Saturday, October 20, 2012

Classroom Guidance Lesson



Overview of activity (brief statement): “Sticks and Stones” is a classroom guidance lesson that focuses on the issues of tattling in the elementary school setting. After explaining the difference between reporting and tattling; the children select a scenario card, decide if it’s a tattling situation or not, and then place it on the pile of shredded paper (tattling pile) or the sticks and stones (reporting pile).   

Purpose: To explain the difference between tattling and telling, and give them examples of each of the two categories.   

Intervention Level: This guidance lesson is considered to be a preventive and an intervention strategy for the students.
Age group / grade: 2nd grade/ 7-8 years old

Materials needed: card stack of tattling and telling situations/ pile of shredded paper/ pile of sticks and stones/ reminder paper (for the teacher to hang up in the room)

Activity, step by step, with a time estimate of each step: 30 minutes
Step one: Gather the needed materials.
Step two: Set up the 2 piles for tattling and reporting.
Step three: Explain the difference between tattling and telling to the students.
Step four: Ask them to share their own experiences with tattling and telling.
Step five: Introduce the pile of shredded paper (tattling pile) and the pile of sticks and stones (telling pile) to the students.
Step six: Each students chooses a card, decides if the situation is tattling or reporting, and places it on the correct pile (sticks and stones or the shredded paper).
Step seven: Continue step six until every student in the classroom gets a turn.
Step eight: Introduce the reminder sheet to the classroom and explain the various aspects of tattling and reporting to the students.
Step nine: Leave the reminder sheet with the students’ teacher.

Follow-up activities with the class: I think that respect and responsibility activities would be great follow- up activities to do with the same class.  

Contingency plan (if things don’t go as hoped…): After the tattling, respectful, and responsibility guidance lessons are completed with the class, hopefully the students will interact with each other in a more positive and productive manner.

3 comments:

  1. I did my classroom activity on tattling too, but used smaller kids. It is amazing how much tattling goes on in a classroom, but the most of it seems to be the need for attention.

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  2. I have noticed that too, even with the second grade students.

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  3. I think this is an awesome classroom guidance lesson to use with younger students. I like that it emphasizes the difference between tattling and telling. Giving examples of situations when it is important to tell about something occurring is really important.

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