MBI Lesson Planning Worksheet
Respect Lesson 2
School-Wide Behavior Matrix Week of 12/15/08-12/18/08
Brief Description
Do you have the courage to be respectful? Throughout the next several weeks, the youth leadership team will be sending out lessons concerning respect. This lesson will challenge students to have the courage to stand up for what is right and overcome obstacles.
Objectives
Students will understand the need to overcome obstacles to reach their goals
Students will gain the confidence to stand up for what is right
Materials Needed
Computer with smartboard if using video of Mission Impossible Trailer
Lesson Plan
Discussion in Small Groups:
The people we talked about last week were super ball people. With every failure, they kept bouncing back. Get into small groups and discuss this question. Why do you think they kept bouncing back, whereas many people would have given up? (Allow a few minutes for their insights.)
Examples:
- Share with the class examples. Answers may include:
- #1 - Their goals were extremely important to them. Some of our goals aren't really that important to us, so we give up easily.
- #2 - They may have had tenacious, stubborn personalities.
- #3 - Perhaps they had enough successes in their lives to balance out their failures.
- #4 - They believed in themselves in spite of their failures.
Do have some goals that are worth enduring for?
Endurance - you’ll never be successful without it. Do some of you feel the need for more of it in your own life? Perhaps academic work doesn’t come easy for you. Perhaps your home life is in shambles and beneath your cool expression you’re wondering if you’ll ever make it in life. We’ll end with one more illustration.
Show the following trailer from Mission Impossible III:
http://www.spike.com/video/mission-impossible/2684995
If the trailer is unavailable then discuss with the class how cool Tom Cruise comes across in his movies.
How many of you saw him play Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible or one of his many other movies? His accomplishments are pretty incredible. He is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, has been recognized for his achievements in acting by a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination, and has the physical agility (and guts) to perform 95% of the stunts in Mission Impossible III, It’s easy to look at Cruise and assume that he probably always had everything going for him. He must have been very successful in high school and popular with the girls. Think again. His life is actually the story of a survivor who learned to turn his shortcomings into assets.
ü Do any of you struggle with family problems?
o Tom’s dad was consumed with his work and finally abandoned the family when Tom was 12. Some of you know the gut-wrenching feelings he must have suffered through in middle school.
ü Do you ever struggle with financial problems?
o Tom couldn’t afford some of the things other kids had because his dad refused to pay child support for his four children. He and his sisters had to work to contribute to the family income. They sometimes survived on food stamps.
ü Do you ever struggle with social problems?
o His social life was disrupted regularly by moves that forced him to change schools an average of once a year (8 elementary and three high schools). Lots of kids made fun of him. He was always the new geek, never the cool guy that girls flocked to. Lots of kids made fun of him.
ü Do any of you ever feel dumb?
o As if Tom didn’t have enough problems to deal with, he was always in remedial classes for slow learners. He was later found to have a learning disorder called Dyslexia, which makes it incredibly difficult to learn skills like reading. Not knowing what was wrong, he just thought he was dumb and would often come home crying. With dyslexics, their brains often tell them that things are backwards. He couldn’t even distinguish his right hand from his left.
ü Do you often fail at sports?
o Concluding that academics weren’t his forte, he plunged into athletics. He played football but was too small to excel. Wrestling, however, is divided into weight classes, giving him the opportunity to compete. But when running some stairs (trying to lose a pound to compete in his weight class) he slipped on some papers his sister had left and tore a tendon on his leg. So much for athletics. Unable to wrestle on the team, he tried out for a part in their high school play. He landed a starring role and fell in love with acting. A theater agent just happened to be in the audience the night of the performance and encouraged him to go into acting. The rest is history.
I’d like for you to reflect for a moment on Tom’s life. It would have been so easy for him to grow bitter, conclude that life sucks and hate all the people around him. But instead, he learned from his shortcomings. He draws from the heartache he experienced as a child to express emotion when he acts. He learned to work harder than others by having to learn with a disability. He says that his school difficulties were a character course that made him a better person. As a result, he goes the extra mile for his producers and has the people skills that make people love to work with him.
Complete the following activity (attached for separate handout):
Sentence Starters: Respect
Complete the sentences below by filling in the blanks and finishing the sentences.
1. The person I respect most is __________________________________ because …
2. My parents taught me to respect _________________________________________
I show respect to this person/place/thing/idea by doing …
Respecting this person/place/thing/idea is important because …
3. I demonstrate respect for my parents when I …
4. I demonstrate respect for myself when I …
5. I demonstrate respect for my heritage when I…
6. I demonstrate respect for my country when I …
7. I demonstrate respect for my religion when I …
8. I will teach my children to respect _______________________________________
I will teach them to show their respect by …
It is important for children to show their respect because…
9. I wish people were more respectful of __________________________ because …
10. When people do not respect ______________ I feel _______________ because …
11. The character trait I respect most in a person is __________________ because …