Learning Outcomes
- Articulate feelings about the school’s climate
- Practice describing the school’s climate, listening to classmates’ feelings about the school climate, and setting a personal goal for improving the school climate
Materials
Vocabulary
- School climate
Preparation
Have ready a container with pieces of paper to allow students to draw numbers and find a partner. Number pieces of paper 1 to (class size/2) with each number represented twice. [If on-line: set up breakout rooms with random assignment.]
Lesson Plan
Total Time: 30 min
Time: 5 min
Content
Warm up partner activity: With the person sitting next to you, read through the list of words and try to come up with additional words to describe our school’s climate. The term “school climate” means how we feel about this school community.
Time: 10 min
Content
Informal circle discussion: I will ask a question, and then we’ll go around the circle so that everyone has a chance to respond to the question. Only one person speaks at a time. When someone speaks, everyone else listens. If you don’t want to speak, you can say “pass.” I’ll try to respond to the prompts as well.
Prompt 1: In one word, how would you describe our school’s overall climate?
Prompt 2: What do you like best about our school?
Prompt 3: What do you like least about our school?
Materials/Notes
Ask students to stand in a circle.
PowerPoint slide #3
Time: 10 min
Content
Partner activity: Draw a number out of this container and find the person who drew the same number.
- With your partner go over the questions on the handout and record your partner’s answers. Switch roles so that both of you get to answer the questions. [Briefly go over the handout.]
- Complete the goal statement based on what you have learned from your partner. I will also write up a goal statement based on what I heard during our circle discussion.
Materials/Notes
PowerPoint slide #4: Handout 2
PowerPoint slide #5: Goal Statement
Time: 25-30 min
Content
Sharing out:
Would anyone like to share their goals statement? [You can read your goal statement first if students are reluctant to volunteer.]
Materials/Notes
Extension or Alternate Activity
Total Time: 10 min
Preparation
Pair students up as described above and give them handout 3.
Materials: PowerPoint slide #6: Handout 3
Time: 5 min
Content
Partner Work: [Pair students up as described above and give them Handout 3.] “Take a look at this handout. We’ll learn about all these concepts. Together with your partner, take a few minutes to complete the sentences on the handout.
I’ll do the same.
Please leave your completed handout with me. At the end of the year, we’ll do the same activity again and then we’ll see what we have learned.”