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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Listening

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Focus, confirm, respond.  Middle schoolers engage in a series of activities designed to help them improve their listening skills. They listen to and try to solve a riddle and play a version of the telephone game. Participants learn that...
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Understanding Nonverbal Messages

For Teachers 6th - 8th
The Overcoming Obstacles course for middle schoolers continues with a unit module on communication. In the first lesson, participants engage in a series of activities that help them recognize nonverbal clues and the importance of making...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Exit Cards

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Everyone wants to feel heard and valued. Provide learners with an opportunity to share their thoughts and have them heard with this closing routine. Participants use an exit card to share their response to prompts that ask them to share...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Closing Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The future can be yours to see with a bit of planning. That's the takeaway from a routine that asks participants to first brainstorm a list of personal and academic goals. Individuals then select one to focus on for the week, identify...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Appreciate, Apology, Aha

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Build a strong classroom community with a closing routine that asks each participant to share something they appreciate about their classmate(s), issue an apology if they may have hurt someone's feelings or an "aha" moment when they...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Compass Points

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Needs, Suggestions, Excitement, and Worries. A Compass Points worksheet asks pupils to give feedback on that day's lesson. Learners identify what they need from the instructor and classmates, what excites them about the class, what...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Maintain and Modify

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Maintain or modify? That's the question scholars answer as they reflect on their focus and engagement in that day's lesson. Were learners focused and contributing, or do they need to modify their level of participation?
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Facing History and Ourselves

First Chapter Fridays

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Fridays can be a challenge with learners already dreaming about their weekends. Here's a routine that will bring their minds back to the classroom. Read aloud the beginning of a story, sure to engage your listeners.
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Developing Personal Power

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Money? Beauty? Education? The final lesson in the Confidence Building module encourages middle schoolers to consider the power they have to determine the course of their lives. After investigating different forms of power, participants...
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Avoiding Stereotypes

For Teachers 6th - 8th
The activities in a instructional activity about stereotypes teach middle schoolers about the dangers of one-perception fits-all thinking. Participants learn how to check their perceptions by identifying ways to avoid stereotyping, like...
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Clarifying Values

For Teachers 6th - 8th
The fourth instructional activity in the Confidence Building module asks participants to think about what they value and how these values influence their decisions. Class members engage in activities that help them identify what they...
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Staying Healthy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
The third lesson plan in the Building Confidence module focuses on healthy habits. Middle schoolers engage in activities that underscore the need for a healthy diet, daily exercise, and a good night's sleep. They create customized food...
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Through a series of activities, middle schoolers learn how to celebrate their strengths, identify their weaknesses, and brainstorm strategies they can use to turn their weaknesses into strengths.
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Lesson Plan
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Overcoming Obstacles

Giving and Earning Respect

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers learn what respect means to them and their classmates with the opening exercise in a series of confidence-building lessons. Participants list people they respect and why they respect them. They generate a definition,...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Take a Stand

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Whole-heartedly agree! I sort of agree. Disagree! Class members indicate their stance on a controversial statement by participating in a Barometer activity.
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Facing History and Ourselves

Fist to Five

For Teachers 6th - 12th
A "Fist to Five" routine asks participants to indicate how they feel about an opening question, like how ready they are to start learning, how well they understand instructions, etc. Groups then suggest strategies to get learners ready...