Laurelhurst SchoolAbout Student Success Skills
• This class will be taken by all the sixth graders as part of their 6th period rotation.
• This is a pass/no pass class. Students who participate and show effort will pass the class. Students are expected to follow directions, including keeping their notebooks and papers organized as described in class, unless they have special permission to do otherwise. There will be little if any homework.
• Students will receive handouts describing the details of the skills taught in class. The handouts will be available on this web site, allowing parents to reinforce the skills at home.
• Parents are encouraged to contact me with questions. General advice about organization and study skills often needs fine tuning for individual situations and I am happy to discuss this with parents and students.
• School Success Skills will focus upon a different topic each quarter. These topics are, in order:
o Study Skills: students will improve their study and organizational skills
o Group Skills: students will improve their effectiveness in working together in groups.
o Conflict Resolution Skills: students will learn conflict resolution and peer mediation skills.
o Career Education: students will understand how their interests relate to possible future careers, hear about careers from guest speakers, and learn to relate skills required to succeed in school to skills required to succeed in careers.
Study Skills Curriculum Summary:
Goal: To become more effective students.
Sixth graders will find that there is quite a jump in the demands put upon their ability to organize and study effectively. This class will support them by explaining the skills required for improving their success as students. These skills will be broken down into achievable steps. Organizational skills are taught using the assignments and paperwork generated in their other classes. For example, the class will work together on checking that planners are filled out correctly and that notebooks and papers are organized according to my system. In addition, we will be cleaning out lockers and backpacks.
Groups Skills Curriculum Summary:
Goal: Increase study and organizational skills.
Sixth graders have already developed useful group skills. They will build upon these to become more effective mid level students.
Students will learn to better understand how their own behavior impacts their group behavior and the success of the group endeavor. They will be able to identify behaviors that block or enhance effective group communication. They will be able to practice these behaviors during role plays. They will learn how to assess their own behavior and that of other students in order to improve group functioning. During the last week of the three week class they will participate in a group art based activity to assess their group skills and create goals for further improvement.
Conflict Resolution Curriculum Summary:
Students will learn that conflict is an inevitable part of human relationships, and that learning how to handle it effectively is an essential skill, one that should be included in life long learning goals.
Students will learn how disagreements can lead to conflict and how to avoid this. In addition they will learn to use peer mediation. Peer mediation refers to the training of students to help other students deal with conflict using a brief and effective solution focused format. Adult support is always available to help students with this process should the mediation not result in a mutually agreed upon solution. Note: peer mediation is meant to be used for small to moderate problems. Serious problems involving violence, continued harassment etc. will not be subject to peer mediation, instead adult intervention will be utilized.
Career Education Curriculum Summary:
Students will be exploring career education at the beginning level. Every week during the year studentsnin my class will hear an individual present his or her career. This career information will be pulled together and utilized in the career portion of the class. Part of the class will include working with a computer program often used in Portland Public Schools called Career Pathways. This program will help students better understand their own interests by walking them through an interest survey. The results will be matched to a variety of careers. They will be able to explore the particulars of these and other careers. They will be able to save the results of their work on the site, and have access to it at home. In addition, this program includes a section called “The Real World” that lets the students identify the lifestyle they want (type of car, house etc) and compare that to their expenses and what their salary enables them to afford. We will also work with their responses to the career speakers, create a resume and more.
• This is a pass/no pass class. Students who participate and show effort will pass the class. Students are expected to follow directions, including keeping their notebooks and papers organized as described in class, unless they have special permission to do otherwise. There will be little if any homework.
• Students will receive handouts describing the details of the skills taught in class. The handouts will be available on this web site, allowing parents to reinforce the skills at home.
• Parents are encouraged to contact me with questions. General advice about organization and study skills often needs fine tuning for individual situations and I am happy to discuss this with parents and students.
• School Success Skills will focus upon a different topic each quarter. These topics are, in order:
o Study Skills: students will improve their study and organizational skills
o Group Skills: students will improve their effectiveness in working together in groups.
o Conflict Resolution Skills: students will learn conflict resolution and peer mediation skills.
o Career Education: students will understand how their interests relate to possible future careers, hear about careers from guest speakers, and learn to relate skills required to succeed in school to skills required to succeed in careers.
Study Skills Curriculum Summary:
Goal: To become more effective students.
Sixth graders will find that there is quite a jump in the demands put upon their ability to organize and study effectively. This class will support them by explaining the skills required for improving their success as students. These skills will be broken down into achievable steps. Organizational skills are taught using the assignments and paperwork generated in their other classes. For example, the class will work together on checking that planners are filled out correctly and that notebooks and papers are organized according to my system. In addition, we will be cleaning out lockers and backpacks.
Groups Skills Curriculum Summary:
Goal: Increase study and organizational skills.
Sixth graders have already developed useful group skills. They will build upon these to become more effective mid level students.
Students will learn to better understand how their own behavior impacts their group behavior and the success of the group endeavor. They will be able to identify behaviors that block or enhance effective group communication. They will be able to practice these behaviors during role plays. They will learn how to assess their own behavior and that of other students in order to improve group functioning. During the last week of the three week class they will participate in a group art based activity to assess their group skills and create goals for further improvement.
Conflict Resolution Curriculum Summary:
Students will learn that conflict is an inevitable part of human relationships, and that learning how to handle it effectively is an essential skill, one that should be included in life long learning goals.
Students will learn how disagreements can lead to conflict and how to avoid this. In addition they will learn to use peer mediation. Peer mediation refers to the training of students to help other students deal with conflict using a brief and effective solution focused format. Adult support is always available to help students with this process should the mediation not result in a mutually agreed upon solution. Note: peer mediation is meant to be used for small to moderate problems. Serious problems involving violence, continued harassment etc. will not be subject to peer mediation, instead adult intervention will be utilized.
Career Education Curriculum Summary:
Students will be exploring career education at the beginning level. Every week during the year studentsnin my class will hear an individual present his or her career. This career information will be pulled together and utilized in the career portion of the class. Part of the class will include working with a computer program often used in Portland Public Schools called Career Pathways. This program will help students better understand their own interests by walking them through an interest survey. The results will be matched to a variety of careers. They will be able to explore the particulars of these and other careers. They will be able to save the results of their work on the site, and have access to it at home. In addition, this program includes a section called “The Real World” that lets the students identify the lifestyle they want (type of car, house etc) and compare that to their expenses and what their salary enables them to afford. We will also work with their responses to the career speakers, create a resume and more.
