You may have many students who have chronic problems with their behavior and attitude at school. Fortunately, we have many awesome interventions to turnaround bad behavior and even worse attitudes.
Some of our favorite interventions for sour attitudes and problem behavior, are shown below. Find hundreds more at our web site, http://www.youthchg.com.
Me? Flunk English? That's Unpossible! Just write this sentence on the board, then let the students discuss it: "WiLl YOu RealY NevER ned a diPlOmA?" You may also repeat this exercise with this sentence: "Me? Flunk English? That's unpossible!" The second sentence is stolen from the cartoon show, "The Simpsons" ask your students to create other sentences like the two shown above. Also, you can ask your students to imagine how signs might be read by someone who hasn't learned to read very well. For example, ask them to imagine signs at the airport you better be able to read. They will devise many funny but provocative scenarios.
Who is the Problem Here? Make a list of problems that adults can have at work and in the community, such as "Mr. Frank is frequently late to work. Mr. Frank is angry at the boss for docking him pay for the time he's late, saying it is the boss's fault he loses money." Ask your students to determine who is accountable for the problem. Students will indicate that Mr. Frank is accountable. After the students determine adults are accountable in each scenario, present them with a second list of scenarios. This list should be exactly the same as the first list, but substitute youngsters for adults in each situation. Next, ask your group members to determine accountability. It may make for an interesting discussion, and provoke some new thinking.
Figure This Students who finish school earn about $329,000 more than drop-outs. Have your students calculate how much they are earning of that $329,000 per year they have left in school --and per month, per week, per hour, per minute. Have students run their fingers through $329,000 in play money. All those dollars may help to sweeten all those bad attitudes just a little bit.
10,000 Ways School Builds You Up Have students list all the things they wish to do in their lives, then have them consider how many of these activities require school. Students may be amazed that activities from driving to a concert, to building a house, to climbing a mountain, will be harder or even impossible without education.
10,000 More Ways School Can Build You Up: Follow-up Intervention For this intervention, use the list of activities that students say that they want to do (from the strategy shown above). Write those activities on the board then ask the group: "Does Finishing School Help You Get It" or "Does Quitting School Help You Get It?" You won't need to say much. The group will have already figured out that quitting school isn't very useful to reach the goals they say they want.
Ready or Not, Here Life Comes Some students are very negative about school because they consider it to be a waste. Here is a fun intervention to show students that education may be essential. Have students write down the types of problems that an adult might have to deal with during one really bad day, then have them determine how many of these activities use skills learned in school. Your group will notice that all/most of the problems in a really bad adult day may require education. Include problems like the refrigerator is a bit warm, the car seems to slide for some reason on the wet road, and the bank says that your checking account is overdrawn.
Drop-Outs Needed Reserve this intervention for older, very sour teens who are at risk of dropping out soon. Use the intervention with care and kindness do not use with fragile kids. If you are not sure that you can safely and properly use this device, then don't use it. Ask the student to find all the Help Wanted ads that specify "Drop-Out Needed." This tough intervention can be an eye-opener that shows that maybe school isn't just a waste, as the student may believe.
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Article added to SearchWarp.com on Sunday, February 05, 2006 View other articles written by Ruth Herman Wells(2,489)
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