Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to define a characteristic, recognize characteristics, recognize personal characteristics, and describe personal characteristics.
Language Learning Outcomes: Students will connect content to background knowledge, connect context to meaning, and actively participate in conversations through proper responses.
Lesson Information
Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes
Students will...
- be able to define a characteristic.
- recognize characteristics.
- recognize personal characteristics.
- describe personal characteristics.
Language Learning Outcomes
Students will...
- connect content to background knowledge.
- connect context to meaning.
- actively participate in conversations through proper responses.
Materials Needed
Overview
Explain that we will talk about characteristics today.
- Students may translate the word if it helps them understand it better.
Activate Background Knolwedge
Ask the students to give examples of characteristics people have.
- Make a list on the board.
Ask the students if everyone has all the characteristics listed on the board.
- Explain that everyone is different, and some people have different characteristics than others.
Activity 1: Writing/Speaking
Ask students to think of a positive characteristic they have.
Note* they may look up the word if they do not know it in English.
- Have them write the characteristic down and an example of why they think they have that.
- Share with a partner.
Activity 2: Speaking
Explain that some of the characteristics we have are strong and some are weak.
- Give the students Handout Overview Lesson (Novice High) and go over the vocabulary words together.
- Have students choose three characteristics they are strongest at and three they are weakest at. Note* they can look up words they do not know.
- Have them select one weak characteristic and go then go around the room to find someone who has that same characteristic as a strength. There may be some groups and some partnerships.
- My strong/weak characteristics are _______, _______, and _______. What are yours?
- Do you have _______ as a weak/strong characteristic?
- Questions to guide the activity:
- Once they find a group or a partner, have each student in the group or partnership share some examples of their strong characteristic that is the other’s weakness.
- I am strong at _______ because I _______.
- _______ is a strong characteristic for me because I _______.
Homework
Have students notice the people around them and try to see what their strong characteristics are. Have them use their own strong characteristics to help someone else, and write about what they noticed or did.
Follow-Up
Tuesday:
Share experiences from their homework with a partner and conduct a class discussion.
Wednesday:
Have the students think about someone they want to forgive or an experience when they forgave someone. Ask them to write or describe some of the emotions they felt. Did it feel good or bad?
Thursday:
Ask the students to write down two characteristics that they want to improve on, and at least two things they can do to improve each characteristic.
