Powerful Teaching: Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction

Taccogna

Long after your students have forgotten the 14 causes of the War of 1812, the Pythagorean Theorem, and the sonnets of Shakespeare, they will remember a much more important lesson: how you made them feel about themselves and their possibilities in this life.

With this crucial resource, educators will find concrete classroom applications of a wonderful set of tools (in the form of Search Institute’s 40 developmental assets) that align with good educational practice.

— J O H N J AY B O N S T I N G L , director,

ᔢ

Any educator, regardless of content area or grade level, classroom diversity or adminis-

trative responsibilities, can foster growth of the whole student—academic as well as social and emotional—by intentionally infusing developmental assets into how you teach. Powerful Teaching, from Search Institute’s education director and many contributors in the education field, is the resource that empowers educators at all levels to do just that. Presenting five, easy guiding principles, Power ful Teaching explains how educators can enable asset building to permeate everything they do—from the way they interact with students to how they structure classroom lessons.

Powerful Teaching

The Center for Schools of Quality

Powerful Teaching Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction

Readers will draw energy from real lesson plans, reproducible handouts for activities, and interactive strategies to enliven the content of their classes. Comprehensive charts help teachers and administrators mine contributors’ ideas in three alternative ways: by focusing on specific assets, instructional strategies, or diversity issues. Providing powerful teaching to all students is not another program—it is a way of thinking, an intentional attitude.

Search Institute

#751

Edited by Judy Taccogna, Ed.D. Foreword by John Jay Bonstingl

Powerful Teaching Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction

E D I T E D B Y J U DY TACCO G N A, E D. D. F O R E W O R D B Y J O H N J AY B O N S T I N G L

A Search Institute Publication

Powerful Teaching

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction Edited by Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

Powerful teaching : developmental assets in curriculum and instruction / edited by Judy Taccogna ; foreword, John Jay Bonstingl. p. cm.

Copyright © 2003 by Search Institute All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, mechanical or electronic, without prior permission from the publisher except in brief quotations or summaries in articles or reviews, or as individual charts or graphs for educational use. For additional permission, write to Permissions at Search Institute.

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ISBN 1-57482-751-0 (pbk.)

1. Effective teaching— United States. 2. Lesson planning— United States. 3. Teacher-student relationships— United States. I. Taccogna, Judy, 1942– LB1025.3.P69 2003 371.102— dc21 2003000293

About Search Institute Search Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization whose mission is to advance the well-being of children and youth by generating knowledge and promoting its application. The institute collaborates with others to promote long-term organizational and cultural change that supports its mission. For a free information packet, call 800-888-7828.

Search Institute’s Healthy Communities ᔣ Healthy Youth initiative seeks to unite individuals, organizations, and their leaders to join together in nurturing competent, caring, and responsible children and adolescents. Lutheran Brotherhood, now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, is the founding national sponsor for Healthy Communities ᔣ Healthy Youth.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation has provided Search Institute with generous support for 2003.

Funding for the development of Powerful Teaching: Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction was provided in part by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Reynolds was the founder and principal owner of the Donrey Media Group.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, it is one of the largest private foundations in the United States.

Contents

vii List of Handouts ix Foreword John Jay Bonstingl xi Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 2

Asset Building to Support What’s Already Required 29 The Developmental Assets Connection: Meeting the Demands of Educational Issues and Expectations Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

PART 1 ᔥ Brain-Smart Teaching 42 Dee Lindenberger, M.A.

HOW YOU TEACH MAKES A DIFFERENCE INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 3

Rising above the Challenges of Change

Infusing Assets through Instructional Strategies

5 Making Your Teaching Count with an Asset Mind-Set Judy Taccogna, Ed.D. CHAPTER 1

Principles for Infusing Assets into Your Curriculum and Instruction 13 The What and How of Teaching Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

53 Doing Away with Disengagement: Asset-Rich Strategies for K–12 Instruction Stan Paine, Ph.D. ᔢ Building Assets through Differentiation 64 Judy Taccogna, Ed.D. ᔢ Sinking or Swimming Together: Assets and Cooperative Learning 68 Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

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ᔢ Cooperating to Build Assets 73 Jan Mitchell, M.A. PART II

TEACH WHAT YOU KNOW

ᔢ Learning Citizenship: Making a Positive Difference Every Day 157 Dave Guile, M.S. ᔢ Labeling and Stereotyping: Do You Really Know What It Feels Like? 159 Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

CHAPTER 4

Infusing Assets into Language Arts 85 Serving Up John Grisham: Developing Reading for Pleasure Andrea Godfrey Brown, M.A.T. ᔢ Service Circles of Reading: Gaining Competence and Self-Confidence 99 Karen Kupfer Johnson, M.Ed.

