DOCUMENT RESUME ED 363 845 CO 026 028 AUTHOR Whisler, Jo Sue; McCombs, Barbara TITLE Middle School Advisement Program. INSTITUTION Mid-Continent Regional Educational Lab., Aurora, CO. PUB DATE May 92 NOTE 404p. AVAILABLE FROMSopris West, P.O. Box 1809, Longmont, CO 80502-1809 ($69.95 plus 10% shipping and handling). PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC17 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adolescents; Conflict Resolution; Decision Making; Elementary School Students; Intermediate Grades; Interpersonal Communication; Interpersonal Relationship; Junior High Schools; Junior High School Students; *Middle Schools; Preadolescents; Problem Solving; *School Counseling; *School Guidance; Stress Management; *Student Development; Student Responsibility IDENTIFIERS Goal Setting; *McREL Middle School Advisement Program; *Middle School Students ABSTRACT This document presents the MoREL Middle School Advisement Program, a program designed to provide middle school students with an environment in which theycan adjust to new school responsibilities and grow and develop in positiveways. The program is organized into nine modules. Within modulesare activities which consist of a Teacher Guide and, for some activities, Student Activity Sheets or Student Supplements. The Orientation module provides students with an orientation to the nature of theprogram as nonacademic and person-oriented. The Self-Awareness module helps students gain deeper insights into who they are as individuals, their interests, values, and feelings. The Personal Responsibility module helps students gain insights into what itmeans to be responsible for themselves. The Goal Setting module helps studentssee the importance of goal setting in becoming who they want to be. The Decision Making/Problem Solving module helps students develop and refinetheir decision-making and problem-solving skills. The Relationships module helps students think through issues important to them in thearea of relationships with family and friends. The Communications module helps students develop enhanced skills for listening to others and for positively communicating their wants and needs. The Conflict Resolution module helps students acquiresome specific strategies for effectively resolving conflicts with adults andpeers. Finally, the Stress Management module helps students understand effective strategies for taking control of stress-producing thoughts and reducing the level of stress they experience. (Author/NB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be aade from the original document. *********************************************************************** 401 V1DDLE SCHOOL ADVISEMENT PROGRAM "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION tu,.-tcl )1 CENTER (ERIC) r" This document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization originating it r Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction guahly TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Po% nts ot view Oropmnmormshtatedmnttmmsdocmm ment do not necessarily represent official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) OE RI position or policy Jo Sue Whisler and Barbara McCombs co (\i5-; (47 C.) AfFIEL Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr. Joan B. Grady and Dr. Catherine Canny for reviewing the program. Editorial/Production Jeanne Deak Jan Gallinati Eden Kelter Copyright © 1992 McREL Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this publication, with the exception of Student Activities and Student Supplements, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder. For additional information, contact: McREL Institute 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500 Aurora, Colorado 80014 (303) 337-0990 1 Table of Contents Section Section Color Introduction Light Green Orientation Amber Self-Awareness Purple Personal Responsibility Dark Green Goal Setting Red Dedsion Making and Problem Solving Light Blue Relationships Medium Blue Communication Orange Conflict Resolution Yellow Stress Management Pink 4 Teacher Introduction to McREL's Middle School Advisement Program PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAM The central purpose of the McREL Middle School AdvisementProgram is to provide middle school students with an environment in which theycan adjust to new school responsibilities and grow and develop in positive ways. Advisementcan be that aspect of the school experience that empowers students to be the best that they can be, develop mutually supportingand caring relationships, become socially competent, and develop skills for making responsible choices inlife. Helping middle school children develop healthy ways of thinking, feeling, and behavingat this critical and vulnerable point in their self-development is believed to bean essential strategy for offsetting involvement in unhealthy choices and lifestyles that can lead to school failure, delinquency,and/or a host of related behavior patterns. At its core, the program is designed to elicit students' innate mental healthwhich includes self-esteem, a love of learning, a desire to do well, andan inner wisdom or common sense.As a result, students are more likely to experience their value andcompetency, as well as exhibit personal control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions via the choicesthey make. The McREL Middle School Advisement Program is designedto address development needs in e conxtte of positive interactions and relationships between adults and youth.Grade-appropriate tivities help students become more self-aware, make appropriateself-evaluations and decisions, and solve problems. Specifically, theprogram exposes students to expanded self-possibilities and options. Organized in a series of modules, activities within and betweenmodules can be used as appropriate to meet the needs of students and teachers. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Program Philosophy The McREL Middle School Advisement Program is basedon research evidence indicating that students are inherently motivated and havean innate curiosity and love of learning.Negative conditioning and beliefs obscure this natural inclination.Rather than "fix" students, the program promotes interactions, relationships, and activities thatcan elicit this natural state. For many students in school settings, such conditions andunderstandings are not present. As a result, they often do not do well or stay in school. Providing them with learningexperiences that can challenge negative beliefs they have about themselves andschool, while at the same time creating supportive relationships with teachers andpeers in the school setting, can empower students' inherent motivation and desire to pursue learning goals. Theprogram contributes to the health and development of students who come from supportive settings andpossess positive beliefs about themselves and school as well. AfREL Copyright C 1992 McREL Institue All Rights Reserved Organization and Format of Material The McREL Middle School Advisement Program is organized into topic-related modules that may be used in any order (the Orientation module is a good one to begin with) as are activities/sessions within a module. The modules include activities for sessions which may takeone or more class periods. Each activity consists of a Teacher Guide that is coded to note the module, grade level, and activity number. For example, in the Self-awareness Module, the first activity for grade 6 is coded SA6-1. In addition to a Teacher Guide for each activity, there are, insome cases, Student Activity Sheets or Student Supplements.These are also coded with the module, grade level, and activity number. Activities are numbered arbitrarily; that is, they are numbered for referencepurposes. The one exception is the Conflict Resolution module. The activities within this module are sequenced; each follows from and assumes knowledge from those that preceded. Again, activities do not haveto be used in any ?Articular order nor do all activities in a module need to be used. Teacher Guidesare designed to go iato 3-hole notebooks; thus, they may be reorganized or supplemented with other informational material.Student Activity Sheets and Student Supplements are designed as black-line masters to be duplicated. THE CONTENT OF McREL'S MIDDLE SCHOOL ADVISEMENT PROGRAM A total of nine modules make up the McREL Middle School Advisement Program.These modules collectively define areas of student self-development common to all middle school students in Grades 6, 7, and 8. Although these areas are common, research and experience with students in these three grades tells us that there are many appropriate ways to work with and facilitate self-development depending on a student's intellectual, social, and/or emotional developmental levels. For thatreason, activities within any module attempt to include those types of activities most appropriateto students at the different grade levels while, at the same time, generally addressing similar topics andconcerns. Purpose of Each Module As we have indicated, the McREL Middle School Advisement Program is not intended to be implemented in a "scope and sequence" fashion.For the purposes of organization and description, however, the modules are arranged in the following logical order: Orientation - The purpose