Fighting Senioritis through Knowledge Sharing
Help seniors stay focused on their own future while also mentoring their underclassmen.
By Alicia Johnson
For high school seniors, this time of year is all about prom, senior skip day, final exams, scholarship applications, friends, senior pictures, family, caps and gowns, and graduation plans. Add these all together and sometimes it equals the well-known, but dreaded, SENIORITIS. We were all seniors at some point in our lives, so we all know what it is like to have our heads so high up in the clouds of the future that we start losing track of the present. Many of our students are currently in this position. If we want to bring them back down to Earth, an effective method is to re-direct their focus. It is good that they are thinking of tomorrow, but it is also important to help them to be conscious of today. This refocusing could be all it takes to move them into recovery from the dreaded senioritis.
When we notice our seniors becoming preoccupied, it is a good time to offer them the opportunity to continue looking ahead, while at the same time practicing the skills they need to be honing now. I suggest a small project for your seniors to share some words of wisdom with those coming up behind them — the juniors.
Cure the Itch
By now, the seniors have looked at schools, decided where they want to attend, sent in applications, taken tests, and applied for scholarships. They have poured over college brochures, websites, catalogues, FAFSA websites, and scholarship applications. They have used this information to make a major decision in their lives. This is a wonderful time for them to share what they have learned. This assignment is much different than assigning kids a book and having them report to the class on the plot or the characters. This is information that directly affects them. They can confidently share their personal experiences and discoveries with those who will wear their shoes next year.
This project can be as big or as small as you want, but I recommend small since it is also the time of year for plays, concerts, and travel teams. I used to have a librarian that would talk me down whenever I got too excited about a project idea. One time, I wanted to have a book night where all the kids shared their book reports like a critic would, in front of an audience. It was a crazy time of year, and the librarian suggested that I have students create PowerPoints and give them to her instead. She had the PowerPoints scrolling on the library computers for everyone to see. Genius! It worked out great. My classes felt their work was being published, so they tried extra hard to make it perfect. The finished products were wonderful, and many others benefited from their efforts.
Consult the Experts
I suggest your seniors either work together or individually to create public service announcements, brochures, or flyers that give information on the colleges they have been researching. They could attach a list of sources and explain why and how they came to the conclusion they did. They could add a section of how they would investigate colleges differently if they had a chance to do it all over again. One idea is to create it as a Top 10 list. Give your seniors some freedom, but include the parameters that you feel are the most important for them at this point in the school year. If you want to go a little crazy, you could have them host a college/career day for juniors in the spring and share their newly acquired college knowledge with them. The librarian could host it and have some of the computers in the library running PowerPoints, Prezis, or movies at different stations, and seniors could be there to answer questions. If you have some seniors that are not taking the college route, ask them to create presentations on the careers they plan to pursue, and the path they must take to begin this career. They would become experts on their colleges or careers.
Connect to the Common Core
More from Lesson Planet
Flip-It: Where Do I Go From Here?
If you are planning for next year already, this is a great lesson that has seniors make reflective recordings through out the year. The seniors interview themselves throughout the school year at different points on their timeline and ask a friend or family to help with the interview process. The final interview is "Where Do I Go From Here?" I imagine you could work it into this year if you have the time and supplies, but I think the interviews throughout the year will be a great memory for the seniors. It has the additional benefit of teaching the fine art of reflection.
A great tool to help prepare seniors for the working world. This packet has already been prepared and it is ready for download. It is filled-with resume-building exercises. A good thing about this type of exercise is that your classes will most likely make comments about not having a lot of experience to put down, which is a real eye-opener for them. It also puts them in a position of having to choose strong words when explaining what they have accomplished this far in their lives.
Assessing Personal Plan of Study for Lifelong Learning
Another ready-made tool for you to download. This is self-focused and could help bring your seniors back down to Earth. We all want our pupils to go on to become lifelong learners, and this helps our seniors to assess their potential to do that with the plan they have in place.