101 Negotiating at the Bargaining Table: Three Leadership Projects Jan Mitchell, M.A. ᔥ Celebrating Folklore: Collecting and Publishing a Community’s Stories 114 H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D.

117 From Tragedy to Hope: Addressing Real-life Issues in Romeo and Juliet Amy Almendinger, M.Ed. ᔢ Compelling College Candidates: Creating Meaning in Preparing Applications 126 Stephanie Karno, M.S.

131 Creative Writing with an Asset Theme Pamela N. Widmann ᔢ Ready, Set, Assets in Action: Producing a Video for Youth 138 Joyce Arnason, M.A. and Cheri Schaney, M.A.

ᔢ Trekking Cross-Country: Cultural Empathy and Quality Decisions 163 Brenda Duffey, M.S.W. CHAPTER 6

Infusing Assets into Math and Science 171 There Is No Such Thing as a Stupid Question: Role Playing to Succeed in Math Helene Louise Perry 181 Designing a Naturescape: Cultivating Asset Growth Dave Guile, M.S. CHAPTER 7

Infusing Assets into Health Education 193 Capitalizing on Strengths and Creating Solutions: Leaping the Hurdles in Health Education Colleen Mahoney, Ph.D. ᔢ Powerful Strategies for Bullying Prevention 203 Dee Lindenberger, M.A. ᔢ Kids Are the Core 206 Karla McComb, M.S. ᔢ Leaders of Tomorrow: Making Health-Positive Choices 210 Georgia Teppert, M.Ed. CHAPTER 8

Infusing Assets into Visual Arts CHAPTER 5

Infusing Assets into Social Studies 145 Liberty and Justice for All? Examining Perceptions, Assumptions, and Involvement in Civic Life Jonathan Miller-Lane, M.Ed.

215 A Masterpiece Show: Visualizing the Assets in Art Kristine Willett, M.A. 223 Gaining Cultural Insights through Art Jaime L. Shafer

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ADVOCATE FOR ASSETS BEYOND THE CLASSROOM CHAPTER 9

Creating Asset-Rich Educational Systems 235 Taking the First Step: Linking Supports for High School Success Steven Henderson, M.A. ᔢ The Graduation Project: An Asset-Rich Journey 247 Dennis J. Tulli, Ed.D.

CO N T E N TS

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ᔢ Appendix A.4: 40 elementos fundamentales del desarrollo para niños de escuela primaria o básica (de 6 a 11 años) 265 ᔢ Appendix A.5: 40 Acquis dont les jeunes ont besoin pour réussir (12 à 18 ans) 266 ᔢ Appendix A.6: 40 Acquis dont les enfants d’âge scolaire ont besoin pour réussir (6 à 11 ans) 267

269 Charts of What’s in This Book 251 Keeping Youth Engaged Judy Taccogna, Ed.D.

APPENDIXES 261 Lists of the 40 Developmental Assets ᔢ Appendix A.1: 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents (Ages 12–18, English) 262 ᔢ Appendix A.2: 40 Developmental Assets for Elementary-Age Children (Ages 6–11, English) 263 ᔢ Appendix A.3: 40 elementos fundamentales del desarrollo (de 12 a 18 años) 264

ᔢ Appendix B.1: Assets Promoted by Contributors’ Practices 271 ᔢ Appendix B.2: Asset-Rich Strategies for Supporting Student Diversity 272 ᔢ Appendix B.3: Connecting Asset Building to Instructional Strategies 276

281 Contributors 291 Other Education Resources from Search Institute

List of Handouts

CHAPTER 1

1.1

Principles for Infusing Developmental Assets into Your Curriculum and Instruction 14

2.6

Turning Points 2000 Recommendations and the Developmental Assets 40

2.7

Professional Health Assets for Faculty 45

1.2A Increasing the Asset-Building Power of

Curriculum and Instruction 23 1.2B Sample Use of Handout 1.2A

25

CHAPTER 2

3.1

Infusing an Asset Mind-Set into a Differentiated Classroom 66

3.2

Five-Square Puzzle 74

3.3

Candy Distribution Challenge 77 Profile of a Consensus Builder and a Consensus Blocker 78

