Lesson: Choices Affect Our Attitude

This was a fun lesson to teach. At first I was a little skeptical, but it turned out really well!

First, have the students write down all the choices they got to make up until that point of the day. I gave them about 2-3 minutes to do so. Then, allow a few students to share some of the things they have written down. Most responses; brush teeth, what clothes to wear, get out of bed, breakfast, and etc.

Read the story about VIKTOR FRANKL. Challenge them to think about the choices he could make, while the choices he couldn't make are read.

During World War II, Viktor Frankl was kept in a Nazi concentration camp for three years. During that time, he could make few of the choices we take for granted every day. He could not choose how to wear his hair; someone chose that his head was to be shaved. He could not choose what clothes to wear; he was given a prison uniform. he could not read or write or talk freely. Someone told him what to get up and exactly what to do every minute of the day. He was treated cruelly, and if he did not work hard enough, he was in danger of being killed.

After the story, ask the following questions:
Does this sound like something you would like to happen to you?
How do you feel about this story?
What choices could Viktor Frankl make?

As the students come up with the choice he could make, write them on the board. Most responses turned out to be something like he could choose to eat or not, wear the uniform or not, live or die, and etc. Once they started to mention choice that referred back to living or dying, have them think about the choices he could make that affected his attitude (happy, sad, mad, angry, etc).

Then, ask the students to add choices to their list that they didn't think of or write before!

Activity/Object Lesson:
Split the class into groups. You can use various manipulatives for this activity, but I used wood puzzles. For one puzzle, I didn't include the instructions how to put it together and others I did include the instructions.
Some suggestions would be to give some groups legos and some groups sticks and an empty glue bottle and instruct them to make a house.



Allow the groups about 10 minutes to attempt to put their puzzle together. Watch some of the choices that were made by the students. Some watched, some still sat at their desk, some got mad, some were happy. Some succeeded and some didn't. Obviously, the ones without the instructions didn't succeed.

Once the students are seated again, ask them what choices did they get to make during this activity? Once the students mention their feelings, explain to them that they could choose to have fun or be mad. Explained how the choices they made affected the attitude of the group.

Allow about 30 minutes for this lesson.