Overview
The first year in middle school is an exciting time for students. It can also be a challenging time when expectations for academic achievement are high and requirements for social interaction take on a whole new meaning. What does it mean to be “successful” in the middle school environment? Successful students:
Students who possess these qualities come to school:
For students who only partially possess these qualities, “partial” success is a likely outcome unless these skills are learned, embraced and demonstrated on a daily basis.
What are these skills called? There are many names and descriptions. For the purposes of TaTT 1, students who possess these all important qualities are considered workplace literate. Workplace literacy is the foundation on which workplace success is built and for students, their school is their workplace and their job is that of student. What would your school be like if all students were workplace literate?
On day one of a new school year, it is a certainty that new students to your school will be workplace literate to varying degrees. If all students are expected to succeed academically, then all students need to be workplace literate. TaTT 1 is an effective program that you can use to help any student become workplace literate.
TaTT 1 Table of Contents
Unit One: Building Value in Yourself
Students learn how people acquire and utilize social, emotional, ethical, academic, work, and civic attributes to be successful. They then identify specific behaviors that demonstrate when people possess these qualities. Character traits and how they positively influence behavior are evaluated. The unit concludes with students analyzing a role model and explaining to an audience why this person is a positive role model.
Unit Two: Defining Success
The concept of success is discussed and defined and then the similarities between successful students and successful adult workers are analyzed. The output of the unit is a complete understanding of what it means to be successful as well as a profile of a successful student.
Unit Three: Setting High Standards
Students learn the value of setting high standards of appropriate behavior. They analyze eight behaviors and learn how they help students be successful in school. Inappropriate behaviors are also analyzed and students learn how they prevent people from being successful. The unit contains an activity that helps students understand why school rules exist and how they prevent problems.
Unit Four: SOLVE Your Problems
Unit four contains a template for solving problems. Students practice applying the template by identifying a problem they have and solving it. The unit concludes with a guest speaker from the local business community discussing the value of problem solving and how he/she utilizes it to solve every day challenges in their profession.
Unit Five: Making Good Choices about Behavior
This unit takes the introduction to character traits from Unit One and evaluates them further. Students are introduced to specific character traits with the objective of learning how they help people make appropriate choices about their behavior. The unit contains an activity that enables students to recognize character traits of a famous person and how they led to behaviors that made them famous. The unit concludes with Personal Reflection Letter whereby students analyze their own character traits and commit to adding new ones.
Unit Six: Managing my Own Behavior
Students learn several strategies for managing their own behavior in accordance with expectations. The unit includes several lessons built around the topics of self control, learning how to be organized and self management skills. An activity called My Annual Review introduces the concept of an Annual Review as a common tool used by organizations to help people identify improvement opportunities. The output of the activity is an “action plan” that will help students identify self management skills that need improvement as well as a strategy to improve those skills.
Unit Seven: The Year in Review
Unit Seven is an opportunity for students to showcase, in their own words and deeds, how they have grown as an individual and how they have added value to themselves. They discuss and identify accomplishments and areas of improvement. The unit concludes with students creating an electronic portfolio called “My Journey through the Year Presentation” where they highlight their successes.