Leadership Style Skits

Activity Type: SEL - Leadership
Audience: Teacher or Families

Objective: Learn about 3 different styles of leadership (autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire), and think about situations when each might be appropriate in a group

Lesson content: Introduce definitions (autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire) and give examples of each style/situation. Break students into 3 groups, giving each group a different style to demonstrate with a skit. After the skit, the rest of the group will guess which style was demonstrated, and discuss why. Alternatively, with older groups, giving the definitions to the whole group can be skipped, and definitions for each style only given to the group presenting that style. In both cases, at the end we’ll hold a debrief discussing the merits and downsides of each style, and when each one might be best or most appropriate when working with a group.

Energy Rings

Activity Type: SEL - Reacting
Audience: Teacher or Families

Objective: A discussion and reflection exercise which essentially posits that what you give your energy/focus/attention to can either give you energy back, or drain you of energy. Its objective is to reflect on the positive or negative things/ideas we might give our attention to, and suggest the idea that feeding negative or sporadic thoughts disperses our energy, while focusing on or feeding positive thoughts and ideas can have the power to fill us with energy, and become a sort of positive feedback loop.

Lesson content: Open with a short story (the classic parable about a grandparent telling their grandchild about two wolves inside of them, one that feeds on negativity, the other feeds on positivity, the one that wins being “the one you feed”. Ask students what the story meant to them, what stuck out, any thoughts or any ways in which they could relate. Share diagram below, explain and open for discussion. Note: Important to share this as a point of view, or a way of looking at things, and not to preach it as “fact” or “the way things are”. Also important to acknowledge that there are oftentimes negative circumstances in our lives which we can’t avoid, but it could be beneficial for ourselves and others to try and embrace them with a positive attitude as much as we can.

Practicing Communication Strategies

Activity Type: SEL - Communication
Audience: Teacher or Families

Objective: Introduce simple sentence starters (I feel…, I agree AND…, What I hear you saying….) that can help students communicate effectively. Create a space for students to practice using these sentence starters effectively.

Lesson content: Start lesson by introducing three basic sentence starters. Explain how each one would be used to communicate a feeling/opinion to someone else. Students then play “This or That” where they get to choose one thing over another and explain why. Encourage students to state their opinions as well as respond to others using these communication strategies.

SAMPLE PRESENTATION

Scavenger Hunt

Activity Type: Energizer
Audience: Teacher or Families

Objective: Help get students energized before an online session. Create an opportunity for students to share more about themselves through objects they find. Allow students the opportunity to turn on their screen for a short time to build their confidence online.

Lesson content: Create a list of random objects for students to find where they are at. If a student can’t find it where they are, encourage them to still think of something and throw it in the chat. Some examples of things could be; “something that is your favorite color”, “something that makes you laugh”, “something you are proud of”, “something you made yourself”, “something you’d take outside”. These could be adapted to fit any kind of theme or lesson. To add some more energy you can give students a set time like 30 seconds to find their object and bring it back to the screen. If some students aren’t regularly on screen you can encourage them to hold their object close to the camera or even tilt their screen to the ceiling and raise their object up.

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Outward Bound knows that facilitated SEL lessons don't meet everyone needs. For that reason, the Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School compiled a resource of short activities, lessons, homework, journal prompts, icebreakers, and more! Check it out and share with anyone else who may find these ideas helpful.

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