overvie · last updated: 6/8/2011 bbbs group activity #2 1 thriving & gps activity time: 112...

Last Updated: 6/8/2011 BBBS Group Activity #2 1

Thriving & GPS Activity Time: 112 minutes (allow 2 hrs)

Overview This group activity is designed to ground Bigs and Littles in the science of goal management using fun, interactive and memorable methods. We begin the session by referring to the thriving conversations that have occurred between Bigs and Littles and making the connection between the Thriving Wheel and GPS (goal management) skills. Mirroring the work of Dr. Richard Lerner at Tufts Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, we use the acronym GPS to represent the three fundamental elements of goal management. G is for Goal Selection; P is for Pursuit of Strategies and S is for Shifting Gears “when the going gets tough”. Reaching challenging goals can be difficult for youth and adults, but these evidence-based strategies help with goal achievement. The activity begins by giving Bigs and Littles a choice of having one chocolate chip cookie now or two later. This choice mirrors the famous marshmallow experiment carried out by Dr. Walter Mischel on emotional competence or self-regulation. He gave four-year-olds essentially the same choice, one marshmallow now or two if they can wait fifteen minutes. Two-thirds of the youth ate the marshmallow right away, one-third of the youth were able to delay their gratification. Decades later, Mischel came back to study these same four-year-olds, who were now adults. It turned out that an overwhelming majority of the children who had not eaten the marshmallow were doing well in life (college graduates, healthy relationships, income, etc.). Most of the youth who had eaten the marshmallow right away were doing poorly. Mischel’s famous experiment about the ability to delay gratification has been repeated numerous times, yielding the same results. We have learned that one of the greatest predictors of success available to us—more predictive of success than IQ or socio-economic status—is our ability to regulate our emotions and actions in support of a desired, yet distant goal. While the ability to resist temptation might develop more easily in some individuals, science has demonstrated that this skill is a behavior that can be learned with practice. In this section of the group activity, a TED conference video presents the experiment when it was repeated in Colombia. In the next section, participants learn about the logical and emotional parts of their brain as compared to a “logical rider” and an “emotional elephant”. Drawing from Chip and Dan Heath’s popular book about change, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Bigs and Littles learn methods for bringing emotion and logic together in the service of goal attainment.

FOR GROUPS


Using pipe-cleaners, paper cups and paper as building materials, what follows is a series of interactive exercises that highlight different goal management skills such as Breaking Down Long Term Goals, Showing Persistent Effort, and Changing Goals Without Feeling Bad. Then, in pairs, Bigs and Littles explore and personalize some of the GPS Skills listed on rubrics. Bigs help draw out how the Littles have used these skills in the past. The activity ends with a celebration of the new learning and a commitment to explore more GPS resources available in the Library.

Goal Bigs and Littles understand GPS skills and believe skills help them reach goals.

Objectives By participating in this lesson, Bigs & Littles will:

1. Connect Big-Little thriving indicator conversations to goal management skills (GPS). 2. Understand & practice aspect of emotional competence—self-regulation. 3. Define Goal Selection, Pursuit of Strategies, & Shifting Gears. 4. Define & practice three skills:

• Breaking Down Long-term Goals • Showing Persistent Effort • Changing Goals Without Feeling Bad (loss-based selection)

5. Identify GPS dimensions as helpful for achieving goals.


Anchor Vocabulary

• Pursuit - The act of going after something or following something. • Persistence - Continuing along a course of action in spite of difficulty. Firm and unwavering along the path, even in the face of

resistance. • Self Regulation- The self’s capacity to alter its behaviors. These behaviors are changed in accordance to some standards, ideals or

goals either stemming from internal or societal expectations.