2.1

The Power of the Assets

2.2

Percentage of Youth Who Report Experiencing the Developmental Assets That Schools Can Most Directly Affect 33

3.4

2.3

Building the Assets Most Directly Connected to Academic Success: School Engagement 34

CHAPTER 4

2.4

2.5

31

CHAPTER 3

4.1

Building the Assets Most Directly Connected to Academic Success: Achievement Motivation 35

Compass Points: How Do I Work with This Group? 92

4.2

The Correlates of Effective Schooling and the Developmental Assets 37

Marketing Your Choice Book: “Grisham Novels� Final Project 95

4.3

Group Process Health-O-Meter 106

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4.4

Your R.A.Y. Congress Grade 108

CHAPTER 7

4.5

Scoring Rubric for Work Team Project 109

7.1

Asset Think Tank

7.2

Let’s Talk It Over! 200

L I S T O F H A N D O U TS

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4.6A Teaching Perception: An Interactive

Lesson Plan 111

7.3A Resistance/Refusal Skills

4.6B Perception and Communication:

A Student Graphic Organizer 112 4.7

4.8

Think Before You Act: A Decision-Making Chart for Romeo and Juliet 123

Building Assets and Citizenship

158

5.2

The Cross-Country Trip Unit Plan 166

CHAPTER 6

6.1

The K-W-H-L Worksheet 178

6.2

Forest Ridge Elementary— 1st-Grade Curriculum Map

9.1

First Step Student Academic Goal-Setting Form 240

9.2

First Step Student Education Plan and Interdisciplinary Expectations 241

9.3

First Step Student Academic Performance Assessment Form 243

9.4

Linking Assets to Action 255

9.5

A Correlation of the Michigan Model for Comprehensive School Health Education with Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets 257

9.6

Relationship between the Developmental Assets, Resiliency, and Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities 258

6.4

9.7

How the 40 Developmental Assets Support the Maine Learning Results 260

6.5

6.6

184

Forest Ridge Elementary— 2nd-Grade Curriculum Map

185

Forest Ridge Elementary— 3rd-Grade Curriculum Map

186

Forest Ridge Elementary— 4th-Grade Curriculum Map

187

Forest Ridge Elementary— 5th-Grade Curriculum Map

188

209

CHAPTER 9

Outline for Writing a Story 134

5.1

208

7.3B I Make a Difference Daily Log

CHAPTER 5

6.3

196

Introduction

Rising above the Challenges of Change

Making Your Teaching Count with an Asset Mind-Set J U D Y TA C C O G N A , E D. D. Education Director Search Institute Minneapolis, Minnesota

The multiple contributors to this hands-on resource well appreciate the daunting charge laid at your and other educators’ feet: to help all students meet academic standards in the face of an environment of change—change not only in students’ needs and cultural demographics, but also in academic expectations and the very nature of schooling itself. Despite these unrelenting pressures, asset-building educators are convinced that we can all—youth and adults, students, teachers, and staff— rise above the challenges of change by maintaining focus on the true bottom line: fostering the academic, social, and emotional growth of the whole child.

This book is designed to help you as an educator do just that, no matter what your content area or grade level is, and regardless of your classroom diversity or administrative responsibilities. This resource shows you, through several different paths, how you can foster the growth of each of your students by teaching in a way that intentionally supports their academic, social, and emotional growth.

When you infuse into your teaching what researchers at Search Institute have identified as developmental assets (see Appendix A: Lists of the 40 Developmental Assets on page 261) while also providing sound learning opportunities, you can create optimal situations for your students to learn academic knowledge and skills as well as to develop as whole people. What we offer you here, through a wide range of specific examples from multiple asset-building educators, is insight into how to blend asset building with your teaching and with what is required of you. What we’re talking about is a way of thinking, an attitude—not another program.

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What This Book Offers You What this unique resource offers you is five guiding principles we’ve synthesized from the common themes of our contributors’ classroom examples to help you embrace the asset mind-set. These principles of infusing developmental assets represent some universal strategies for connecting asset-building efforts to classroom content as well as to the process of teaching (see Handout 1.1: Principles for Infusing Assets into Your Curriculum and Instruction on page 14). By incorporating these principles into your instructional thinking, you’re more likely to provide asset-rich teaching.

