- Have students brainstorm a list of people they greatly admire; these people may be living or dead, famous or unknown.
- Divide the class into small groups. Have the groups study a single person whom all the group members admire. (It might be helpful to make short biographies available to students to facilitate selecting a person for study. Include people who have overcome handicaps to achieve success, e.g., Stevie Wonder, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Mel Tillis.)
- Have students:
- Explain why they admire this person.
- Describe the person's achievements.
- Determine the kinds and degrees of effort this person exerted to accomplish his or her goals.
- Categorize reasons for the person's successes as being attributable to effort, luck, or ability.
- Classify reasons for successes as being under the person's control and therefore, changeable, or not under the person's control.
- Describe how the person compensated for factors not under his or her control, including any handicaps the person might have had
Note: Students might benefit from having specific deadlines for each subtask.
- Have groups present their research subject orally in a panel discussion. Remind observing students to avoid unnecessary conversations during panel presentations.
- After groups present their research, ask panel members the following:
- Did you find any information about how this person coped with frustration?
- Did you come across any mention of how this person stayed in good physical shape? If so, how did he or she do it? Did being in good shape have anything to do with this person's success?
- Did you find any information on how this person planned and organized in order to succeed?
- Did you see any information about the goals this person sought but did not achieve? If so, was the goal unrealistic?
- Ask each panel member to draw, write, or state how studying this person might have affected the panel member's plans or ideas about the future
Return to: Lesson 5: Super Saver
Go to: Part 1: Hard Work