Materials & Media • Sound system or CD Player (and an upbeat song) • Computer with MS PowerPoint installed • LCD Projector • 2 chocolate chip cookies for each participant (Bigs and Littles) • 1 Thriving Wheel (for facilitator) • 1 copy of the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard • 8-15 multi-colored pipe cleaners for each Big and each Little; 1 hard binder per Big/Little pair: For Blind Sculpture Activity • 15 sheets of paper for each group of 4: For Paper Towers Activity • A whiteboard or flipchart for writing goal heights: For Paper Towers Activity • A timer: For Paper Towers Activity • Ten 8-10oz (full size) paper cups, per team of 5-6: For Cups Activity • 1 rubber band/string tool per team of 5-6 (see photo): For Cups Activity • 1 Goal Selection, Pursuit of Strategies & Shifting Gears Rubric for each young person-Youth versions

Step-It-Up-2-Thrive Library: www.BBBS.StepItUp2Thrive.org • Group Activity #2 PowerPoint • Video: Marshmallow Experiment • Video: Remember the Titans • Video: Rampage in Sri Lanka


Handouts (one for each Big and one for each Little) • For 10-13 year olds: GPS Rubric (youth self-reflection version) • For 14-18 year olds: 1 set of GPS Rubrics (youth self-reflection versions) • Article: Elephant Inside of Us (briefly show)

Recommended • For Bigs: Video: Bright Spots, GPS Anchor Paper, one set of GPS Tables (pro versions) • For Bigs & Littles: Elephant Inside of Us • Optional for Bigs: Read the book Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard


Lesson Outline Lesson Description ENROLL (8 min)

Opening Cookies (2 min) Thriving Wheel Framing and Enrollment Questions:

Be all you can be! (5 min) Review Agenda (1 min)

Build relationships with Bigs/Littles as they walk in the door. Q-Clap: PLAY an upbeat song that Bigs & Littles might like. Get all Bigs up and clapping. Build clapping to a crescendo and cut the music. (Agencies can use another opening method that fits your organizational culture.) Slide #1: Title Slide Welcome & Introduction • Welcome to BBBS and brief introductions Say: • How many of you like chocolate chip cookies? • We have some cookies here and you have a choice. • You can eat one cookie now or you can have two cookies later. (Pass out cookies.) Slide #2: Be All You Can Be! (Thriving Wheel) Ask Framing & Enrollment Questions • Does everyone remember this Thriving Wheel? • We know that you all have been looking at this Wheel and having some thriving

conversations. • How is that going? (Solicit responses.) • The research shows that if you focus on these things over the course of your life, it will

help you be all you can be! • The question is: What skills are important for setting and achieving goals? • Fortunately, we now have a science for achieving goals. • We know what people do who achieve their goals. • Are you ready to get started?


Slide #3: Agenda Say: • Today is all about learning goal management skills. • We’ll start with a choice between one cookie or two. • Then we’ll watch a great video about the famous Marshmallow experiment. • Next we’ll see how hard it is to manage the emotional elephant. • Then we’ll try and reach our goals by building with cups, pipe cleaners and paper • Finally we’ll break down all the goal management skills we learned today.

EXPERIENCE (13 min)

Video about emotional competence, self-regulation as a predictor of success (6 min) Debrief video using experiential learning cycle. (5 min)

Slide #4: Marshmallow Experiment Video Say: • We’re going to start with a quick video that will launch our discussion about developing

your skills to reach dreams, or to be all you can be. • (Show wheel.) Let’s look at one aspect on the Thriving Wheel, Emotional Competence. • Part of emotional competence is the ability to resist temptation or being able to regulate

emotions and your actions to reach goals. • Let’s watch this video and then we’ll talk about it. Show video Say: What happened? • What did you see in this video? • The children who waited to eat the marshmallow, when followed later in life, had over

200 points higher SAT scores than the others, had much better grades, and were better at planning and thinking ahead in life.

• Those who ate the marshmallow right away had more trouble in school and at home as they grew, and they were more likely to have behavior problems later.

• This skill at resisting temptation is one aspect of emotional competence on this Thriving Wheel. Competence means skill; in other words, skill at managing emotions.(Show wheel.)

Ask: • What might be another skill under managing emotions or emotional competence?


