Leadership U.: Preparing Students for College, Career, and Beyond: Grades 4–5: Seeing Oneself in College

By The Leadership Program

Early and ongoing intervention is known to be a critical element in increasing the likelihood that students in underserved communities will attend college and then thrive there and beyond. Crucially, intervention is most effective when it starts at an early age—planting the seeds in young minds that college is a realistic option for them—and continues from elementary school through high school. 

The Leadership U. program provides grade-appropriate preparation scaffolded through four curriculum manuals, each tailored to a specific stage of learning, and includes a supplement to guide high school students through the college application process. 

The interactive lessons of the Grades 4–5: Seeing Oneself in College curriculum provide an early opportunity for students to step into their leadership, examine their learning styles and strengths, explore elements of their identity, and envision a bright, successful future. Participants are introduced to The Leadership Program’s proven-effective approach to enrichment and social and emotional learning, which has been implemented in thousands of classrooms for hundreds of thousands of students. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Girl Friday Books
• Release date: Sep 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781959411116

The Leadership Program

The Leadership Program’s curriculum is steeped in leadership development from an SEL perspective, taking participants through self-discovery, group awareness, and community impact. The program can be used in classrooms, after-school settings, and at home. It includes project-based activities designed to support positive change in schools, homes, and communities. 

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Introduction

Overview

The Leadership Program: Who We Are

For over twenty years, The Leadership Program has worked to provide educational institutions of all types and sizes with youth development activities, professional development workshops, and curricula that help schools expand and enrich their academic communities.

Based in New York City, we serve more than 250 school administrations and organizations nationwide and internationally; we have worked tirelessly to create innovative and engaging curricula that provide schools assistance with youth engagement, parent involvement, management, organization, educational enrichment, strategic planning, and evaluation of their team.

We are highly regarded in the realm of educational consulting and professional development, and are regularly invited to present at national conferences on topics ranging from social-emotional learning to motivating your staff.

The Leadership Program:

works with over 18,000 students, 500 teachers, and 6,000 parents annually

created and implements a conflict-resolution project that has been designated the highest-rated leadership-themed universal adolescent violence prevention program in the country by SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP)

created an empirically validated Conflict Resolution Project, one of thirty-five in the country and designated a Promising Program by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

was included in a 2008 Johns Hopkins research study for the Department of Defense as one of five organizations in the United States that significantly enhances positive school culture through professional development, organization, and youth development

created two of the seven programs in New York State (two of the seventy-three in the nation) designated to have Promising Practices by the Academy for Educational Development

has its conflict resolution curriculum listed as a CASEL SELect effective SEL skills development program

believes that, with the right help, every person has the innate ability to lead the change

Curriculum Overview

Welcome to Leadership U., The Leadership Program’s comprehensive, multi-year college and career readiness series that prepares students from elementary grades through high school for higher education and beyond. This differentiated curriculum is structured to develop age-appropriate skills in youth that will support them in attending college, thriving in higher education or alternative advanced training, and planning for successful careers as adults. To that end, the manuals are organized as follows:

4th–5th grades

6th–8th grades

9th–10th grades

11th–12th grades

11th–12th grade Your Passport to College Supplement

The curriculum lessons, focusing on SEL and practical life skills, are organized into a series of components that engage students in a variety of activities and are scaffolded to develop their awareness of and belief in college as an option for themselves, their curiosity about and embrace of diverse cultures, their ability to work with others constructively, their SEL competencies for managing emotions and recovering from setbacks, and real-world skills such as money and time management. All lessons include vital time to reflect on what they have learned.

This teacher manual, and the corresponding manuals for each grade level, support both experienced and beginning facilitators in implementing Leadership U. lessons.

Grades 4–5

The interactive lessons of the 4th–5th grade Leadership U. curriculum provide an early opportunity for students to step into their leadership, examine their learning styles and strengths, explore elements of their identity, and envision a bright, successful future. Participants are introduced to Leadership’s proven-effective approach to enrichment and SEL development, which has been implemented in thousands of classrooms for hundreds of thousands of students.

Main Components for Grades 4–5

Introduction to Leadership U.

Self, Others, and Diversity

Study Skills and Organization

Communication

Interests, Imagination, and Goals

Decision-Making

Celebrating Successes

All lessons follow the same structure, to provide a consistent framework for every session throughout the different grade level syllabi. The lessons open with information and tools to help in your facilitation and continue with step-by-step instructions for each activity. Each lesson begins with the following information:

Lesson Objective: what students will achieve through the lesson

Summary: a brief description of the activities during the lesson

Aim: the question to be answered through lesson activities and processing

Standards: the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) standards (based on New York State SEL guidelines) that are met when the lesson is facilitated according to instructions

Materials: a specific list of the materials to prepare in order to facilitate each particular lesson, including masters of handouts and worksheets, where applicable

Handouts: information and reference pages, to be distributed to students

Worksheets: activity pages to be filled in by students during lessons

Vocabulary: significant words used in each lesson, to be incorporated throughout the activities

Facilitator Note: an alert when the lesson requires attention to specific details or especially sensitive topics during the session

Prepare in Advance: copies, cutouts, samples, video links, or other items that need to be prepared ahead of time to facilitate the lesson in a timely and cohesive manner

The step-by-step instructions are divided into sections within each lesson:

Warm-Up: a short activity that focuses the group on the session topic and serves as an icebreaker

Main Activity: may be divided into two or three parts and includes the activities that go to the heart of the lesson topic

Closing: a simple format for inviting each student to reflect on how they can use what they have learned during the lesson in their lives

Extension Activity: an optional activity designed to deepen the understanding of and connection to the theme of the lesson, that can be facilitated with the participating group or assigned for students to do on their own

Facilitation Guide

Our facilitation process is built on the experiential learning cycle (ELC), a structured learning sequence that guides multiple styles of learners through experience-based activities (Pfeiffer and Jones, 1975, 1983). Creating continuous threads from one experience to the next, the ELC lets learners process an activity through five stages of comprehension, culminating with concept and skill application. Building on student input and curiosity, facilitators interject well-placed processing questions that allow students to discover each lesson’s learning points in a manner that feels organic and seamless. The process has proved successful in all of The Leadership Program’s urban school programs and is critical to the effective implementation of Leadership U.

Sprinkled throughout each lesson, therefore, you will find:

Processing Questions: suggested ELC processing questions that apply to the students’ experience during the specific lesson

Discussion Questions: suggested questions to guide the students in reflecting on other aspects of their experience and the topic of the lesson

The suggested questions and prompts are provided to guide students in processing their experience and what they have learned. An effective facilitator will listen attentively to students’ comments and responses, and both use these contributions to formulate questions that move the discussion toward answering the aim or the closing question and help students apply what they have learned to their lives. You may choose to use the suggested processing and discussion questions that are included, or you may prefer to come up with your own questions based on the group’s experience during the session, or you may want to use a combination of the two options. Whichever approach you choose, processing the experience that the students have during the lesson is essential to support participants in expressing themselves and developing their skills, and to the success of Leadership U. at every grade level.

The Experiential Learning Cycle