Student Advisory Curriculum
Grade 10
Theme: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
This theme includes lessons on:
§ Marking theme days like Earth Day, International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Remembrance Day ...
§ Recognition of accomplishments, birthdays, awards ...
§ Cultural celebrations and holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa ...
§ Sharing personal interests, hobbies, projects ... and playfulness
Lessons
§ Celebrate Success
§ Deciding on Advisory Activities
§ Drop Everything and Read
§ Earth Day
§ End of the Year Rituals
§ Exploratorium
§ If I Had a Wish
§ Passionate Presenters
§ Thought or Story of the Month
§ Games … Brain Teasers … Puzzles … Energizers
o Fun Puzzles
o Rebus Puzzle
o Sudoku Puzzle 1
o Sudoku Puzzle 2
New Lessons – added 2008/2009
§ Word and Phrase Puzzle – (added Jan 8, 2009)
§ Alpha Word Puzzle 1 – (added Jan. 8, 2009)
§ December Fun Stuff Puzzles – (added Dec. 11, 2008)
§ Fun Stuff – Name the Words and Phrases – (added Dec. 4, 2008)
§ Just Add Salt Logic Puzzle – (added Nov. 19, 2008)
§ Fun Stuff Rebus Puzzles – (added Nov. 18, 2008)
§ Super Tough Brain Baffler – (added Nov. 13, 2008)
§ Friday Fun Stuff Puzzles – (added Nov. 13, 2008)
§ Boys in the Band – (added Nov. 5, 2008)
§ Digi Search – (added Nov. 5, 2008)
§ Number Cruncher – (added Nov. 5, 2008)
§ Sports Anagram 1 – (added Nov. 5, 2008)
§ Sports Anagram 2 – (added Nov. 5, 2008)
§ Halloween – (added Oct. 27, 2008)
§ Halloween Logic Puzzle – (added Oct. 27, 2008)
§ Logic Puzzle – (added Oct. 23, 2008)
§ Friday Passions and Fun Stuff – (added Oct. 16, 2008)
§ Name the Words or Phrases – (added Oct. 2, 2008)
§ Disorder Puzzle – (added Oct. 1, 2008)
§ Battleship – (added Sept., 2008)
§ Denza Quiz – (added Sept., 2008)
§ Friday Nearly Impossible Brain Bafflers – (added Sept., 2008)
§ Scavenger Hunt – (added Sept., 2008)
THEME: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
Lesson: Celebrate Success
Learning Outcomes
§ Students will be recognized for individual accomplishments.
§ Students will celebrate other students’ talents and competencies.
Essential Questions
§ What important things do I do or have I done outside of school?
§ What is my definition of success and excellence?
Level
§ Grade 9 - 12
Time
§ 1 x 15 minutes (whenever needed)
Materials
§ Write the Essential Questions on the board.
Procedure
1. Recognizing individual accomplishments is as important as recognizing whole –group successes. Our competitive “I win, you lose” culture too often doesn’t support taking pleasure in accomplishments of others. Create opportunities that encourage students to appreciate the efforts of their peers.
2. We don’t often recognize students’ talents and competencies if they aren’t used in the classroom. When you acknowledge that students do important things in their lives outside of school, you have the power to help students broaden their definitions of success and excellence, as well as break down stereotypical views of their classmates.
Evaluation
§ Choose an appropriate Rubric from Assessment and Evaluation.
Used by Permission. Copyright ©2004 Educators for Social Responsibility, All Rights Reserved.
THEME: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
Lesson: Deciding on Advisory Activities
Learning Outcomes
§ Students will feel as though each of them is an important part of the group.
§ Students will celebrate throughout the year.
Essential Questions
§ What kind of activities can we do throughout the year to build a sense of team?
§ What can we do to celebrate the talents of the members of the group?
Level
§ Grade 9 - 12
Time
§ 3 x 15 minutes
Materials
§ Write the Essential Questions on the board.
§ Handout: “Suggestions for Advisory Activity”.
Procedure
1. Read the essential questions:
o What kind of activities can we do throughout the year to build a sense of team?
o What can we do to celebrate the talents of the members of the group?
2. Read over handout: “Suggestions for Advisory Activity”. Identify the activities the students would like to participate in throughout the year. Brainstorm any other activities the group would like to do.
3. Create a monthly calendar for the year so students are aware of the activities planned. Have the students transfer the activities into their agenda book at the beginning of each month or for the whole year... make sure you are aware of school-planned activities, for example fundraising, Adopt-a- Family, etc….many of these school-based initiatives may be in the agendas already.
Evaluation
§ Choose an appropriate Rubric from Assessment and Evaluation.
Suggestions for Advisory Activity
Customize this list to your comfort, and the talents and dynamics of your group. What may work well in one advisory group may not in another. Brainstorm with your group any additional activities – share with other advisory groups!
Relationship Building Activity / Time (approx) / Grade9 / Grade
10 / Grade
11 / Grade
12
Birthday celebrations
(list each students’ birthday somewhere in the classroom These can be celebrated by the month or by the day) / 1 advisory class per student. / x / x / x / x
Advisory Breakfast
(out of the school.) / 45 minutes / x / x
Pizza Lunch / 1 hour / x
Restaurant Lunch
(out of the school) / 1 hour / x
Journals
(to build student/teacher trust) / x / x / x / x
Potluck / x / x / x / x
A – thon activities
(as a fundraiser or as a community service activity) / x / x / x / x
Family Tree Activity / 5 advisory sessions / x / x / x / x
Show and Tell
Talent Show (in the advisory group) / x / x
30 second speeches
(tell us something about you that we don’t know) / 3 advisory groups / x / x / x / x
Movie Day / 2 hours / x / x / x / x
Decorating for special events
(Hallowe’en, Christmas, seasons) / x / x / x / x
Field Trips / x / x / x / x
Time Capsule / x / x
Letter to Self / x
Humor Day
(jokes…………) / x / x / x / x
Current Events Day
(discussion about any interesting current events taking place) / x / x / x / x
Game Day
(either 1 advisory or a competition between advisories) / x / x / x / x
Bulletin Boards
(class photos throughout the year) / x / x / x / x
Develop a Advisory name/theme song/ motto / x
Theme Day
(Remembrance Day, Earth Day, Elimination of Racism Day etc.) / x / x / x / x
Trivia Challenge / x / x / x / x
Silent Reading
(a particular article/story from a Chicken Soup etc.) / x / x / x / x
Predictions
Horoscopes
THEME: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
Lesson: Drop Everything and Read
Learning Outcomes
§ Students will drop everything and read for pleasure.
