Can I Stay Cool?
GRADE 9-12 SESSION 5
Time Required: 45 minutes
Content Standards:
Personal/Social Development
A. Students will acquire the knowledge, attitudes and interpersonal skills to help them understand and respect self and others.
Indicators:
Students will be able to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.
Students will be able to recognize and solve problems
Students will be able to make decisions and act as responsible members of society.
Activity Statements:
Students demonstrate their ability to use the group information to maximize their use of safe and healthy assertive behavior when being angry by verbalizing their successes to the group. During this session, students’ reflections on their learning, progress toward goals and pre/post group responses to feelings of anger will indicate a sense of personal responsibility and control over their responses to feelings of anger. The changes in their pre-to post-group discipline office referrals and Anger Management Self-Assessment indicate change in a positive direction.
Materials:
Completed individual Discipline/Office Referral Forms (Prior to Session 5, gather follow-up data about each participant’s anger-related discipline/office referrals since Session 1; see Session 4 for form and directions)
Anger Management folders including Session 1, 2, 3 and 4 Handouts:
Small Group Counseling Guidelines
Pre-Group Anger Management Self–Assessment form
Anger: Myth or Not (Student Activity Page)
Anger: Myth or Not: Answer Sheet—Myth Busters (Student Activity Page)
Discipline/Office Referrals (Pre-Group Resource Page)
Tracking and Taming My Anger: Part I (group assignment for Session 1)
Anger Management Cues (Student Activity Page)
Tracking and Taming My Anger: Part II (group assignment for Session 2)
Emotional Thermometer I (Student Activity Page)
Emotional Thermometer II (group assignment for Session 3)
Celebration “materials” (see Session 4)
Anger Management Self-Assessment (Student post-group assessment)
I Am In Charge Of Me! (Optional Post-Group Student Activity Page)
From Now On: Weekly Data Collection Tables: You Are In Charge Of You! (Optional Post-Group Student Activity Page)
Student Feedback Form: Overall Effectiveness of Group (attached to Unit Plan)
Group Certificate of Completion
Procedures:
Professional School Counselor Procedures: Session 5 / Student Involvement: Session 5 /Prior to the start of this session, gather data regarding students’ discipline/office referrals since the group began (See Session 4—Discipline/Office Referrals Resource Page).
1. Following the “Hook” and a brief discussion of the scenario, review Small Group Guidelines with an emphasis on post-group confidentiality. Remind participants that even though the group is over, other group members will trust them not to tell other people about what another person said or did in the group. Remind students about your responsibility to protect their confidentiality, too.
2. Collect Parent Feedback packets; make arrangements to get the forms from participants who did not bring them to the group.
3. Give students their Anger Management folders. Ask for 2-3 volunteers to review what they learned during the last session. Ask group members to review the personal goals they wrote on their Anger Management Self-Assessments. On scale of 1-5 (5= high), SHOW-ME how you did.
4. Post-Group Discipline/Office Referral form: Distribute individual post-group office referral information to each student. Talk with students about their successes and ask them to review their pre-/post-group office referrals and summarize changes and reasoning behind changes. Ask them to complete the Student Comment section regarding their changes. Collect the completed forms to use as you assess the students’ perceptions of the group’s effectiveness.
5. Give each student the post-group Anger Management Self –Assessment. Instruct students to complete the form individually without discussion. After completion, students work in pairs to compare their pre/post results (pre-group results “should” be in their Anger Management folders).
6. Use students’ observations of pre/post ways of managing anger to lead into the development of “from now on” goals. Students continue working in pairs to develop goals. Encourage students to write their goals as statements in the present-tense, e.g., “I use my “stop and cool” signal when I feel an anger coming on” or “When my geometry teacher ‘calls me out’ for talking, I say ‘Oops, my bad’ and get back to work.” Provide opportunity for students to share one of their “from now on” goals.
Note: Two (2) Student Activity Pages are included as optional resources to help students maintain positive changes beyond the last session. If you are not holding a follow-up session, you may want to use them as a means to help students self-monitor their continued progress.
I AM IN CHARGE OF ME! (Student Activity Page)
Weekly Data Collection Tables (Student Activity Page)
7. Distribute the Student Feedback Form; after completion, celebrate their successes and present students with certificates.
8. Group Summary/Closure: Ask members of the group to share the most valuable tool they learned during the group experience. Tell students that their Anger Management folders are theirs to keep; encourage them to review the handouts and assignments frequently so that they continue to “Act Cool” especially when it is the most difficult.
9. Remind about Confidentiality and date of Follow-up Session (if a follow-up session is scheduled).
Distribute & Explain Classroom Teacher/Parent/ Guardian Follow-Up Suggestions. Send a copy home with each student and provide a copy to classroom teacher(s) of students in group. / 1. Students relate the confidentiality rule of the Small Group Guidelines to the “Hook” scenario and the difficulty they might have maintaining confidentiality. Students will make a commitment to the trust others have in them and to maintaining confidentiality.
2. Students give you the packets; those who do not have the completed packets will commit to the day they will bring them to you.
3. Two or three volunteers will review what they learned during the last session. Each student reviews personal goals and indicates how he or she did in working toward the goals.
4. Students talk about any discipline referrals and reflect upon the decrease in discipline referrals, the assertive techniques they used that worked and summarize changes and reasoning behind changes. They return forms to you.
5. Students complete the post-group Anger Management Self-Assessment form. After completion, they compare results of the pre-group self-assessment and the post-group self-assessment with a partner. Each pair identifies one observation the pair made and shares the observation with the group.
6. Students review and self-assess their progress toward personal goals. Working with a partner, they establish “from now on” goals—written in the present tense—whom they are—rather than whom they “will” be. Students choose one “from-now-on” goal to share with group members.
7. Students complete the Student Feedback Form, celebrate their successes and accept their certificates.
8. Students will share their most valuable tool to add closure to the group. Students commit to continued use of techniques that will defuse their anger and eliminate discipline referrals.
9. If a follow-up session is scheduled, students will confirm they have written the date of the Follow-up Session in their planners.
10. Students commit to giving their parents/guardians the handout.
Discussion:
How does an individual stay cool during a heated situation?
Additional Resources:
Adapted from http://missouricareereducation.org/curr/cmd/guidanceplacementG/responsive/index.html.
Extension Activities:
Students who need further assistance, follow-up with individual counseling and/or referrals.
Compile data collected into tables/graphs for comparison and assessment of the effectiveness of the group. (See PRoBE materials in the Missouri Comprehensive Guidance Program Manual or contact the Guidance Section of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
http://missouricareereducation.org/curr/cmd/guidanceplacementG/elearning/