Time:
- Plan: 10 min
- Execute: 15 min
Type(s) of Essential(s):
Social & Emotional Growth
Prerequisite:
Overview
Educators distribute prompts to learners that provoke reflection on their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Essentials in the Activity
Learners take time to respond to questions about themselves that include what they care about, want to learn, and wish other folks knew about them. This reflective activity builds learners’ self-awareness.
Goals and Outcomes
Goal: Learners become more aware of their perspectives on their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Outcomes: Learners build reflective thinking skills and enhance their social-emotional awareness by thinking about various aspects of their lives (i.e., school, parents, peers, hobbies) and responding to prompts in succinct and understandable ways.
Materials
Choose if learners will respond to questions by writing on paper or submitting an entry on a digital tool, like Mentimeter or Padlet. Google Doc, Tailor prompts to learners’ age group.
Examples of prompts for …
| Middle School Aged Learners | High School Aged Learners |
|---|---|
|
Something I want to learn is… I wish my parents and other adults knew… I really care about … I wish my friends knew… I would like to be better at… I am good or talented at… I am most creative when… |
Something adults get wrong about teenagers is … I wish my parents and other adults knew… I really care about … It drives me crazy when adults … I would like to be better at… I am good or talented at… I am most creative when… I wish other people around me would … |
Preparation
Complete prerequisites.
If learners respond by writing on paper, type prompts on paper and print enough duplicates to distribute to all learners.
If learners submit an entry on a digital tool, display a prompt based on the features of the tool. For instance, if using a tool like Mentimeter, present a prompt on each slide. Using the word cloud option may work best for this activity. If using Padlet, create a Padlet using the columns display option. At the top give an overview of the activity, and state on prompt in each column. If using Google Docs, list the questions with enough space between them for the learners to enter their responses.
Implementation and Completion
Inform learners they will take time to respond to several statements and that we will review those responses in another activity.
For prompts that are printed: Distribute all prompts to learners. State each prompt to the group individually and give learners time to write their response to that prompt. Collect the responses after they finish responding to that prompt. Proceed to the next until all the prompts and responses are completed. When collecting the responses, it is helpful to separate the response by each prompt for organization.
For a digital tool, decide how to gather responses based on the features of the tool. Follow a similar process of stating the question, then allotting learners time to respond before proceeding to the next question. For a tool like the Mentimeter, display each slide with a prompt at a time. Give learners time to submit their responses. Then proceed to the next prompt. For a tool like Padlet, display the sheet and state the prompts in each column. Ask learners to submit a response to each prompt.