This curriculum unit is intended to be utilized in small counseling group sessions of six to ten students, but it can also be used in a classroom with the students being divided into small groups. Ideal implementation in the classroom would involve the school social worker or guidance counselor teaming up with the classroom teacher to present this unit.
To facilitate openness and self-disclosure among group members, it is a good idea to avoid having friends or members of the same clique within the group. It can help to balance the group with a racial / cultural mix, a mix of social groups and students from the various academic tracks at school. Parental permission would be needed for students to participate, and the letter sent to parents (see sample, Appendix I) should provide parents with information about the content and goals of the group meetings.
The unit can be taught once weekly for a semester (20 sessions) or can be condensed to a shorter format, such as once weekly for eight to twelve consecutive weeks. The lessons, although including some didactic material, should be mostly experiential, involving games, art and sharing in dyads or small groups. Each lesson will include fast-paced activities to sustain the attention of the students and create an atmosphere of fun and comradery in the group. The early lessons require less self-disclosure than later lessons, assuming that trust within the group will grow throughout the course of instruction of the unit.
The sample lessons presented here cover a great deal of ground, in terms of the stated objectives and activities as well as the ongoing group dynamics and trust building. It is thus expected that it may require several group sessions to complete each lesson. It is very important for the instructor to respect the process that develops within the group, recognizing that it will take time for students to understand, react and open up to the issues these lessons address.
Using a few moments of silent relaxation to begin each group session can separate the mood and experiences within the group from normal classroom routine. It can be a way for students to allow the experiences of their day to digest and settle, notice what they are feeling, and clear and open their minds. Any guided relaxation, guided visualization or focused breathing exercise can help students shift their focus inward to get in touch with the inner world of feelings and thoughts. Connecting with themselves through such exercises can put students in a mood of reflection that is conducive to engaging in the self-assessment activities that this group experience includes.
Lesson I
Objectives
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• To introduce the unit to group members.
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• To enable students to get to know and relax with one another, to identify things they have in common and ways in which they differ.
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• To establish group guidelines and differentiate the group experience from that of a classroom.
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• To teach students the relaxation exercise with which each group meeting will begin.
The first meeting of the group will begin with a brief description of the purpose of the unit, for example: "We're going to spend a few weeks together and each of you is going to discover a lot about yourself. Through our meetings, talks and activities you will learn what makes you special, what your strengths are, and how to make the most of your strengths in both social and academic situations. This group is a place for everyone to talk, listen, accept themselves and each other, and have fun."
An icebreaker activity should be used as a way of engaging students and setting the tone for the type of interaction expected in the group. A popular icebreaker is 'musical candy toss', an adaptation of musical chairs. A bag filled with candy is tossed from one group member to another as music is played. The person who is holding the bag when the instructor stops the music shares something about him / herself, then takes a piece of candy. The music and the candy toss then resume.
Another icebreaker involves creating a scavenger hunt type of activity in which students are given a list of things they must learn about other members of the group. The list, entitled "Find a person who..." might include, for example, "...has a birthday in June", "...is the youngest child in the family", "...plays a musical instrument", and so on. As the results of this hunt are shared with the group, the instructor / group facilitator can lead students to recognize the uniqueness of each group member as well as the attributes that group members have in common.
The group should now move to the task of establishing group guidelines. Students can be coached to develop the guidelines by asking them what rules need to be established to make the group feel like a safe place to talk honestly about things that matter to them. The list they generate should address the following issues: 3
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1. Mutual respect within the group: everyone should be listened to and treated with courtesy, no 'put-downs' of any kind will be allowed. Feedback among group members must be shared in positive and respectful ways. It should be stressed that there is no need for competition in this group and there are no correct answers within our discussions. Each student's perspective is uniquely personal and important and deserves respect.
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2. Confidentiality: whatever students share during group meetings stays within the group so that everyone can feel safe talking in the group.
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3. Students always have the choice to 'pass' or not participate in an activity. As people have varying comfort levels in talking and sharing in groups, group members should be helped to understand and respect those differences.