(2 min)

(e.g. Controlling anger; learning to express emotions well.) • Having the ability to regulate your emotions can greatly help you in life. • In fact, it is the greatest predictor of success that we have right now. • This simple marshmallow experiment is better at predicting success than how rich your

parents are or how high you score on IQ tests! So What? • Littles, what does this mean for your life? • Remember the one cookie or two cookie choice we gave you earlier? • If you ate your cookie right away, don’t worry! • Yes, today you might have eaten the cookie, but in life you can always get better at

waiting and delaying gratification. • The good news is that scientists proved that self-regulation is something that can be

taught and learned through practice. • The same way you can regulate the temperature on the stove (turning it up or turning it

down) you can learn to regulate your emotions and actions. • Whether you ate the cookie or not, I bet all of you wished you were more skilled at

reaching your goals. Today, we’ll teach you some tips to help you strengthen this ability to regulate your emotions to meet goals.

Now What? • Bigs & Littles please pair up and take 2-minutes to answer these two questions:

1. Why is self-control important to me? 2. What do I want to work on to improve my self regulation to help me reach my

goals? Key Message: Reach for goals by regulating your emotions and actions.

LEARN & LABEL (9 min)

The Concept of the Elephant & the Rider is introduced. Lecture (3 min)

Slide #5: The Elephant & the Rider Say: • Here’s another fascinating concept. Scientists tell us that the reasoning and emotional

centers of our brain play tug-a-war. • The emotional center acts like a big 5-ton elephant in there. • On the top of that elephant is a small rider and he is the reasoning part of your brain. If


(2 min) Pair share (3 min) Report out (1 min)

the reasoning rider and the emotional elephant disagree about their feeding, which one wins? (The elephant!)

• The rider cannot control the elephant for long. Let’s see what happens in a rider-elephant tug-of-war….

Show Video: Rampage in Sri Lanka Say: • Scientists say that you have 30 seconds max to exert your willpower over a temptation.

After that little bit of time, you better have some tricks up your sleeve. The elephant is just too strong.

• So, if you want to reach your goals, you’ve got to trick that elephant in your brain so that the rider and the elephant start going in the same direction.

Key Message: Reach for goals by lining up emotions & logic.

Slide #6: Action Triggers

• One trick is called setting Action Triggers . When you see a moment of temptation ahead, trigger doing the right thing by planning exact details of what you are going to do before the temptation happens. As the Rider, when you get a head start on the reins, the elephant starts to follow you, before he smells the waterhole.

• Let’s say you’re having trouble in math and you have the opportunity to do extra credit

but the paper is due on Monday. You want to do well in math because your goal is to someday run your own guitar shop. However, it’s your birthday weekend. You know you’re elephant will be tempted to blow the paper off. Well, scientists have shown that just 1/3 of you will do that paper, if you go into that weekend hoping for the best. However, if you make a plan ahead, and design the exact time and place for doing your paper—get the pencil sharpened—everything in place ahead—then over 75% of you will get there! Scientists have proven this amazing fact about Action Triggers .

(Story mirrors Christmas Experiment of scientists, in Elephant Inside Us article.)

• Bigs and Littles, please get into pairs and take 3 minutes to have Littles answer these questions:

(Write questions on board.)


Littles: 1. Think of a time when your reasoning side has a goal, but then you are tempted with

something and find it hard to emotionally resist. What are your Rider and Elephant doing?

2. How could you use Action Triggers to help the Rider? Facilitator asks for one Big to share with the large group. Key Message: One way to trick the elephant is to set Action Triggers for yourself.

LEARN & LABEL (2 min)

GPS: (the science of goal management) is introduced.

Slide #7: GPS: Your Navigation System Say: • Raise your hand if you’ve got some goals for yourself? • Social scientists say that if you learn goal management skills for positive goals, then you

move on a path to thrive. • Has anyone ever used a GPS system when they are lost and need directions? • Scientists have now developed a GPS system for your life! • This GPS system was developed to help you learn the skills that successful people use.