More specifically, we provide you three paths to facilitate your use of all the contributors’ examples to help you think about how you, too, can relate asset building to what you do in your classroom. For each path, we’ve provided a chart (see Appendix B: Charts of What’s in This Book on page 269) that highlights each contributor’s approach.

Paths to What’s in This Book Path

Appendix (chart)

Page

Particular assets that contributors address in their content areas and teaching practices

Appendix B.1: Assets Promoted by Contributors’ Practices

271

Asset-rich strategies that contributors use to support the needs of diverse students

Appendix B.2: Asset-Rich Strategies for Supporting Student Diversity

272

Established instructional strategies that contributors use to enhance asset building

Appendix B.3: Connecting Asset Building to Instructional Strategies

276

Each chart enables you to easily find lessons that support what may most interest you. Herein lies part of the beauty of this book: we offer you the choice to think about asset building in a way that works for you. Immerse yourself in the examples— keeping in mind the five guiding principles for infusing assets—via one or all three of the paths, in whatever order suits you.

When you can infuse building assets into the heart, the process, and the content of your classrooms, the chances are greater that you will achieve educational results and foster the development of capable and caring individuals. Infusing assets into your processes of teaching and learning will also build bridges that enable you and other teachers and administrators to move from one change agenda to the next and keep the ultimate goal of nurturing youth in view.

The asset framework provides a common language for you and other school personnel (as well as those in the community at large) working in varied roles with

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Rising Above the Challenges of Change

students of diverse backgrounds and current situations. The asset framework advocates for the potential strengths and common needs that research indicates are present in most young people across many cultural backgrounds.

No New Curriculum Required!

We’ve designed this book to help you as a teacher or administrator to frame, as asset-rich strategies, the best of the educational approaches currently producing results, rather than give you a specially created “asset curriculum” to deliver. We elaborate on the process of infusing assets into what already exists and is good in teaching.

One of Search Institute’s first publications specifically designed for educators, Great Places to Learn: How Asset-Building Schools Help Students Succeed 1 identifies fives areas of schooling you and almost every other educator and school in America deal with: ᔣ Curriculum and instruction (what’s taught and how it’s taught); ᔣ Organization (the structure of your school’s building and the school day); ᔣ Cocurricular programs (after-school and before-school programs, previously called extracurricular programs); ᔣ Community partnerships (relationships with families, neighbors, volunteers, and community organizations and businesses); and ᔣ Support services (health care, counseling).

This book, Powerful Teaching: Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruc tion, focuses on just one of those five schooling areas—curriculum and instruction. Here, you can draw energy—and real lesson plans and handouts—to tackle the formidable task of enhancing learning for diverse students from the knowledge that implementing effective instructional practices also helps build developmental assets in all students in a classroom at the same time. By looking at what you already have that is good, you can intentionally direct asset building to permeate everything you do—from the way you interact with students personally, to how you contribute to your school’s environment, to how you structure the lessons in your own classroom.

That’s much different than “teaching assets” for six weeks and being done with it. Infusing assets also underscores the idea that asset building is for all students all the time, not just when problems crop up in your classrooms or school. Using the asset lens enhances everything you do. It especially helps you become more aware of and address preconceived attitudes about diverse youth that may be insidiously buried in a “no problems here” attitude.2 Amidst continuous change, the teacher is still the key to unlocking the possibilities for success for any child or adolescent or even an adult in school. Certainly a teacher is not the only person responsible in the awesome process of nurturing the growth of a young person, but you can potentially influence a young person

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INTRODUCTION

| more than many of the other adults in each of your students’ lives. Capturing a clear vision of the needs of diverse learners and orchestrating circumstances to nurture their success is part of both the art and science of teaching.

So this book is specifically for you—the asset-building teacher who wants to make a deeper difference on a daily basis for the variety of youngsters in classrooms, and the administrator who wants to facilitate that happening (see “Who Should Use This Book?” below). We provide you with a resource to help you look at everything you do as a teacher or administrator through an asset lens: to help you intentionally make the potentially asset-rich elements of both your content and your instruction come alive daily with your students.

Who Should Use This Book?

