Lesson #G4: Shifting Gears: Seeking Help

Lesson #G4: Shifting Gears: Seeking Help/

Substituting Strategies Time:50 minutes

Overview

Richard Lerner’s research on goal management shows that people who seek help are more likely to reach their goals. Seeking helpis a particular skill that can be taught and grown in young people. However, just knowing that seeking help is a good idea is not enough.Through this lesson, young people will learn how to ask for helpby doing their research, taking the initiative, and showingthe person that they’re asking for helpthat they care. Young people will also learn that they are more likely to be successful by practicing good communication skills.

Substituting Strategies is another skill that relates to seeking help. It teaches young people how to pursue their goals, even when they face a challenge or difficulty.

In this lesson, young people will practice seeking help from others to reach their goals. Young people will also brainstorm ideas for substituting strategies when their initial plans for reaching their goals don’t go as expected.

Objectives

By participating in this lesson, young people will:

1. Recognize seeking help and shifting gears as important strategiesfor reaching goals.
2. Practice and identify a series of seeking help and shifting gears strategies.

Materials & Media

• Materials to serve as the “Lily Pad” in the Lily Pad Activity (e.g., sheets of paper or newsprint, cardboard, carpet squares, or other materials)
• Handout: Growth Grids (either “Self Reflection: GPS” or “Self Reflection: Shifting Gears”)
• Handout: Destination Post Card
• Handout: Clues for Seeking Help

Anchor Vocabulary

• Skill — The ability to do something well and with expertise.
• Initiative — The ability to start something before being reminded by others; to take action early in a situation.

• What does this quote mean to you?
• Are you ever shy about asking for help? Why or Why not?
• What we’re going to talk about today are strategies for seeking help when you need it.

• How many of you have ever heard the term “self-made man” (or woman)?
• What do you think that means?
• Many cultures around the world focus on the importance of community, family and collective teamwork to achieve important goals. Sometimes here in the U.S., the media can make it seem like successful people accomplish their greatest achievements all by themselves.
• It turns out that SEEKING HELP is a crucial skill for achieving your goals.
• It may not always be obvious, but many adults are more likely and willing to help you reach your goals than you realize.
• While seeking help is not always an easy thing to do, it’s a skill you can become really good at, if you learn the skill and practice it. That’s exactly what we’re going to do today.

• What do you think it means to Substitute Strategies? Have you ever had to do this before? For example, what happens if you find out mid-semester that you’re not doing as well in a difficult class as you hoped or you get sick and have to stay at home from school for a week?
• What are some ways that canstay on track in spite of these setbacks? (Examples might include: getting extra help from a teacher after school, starting a study group, doing an extra credit assignment, asking a friend to pick up homework from teachers)?
• Is it easy to substitute strategies when things don’t go as you planned? Why/Why not?
• Okay let’s think for a moment about: Seeking Different Help. What do you think that this means?

• Seeking different help means asking someone outside of our immediate circle or comfort zone to help us reach our goal.
• For example: Let’s say you’re really interested in learning how to bake a chocolate cake and you know your immediate family members aren’t really great at baking.
• Maybe your great-aunt or the neighbor down the street makes baked goods all the time. Who would be the most appropriate to ask for help in this scenario?

• What are some of the challenges with going outside of your comfort zone to seek different help?

• It may not always be easy, but Substituting Strategies and Seeking Different Helpare both useful skills that can help us avoid getting stuck when we have trouble reaching our goals.
• We are going to practice these two concepts in the next activity. It’s called “Lily Pads.”

• The goal of the activity is for all team members to cross a marked area – designated as the river – using only the “lily pads” (e.g., sheets of paper or newsprint, cardboard, carpet squares, or other materials) provided to them.
• Participants will step from one pad to another until they all cross successfully. A successful team will get everyone across the river in as short a time as possible.

• What strategies were necessary to succeed in this activity? (Examples may include: communication, careful planning, teamwork, one person acting as a coordinator, ideas from many people, practice before entering the river, helping other teammates when they got stuck)

• Create greater difficultly by blindfolding participants or telling them that they can’t talk.
• Give each participant a card with a character trait on it such as bossy, shy, mistrustful, mute, encouraging, etc. Ask them to keep the cards to themselves and to role-play these traits as they do the activity.

• Let’s consider a few ideas for seeking help by reviewing the tips in this handout. What are some of the clues that you see here? Where is the best place to start? Have you ever tried any of these suggestions for reaching other goals? What were the results?

• Take a few minutes to answer the “Key Questions to Consider” on the handout. (Give participants some time to fill out the worksheet individually)

• Now, I’d like each of you to pair up with someone else and take a four-minute stroll together (e.g., around the room, down the hall, along the perimeter of the meeting space).

• While you’re walking, both of you are going to briefly share your plans for “seeking help” with each other by sharing your answers to the first four questions in the“Clues for Seeking Help” handout.

• Then, you’ll each take turns brainstorming ideas to help your partner reach her/his goals. Remember: your goal is to come up with your best suggestions.

• At the end of your walk. We’ll all come back together again and talk about how the activity went.

• What were some of the ideas that you came up with?

• Let’s talk about questions 5 and 6 on the handout. After you’ve identified the person that you’re going to ask for help, what are some ways to start the conversation and build a relationship with her or him?
• How would you grab someone’s attention and make her or him interested in helping you?

• How do you plan on using the suggestions that you received today?

• To celebrate I’ve got a little challenge for you.
• I need one volunteer.
• I want you to lift this chair over your headusing just one hand. The other hand has to be touching the floor at all times.
• I want everyone else to cheer him/her on as loud as you can.
• You’ve got one minute. Go!

• Sometimes help from others can go a long way. As you can see, every little bit counts!

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Last Updated:5/24/12 G4: Shifting Gears: Seeking Help/ Substituting Strategies