Joining A Group

Friday, December 9, 2011 2:00 p.m.

Conceptual Overview: Joining a group involves showing interest in the group s activity by watching, listening, and asking questions, including asking to join. Joining a group can be challenging for many children, it is important that children use respectful behaviors that increase their chances of success. The skills for joining a group are the same skills used to make friends. Objectives: Students will . . .MIdentify appropriate and inappropriate strategies for joining a group; NPractice friend making skills; ODetermine appropriate responses to friendly behavior. Large Group Introduction (Gym) We all belong to a rather large group known as St. Francis Xavier School. And we belong to many other groups of a variety of types and sizes. We all have families and homeroom classes. There are groups of friends we get together with outside of school and kids we play with at recess. Many of you are on sports teams or part of a theater or dance troupe. Maybe you re in a choir or in scouts. At times, we also form temporary groups for class projects, presentations, or science labs. Today you re members of a Roots of Respect group. We all belong to groups in the present and, over the course of our lifetimes, we will most likely join a great many more. It s in our best interests to know some good ways for joining groups successfully and for knowing how to make friends with some of the individuals we meet in all of our groups. Sometimes we do and say things that make it hard for others to work and play together in a group with us. Occasionally, we may also make it hard for others to join the groups we re in. Today, we ll talk in our teams about some strategies for joining a new group what usually works best and what usually doesn t work so well. All of us want and need to have friends at school. Very few of us, I would imagine, have much interest in being friends with someone who only thinks of themselves. We want friends who are dependable, trustworthy, caring, inclusive, and kind. We want friends who talk to us, but we also want them to listen. Each of us has the ability to be the kind of individual that others want as a friend. Everybody has some of the qualities that would make the good friends. But sometimes, we don t reach out to others, or we don t respond well when they reach out to us. To have a friend, it s important to be one. And everybody can be. Materials Needed: Group assignment lists, Class lists with group assignments

Greeting: (10 minutes) Arrange students in a circle. Each student introduces himself/herself and offers their best quality as a friend. Teacher begins. Greeting: Hello, my name is _________________. My best quality as a friend is ________.
Students may offer their own answers, but here are some examples if they get stuck: good listener, kind, understanding, helpful, dependable, respectful, trustworthy, or caring. Purposes for Greeting One Another and identifying good friend qualities

y To have good friends you must be a good friend y To get to know each other better y Gives practice to identifying good qualities in friends

Activity: Role Play (15 minutes) Materials Needed: 1 large piece of paper, 1 marker, 1 sheet of role play scenarios Set Up: Divide the group into two multi-age groups, giving each group a scenario to role play. Divide each group into two smaller groups. Each smaller group is given the same scenario to role play; one group acts out the scenario so that it has a positive outcome; the second smaller group is asked to act out the same scenario so that it has a negative outcome. Each student should Team part in the role play. have aInstructions: Use discussion questions to process the role play. Repeat the activity with the other half of the students. Discussion Questions: 1) What behaviors did you see that were positive (or negative) in the role play? 2) Have you used any of these behaviors before? What was the situation? What was the outcome? Joining a Group:  Stand nearby, look, and listen  Say something positive or ask questions  Ask to play or join  Say something helpful or find a way to help  Ask again to play or join

Sharing: (10 minutes You would like to make friends with: 1.) Another student with whom you ve enjoyed working on a class project. 2.) Someone on your sports team. 3.) A new student in your class. Making Friends What does it look like? What doesn t it look like?

Ask: Is there anything on our looks like list that you ve tried, but it didn t work? What would you do differently next time? ***** TEAMS BRING Large Sheets BACK TO THE GYM. ********

Large Group Closure (Gym) We already know that friendly behavior is respectful behavior. If you respect yourself, you can be friendly to everyone. But there truly are some ways to join a group or make friends successfully, and there are others destined to prevent you from being able to become a part of the group. Sometimes we can help one another. Getting to know someone you don t usually spend time with may start an unexpected friendship. Reaching out to someone who s not included as readily as you are is a friendly thing to do. As a school community, we can care enough about each student and adult here to make sure that no one is left out. We can help one another to learn and practice the behaviors and skills that are respectful and open up the possibilities for friendship. Learning to listen to one another, expressing interest in others, finding common interests, refusing to embarrass or tease anyone in meanly, encouraging everybody to do and be their best selves, and caring about each other s feelings are all ways for us to create a school environment where everyone feels included in this group we call our school.

