Consequences Chart about DDT and Practicing a Fishbowl Discussion
For every action there is a consequence. Scholars continue their work on creating a cascading consequence chart about DDT using Welcome Back, The Exterminator, Rachel Carson: Sounding the Alarm on Pollution along with graphic organizers...
NASA
The Big Climate Change Experiment Lesson 5: Climate Change Narratives
And now moving on to the next story. The last of five lessons in Unit 1: The Big Climate Change Experiment requires groups to create a script for a news segment on climate change. They either make a video of their story or conduct a live...
Nemours KidsHealth
Peer Pressure: Grades 3-5
Peer pressure is the focus of a lesson that challenges scholars to respond to several scenarios using responsible-decision making skills. Lesson one begins with a live-action example set by class members, followed by a discussion that...
EngageNY
Forming a Research-Based Claim: Stakeholder Chart on Better Industrial Water Management
It's time to stake a claim! Working with partners, scholars create stakeholder charts for better industrial management of water. As they complete the chart, pupils consider an option for managing water more sustainably, identify...
EngageNY
Forming a Research-Based Claim: Cascading Consequences Charts
Life is all about choices and consequences. Using a Cascading Consequences chart, scholars create a visual map of the effects of a particular choice or action related to water management. With their researcher's notebooks and copies of...
EngageNY
Forming a Research-Based Claim: Introducing Stakeholders and Consequences
Consequences, consequences. Using the resource, scholars engage in a class discussion about the repercussions of too much screen time. Next, they create a Cascading Consequences chart that lists the positive and negative effects of...
EngageNY
Forming a Research-Based Claim: Comparing Cascading Consequences
It's time to weigh the risks and benefits of screen time! Pupils work in triads to identify the strongest positive and negative consequences from their Cascading Consequences chart. Next, using the chart and their researcher's notebooks,...
Missouri Department of Elementary
If It’s to Be, It’s Up to Me
Here's a clever switch on the tale of Pandora's Box. Rather than lifting the lid and having problems escape, class members write a problem on a strip of paper and place it in Pandora's Problem Box. A student then pulls a problem from...
Healthy Native Youth
Chapter 3: Decision Making
By way of group discussion, reading, and role-play a series of six activities encourage scholars to make responsible decisions. Following an online introduction, pupils review the concept of volition and answer questions. Middle...
EngageNY
Adding to Cascading Consequences and Stakeholders: Hunter-Gatherer Food Chain
Could the hunter-gatherer food chain feed everyone in the United States? To consider the question, pupils use their research and add to the Cascading Consequences chart based on Michael Pollan's hunter-gatherer food chain from The...
EngageNY
Further Research: Hunter-Gatherer Food Chain
It's time to gather nuts, berries, and lots of information. Scholars continue on their quest to determine the consequences of each of Michael Pollan's food chains from The Omnivore's Dilemma. Using research questions developed in a...
EngageNY
Determining Cascading Consequences Using The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Hunter-Gatherer Food Chain
Focusing on the consequences of the hunter-gatherer food chain that Michael Pollan discusses in The Omnivore's Dilemma, teams work together to create hunter-gatherer food chain consequences charts. Next, scholars view other groups'...