REVISED SECTION:
The W.T. Woodson School Counseling Department core-curriculum lessons align with our vision, mission and goals. The ASCA mindsets and behaviors were taken into consideration when planning all lessons (please see Planning Tool). The three lessons represented in the core-curriculum results report are three lessons that align specifically with goals two and three of our counseling program.
Lesson 1: Sophomore Orientation
Counselors met with all 10th graders in groups of 75-100 students over the course of two days to review academic options, importance of grades, post-secondary planning, and social issues such as bullying and harassment. Prior to and following the presentation, students were provided a brief google survey to assess their knowledge and understanding of the information provided. The overall goal of the lesson was for students to obtain knowledge needed for sophomore year and be made aware of academy course options. Out of the 611 sophomore students, we had 36 (5.89%) students enroll in an academy course at the various academy locations. The Sophomore Orientation lesson relates to our goal of improving attendance among 10th grade students by providing students with opportunities they are interested in and therefore will look forward to attending. Addressing mental health concerns and increasing attendance correlates to the success of student grades. Data has suggested the more contact we have with students and discussions we have related to the importance of school, the more likely our students are to achieve higher attendance in classes and graduate on time. The data shows us that while students increased their knowledge of using Family Connection, there is still room for improvement. In following years, working with smaller groups and allowing students the opportunity to log on to Family Connection with the counselor present will hopefully provide greater understanding.
Lesson 2: 10th grade Signs of Suicide Wellness Screening
The Signs of Suicide Wellness Screening lesson for sophomore students relates directly to our second goal. In ninth grade, students view the Signs of Suicide program and complete the BSAD (Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression) survey. Counselors visit 10th grade Health and PE classes, which include up to forty students per class, to review what they learned in the ninth grade Signs of Suicide program. Students are given a pretest to assess their knowledge of the Acknowledge, Care, Tell (ACT) message. Following this, students review the ACT message, learn what to do when someone is depressed, and then complete a wellness screening to evaluate if they need to speak with someone that day or within that week. This lesson allows counselors to assess those students being tracked for our personal/social goal to determine how they have progressed across the last year. This lesson and corresponding wellness screening have been successful in meeting students’ social and emotional needs. Ninety-nine percent of 10th grade students remembered what the acronym ACT stands for from the previous school year. While this lesson clearly provided students with valuable information, there is still need for students to know resources in the building. Spending more time brainstorming and reviewing available resources for them in subsequent lessons will be helpful. Counselors will continue to present this lesson in the future due to its positive impact on our student body.
Lesson 3: 12th Senior Post-Secondary Preparation
This lesson relates directly to our college/career goal number three. During this lesson, all senior students met through government classes as a group to review various ways of being successful in their postsecondary endeavors, regardless of their plan. Approximately 167 (30%) of our seniors take Government online so we are looking at other ways to ensure we reach all seniors. It is difficult to present and collect data on all students when many are not in the building. Following the lesson, seniors complete a survey which addresses their post-secondary plans as well as their attitudes toward the counseling department. While there is no pre-test for seniors to complete prior to the survey addressing their attitudes at the present time, based on our results it would be helpful to administer a survey at the beginning of their senior year to find out what the graduating class is seeking from counselors. Counselors reviewed data from the Clearinghouse to see how many students enrolled in a two or four year school. It will be helpful to develop a tool for tracking enlistment and employment of our graduated students to see if there are any gaps in plans created during high school and followed through post-graduation.