• Here’s how it works:

o G: Stands for Goal Selection: Where am I going? o P: Stands for Pursuit of Strategies: How do I get there? o S: Stands for Shifting Gears: When the going gets tough!

• What questions do you have?

EXPERIENCE/ LEARN & LABEL (19 min)

GPS skill of “Breaking Down Long Term Goals” is taught experientially. Instructions (1 min)

Slide #8: Blind Sculpture Activity Set up: • Give Bigs & Littles identical colors and number of pipe cleaners (8-15 pipe cleaners) • Place a hard plastic binder as a visual barrier between each Big/Little pair.

Say: • We’re going to try an activity that teaches a very important G: or Goal Selection skill. • Littles, your job will be to build a three-dimensional sculpture out of pipe cleaners in five


Little builds sculpture (4 min.) Big builds sculpture using Littles instructions. (4 min.) Process experience using the Experiential Learning Cycle. (8 min.)

minutes. • Bigs, don’t peek while your Little is building the sculpture behind the binder. • Bigs, while the Littles are building, I’d like you get into pairs with other Bigs and answer

this question: What is the hardest goal you’ve achieved and how did you achieve it? Allow 4 minutes to pass and give a one-minute warning. Say: • Now Littles, your job will be to tell your Big, using only your words, how to build the

exact same sculpture (same colors, shape, etc) in 4 minutes! • Bigs crouch down a bit, so you can’t look over the binder. • You can only follow their voice instructions for guidance.

Allow 4 minutes to pass and give a one-minute warning. Then remove the binder so that youth can see each other’s sculptures. Process of Blind Sculpture Activity: Say: What happened?: • What did it feel like to give and receive directions? • What was challenging about it? What strategies worked? • Why was it important to break down your goal (sculpture) into smaller steps? So What?: • How does this relate to real life? • When have you had to break down big goals into smaller steps? Now What?: Facilitator knows this story and tells it in his/her own way: • Have you ever heard of NY Giants Coach Bill Parcels? He has experience working

toward big goals. He led his team to two Super Bowl championships with his belief that even small successes can be extremely powerful in helping people believe in themselves. He’d tell the Giants: “Today, we executed well. But here’s what I want to do tomorrow:


Pair share (2 min)

I want to see flawless special teams work. If you accomplish that, we will be ready for the game on Sunday.”

• “His strategy in training camps wasn’t to focus on the ultimate goal—getting to the Super Bowl. He established a clear set of goals within immediate reach… When players achieved them, they started to get it into their heads that they could succeed. They broke the habit of losing and got into the habit of winning.”

- Excerpted from the Harvard Business Review, On Turnarounds, 2001 and Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath, 2010.

Ask: • How can you use what you learned today to reach your future goals?

• Bigs and Littles pair up for two minutes. Tell each other about a real goal you have.

How could you break it down into small steps? Key Message: Reach for goals by breaking them down into smaller steps.


Youth experience the benefits of persistent effort Instructions (2 min)

Slide #9: Paper Cup Exercise Set Up: • Scatter 10 cups on a table for each group of 5-6 youth. • Place one rubber band/string tool on each table. Say: • We’ve got another challenge for you. • This one is focused on an important P: or Pursuit of Strategies skill • In a minute we are going to break up into teams of five (or six, depending on number of

Bigs/Littles). • Your job will be to build a tower with four cups on the bottom, three cups stacked on top

of the 4, two cups on top of that and then one cup on the very top. Like this (Demonstrate building a tower of paper cups).

• The only rule is that you are not allowed to touch the cups with your hands or body! • You can only use a rubber band/string tool like this to get the job done. • Questions?


