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Lesson #T1: Introduction to Thriving & GPS Rubrics Time: 50 minutes

OverviewThis lesson briefly introduces youth to the definition of thriving and the key goal management skills of people who thrive. The lesson’s goal is to train youth to use a set of Thriving and GPS rubrics, to track their growth over time. These activities are designed to help youth self-reflect accurately and interpret the rubric language in the same way as their peers and adult guides. This process is called “calibration” and it gets everyone on the same page so that both adults and youth can clearly identify growth opportunities. The introduction to the GPS content is brief— just enough to set the stage for youth to accurately establish their baseline score on each rubric. Therefore, this lesson should be conducted at the beginning of a program. Once the baseline scores are established, the GPS lessons (G#2-G#6) grow youth understanding and application of the GPS concepts, and they offer additional opportunities for youth reflection on the GPS rubrics.

While this lesson uses the GPS rubrics to ‘calibrate” youth, the Thriving (6Cs) rubrics are used in exactly the same way. Therefore, this training will adequately prepare youth to use both sets of rubrics.

Note: During your planning process be sure to set a time for youth to fill out their Post Rubric Reflections.

GoalYouth will develop the ability to use Thriving & GPS rubrics to reflect on their current skill level and determine opportunities for personal growth.

ObjectivesBy participating in this lesson, young people will:

1. Understand the content and purpose of the rubrics.2. Practice applying rubric levels to real-life youth scenarios. 3. Be prepared to score themselves on the rubrics.

Last Updated: 5/17/23 T1: Introduction to Thriving & GPS Rubrics 1

Rubric Anchor Vocabulary Activity—something I do outside of school hours, such as sports, drama, a club, or a hobby. Community—an extended group of people in which I belong, like a neighborhood, a school, a town, or a religious community. Competence—the ability for me to do well in a particular area of life. Destination— someplace I can journey to. It is a picture of the goal and it feels real in terms of visualizing and feeling it. Goal—something I will work to do, complete or achieve within a certain time period. Leadership—helping to guide or organize a group working together towards a goal, and setting a good example. Long-term—a period in which I’m trying to accomplish something specific, such as one unit or one term in school, one sports season, or

in the month of rehearsals before a performance. Opportunity—a chance that I get to work towards my goal, may come up all the time or just once. Relationship—the ways in which me and another person get along (can be romantic or not romantic). Role model—someone who I think is a good example for me as I work toward my goal. Short-term—when I will do the immediate next steps, such as today or this week. Strategies—the ways in which I’ve chosen to work on my goal or on parts of my goal.

Materials & Media For facilitator teaching older Youth (14 and up): Download three rubrics handouts, youth versions (one for each of the G, P and S.) For facilitator teaching younger Youth (10-13): Download one GPS rubric, youth version Flipchart with blank paper or Whiteboard and markers Glossary for GPS rubrics Handout: Guess the Scores! Teen Vignette & Accompanying Practice Rubric (Facilitator selects the most appropriate vignette for the youth with whom they are

working.) For facilitator: Vignette’s Scoring & Rationale Sheet Individual GPS rubrics— online login information (this is ideal), or on paper for individual scoring (if online isn’t an option).


Lesson Outline Lesson DescriptionENROLL(2 min)

Door Greeting

Enrollment Questionabout concept of goals.

Ask: Welcome! Anyone heard of the science of thriving? What might thriving mean? (Take

answers.)Say: Thriving is reaching your full potential or being all you can be. Scientists have been discovering secrets used by some of the MOST successful, thriving

people in the world. Over the course of our time together, I’m going to introduce you to these secrets.

Today, we’ll focus on some skills these successful people use to reach their dream goals.

Enrollment Questions: How would you define the concept of “goals”? Why do people set goals?

EXPERIENCE (6 min)

Pairs: Reflection about personal goals. (4 min)

Group Brainstorm: What It Takes to Meet A Goal

Ask: I’d like you to take a minute and think over some goals you have had in the past: Things

you felt that you wanted to do, complete, or achieve. Perhaps think of feelings you have had about something you wanted. It doesn’t actually matter whether you ended up completing the goals.

Say: Now let’s pair up and share with your partner what you were thinking about: brief stories

about a time you felt like you had something you wanted to achieve.

