I got this idea from my high school health class and have used it ever since in the classes I teach. The fish bowl activity is for any class that you want to have a orderly discussion for most of the block. The way it works is that you have some students sit in a circle facing each other then you have the rest of the class sit out side them facing them listening. You then have a jar or a fish bowl and  you pick questions or topics from the fish bowl for the inner circle to discuss with each other. The outer group cannot say anything until it is their turn. Then the groups switch and the inner group moves to the outside of the circle to listen. This kind of discussion works especially well if you know you have groups that are already divided such as men vs. women or right vs. left. It is a way for these groups to have a private discussion without having to defend themselves and let the other side hear their thinking.

• Relationships & Sex Fish Bowl Questions

• Morals, Spirituality, Ethics, & Religion Discussion

Print the questions or come up with y0ur own and cut them apart and put them in a fish bowl. Then you’re ready to have a vibrant class discussion!

Fish Bowl Steps Simplified

1. Break the class in half. Some common divisions are by gender or age.
2. Set up half of the chairs in a circle facing one another.
3. Set a second circle of chairs around the center circle facing the center circle.
4. The way the discussion works is that the people in the center most circle talk about the issue/topic while the outside listens and may not speak.
5. Then allow the inner and outer circles to change places.

Print PDF

Books

• Good Ideas to Help Young People Develop Good Character: Ways to Teach the Six Pillars of Character
  • The six pillars of character discussed in this book are Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
    

Articles

• Teaching Millennials More Effectively : Millennials are students born between the years 1982-2004. Due to the volume of the information and technology disposable to these students there are certain strategies that this article explains that can  help you teach these students effectively.
• The Millennial Muddle: How stereotyping students became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions

Websites

• www.character-information.info: This site has lesson plans, suggested movie clips for each character trait, activities, quotes, articles, etc. They also have a blog that has great information. Some resources are free others require a subscription. A subscription costs $14.75 (2010) for the year.

Print PDF

Time Frame: 1.5 hour block

Objective

• Students will read a non-fiction self-help book and write a book report summarizing the book and applying the information to their lives.

Set

• This project is a part of a senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.
• I always warn my students that self help books a lot of times are written by religious authors that may have opinions different than yours. If you disagree with what what your authors say please explain that in your book report.

Materials

• Go over the Life Long Learning Book Report Directions & allow students to either choose a book from the book list that you provide or get their book approved by you. I let my students choose from a collection of books that I have and if they are not satisfied with my selection they have to purchase a book from the book list or one that I approve that is a minimum of 200 pages.
• Depending on your students you can assign the project and have them complete it entirely on their own or you can do parts of it in class. I happen to have a group of students that were frank with me and said they pretty much wouldn’t do it if I just assigned it. Although I hate the fact that some students refuse to do homework, I knew that I was basically setting them up to fail if I didn’t rethink the assignment. So I made a deal with them that we would have reading day every Friday for a quarter so they c0uld get most of it done in class. The incentive of class time is that if they were productive with their class time they won’t have to do any of it at home.

Activities

• Read the book in class and have students fill out the Reading Comprehension Chart – the chart is in the Life Long Learning Book Report Document under “Attachments.”
• Pass out one sticky note per student. Have students find at least one interesting idea or quote that they read to share with the class at the end of the reading day.

• At the end of each reading day save about 15 minutes at the end of class to have each student talk about a main idea or quote that they found interesting from their reading.

Assessment

• Life Long Learning Book Report Rubric (Word)

Attachments

• Life Long Learning Book Report (Word)
• Life Long Learning Book List (Excel)

Websites

• Amazon.com : Usually a cheaper place to buy self help books than a physical bookstore
• Half.com : A good place to find cheap used books
  

Print PDF

Objective

• Students will investigate what they want out of life and what they can contribute to society at large during their life times.

Set

• Journal Entry answering the following questions: “What do you want out of life?” and “How do you plan on getting what you want?”

• What do you want out of life?
• How do you plan on getting what you want?

Materials

• Projector
• Computer lab (optional)

Activities

• Present the PowerPoint using personal stories to help illustrate each point.
• If time permits allow students to get started on their time line project in class
• (DAY 2)The day that the time lines are due have students get in groups and try to find similarities and differences between everyone’s story. *Note: some questions are very personal and instruct students ahead of time that they only have to share if they feel comfortable.
• Ask each group to then share with the class the similarities that they found Ex. “In our group most of our parents divorced when we were five or six.” or “We all think we will be married in our late twenties.”

Closure

• What do you think the purpose of your life is?
• How do you know what your life’s purpose is?

Evaluation

• Time Line Project (score sheet is at the end of the attachment titled “Time Line Project”)

Attachments

• Time Line Project
• Purpose Powerpoint

Websites

• How to Discover your Life’s Purpose in About 20 Minutes

Print PDF