This first lesson will end with introducing a relaxation activity. The instructor can say something like: "Another special thing we'll do in this group is to begin each meeting with a moment of silent relaxation. You can use the time to think about things that happened or feelings you had earlier in the day, to notice how you feel right now, to clear your mind, or just relax. I'm going to show you what I mean, so I want everyone to get comfortable in your seat while we try a short silent relaxation exercise." The instructor might begin by having students tense then relax muscles progressively, talking students through the body from face to shoulders, arms, hands, stomach, legs and feet. Or students can simply be instructed to close their eyes and breathe calm, relaxed feelings in through the nose, then blow feelings of stress, frustration, etc out through the mouth. (See Hobday and Ollier, 1999, pp. 61-67 for examples of guided relaxation and visualization texts.)
Lesson II
Objectives
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• To expand students' concept of intelligence by very briefly introducing them to the theories of emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences.
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• To introduce the concept of self-awareness and Gardner's view of it (i.e., intrapersonal intelligence) as a type of intelligence.
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• To improve understanding of the concept of self-awareness by differentiating the internal from the external world.
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• To develop a vocabulary to describe feelings and to understand the uniqueness and variations of people's inner experiences.
A very brief didactic introduction will expand students' thinking about the nature of intelligence, examining emotional intelligence and Gardner's view of multiple intelligences. Discussion will then move to Gardner's personal intelligences, and a definition will be developed of 'self-awareness' or intrapersonal intelligence.
In order to better grasp the concept of self-awareness, the group will look at the nature of experience as consisting of the external world of objects, actions and events and the inner world of feelings, desires, thoughts and judgments. Discussion can explore the outer self as comprising those aspects of ourselves that are easily seen by others: one's body, behavior, accomplishments, etc. The inner self, much more private and hard to know, consists of physical and emotional feelings, opinions, memories, dreams, etc. A list can be generated of the vast array of human feelings, and other markers of inner experience can be discussed, with an emphasis on the tremendous variability and uniqueness of the inner experiences of people. Having students complete, then share, a questionnaire like the one entitled "Things that matter to me..." (Appendix II) can be a vehicle for helping students to appreciate the variations of the inner experiences of group members.
An activity described in Sutton, (1999, pp. 64-65), is a fun, non-threatening way to talk about feelings and to think about the qualities that make each individual unique. The materials are a box of potatoes and a bag containing pieces of paper labeled with the name of a feeling. Students choose a potato and a piece of paper, then study the potato, noticing what makes it different from every other potato. Students are then asked to give the potato an identity: sex, name, age, and develop a story about the potato 'person' that is related to the feeling written on their piece of paper. After all the stories have been shared with the group and the potatoes put back into the box, students are asked to find their potato as quickly as possible, explaining the unique characteristics that helped them do so.
Discussion can look at why it might be important to develop self-reflective abilities, and examine the relationship between self-awareness and effective functioning. Students will be asked to identify someone they know or a character in a book or movie that exemplifies highly developed self-awareness and to describe the characteristics of that person. The group facilitator / instructor will then repeat that the development of self-awareness will be the goal and content of the work of this group.
Subsequent lessons will include activities such as those described in the next few paragraphs. The books in the Instructor Resources section of the bibliography contain a variety of exercises and activities that might be adapted and used for subsequent group meetings. Objectives during the next few group sessions will be to continue creating experiences within the group that will help students learn more about their inner reactions and reality, increasing their self-awareness.
Cooperative games and activities can build connection and trust among group members and help students to discover new aspects of themselves and others. The following activity, which can help students share and get to know each other on a meaningful level, is adapted from Kessler, (2000, pp. 9-10). Students are asked to bring with them to the group an object that symbolizes something important in their lives. Each student then tells the group the story of what their object represents to them. Another way to structure this activity is for students to bring the object to the group in a bag without showing it to anyone. The bags are given to the instructor who then displays all the objects on a table. One by one each student will select the object that appeals to him/her and briefly describe it. The student who brought in that object then identifies him/herself and tells the story of what the object represents for her/him.
Another activity that can contribute to increased self-awareness, involves having each student develop a personal life history time-line (see Capaccione, 1979, pp. 36-37). This activity begins with some moments of reflection in which students take inventory of important events and experiences in their lives and the associated feelings. A line drawn horizontally across the paper is labeled with dates, beginning with the student's year of birth on the extreme left and the current year on the extreme right. Events are recorded above the line, while the inner reality of feelings, thoughts, and reactions are recorded below the line. This exercise can contribute to the student's sense of psychological continuity through time, another important component of an individual's self-concept. (Gallup, 1998) However, it is important to keep in mind that students who have suffered significant trauma or loss may have a very hard time with or reject this activity. The instructor should be attentive to how students react to this activity and let students know it is fine to include some historical events and omit others.