If you work in any kind of teaching role with youth, read on! We’ve designed this resource especially for classroom teachers (for youth and for future teachers) and school or district administrators, but you may readily adapt the ideas to your particular domain if you work with youth in other kinds of teaching roles. ᔢ Counselors or prevention specialists—to engage classroom teachers in asset building; ᔢ Staff development personnel—to help individual teachers or districtwide groups become asset builders in classrooms; ᔢ Content specialists—to enhance work with students or small groups requiring special assistance; ᔢ College or university professors—to train teachers, counselors, administrators, and other educational professionals to be asset-building educators from day one; ᔢ Learning center teachers and leaders—to provide asset-rich instruction to children; ᔢ Cocurricular program instructors and directors—to infuse assets into programs to consistently complement efforts in your affiliated asset-building school; and ᔢ Youth-serving organization leaders—to view your work through the asset lens.

What’s in This Book This book explores asset-rich teaching in six subject areas, as well as in sound, research-based instructional strategies that are consistent with asset building. It helps you “go deeper” into infusing asset building into some of the content and practices that you not only are already required to use, but that are also asset-building opportunities for all students.

With the perspectives and materials presented here, you can gain insight into how to analyze the content of what you teach to emphasize the asset elements. And you’ll find how a variety of good instructional strategies are often full of assetsupportive opportunities to work with young people and nurture their learning. The book may also inspire you to make leaps beyond the examples discussed here to incorporate asset building and enhance your own curriculum area, the predesigned curricular program you teach, and your instructional strategies.

“Going deeper” as an asset builder implies just that. It involves embedding an asset approach into the very core of what and how you teach. It is to that deeper

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level that this book takes you. It enables you to see ways to connect asset building to your quality programs (your curricula, units, lessons) and practices (your instructional strategies and other approaches to teaching).

To get you there, we’ve organized the book as follows.

Chapter 1 presents the five principles of infusing asset building into your curriculum and instruction, synthesized from the major recurring ideas presented in the contributions of all 23 authors (see Handout 1.1: Principles for Infusing Assets into Your Curriculum and Instruction on page 14). You can now use these principles as prompts for infusing the asset approach into your own instructional work.

Chapter 2 examines research by Search Institute showing how schools can directly affect the level of development assets students report having, protecting them from a number of risky behavior patterns and promoting an array of positive results. It also delineates how teaching with an asset mind-set helps manage the ongoing changes asked of you, particularly in meeting the learning needs of all students in increasingly diverse classrooms. (See Appendix B.2: Asset-Rich Strategies for Supporting Student Diversity, another of the paths we recommend to use this book, on page 272.) In addition, this chapter elucidates how these strategies complement and support other well-regarded educational requirements.

Chapter 3 views through an asset lens examples of solid, research-based instructional strategies that teachers are using and for which districts are advocating today. These strategies illustrate how good teaching is, in itself, asset rich. In addition to presenting an overview of many asset-consistent strategies, the chapter explores two in more depth: cooperative learning and differentiation. Appendix B.3: Connecting Asset Building to Instructional Strategies (another path we recommend to use this book, see page 276) pulls together the threads of all of the asset-rich instructional strategies described throughout the book, allowing you to see how various contributors apply an asset lens using the same established instructional approach.

Chapters 4 through 8, the heart of the book comprising our contributors’ inspirational examples (see Appendix B.1: Assets Promoted by Contributors’ Practices on page 271), focus upon six key subject areas. First are the core areas of language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science. Health education and the visual arts follow, both representing content areas that offer particularly natural connections to building assets. We have provided recent demographics for each contributor’s school if available.

Finally, Chapter 9 provides insights into curricular and instructional applications beyond the scope of a single classroom—ideas designed to inspire broader applications of the asset approach as part of the vision of a whole school, district, or state department of education. At a school level, a history teacher describes how an asset focus plays into transitioning students from middle to high school. At a district level, a superintendent outlines a graduation project that supports students over time. And beyond an individual district, the chapter includes examples of how teachers and administrators have infused assets into county frameworks or state standards. In addition, it suggests how to infuse asset building into the supervision

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INTRODUCTION

| and instructional improvement process of a school or district, ultimately widening the impact of asset building by ensuring that it is embedded in the framework of teaching itself.

Just how you decide to jump in to “go deeper” is up to you. We’ve suggested three paths you might take to incorporate asset building into your teaching or instructional program: through the assets themselves, ways to support student diversity, and asset-rich instructional strategies.

Beyond using these entrance points, we hope you’ll see the examples highlighted here as only the beginning of the possibilities. Explore the ideas in your own content if that is represented, but also look at others. You’ll find many ideas are adaptable to a number of content areas. And in the spirit of continued growth for asset-building educators, we hope you share the new applications you create with others interested in combining the best of the instructional world with the benefits of building assets to enrich the academic, social, and emotional lives of each of your students.

