Psychological Corollary

A person needs to be able to accept and use the information received about his or her progress.

Lesson Objective

Given 12 examples, students will be able to distinguish between people who accept and use information about their progress and those who neither accept nor use such information. For example, a person who accepts feedback would most likely acknowledge what he or she has heard; a person who denies feedback might ignore or argue about what he or she has heard.

Social Behavior

This lesson shows students that successful people:

Social Vocabulary

• feedback organized

Other Vocabulary

• customer register
• keyboard

Suggested Lesson Plans

Introduction

• Ask students how they would handle the following situation:
• You worked hard on an essay for your history class. You came to class the next day, and your teacher read it out loud to the whole class. After class, he said, "Listen, that essay was great. Congratulations!"
• Introduce vocabulary.

Group Use of Student Workbook ROUP USE OF STUDENT WORKBOOK

• Have students use the following process to analyze each example:
• Label the worker's response as accepting or not accepting the boss's feedback
• Determine whether the worker is using the feedback.
• Identify possible consequences of the response.
• If the response was inappropriate, identify a more appropriate way of responding.
• Have students complete the final conversations in one of the following ways:
• Students might write their own answers and then share answers with the class.
• Students might work in pairs to draft appropriate answers.
• The class might brainstorm lists of appropriate ways to complete each of the three conversations.

Follow - Up

• Ask students these questions:
• Why do you think a person might reject criticism? (Because it is threatening or because it is inaccurate.)
• Why do you think many people have a hard time accepting praise? (Because they aren't used to hearing praise or because it makes them feel self-conscious and embarrassed.)
• How do you feel when friends don't accept the praise that you give? (You might wonder if they are showing false modesty or if they are not listening to you.)
• How might a boss feel about a worker who doesn't acknowledge criticism? (The boss might think that the worker is disrespectful.)
• How might a boss feel about a worker who doesn't acknowledge praise? (The boss might think that the worker isn't listening or doesn't care.)
• What do you think is the most appropriate way to respond to praise? (Say,"Thank you.")

Behavior Development Activity

To encourage students to accept praise, criticism, and feedback:

• Have students roleplay conversations from Unit 5, Lesson 2, student worksheet. Tell students to
• decide if the worker's response was appropriate or inappropriate.
• give a new, more appropriate response if needed.
• give another appropriate response to conversations that were already appropriate.
• Share the following guidelines for accepting feedback with students:
• Listen to feedback as it is given.
• Check it out to make sure you understand it correctly.
• Respond honestly and share your feelings; don't put down the person who has given you feedback.
• If you are in a group, check out the feedback with others.
• Don't make excuses for either success or failure.
• Ask students to try to use the guidelines above as they role-play the following situations:
• Your best friend tells you your new outfit looks awful on you.
• Your roommates tell you they're embarrassed to invite guests to the apartment because you always leave the living room in a mess.
• Your coach tells you you're too slow and he's cutting you from the first string

Review

• Ask students to identify two ways to tell if someone is accepting feedback (e.g., he or she acknowledges it and applies it).
• Ask students to identify two ways to tell if a person is denying or rejecting feedback (e.g., the person does not respond to it or argues about it).
• Ask students to identify two guidelines for accepting feedback. For example:
• Listen to the feedback as it is given.
• Ask questions to make sure you completely understand them.

Homework (Optional)

• Have each student imagine that he/she has just been selected as one of the following:
• Most valuable teammate
• Student of the month
• Employee of the month
• Have students pretend they must give an acceptance speech; ask students to decide what they would say and how they would act.