The following activity is one that may help students understand the complex and at times contradictory influences that are integrated into a person's self-concept. This 'self map' is a way of graphically looking at this process of self-integration. To begin this activity, each student should list adjectives that describe what she/he is like in a variety of social contexts:
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• with friends...
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• with parents...
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• in the classroom...
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• in your neighborhood…
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• with members of the opposite sex…
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• when you're alone…
Each adjective should then be placed in the appropriate location on the 'self map' (see illustration below) to indicate the relative importance / centrality of that characteristic.
(figure available in print form)
This next activity can also help students examine the contradictory messages they receive about 'being yourself' on the path toward developing a self-concept and a personal value system. The activity consists of asking the group to fill out a grid (see Appendix III) which delineates the mixed messages young people receive about a variety of things such as love, sex, education, drugs and alcohol, and so on. As students share their completed grids with the group, discussion can focus on the pressures and confusions resulting from conflicting social messages.
Various activities use art to represent the inner world of feelings. One example involves coloring in the outline of a person. Give each student 12 markers and ask them to make a key in the corner of the page, associating each color with an emotion. Each student then colors within the outline to depict the nature of his/her own feelings, whether happy, sad, angry, proud, shy, etc. In this activity students are able to represent which feelings are buried, which closer to the surface, feelings that mask others, etc. Another example is the 'self pie'. Students draw a circle and divide it into segments. Each segment is labeled with an attribute, characteristic or behavior such as, 'sense of humor', 'like to be the center of attention', 'shy', 'good dancer', etc. The size of each 'slice' of the 'self pie' represents the relative importance of the attribute it represents.
Also incorporated into the group sessions will be opportunities for students to administer inventories to themselves or partners as a way of identifying their own personality characteristics, social style, personal values and learning styles. For example, inventories might be administered to introduce students to the various learning styles and help students explore whether they have a predominantly auditory, visual, kinesthetic, tactile or multisensory learning style. A variety of inventories are contained in the books listed in the Instructor Resources section of the bibliography and described in the annotations. These inventories are designed to help students identify and compare their likes and dislikes, personality traits such as introversion / extroversion, optimism / pessimism, needs and expectations in friendship, communication style, etc. They can be used to help students define unique aspects of themselves and one another, identifying differences and commonalities.
Lesson VI
Objectives
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• To build on and reinforce each student's understanding of the inner and outer self.
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• To encourage creativity and a nonverbal connection with the inner world.
Materials
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• Cigar boxes. Usually made of wood and covered with paper, with a flip top, measuring approximately 8"x 6"x 3".
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• A variety of magazines containing images that students identify with.
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• Art materials: markers, paints, crayons, glitter, feathers, etc.
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• Be creative: fabric scraps, ribbons, fabric flowers, shells, small plastic figures of people or animals, other interesting objects.
By this sixth lesson, students will be ready to begin an art project, the purpose of which is to help them synthesize what they are learning. Each student will begin creating a 'me box', an art project using symbolic representations of the student's inner and outer selves. In addition to the materials above being available, students should be encouraged to bring in objects or photos which represent personal qualities or characteristics, talents, experiences, memories, beliefs, events or people which are important to them. Images, words or objects representing the student's social self would decorate the exterior of a cigar box, while things reflecting the 'inner me' would decorate the interior of the box. Creating this box is a long-term project and will not be completed during this session. Time should be available during subsequent sessions to continue this project.
By its short-term nature, this group experience will be merely a beginning, a brief introduction to the life-long process of developing self-awareness. It would be helpful to have a variety of books addressing issues related to the topic of 'getting to know yourself' on display during group meetings and available for loan to students. (See Student Resources bibliography.) It will also be important for the group facilitator to involve parents in this experience by explaining in the letter to parents the goals and objectives of the group. (See Appendix I for a sample, which should be adapted to suit the educational level of the parent population.) As mentioned earlier, parental permission is needed for students to participate in the group and parental understanding of the intent and content of the group experience can help parents to discuss related topics with their child. The Parent Resources bibliography should accompany the parent letter; these books might be placed on display in the school library during the period when the group is being conducted.