Notes 1. Starkman, Neal, Scales, Peter C., and Roberts, Clay. (1999). Great Places to Learn: How Asset-Building Schools Help Students Succeed. Minneapolis: Search Institute. Great Places to Learn includes scores of brief stories that illustrate how various school personnel have created asset-rich ways to connect with young people and help their communities connect with them within the school community. For more on these stories, see Starkman, Neal. (2001).

Ideas That Cook: Activities for Asset Builders in School Communities. Minneapolis: Search Institute. This resource provides the recipe for success in producing each idea, in addition to presenting many new activities for building assets in diverse environments.

2. Mane, Nandini. (1993). Children and Hate: Hostility Caused by Racial Prejudice. In Varma, Ved., ed., How and Why Children Hate: A Study of Conscious and Unconscious Sources.

London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 119.

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APPENDIXES

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Appendix A.1

40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents (Ages 12–18, English) Search Institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.

EXTERNAL ASSETS

INTERNAL ASSETS

Support

Commitment to Learning

1. Family support—Family life provides high levels of love and support.

2. Positive family communication—Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents.

3. Other adult relationships—Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults.

4. Caring neighborhood—Young person experiences caring neighbors.

5. Caring school climate—School provides a caring, encouraging environment.

6. Parent involvement in schooling—Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school.

Empowerment 7. Community values youth—Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.

8. Youth as resources—Young people are given useful roles in the community.

9. Service to others—Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.

10. Safety—Young person feels safe at home, at school, and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and Expectations 11. Family boundaries—Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.

12. School boundaries—School provides clear rules and consequences.

13. Neighborhood boundaries—Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.

14. Adult role models—Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.

15. Positive peer influence—Young person’s best friends model responsible behavior.

16. High expectations—Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

Constructive Use of Time 17. Creative activities—Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts.

18. Youth programs—Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and / or in the community.

19. Religious community—Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution.

20. Time at home—Young person is out with friends “with nothing special to do” two or fewer nights per week.

21. Achievement motivation—Young person is motivated to do well in school.

22. School engagement—Young person is actively engaged in learning.

23. Homework—Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day.

24. Bonding to school—Young person cares about her or his school.

25. Reading for pleasure—Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week.

Positive Values 26. Caring—Young person places high value on helping other people.

27. Equality and social justice—Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.

28. Integrity—Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs.

29. Honesty—Young person “tells the truth even when it is not easy.”

30. Responsibility—Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility.

31. Restraint—Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs.

Social Competencies 32. Planning and decision making—Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices.

33. Interpersonal competence—Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.

34. Cultural competence—Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural / racial / ethnic backgrounds.

35. Resistance skills—Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.

36. Peaceful conflict resolution—Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently.

Positive Identity 37. Personal power—Young person feels he or she has control over “things that happen to me.”

38. Self-esteem—Young person reports having a high selfesteem.

39. Sense of purpose—Young person reports that “my life has a purpose.”

40. Positive view of personal future—Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future.

This page may be reproduced for educational, noncommercial uses only. Copyright © 1997 by Search Institute; 800-888-7828; www.search-institute.org.

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APPENDIXES

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Appendix A.2

40 Developmental Assets for Elementary-Age Children (Ages 6–11, English) Search Institute has identified a framework of 40 developmental assets for elementary-age children (ages 6 to 11) that blends Search Institute’s research on developmental assets for 12- to 18-year-olds with research on healthy child development.

EXTERNAL ASSETS Support 1. Family support—Family life provides high levels of love and support.

2. Positive family communication—Parents and children communicate positively. Children are willing to seek advice and counsel from their parents.

3. Other adult relationships—Children have support from adults other than their parents.

4. Caring neighborhood—Children experience caring neighbors.

5. Caring out-of-home climate—School and other activities provide caring, encouraging environments for children.

6. Parent involvement in out-of-home situations—Parents are actively involved in helping children succeed in school and in other situations outside the home.

Empowerment 7. Community values children—Children feel that the family and community value and appreciate children.

8. Children are given useful roles—Children are included in age-appropriate family tasks and decisions and are given useful roles at home and in the community.

9. Service to others—Children serve others in the community with their family or in other settings.

10. Safety—Children are safe at home, at school, and in the neighborhood.

Boundaries and Expectations 11. Family boundaries—The family has clear rules and consequences and monitors children’s activities and whereabouts.