§ Students will rate what they are reading for other students’ information.
Essential Questions
§ What do you enjoy reading?
§ What are you currently reading?
§ How would you rate it?
Level
§ Grade 9 - 12
Time
§ 1 x 15 minutes (repeated throughout the year as decided by the group
Materials
§ Write Essential Questions on the board
§ Books/magazines/articles
§ Space where students can record what they are reading and rate the reading material.
Procedure
1. Read over the Essential Questions at the beginning of the year:
o What do you enjoy reading?
o What are you currently reading?
o How would you rate it?
2. Do a quick survey to check what students like to read. If students read novels, encourage them to bring them. If there are particular magazines or articles they enjoy, work with the resource librarian.
3. Whenever the group decides, the whole group will drop everything and read for the advisory period. There will be groups that really enjoy that time and others that would prefer to do other things. Read your group and carry on.
Evaluation
§ Choose an appropriate Rubric from Assessment and Evaluation.
Used by Permission. Copyright ©2004 Educators for Social Responsibility, All Rights Reserved.
THEME: Real World Connections and Social Responsibility
Lesson: Earth Day, April 22
Learning Outcomes
§ Students will become familiar with International Earth Day and examine ways in which we can get involved in protecting our environment.
Essential Question
§ What is International Earth Day?
§ What everyday things can we do to protect our environment?
Level
§ Grade 10
Time
§ 2 x 15 minutes (could extend)
Materials
§ Write Essential Questions on the board
§ Transparency or Handout: Earth Day Information.
Procedures
1. Ask if anyone has heard of Earth Day, which is celebrated April 22 of each year.
2. Read the transparency/handout: “Earth Day Information”.
Evaluation
§ Choose an appropriate Rubric from Assessment and Evaluation.
Follow-up
§ Brainstorm some ways in which we can celebrate Earth Day as a school or as an advisory class. This could turn into a long-term project involving school clubs, other advisory groups, or the entire school.
Earth Day Information
Celebrated every April 22, Earth Day is the largest, most celebrated environmental event worldwide.
More than 6 million Canadians join 500 million people in over 180 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Nearly every school child in Canada takes part in an Earth Day activity.
Environmental challenges abound as our daily actions pollute and degrade the fragile environment that humans and all living things depend on to survive.
What can we do?
§ Earth Day provides the opportunity for positive actions and results.
§ First launched as an environmental awareness event in the United States in 1970, Earth Day (April 22) is celebrated as the birth of the environmental movement.
§ Earth Day is a powerful catalyst for change. The first Earth Day, spearheaded by Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson and Harvard University student Denis Hayes, involved 20 million participants in teach-ins that addressed decades of environmental pollution. The event inspired the US Congress to pass clean air and water acts, and establish the Environmental Protection Agency to research and monitor environmental issues and enforce environmental laws.
§ In 1990, two million Canadians joined 200 million people in 141 nations in celebrating the first International Earth Day. In many countries, the global event brought pressure on heads of state to take part in the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to address issues such as climate change and the world wide loss of species.
In Canada, Earth Day has grown into Earth Week and even Earth Month to accommodate the profusion of events and projects. They range from large public events, such as Victoria’s Earth Walk (5,000 participants), Edmonton’s Earth Day Festival at Hawrelak Park (30,000 participants), and Oakville, Ontario’s Waterways Clean-up (2,000 participants), to the thousands of small, private events staged by schools, employee groups and community groups.
Watch the Al Gore Video: “An Inconvenient Truth”, and discuss it.
What can we do each day to help protect our earth? Look for answers such as:
§ change the type of light bulb in your house
§ drive less
§ recycle more
§ check tire pressure and condition
§ use less hot water
§ adjust the thermostat
§ plant a tree
§ use less electricity etc.
Brainstorm some activities and choose to follow through with one.
THEME: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
Lesson: End of the Year Rituals
Learning Outcomes
§ Students will focus on closure and celebration.
§ Students will reflect on the school year and what they have learned, appreciated and experienced in your advisory class.
Essential Questions
§ What have I learned this year?
§ What have I appreciated this year?
§ What advice would I give new grade 9s for next year?
Level
§ Grade 9 - 12
Time
§ 5 x 15 minutes
Materials
§ Write the Essential Questions on the board
Procedure
1. Activities that focus on closure and celebration are important aspects of the end of the school year. We get so caught up in the testing and grading cycle that it takes incredible discipline to invite students to stop and reflect on the school year. Develop rituals that give students the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned, appreciated and experienced in your advisory program.
2. Give every student the name of someone in the advisory. Their task is to write a note to that person that might include something they appreciated about this person; something they got to know about this person that they found interesting; something this person did in advisory that they thought was cool, funny, smart, impressive or unexpected. Collect the cards and pass them out on the last day.
3. Make the time to write a personal note to each student, noting something you appreciated about them this year, a positive change you noticed as the year progressed, a challenge they met, one way they earned your respect and admiration and/or something you will remember about them.