list of activities by grade level for counselors to use with students...

College Readiness © 2012 by aha! Process, Inc. www.ahaprocess.com

LIST OF ACTIVITIES BY GRADE LEVEL FOR COUNSELORS TO USE WITH STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE READINESS

Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D.

Elementary: Every year, each class selects a college or university (can be the teacher’s alma

mater.) College Colors are posted in the room, a football or basketball with the college name on

it is posted. Students write to the college and ask for college catalogues and mementos (hats in

particular), videos, etc.

USE THE COLLEGE READINESS VOCABULARY FOR GRADES K–5. Counselors: Make a folder for each child that is kept for 1–6 grades.

GRADE ACTIVITY HANDOUT/ITEMS Grade 1

Bring different hats to the classroom and have students wear the hats. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Then you say, “Ms. Firefighter, why would you need school to be a firefighter?” etc. Students cut pictures out of a magazine or clip art on the computer about what they want to be when they grow up.

Hats, decals, posters, etc.

Grade 2 Have students write a letter or email to a college or university and ask for a hat from that university. At least once a grading period, students wear the hat all day in class. They look up the university on a map and see how far it is from their house to that university.

Grade 3 Do the Peer Nomination form Do a storyboard—They write a story about themselves when she/he is an adult.

Peer Nomination form

Grade 4 Students discuss the difference between technical school, two-year and four-year colleges/universities. They look at the career list and identify three careers they might think about doing. What do I like to do best form?

Career list form from www.careerplanner.com What do I like to do best?

Grade 5 Write a future story. Take the career list form from the year before. Have students search on the internet about one of the three careers chosen last year. Where can they get that training? How much will it cost? They do a research paper around that.

Future story form Envelope system for college research

Grade 6 Backward planning activity. What will I have to do in middle and high school to do what I want to do?

Backward planning activity

1–6 summary

Students should each have a folder transferred to the middle school counselor.

Folder


SECONDARY

GRADE ACTIVITY HANDOUT Grade 7 Planning out my courses so I can go to college form

Do a new future story with visuals.

Use local district form Draw a picture of you as a college graduate

Grade 8 Interview 2 individuals who have graduated from college and fill out the form. Coping strategies for when things don’t go the way you want them to happen form

College graduate interview form Coping strategies list form

Grade 9 Planning tools Streamlining, sorting, and prioritizing assignments form Figuring out the teacher form On line research about one college and fill out a sample college application

Planning tools Figuring out the teacher form Get college application on line

Grade 10 Relationship analysis form Fill out a sample college financial form Make a list of the things you would need to have in a college dorm room Practice taking the ACT/SAT Fill in a sample course form for first semester at a college. Discuss prerequisites.

Relationship analysis form On-line sample form for courses for first semester

Grade 11 Identify three colleges/universities that you would like to attend. Fill out forms for all three colleges /universities. Complete the form – What I expect to happen in college? Complete the college stories form for two individuals who have gone to college. Compare their stories with your expectations. Write a future story for yourself when you are 30. Take the SAT/ACT.

What do I expect from college? form College stories form Future story form

Grade 12 Phrases to deal with naysayers Keeping track of money envelopes Submit college applications. Identify 2 people you will keep in touch with who will encourage you. (e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter buddies) Complete financial aid forms. Make a list of things you will do if you get discouraged.

Phrases Envelopes for money


College Readiness Vocabulary and College Level Academic Words by Grade Level

Below are the words that each grade level has committed to using in their classes as we promote

college readiness for all. Please work with your team to continuously expose students to the college

readiness vocabulary and college level academic words within your grade’s column as well as the

grades before you.

Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade

college achieve major advisor All words K–3 All words K–3

career mascot alumni Focus on A–G Focus on A–G

goal professor application Get Ready for

College

curriculum

Get Ready for

College

curriculum

graduate scholarship bachelor’s

degree

dormitory dean’s list

finals

GPA

grants

loan

NCAA

research

College Level Academic Words by Grade Level

Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade

area available analyze assume data contract

approach benefit assess authority policy define

create consist assume concept process derive

estimate distribute context constitute research interpret

respond role indicate section issue

similar individual significant legal

identify specific legislate

proceed structure occur

theory period

vary principal

From The School Leader’s Playbook: Practical Strategies for Fortifying Resiliency and Instill Hope in K–8 at Risk Students. Permission to reprint by Gabriel Simon, Ed. D.


Peer Nomination

(Elementary)

Think about the other students in your class. Who would you go ask if ...

1. You wanted the best ideas about how to find a lost puppy?

2. You wanted to get the computer working?

3. You needed advice about a friend?

4. You needed all the words to a popular song?

5. You needed to know the steps to a dance?

6. You didn’t have lunch money?

7. You needed to know what happened on the last three episodes of a TV show?

8. You needed help with your math?

9. You needed a good drawing?

10. You needed someone who could help you win an argument with someone else?

11. You needed the secrets to winning a video game?

12. You needed your backpack fixed?

13. You needed a personal problem explained to the teacher?

14. You wanted to hear a good story?

15. You wanted someone to make you laugh?

From Removing the Mask: How to Identify and Develop Giftedness in Students from Poverty

by Paul D. Slocumb and Ruby K. Payne


WHAT DO I LIKE TO DO BEST?

NAME____________________________________ AGE____________________________

1. What is your favorite way to spend your free time?

2. Do you like to be with people or do you like to be alone?

3. What do you think you do best?

4. What do your friends say that you do really well?

5. Ask your mother what you do really well.

6. If you could do or be anything you wanted to be, what would that be? Or what

would you do?


FUTURE STORY

A “future story” is a plan for the future. Without it, neither schooling nor work has

purpose or significance.

FUTURE STORY NAME:

You are ten years older than you are now. You are the star of a movie. What

are you doing? Who is with you?

Circle any of these that are in your future story: children, job, career,

marriage/partnership, health, wealth, travel, living in a city, town, rural area,

another country, vehicles, hobbies, sports, music, movies, college, technical

school, military, church/religion, Internet, video games, friends, family, other.

For which of these reasons do you want to graduate from high school?

Keep track of money, I will know I am getting paid correctly, so I can go on to

college or military or technical school, to get a better job, to take care of my

parents or siblings, to afford my hobbies, to pay for my vehicle, to take care of

my children, other.

What do you enjoy doing and would do even if you did not get paid for it? What

do you need to do so you can do that AND get paid for doing it?

Who are the friends and adults who will help you get your future story?

WRITE OUT YOUR FUTURE STORY AND INCLUDE HOW EDUCATION

WILL HELP YOU GET IT.

Signature: Date:

From Research-Based Strategies: Narrowing the Achievement Gap for Under-Resourced Students by Ruby K. Payne


MENTAL MODEL FOR PART TO WHOLE

Source: Kim D. Ellis, Putting the Pieces Together

EXPLANATION

Have students take a manila folder and glue six envelopes onto the inside of it with the flaps on the

outside. This helps them visually see part to whole, especially when they have to divide a report into

parts. When you first teach this you may need to give them some of the groupings, but after two or

three times they can figure it out.



PLANNING BACKWARDS

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

EXPLANATION

A technique for helping students deal with time is called planning backwards. You can use this

sample sheet to develop your own “planning backwards” activity by starting with the last activity

first and moving backwards. For instance, go to the last box—the day the project is due. Below the

box have the students make a list of tasks they must do to finish the assignment. Then ask the

students, “What do you have to do the day it is due?” Then, “What do you have to do the day before

it is due?” and so forth. Eventually you help the class pace the activities in such a way that the entire

project can be done.



INTERVIEWING SOMEONE WHO HAS GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE

1. Where did you go to college?

2. Did you finish college?

3. What did you like best about college?

4. What did you like least about college?

5. Did you know what you wanted to do or be when you went to

college or did you change majors?