12. Out-of-home boundaries—Schools and other out-of-home environments provide clear rules and consequences.

13. Neighborhood boundaries—Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring children’s behavior.

14. Adult role models—Parents and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.

15. Positive peer interaction and influence—Children interact with other children who model responsible behavior and have opportunities to play and interact in safe, well-supervised settings.

16. Appropriate expectations for growth—Adults have realistic expectations for children’s development at this age.

Parents, caregivers, and other adults encourage children to achieve and develop their unique talents.

Constructive Use of Time 17. Creative activities—Children participate in music, art, drama, or other creative activities for at least three hours a week at home and elsewhere.

18. Out-of-home activities—Children spend one hour or more each week in extracurricular school activities or structured community programs.

19. Religious community—The family attends religious programs or services for at least one hour per week.

20. Positive, supervised time at home—Children spend most evenings and weekends at home with their parents in predictable, enjoyable routines.

INTERNAL ASSETS Commitment to Learning 21. Achievement expectation and motivation—Children are motivated to do well in school and other activities.

22. Children are engaged in learning—Children are responsive, attentive, and actively engaged in learning.

23. Stimulating activity and homework—Parents and teachers encourage children to explore and engage in stimulating activities. Children do homework when it’s assigned.

24. Enjoyment of learning and bonding to school—Children enjoy learning and care about their school.

25. Reading for pleasure—Children and an adult read together for at least 30 minutes a day. Children also enjoy reading or looking at books or magazines on their own.

Positive Values 26. Caring—Children are encouraged to help other people.

27. Equality and social justice—Children begin to show interest in making the community a better place.

28. Integrity—Children begin to act on their convictions and stand up for their beliefs.

29. Honesty—Children begin to value honesty and act accordingly.

30. Responsibility—Children begin to accept and take personal responsibility for age-appropriate tasks.

31. Healthy lifestyle and sexual attitudes—Children begin to value good health habits and learn healthy sexual attitudes and beliefs as well as respect for others.

Social Competencies 32. Planning and decision making—Children begin to learn how to plan ahead and make choices at appropriate developmental levels.

33. Interpersonal skills—Children interact with adults and children and can make friends. Children express and articulate feelings in appropriate ways and empathize with others.

34. Cultural competence—Children know about and are comfortable with people of different cultural, racial, and / or ethnic backgrounds.

35. Resistance skills—Children start developing the ability to resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations.

36. Peaceful conflict resolution—Children try to resolve conflicts nonviolently.

Positive Identity 37. Personal power—Children begin to feel they have control over things that happen to them. They begin to manage frustrations and challenges in ways that have positive results for themselves and others.

38. Self-esteem—Children report having high self-esteem.

39. Sense of purpose—Children report that their lives have purpose and actively engage their skills.

40. Positive view of personal future—Children are hopeful and positive about their personal future.

This page may be reproduced for educational, noncommercial purposes only. Copyright © 2000 by Search Institute; 800-888-7828; www.search-institute.org.

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Taccogna

Long after your students have forgotten the 14 causes of the War of 1812, the Pythagorean Theorem, and the sonnets of Shakespeare, they will remember a much more important lesson: how you made them feel about themselves and their possibilities in this life.

With this crucial resource, educators will find concrete classroom applications of a wonderful set of tools (in the form of Search Institute’s 40 developmental assets) that align with good educational practice.

— J O H N J AY B O N S T I N G L , director,

ᔢ

Any educator, regardless of content area or grade level, classroom diversity or adminis-

trative responsibilities, can foster growth of the whole student—academic as well as social and emotional—by intentionally infusing developmental assets into how you teach. Powerful Teaching, from Search Institute’s education director and many contributors in the education field, is the resource that empowers educators at all levels to do just that. Presenting five, easy guiding principles, Power ful Teaching explains how educators can enable asset building to permeate everything they do—from the way they interact with students to how they structure classroom lessons.

Powerful Teaching

The Center for Schools of Quality

Powerful Teaching Developmental Assets in Curriculum and Instruction

Readers will draw energy from real lesson plans, reproducible handouts for activities, and interactive strategies to enliven the content of their classes. Comprehensive charts help teachers and administrators mine contributors’ ideas in three alternative ways: by focusing on specific assets, instructional strategies, or diversity issues. Providing powerful teaching to all students is not another program—it is a way of thinking, an intentional attitude.

Search Institute

#751

Edited by Judy Taccogna, Ed.D. Foreword by John Jay Bonstingl