Story Sharing and Listening

This is an activity for a group to develop better social skills of sharing, listening, and taking turns doing so. It is effective in a small group of students, particularly groups with a variety of social needs. 

Some students may require more prompts to tell a story, and may not even come near the 3-minute time limit, and some may require fewer prompts, but would be capable of sharing story after story for well over 3 minutes if there were not a timer. I added the element of drawing the stories while listening so that the other students are actively engaged listeners as their fellow participants share. This activity relates to the evidence-based practice of Character Education in social and emotional learning. The Talk and Listen activity applies the Illinois State Social Emotion Learning Standard A.1A.1b. to "demonstrate control of impulsive behavior."

References:

Khalsa, S. S. (1996). Group exercises for enhancing social skills and self-esteem. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.

Personality Pizza

The Personality Pizza is a group treatment activity to do with elementary or junior high school aged children. This activity is useful particularly with students who struggle socially because of behavior in the classrooms, as a motivator to build better, more positive friendships. This exercise is a part of Character Education, and develops communication and introspective skills for students, and connects to the school social work model of practice utilizing cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). CBT focuses on the person’s perception of a reality, and works to develop thinking that will improve their function in a given situation. In this case, identifying the student’s thinking regarding their reputation and the positive characteristics of a friend is the focus, after which point the student is guided to consider and cultivate their own positive characteristics and behaviors as a friend.

The activity consists of two sessions. In the first, we read through the highlighted personalities in the handouts, and identify the qualities of each of those students described. In the second session, include a refresher of the qualities discussed, and label each of the nine pizza toppings with a quality. The students then “make their pizza” with the qualities that they would like to be known by. The activity centers around discussions of how the qualities the student has chosen can be achieved, while encouraging the students in the positive qualities that they already exhibit.

The pizza toppings and nine qualities can be altered, depending on the group of students. 

The following are some of the qualities that we utilize:

Helpful, Kind, Caring, Polite, Athletic, Honest, Cooperative, Dependable, Friendly

 

     

Reference:

Sitsch, G. M., & Senn, D. S. (2002). Puzzle pieces: Classroom guidance connection. Chapin, SC: YouthLight.