6. Did you ever think about quitting? If so, why?

7. If you finished, why did you finish?

8. How did you pay for college?

9. Did you ever have a professor who was difficult?

10. What was the hardest thing for you to learn or do in college?

11. Did you get homesick?

12. Are you glad you went to college?

13. What do you think you learn in college that makes a difference in

your life?

14. How did your friends and family feel about you going to college?


FIGURING OUT THE TEACHER FORM

Part of success in school is figuring out what the teacher or professor considers important, how they

are going to grade, what you have to do in the class to pass, and how available the professor/teacher

is to provide help.

The best place to learn that is in high school because college will not be that different.

Select a teacher that you have this year. Answer these questions about that teacher.

1. If I need extra help, will he/she be willing to help me? When he/she does provide help,

is it helpful?

2. Does the teacher actually grade the way he/she says? Do some grades count more than

others?

3. Does the teacher allow for things to be handed in late or does he/she refuse to take it?

4. What counts as most important in the grade? Participation? Tests? Homework? Outside

reading? Projects? Reports?

5. Who grades the work? (Often in college it is a graduate assistant, not the professor.)

6. Does the teacher know who you are? Does the teacher call you by name?

7. Does the teacher use the book very much? (Often in college, a text is required but the

professor does not use it. Find out if it will be used before you buy it.)


RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS FORM

1. Draw a circle in the middle of a piece of paper and put your name in the middle of it.

2. Around that circle, draw a circle for each person who is important to you. Put his/her

name in that circle.

3. Draw a straight solid line between your circle and the circle whose name in it will

support you going to college.

4. Draw a dotted line between your circle and the circle whose name in it will support

you some of the time and not some of the time.

5. Draw no line if the between your circle and the circle whose name in it will not

support you getting educated and will interfere.

6. Make a plan about how you will deal with each person who will not support you.


COPING STRATEGIES FORM

Part of being successful at anything, is what you say to yourself when things are not going the way

you want them to go AND the relationships that you have. Before you go to college, you need to

identify how you will cope when things do not go the way you wish. Here is a series of quotes about

persistence. Highlight two or three for yourself. What will you say and do when you are

discouraged?

The following quotes on PERSEVERANCE found at www.leadershipnow.com

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."

–Calvin Coolidge 30th president of the United States

"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

–John Bunyon "If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good."

–Thomas J. Watson, Jr. "You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."

–George Horace Lorimer "The characteristic of a genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic."

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

–Dale Carnegie www.leadershipnow.com


"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

–Calvin Coolidge 30th president of the United States

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

–Mark Twain "Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success."

–Leigh Mitchell Hodges "The secret of success is constancy to purpose."

–Benjamin Disraeli "Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have."

–Woodrow Wilson "History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."

–B.C. Forbes "Well begun is half done."

–Aristotle "No is a word on your path to Yes. Don't give up too soon. Not even if well-meaning parents, relatives, friends, and colleagues tell you to get a real job. Your dreams are your real job"

–Joyce Spizer Author

"Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top."

–Paul Coffey NHL star

www.leadershipnow.com


"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

–Vince Lombardi "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek."

–Mario Andretti "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination."

–Tommy Lasorda "Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts."

–Coleman Cox "Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown."

–H. Ross Perot "Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life."

–Abraham Lincoln June 28, 1862 in letter to Quintin Campbell

"It's always too soon to quit!"

–Norman Vincent Peale "No great thing is created suddenly."

–Epictetus "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me ... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

–Walt Disney

www.leadershipnow.com


"We will either find a way or make one." –Hannibal, Carthaginian General

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of determination."

–Vince Lombardi "It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired."

–Robert Strauss "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing."

–Abraham Lincoln November 5, 1855 in letter to Isham Reavis

"A philosopher once said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” I would add, “He who has a why to lead can bear almost any trial."

