As a high school special educator, you understand the importance of equipping your students with self-regulation skills. These skills are crucial for their academic success and personal growth. In this blog post, we will introduce an engaging lesson with interactive self-regulation sorting for high school students. This activity is designed to help students distinguish between helpful and unhelpful self-regulation strategies.
The Importance of Self-Regulation in High School Students
Self-regulation refers to an individual’s ability to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in various situations. For high school students, particularly those with special needs, mastering these skills can be challenging yet transformative. It aids in improving focus, reducing anxiety, and enhancing social interactions.
Lesson Plan Overview
Interactive Self-Regulation Sorting for High School Students
Objective: Students will be able to identify and differentiate between helpful and unhelpful self-regulation strategies.
Materials: Interactive whiteboard, iPad, or computer
Duration: 30 minutes
Introduction (5 minutes)
Begin the lesson with a brief discussion about self-regulation. Explain the concept in simple terms and discuss why it’s important for high school students. This sets the stage for the activity and engages students right from the start.
Activity: Interactive Sorting (10 minutes)
- Preparation: Share with students that they’ll be sorting through helpful and unhelpful self-regulation strategies. Examples include mindfulness activities and overthinking a difficult situation. Students will sort strategies into two columns.
- You have the option to have students complete this activity individually, in pairs, small-groups, or as an entire class.
- Instruct students to sort the cards into two categories: Helpful Strategies and Unhelpful Strategies. Encourage discussion within the groups as they decide where each card belongs.
- Sharing and Discussion: After the sorting, each group presents their categorization. Facilitate a class discussion on why certain strategies are considered helpful or unhelpful.
Conclusion and Reflection (10-15 minutes)
Wrap up the lesson by encouraging students to reflect on the strategies they currently use. Ask them to think about how they might implement some of the helpful strategies in their daily lives.
Simple, No-Prep Activity Ideas
To reinforce the learning, consider these additional no-prep activities:
- Strategy Journal: Have students keep a journal for a week, noting down instances where they used a self-regulation strategy.
- Role-Play: Conduct impromptu role-play sessions where students practice using helpful strategies in different scenarios.
- Strategy Swap: Encourage students to share a helpful strategy they use to learn from peers.
Conclusion
By integrating this interactive self-regulation sorting activity into your teaching toolkit, you’re not only promoting essential life skills but also fostering an engaging and supportive learning environment. Remember, the goal is to empower our students to become more self-aware and capable of managing their responses to the world around them
Sample Video
Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here!