Do: Write on the top of the board or a piece of flipchart paper, “What it takes to meet a goal.” Ask the group to brainstorm what they know about skills they can use to set and achieve goals, and record the brainstorm under this heading. Use the following questions as guides for the brainstorm:

What have you seen/heard other people do in order to meet a goal?

What have you done to try to achieve something you wanted?

Encourage a wide variety of examples, including actions, planning and thoughts.


LEARN & LABEL(2 min)

Introduce the GPS Guidance System

Introduce “G” “P” and “S”.

Introduce the GPS Guidance System

Say: There is a science to achieving goals. Dr. Richard Lerner at Tufts University in Boston

has studied this a lot.Ask: When a driver wants to drive his or her car somewhere new, why is it helpful to have a

GPS device? (Answer: It’s helpful for finding directions.)Say: A GPS can be a really useful tool to guide you through new streets and turns that could

otherwise be confusing. Without one , what might happen? (Answer: You might find your destination eventually,

but you might get lost or distressed along the way.) Similar to a GPS device, GPS goal-directed skills will help guide you to where you want

to go.

GPS is a helpful way to remember the 3 general steps you need to take while working to reach a goal: “Goal Selection”, “Pursuit of Strategies” to get there, and “Shifting Gears” when the going gets tough. Each of these parts of GPS can be further broken down into specific skills that you can develop.

Like a GPS device that can go in a car and give you the directions to anywhere, once you develop the GPS skills, you can use them to help you reach any goal that you set.

We’re going to work together over the weeks ahead to help you learn these GPS skills.

LEARN & LABEL;DEMONSTRATE(6 min)

Introduce rubric columns.For older youth: “G” for Goal SelectionFor younger youth: GPS rubric

For youth ages 14 and older:Write the 4 components of Goal Selection (G) rubric on a flipchart, screen or whiteboard so all youth can read them. Don’t share the whole rubric yet—just write the headings for each column. Explain what each column (i.e., skill) means and invite youth to ask clarifying questions.

For youth ages 10-13:Write the first 3 GPS rubric components on a flipchart, screen or whiteboard so all youth can read it. Explain what the first three columns mean and invite clarifying questions.


Partners share skills they have used or see as valuable. (1.5 min. each; 3 min. total)

Say: Think about the story that you already shared with your partner, about the time you had a

goal you wanted to reach. Come up with an example of how you used one of these skills. If you didn’t use any of

them, then think about why it would have been helpful to use one of these skills. I’ll give you one minute and then turn to your partner and share.

Have one or two volunteers share how these skills helped them or could have helped them reach their goal.

LEARN & LABEL; DEMONSTRATE(12 min)

For older youth (14 and up)Introduce “P” for Pursuit of Strategies and “S” for shifting gears.

For younger youth (10-13)Introduce next 3 columns of Younger Youth: GPS rubric

Introduce the second letter: “P”.Say: The second letter, “P”, stands for Pursuit of Strategies.Ask: Do you know what “Pursuit” means? (Answer: Search; Go after.)Say: People who achieve goals use an assortment of strategies to get there.

Write the components of Pursuit of Strategies on the board for youth to see.Explain column meanings.

Say: Think about the story that you already shared with your partner, about the time you had a

goal you wanted to reach. Come up with an example of how you used one of these “P” skills. If you didn’t use any

of them, then think about why it would have been helpful to use one of these skills. I’ll give you one minute and then turn to your partner and share.

Have one or two volunteers share how these skills helped them or could have helped them reach their goal.

Say: Now, let’s look at the third letter in GPS— the “S” for Shifting Gears when the going gets tough. These skills are critical to use as life surely presents you challenges as you reach for goals.

Write the components of Shifting Gears on the board for youth to see.


Ask: Can some volunteers share how they have used one or more of these skills when the “going got tough” for you, as you tried for a goal?

DEMONSTRATE(30 sec)

Share purpose of self-reflection

Ask: Why is it helpful to reflect on your past actions and check in with yourself about how you

make decisions? (Answer: Take pride in good decisions; figure out places to focus that increase your chances to improve.)

LEARN/LABEL(3 min.)

Share Rubric. Explain structure and how to use.

Pass out G rubric (older youth) or GPS rubric (younger youth).Say: This is a rubric or a growth table that shows you the development of these important

skills. There is one for Pursuit of Strategies and Shifting Gears as well. We are first going to practice using rubrics with a story of another youth, and then you will fill out your own baseline, or starting point, of where you think you are today. Then, you’ll think about yourself again, using this same rubric at the end of our program.