–Leslie Bains, CEO Modern Asset Management "Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal."

–Elbert Hubbard

"He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist."

–Anton Rupert, Rembrandt Group "Thankfully, perseverance is a good substitute for talent"

–Steve Martin www.leadershipnow.com


DRAW A PICTURE OF YOURSELF IN YOUR CAP AND GOWN AS A COLLEGE GRADUATE HOLDING YOUR DIPLOMA IN YOUR HAND. COLOR IT WITH THE COLORS FROM YOUR FAVORITE UNIVERSITY.


COMBINATION FORM: COLLECTED STORIES FROM COLLEGE GRADUATES

AND WHAT I EXPECT FROM COLLEGE

Find a person who graduated from college. Ask that person these questions.

1. When you went to college as a freshman, what did you expect to do? Party? Study?

Have fun? Learn?

2. What did you find out about your expectations when you got there? What did you do

differently from the first year you were in college to the second year?

3. What was different that you expected?

4. What advice would you give someone going to college?

5. Is college harder than you expected or easier?

6. What most surprised you about college?

7. How is college different from high school?

8. Did your roommate do what you expected?

Answer the questions below for yourself. Unrealistic expectations often lead to disappointments.

A clear picture of college life will be helpful in knowing what you may encounter.

What do you expect when you get to college?

How do you expect that you will spend your time?

What activities do you expect that you will take part in?

What kind of professors do you think you will have?


PHRASES TO USE WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO DISCOURAGE YOU

1. If I can get a driver’s license, then I can go to college and finish college.

2. If I could finish high school, then I can finish college.

3. Every day is a new day to work toward my goal.

4. How old will I be four years from now? How old will I be four years from now if I finish

college? The same. So there is nothing to lose.

5. Every person has to make his/her own way. This is my path. It does not have to be your path.

6. I want to do this so that I can keep the people I love safe because I will have the knowledge, the

power, and the money to do that.

7. I am tougher and stronger. I can handle this.

8. I am a winner.

9. Each setback makes me stronger.

10. This will keep me from getting cheated.

11. I will have more choices if I do this.


WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO SUCCESS IN COLLEGE?

▪ ROOM MATES

▪ PERSONAL CRISES

▪ FAMILY REQUESTS AND INTERFERENCE

▪ KNOWLEDGE BASES AND EXPERIENCES THAT ARE EXPECTED BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE

▪ THIN SUPPORT SYSTEMS

▪ UNREALISTIC EXPECTATONS OF COLLEGE

▪ INABILITY TO SELF-STRUCTURE TIME AND TASKS

▪ PARTYING

▪ STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH FAILURE, DISAPPOINTMENT, FEARS, AND BEING HOMESICK

▪ MONEY

▪ POOR/UNRESPONSIVE/ARROGANT PROFESSORS

▪ FRIENDS/RELATIONSHIPS

▪ POOR SCHEDULING OF COURSES

▪ CHANGING MAJORS MULTIPLE TIMES


KEEPING YOUR ROOTS AND ATTAINING SUCCESS As one college graduate said to me, whose friends did not go on to college, “I can go back into their

world, but they cannot come into mine.”

Often part of keeping your roots and attaining success is an understanding that you will have one foot

in one world and the other foot in another world.

Questions to ask a student when he/she knows that it will change relationships by going to college:

▪ What are the things about your background that are strengths that you will always carry

with you?

▪ What are the wonderful memories you have of growing up? Can you keep those

memories? What will you be able to bring back to your family as a result of college?

▪ How will you handle those who will not be supportive?

Have a student draw a road that curves and turns, with bridges, and landmarks. On that drawing have

the student label the parts of his/her life that are important. Remind them that his/her path is unique

to them and that they bring gifts to the world, to the country, to the state, to the family of origin. Life

is a journey and an adventure.

Have the student list the gifts he/she will give to his/her family, the future, the country—but most of

all, to themselves.

list of activities by grade level for counselors to use with students...

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