WOW! This lesson definitely pushed my students and I outside of our comfort zones! Who likes bragging on themselves? Especially when you are writing it for all to read! Well this social-emotional lesson has students asking the questions... "What do I want others' perspective of me to be?" and "What do I want them to notice about me?"
This builds right from the point of view and perspective August lesson I posted last week . Together, we brainstormed people we come into contact daily with. Then, as a class, discussed what might change their perception about us. I charted the student responses as we talked aloud.
Next,I modeled from the perspective of my principal and how she sees me... This was a daunting task! lol It was hard to write about myself in this way 😆 What character traits would I want her to see me exhibiting? What would she want to hear me saying and see me doing?
Students repeated the process by choosing one of the people from the list we created to write about. They filled out the self reflection form that was included with this lesson in the August grade 5-8 lesson of the month.
On another day, I modeled from the perspective of the principal, in both first and third person, before students wrote their own papers. They turned out so good. BUT... What I love most, is that even though my students didn't like bragging about themselves, WE WERE FOCUSING ON THE GOOD! Why is it so uncomfortable to write positive things about ourselves? We do it for other people all the time. It was nice to see my kids get to focus on the positive behaviors that they exhibit each day at school:)