Explain the structure of the rubric and the process of filling out a rubric. Emphasize the points below.

Say:1. You will fill out the rubric looking at only one column at a time.2. It looks just like a multiple-choice question, except this is not a test. There’s no single

right answer. Everyone is different, and you need to choose the option that best describes you.

3. Since there are only 5 options, you might not find one that’s a perfect fit. That’s why you just go for the one that seems the most like you —it doesn’t have to be exact. Start by reading the description by Level 1, then 2, up to 5. Read the rubric from bottom to top.

4. The different levels depend on two things—first, skill competence .Ask: Can someone share with me what skill competence might mean? (Answer: It means how good you think you are at this skill.)Second, your level depends on initiative related to this skill.Ask: Can someone share with me what initiative means? (Answer: How much you want to work on this skill, as in, whether it matters to you.)

5. Think about how you usually think and act these days. You should be thinking about your


patterns, not a one-time occurrence. How competent or good at this skill do you feel usually, and how much initiative do you take—how hard do you try at this skill usually?

6. When you use these rubrics for yourself, you will use the evidence column at the end to give examples of why your pattern of behavior reflects the chosen score.

7. As you fill in the rubrics, keep in mind that everybody can change and improve in all of these skills. Knowing where you are now is important so that you can grow and develop. You don’t need to be at level 4 or 5 right now on anything.

Invite the youth to ask any immediate questions about the rubrics.

EXPERIENCE(4 min)

Practice placing behavior descriptions into rubric levels.

Have youth form pairs again. Present handout: Guess the Scores!

In either an overhead format or with the handout, ask youth to read the descriptions and decide which level matches each behavior.

Say: Take one minute to fill in the worksheet and raise your hands when you have completed

your matches. (Facilitator should circulate the room and view scores to check for youth understanding. Note: Answers are: A = level 3; B = level 1; C = level 5; D = level 2; E = level 4)

Was anything confusing here? (Discuss questions.) Next, we’ll score a sample teen and discuss our scores. Then, you’ll be ready to reflect

about yourself.

DEMONSTRATE(12 min) Practice with Teen

Vignette

Read vignette (2 min)Scoring (3 min)

Pass out Teen Vignette & accompanying Practice Rubric.Say: Now I’ll read you a story. You can follow along as I read it, if you’d like. I want you to

pretend this young person is you. Think carefully about the patterns you are hearing in this story. Listen carefully, and read along in the story as I speak. Pay attention to the highlighted phrases so that you can gather the information to fill out the rubric correctly.

Read sample teen vignette. Then ask youth to pull out the Practice Rubric. Taking one skill at a time, read the description from the bottom (1) to the top (5). Give this youth a score for each the GPS & Thriving skills, and write down the score in the “Practice Scoring” box at the bottom of the vignette. Ask youth to write down evidence from the story, using the language


Discussion on “P”(3 min)

Discussion on “S”(3 min)

Closure (1 min)

of the rubric, for each of the skill scores, on the back side.

Ask: Looking at the first skill, will someone share how they scored? Why? (Where did you

see the language of the rubric reflected in her behavior?) Can someone share different scoring? Why? What did you observe in her behavior that

matches the rubric language?

Write down differences in the discussion. After the discussion, share what scientists would say about the score, reading the Scoring & Rationale for this Teen Vignette. Check for understanding.

Ask: Looking at the next skill, will someone share how they scored? Why? (Where did you

see the language of the rubric reflected in her behavior?) Can someone share different scoring? Why? What did you observe in her behavior that

matches the rubric language?

Write down differences in the discussion. Highlight how scientists would rate the vignette in terms of the rubric levels, reading from the Scoring and Rationale for this vignette. Discuss all skills in this way, making sure that youth understand the correct score and are able to use the language of the rubric to describe behavioral evidence that supports the score.

REVIEW(3 min.)

Pass out GPS rubrics, or share online login information. Instruct self-reflection process.

Pass out the GPS self-reflection rubrics (youth version, age appropriate).

Share instructions for doing personal self-reflection on rubrics. Doing them online is best. The other option is for youth to take the printed rubrics home and return the completed forms.

HomeworkYoung people reflect on their baselines in the GPS rubrics. Ideally they enter their reflections online.


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