Count off 1,2,3,4…. and ask all the ones to go to one corner, the twos to go to another corner, etc. (each team should have 5-6 members) Allow 9 minutes for building. Applaud teams who complete the challenge. Debrief (using experiential learning cycle) Say: What Happened?: • How did that feel? • What strategies seemed to work? • How did it feel when other teams were getting it? So What?: • What does this remind you of in the real world? • Have you ever had a goal that was hard to reach? • What goal management skills did you use to achieve it? Now What?: • When you have a difficult goal ahead of you, what do you think you might do next time? • That’s correct, the research shows that people who reach their goals are persistent and

resourceful in getting to their goals. • They just don’t give up, they stick with it, even when they fail many, many times. • Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team and failed many times to

become one of the greatest basketball players in history. • Thomas Edison made 1,000 failed light bulbs before he invented one that actually

worked. • However, they kept on being persistent in their effort to reach their goals. • They kept trying different strategies, or being resourceful, and they sought help when

they needed it. Key message: Reach for goals by showing persistent resourcefulness.

EXPERIENCE (26 min)

Youth set height goals for their towers and

Slide #10: Paper Towers Activities


practice adjusting goals. Instructions (3 min) Activity (8 min)

Set Up: • Calculate the number of teams needed to divide the group into teams of four. (N=____) • Place 15 sheets of paper on N number of tables.

SAY: • Here’s a challenge for you. • We’d like to see which team can build the tallest tower out of nothing but paper. • In a minute we are going to break you into teams. • You’ll have two jobs. • The first job is to choose your goal: How high does your team think your tower is going

to be? • The second job is to build the tower with only paper. Nothing else. • The point is to set an accurate goal AND build the tallest tower. • The team that builds the tallest tower AND reaches its goal will win. • If you set your goal too low you might not win because another team could achieve a

higher goal. • If you set your goal too high you might not win because you won’t be able to reach it. • What questions do you have? • Now we’ll get into our teams. Have the Bigs/Littles count off into N# of teams (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, N). Say:

• Your team will have one minute to set a goal for your tower. • How high do you think you can make it?

Allow one minute to pass. Record team height goals on the board. Say:

• When I say “Go!” you’ll have 15 minutes to build your tower. • Let’s see who can reach their goal AND build the tallest tower. • Go!


Allow one minute of building to pass. Say: • My apologies for the interruption. • It looks like we are running way behind schedule. • You now only have 4 minutes to finish your towers. • To be fair I am going to let you change your goal, if you want to. • If you still think you can meet your goal you can stick with it. • You have 30 SECONDS to make your decision and tell me if you have a new goal

height. Allow 30 seconds to pass. Then record new goals on the board. SAY: • You now have 4 minutes to complete your tower. • Go! Allow 2 minutes of building to pass. SAY: • Now we’re going to make this a bit more challenging. • You can only fold your papers horizontally; not vertically. • If you have vertical folds in your tower, your team will be disqualified. Demonstrate how the papers can and cannot be folded. SAY: • You have 30 seconds to decide if you want to adjust your goal. Record new goal heights on board. Building resumes. Allow 2 minutes to pass. Announce that time is up and give all the groups a round of applause. Closure: #1: Measure all the towers and compare the heights against their goals. Announce the winners of the activity. Remind them that a winner is not the one who wins, but the one that


Debrief using the experiential learning cycle (10 min) Pair share (4 min)

learns from losses. #2: Give specific praise for effort, not for the result. PROCESS What happened? • How did you decide what goals to set? How did it feel when you needed to change your

goal along the way? • Why was it important to change your goal as the challenge kept changing? • What information did you learn as you built the tower to help you set a new goal? So What? • In real life, as you work towards your goals, do things sometimes change? • Why is it important to adjust your goals sometimes? • How do you know when you should stick with your original goal or switch it up? • Someone tell me about a real goal they have for their future. • Do you think that at some point you may have to adjust that goal? • Very few adults are in the same career that they said they wanted in high school. • In fact, nowadays people have two or three careers in their lifetimes. • Sometimes when we don’t get to our goals, it feels really bad and we want to give up on

everything. Now what? • Its OK to feel bad when you don’t succeed after a lot of effort, but the question is how do

you bounce back and adjust your goal? • Let’s say you wanted to be a hip-hop star and at some point you realize that you’re not

going to make it. • How can you take your love of hip-hop and maybe become a producer, or concert

promoter, or a music executive?