Role Play Scenarios Introduction: Tips for Successful Classroom Role-Plays Follow these tips each time you lead a classroom role-play activity:  Give clear directions  Focus students practice on the specific skills being taught  Monitor the role-play practice and provide coaching when necessary  Keep role-plays short (1-3 minutes). As soon as the targeted skill is performed, stop the role play  Use the discussion questions provided to help students evaluate their performances. 1) Introduce the role-play Now were going to practice role-playing different group-joining strategies. 2) Divide students into four groups. Share the role-play instructions with students. 3) Give students 3 minutes to practice role-plays. 4) Have students process the performances using the discussion questions. 5) Have the students switch roles and follow the same process again for each student. Each student should get a chance to play the part of the joiner. Role-play Scenario Mario sees a group of kids playing football on the playground during recess. He asks how long they have been playing. Then he asks if he can play in the next game. The others agree. As the children finish their game, Mario offers suggestions to each player about how they can play better. When the kids dont use his suggestions, he says, Thats a stupid play After the game, the kids walk away, and they say they dont want to play another game if Marios going to play. Ben, Elena, and Drew are working on a project. Ben takes charge of the group project and tells everyone what to do. The others offer ideas, but Ben wont listen. He does it his way no matter what. The next day, the teacher asks students to break into new work groups. No one wants Ben to join their group. Michael sees a few kids sitting on the playgroud. They are talking about a new movie. Michael decides to join them. He sits down and interrupts. He says, I got an A on my math test. Then he says, I didnt even have to study! The group continues their conversation. But they dont include Michael. Emily would like to join a group of kids who are painting. She stands quietly near the table and hopes that the kids will ask her to join them. They never do. After school Kate hears a group of girls in her class making plans to get together over the weekend and play. Kate walks over to the group of girls and stands quietly near them. She hopes that the girls will invite her to play over the weekend, and asks, What are you talking about?

Role-play Scenario - 1 Mario sees a group of kids playing football on the playground during recess. He asks how long they have been playing. Then he asks if he can play in the next game. The others agree. As the children finish their game, Mario offers suggestions to each player about how they can play better. When the kids dont use his suggestions, he says, Thats a stupid play After the game, the kids walk away, and they say they dont want to play another game if Marios going to play.

Role-play Scenario - 2 Ben, Elena, and Drew are working on a project. Ben takes charge of the group project and tells everyone what to do. The others offer ideas, but Ben wont listen. He does it his way no matter what. The next day, the teacher asks students to break into new work groups. No one wants Ben to join their group.

Role-play Scenario - 3 Michael sees a few kids sitting on the playgroud. They are talking about a new movie. Michael decides to join them. He sits down and interrupts. He says, I got an A on my math test. Then he says, I didnt even have to study! The group continues their conversation. But they dont include Michael.

Role-play Scenario - 4 Emily would like to join a group of kids who are painting. She stands quietly near the table and hopes that the kids will ask her to join them. They never do.

Role-play Scenario - 5 After school Kate hears a group of girls in her class making plans to get together over the weekend and play. Kate walks over to the group of girls and stands quietly near them. She hopes that the girls will invite her to play over the weekend, and asks, What are you talking about?

First Grade Scenarios Role-play Scenario - 1 Marty sees a group of kids playing catch on the playground during recess. He asks if he can play in the next game. The others agree. When the children finish their game, Marty begins to tell the players how they can play better. After the game, the kids walk away, and do not ask Marty to play.

Role-play Scenario - 2 Ben, Elena, and Drew are working on a painting project. Ben takes charge of the group and tells everyone what to do. The others offer ideas, but Ben wont listen. He does it his way no matter what. The next day, the teacher asks students to break into new groups. No one wants Ben to join their group.

Role-play Scenario - 3 Michael sees a few kids sitting on the playgroud. They are talking about a new movie. Michael decides to join them. He sits down and interrupts. He says, I got a new video game last night. Then he says, I get new games all the time! The group continues their conversation. But they dont include Michael.

Role-play Scenario - 4 Emily would like to join a group of kids who are jumping rope. She stands quietly near the group and hopes that the kids will ask her to join them. They never do.

Role-play Scenario - 5 After school Kate hears a group of girls in her class making plans to get together over the weekend and play. Kate walks over to the group of girls and stands quietly near them. She hopes that the girls will invite her to play over the weekend, and asks, What are you talking about?