The Counseling Program and Classroom Guidance Curriculum

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The Counseling Program and Classroom Guidance
Curriculum
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The Counseling Program Classroom Guidance
Curriculum

• ASCA (1999) stated that the goal of the
  counseling program within a school is to enable
  all students to achieve academic success and
  develop into contributing members of society.

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How Does theG.C. Meet this Goal?

• Promoting the optimal development of all students
  in the developmental domains of education, career
  and personal/social development.

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Guidance Curriculum

• Is a central feature of the school counseling
  program
• Curriculum provides systematic, age-appropriate
  concepts to all students in the school (Wittmer,
  Thompson, Loesch, 1977) cited by C and H (2003)
• For K-12 students

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Guidance Curriculum

• Schmidt (1999) stated that guidance is the
  responsibility of everyone in the school and is
  best implemented when integrated as an essential
  part of the curriculum (p. 94).

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Guidance Curriculum

• Guidance does not occur at a single moment or as
  a solitary event when a teacher says, Students
  put your books away it is time for guidance!
  (Schmidt, 1999, p. 94).
• Instead infuse guidance with all subjects and in
  daily instruction
• For this to happen, teachers and counselors plan
  appropriate activities for guidance

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A Guidance Curriculum Is

• Sequential
• Developmental
• Systemic
• Developed to be delivered to a group of students,
  typically a class

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Developing a Curriculum

• Curriculum is typically developed using a team
  that has representatives from all 3 levels of the
  educational system to maintain a developmental
  nature.
• Developmental domains are addressed in the
  curriculum (academics, career, personal/social)
• The team should base its works on shared values
  that are carried throughout the curric.
• The curric. must be sufficient in scope and
  sequence.

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Building a Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum

• Developmental principles should guide activities
  at each level
• Development is somewhat predictable, however
  different children progress at different rates,
  as influenced by heredity and environment
• Development may occur continuously or
  discontinuously depending on cultural environment
  and social relationships

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Guidance Curriculum is Appropriate If

• It builds upon the skills and abilities students
  have at a specific grade level
• It provides challenges to lead to the acquisition
  of new skills and knowledge
• It is flexible enough to accommodate individual
  and cultural differences among students

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Curriculum Design

• Goals should be based on the needs of the
  student, the society in which the student lives
  and will live as an adult.
• The following design works
• Student outcomes
• Essential topics
• Units
• Lessons

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Curriculum Design

• Go to www.ocps.k12.fl.us/framework/subject.php?sub
  ject18
• Every one takes a strand (domain) and a standard
  to work with. (see activities on pp. 94-95).
  Choose 1 of the 3 activities on page 97.

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Well Designed Guidance Units .

• Have a clear purpose
• Have coordinated and sequential lesson plans
• Have age appropriate activities
• Offer opportunities for application, reflection,
  evaluation of learning
• Allow for summary evaluation

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Elements of a Unit
Scope

• ScopeThe range of the content
• Focus What is being emphasized
• Sequence The order in which the content is
  arranged
• Processes Activities to help students learn
• Product Ways that students demonstrate knowledge

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Levels of Learning

• Facts Discrete bits of information
• Concepts Categories of things with common
  elements
• Principles Rules that govern concepts
• Skills The ability to put to work the skills
  gained

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Evaluation

• Strategies for checking student learning should
  match the established learning objectives
• Cognitive objectives Oral questions, journals,
  classroom interviews, projects, tests
• Affective objectives Checklists, observations,
  pre/post unit questionnaires
• Psychomotor Record of progress

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Group Guidance
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Defining Group Guidance

• Large group guidance - the systematic delivery
  of age-appropriate preventative guidance concepts
  and units to groups of students which usually
  contain more than 10-15 members. (Wittmer,2000)

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Defining Group Guidance

• (Thompson/Rudolph)- Group Guidance Can Help
  Students
• 1. become more involved in school and with
  classmates
• 2. understand themselves and their feelings
• 3. learn to share ideas and feelings
• 4. develop decision-making and problem solving
  skills

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Differences

• Differences in small group and large group
  guidance
• 1. Size of the group
• 2. Focus of the group and the
• way it functions
• 3. GG is more structured,
• focuses on developmental needs and interests

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Differences

• Large group guidance - is a helping process where
  students meet together to work with the
  counselor, the teacher, or both
• It can also be pictured as a series of lessons
  which are part of an organized guidance
  curriculum.

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Group Leader

• population and the students developmental needs)
• 2. As an expert in school guidance, you can be a
  resource to teachers and give some direction to
  the guidance curriculum

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Size

• There is no limit to size. Usually think about
  25 - 30 students.
• This helps group to be conveniently subdivided
  into 5-6 small working teams.

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Where does group meet?

• Most common place is the classroom.
• When gg is aimed primarily as information-giving
  and when time is limited auditorium might be best

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Guidance Units

• Can be organized into several sessions, but it is
  practical to think in terms of 6 sessions per
  unit
• 6th session is evaluation and wrap-up

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How Do You Facilitate a Large Group?

• 1. Accept all contributions - (link, reframe, tie
  together)
• acknowledge all students for their efforts, even
  if off target

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Facilitating

• 2. Use eye contact - a part of communication,
  shows you are attentive, and interested. Your
  gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice,
  posture, have an effect on student

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Facilitating

• 3. Reinforce participation - Be careful not to
  use too many evaluative words (good, great,
  excellent,outstanding)
• Better to use thanks, all right, okay, thank you
  - these are less evaluative and more acknowledging

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Facilitating

• 4. Move to and away from the group -
  non-attentive or disruptive (move toward),
  dominating (move away),tired/end of day (move
  around).

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Facilitating

• 5. Set limits - always best to focus on what you
  expect of people instead of asking them to
  refrain from doing something

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Facilitating

• 6. Give tasks - give group members specific
  tasks.
• Tell one group to listen while the other group
  speaks
• When the group is not going well ASK What is
  happening in our group?
• What are your feelings?

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Facilitating

• 7. Have a plan -
• Have clear idea of objectives to accomplish
• Have materials and closure remarks

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Advantages of Group Guidance

• 1. Counselors and teachers can impart information
  or instruction to larger members of students.
  Group guidance reaches more students
• 2. GG does not require any special training in
  counseling theories and techniques because it
  uses instructional processes.

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Advantages

• Effective teachers who have facilitative skills
  can be quite successful in leading GG
• 3 .GG can be integrated with other subjects in
  the school curriculum (language arts, social
  studies, math etc.)

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Advantages

• 4. GG has the potential to enhance total
  environment of the classroom or school by
  emphasizing positive aspects of human development
  and relationships.

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Limitations

• Because GG is more educational and informational
  than therapeutic or personally enhancing, results
  for students with critical conflicts or serious
  difficulties may be helped less

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Limitations

• 3. GG does not necessarily offer consistent
  assistance toward specific personal,
  educational or career goals for all group
  members.

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Limitations

• 4. Because GG uses instructional processes and
  techniques, and the size is often 25 or more,
  counselors need to be more structured and
  directive in these activities.