Psychological Corollary:

By controlling the effort made, a person can control his or her success and failure.

Lesson Objectives:

Students will identify at least two ways people can control success. For example, in this lesson the people who are working at the radio station are more likely to make their station a success if they work hard and maintain a positive attitude.

Social Behaviors

This lesson shows students that successful people:

OTHER Vocabulary

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Suggested Lesson Plans

Introduction

• Tell students to imagine that they are members of a football team. They've been the league champs for the past three seasons, but this year they can't win a game. They're in last place, and they've got to do something about it.
• Put the following chart on the board; have the class fill in each column with ideas.

• Discuss which causes the class chose to concentrate on. Have students decide if it is better to concentrate on causes that are controllable or on those that are uncontrollable to help the team win. (Note that it makes little sense to put lots of energy into problems we can't) Ask students to justify their choices.
• Ask students to devise a plan to improve their team.
• Introduce vocabulary.

Group Use of Student Workbook

• Have students read the cartoon and fill in the blank conversation balloons.
• Have students share suggestions they wrote in the blank conversation balloons.
• Have the class evaluate student suggestions to decide which ones would make more people listen to the station.

Behavior Development Activity

To encourage students to demonstrate a positive attitude:

• Prior to this activity, make a set of six cards. Three cards should say, "Be positive, agreeable, and nice." Another three cards should say, "Be stubborn, negative, and disagreeable."
• Ask students to explain the difference between
• a person with a positive attitude toward work (e.g., is pleasant, agreeable, helpful, supportive, optimistic-talks about things that people can do, can control) and
• a person with a negative attitude toward work (e.g., is unpleasant, disagreeable, critical, unsupportive, pessimistic emphasizes problems people can't solve, can't control.
• Ask students to brainstorm a list of problems they notice at school that they would like to see corrected (e.g., garbage on the lunchroom floor and bathrooms are always a mess).
• Tell students they will form a "fishbowl." Explain that the fishbowl will consist of six students discussing the problems the class has suggested. The rest of the students will act as observers.
• Ask for volunteers to be in the fishbowl. Tell these students they are to think of themselves as a special committee selected to try to find solutions to some of the problems at school. They should select a chairperson for their committee and discuss the problem.
• Have other students sit outside the fishbowl as observers.
• Distribute a card (described at the beginning of this activity) to each student in the circle; tell each student to behave in the manner described on his/her card.
• Conduct a "staff meeting" on the problem.
• Ask observers to determine which students showed positive attitudes and which showed negative attitudes.
• On the board create two columns: (1) SHOWS POSITIVE ATTITUDE and (2) SHOWS NEGATIVE ATTITUDE.
• Ask observers to identify specific behaviors that show positive and negative attitudes. Repeat the staff meeting using a different problem (e.g., not enough people are helping raise funds for charity). Reverse the roles of participants and observers.

Review

• Ask students which of the following factors of success can be controlled when they try to solve a problem.
• Luck? (no)
• Effort? (yes)
• Ability? (no)
• Ask students to describe the attitude people take if they want to help a group solve a problem. For example, the person should concentrate on solutions the group can control; the person should be positive, optimistic, helpful, and supportive.