• Bigs and Littles, pair up and answer these two questions about long term goals you have:

1. What would you do if something kept you from achieving your goal?


Key Message (1 min)

2. How would you know when it was time to adjust that goal, or stick with that goal?

Say: • It turns out that science tells us that successful people who achieve their goals sometimes

change their goals, after persisting for a while. When they don’t have success, they find other goals that can give them a similar feeling of doing well in life.

• What questions do you have? Key Message: Sometimes there are circumstances where you have to adjust your goal, or accept loss and find a goal that is a better fit.


Video clip highlighting GPS skill: “Changing Goals without Feeling Bad (loss-based selection) (6 min) Debrief video using the experiential learning cycle (8 min)

Slide #11: Remember the Titans Video Clip Say: • Have you ever heard about the true story of Gerry Bertier? • They made a movie about him, called Remember the Titans and it is a great way to

highlight an important S: or Shifting Gears skill. • Would you like to see some clips from that movie? • Afterwards, I’d like you to tell me what Shifting Gears strategies you saw him use. Show video clip from Remember the Titans. Say: What happened?

• What happened in this story? • Why? • What was Gerry’s main goal? • How do you think he felt when he became paralyzed? • What could he have done and what did he do about it? • What Shifting Gears strategy did he use?

So What?

• In real life, things happen that can get in the way of our goals. • What strategies can we use so that we don’t become devastated by our loss?

Teach:


Pair share (2 min)

• In the science of achieving goals, this is called “Changing Goals Without Feeling Bad. You make new goal choices based on losing, or on failure!

• Experts often say: “Failure leads to success”. What they mean is that you can learn from failure to reach real success.

• Sometimes when you fail, you just need to keep pushing for the same goal (persistent effort).

• Sometimes when you fail, you need to adjust your goal. (changing goals) • The art of achieving goals is figuring when to use these two opposite strategies.

Now What?

• Bigs and Littles, pair up. • Answer this question: What would you say to someone else who is struggling to

reach their goals? Key Message: You can learn from loss or failure to help you reach your goals.

DEMONSTRATE/ REVIEW (3 min)

Bigs/Littles identify GPS Rubric skills seen in today’s activities. Pair share (5 min) Report out (3 min)

Slide #12: What GPS Skills Did You See Today? Say: • Let’s think back to our Emotional Elephant, the blind sculpture, the paper cups, the

paper towers, and the Remember the Titans video…

Handout GPS Rubrics (youth versions) for each Big/Little pair. (10-13 year olds get younger youth GPS Rubric, 14-18 year olds get one of each older youth G,P, S Rubrics) • Bigs and Littles, pair up and look at the pink headings. • Chat for a five minutes about which GPS skills you saw today in all the activities we did. • Talk about one skill each of you want to work on. (Bigs also) Large group reports out. • What GPS skills (in pink) did you all see today? • What was the most important thing you got out of today?

CELEBRATE (7 min)

Celebrate new learning with music.

Closing


Handout Training Evaluations. Say: • To help us make these trainings better, please take the next five minutes to tell us what

you liked and what could be improved on these evaluations.

Handout Training Evaluations Say: Please take the next five minutes to give us feedback on this training.

• We hope you are interested in all this brand new science. Here are some highly

recommended follow up items for you: o Read the Article: Elephant Inside Us o Watch the Video: Bright Spots

You can find these in your folders/binders or on the www.BBBS.StepItUp2Thrive.org website. And, for Bigs who want to read an incredibly fun book about all of this, we recommend: Switch, How to Change When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath. (Hold up copy.)

• Thank you for your participation! Play upbeat music…

overvie · last updated: 6/8/2011 bbbs group activity #2 1 thriving & gps activity time: 112...

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