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Relational Aggression Classroom Guidance Lesson

School District: New Paltz Central School District
School Names: New Paltz High School, New Paltz Middle School
Contact: Briana Kane
School Counseling Intern, New Paltz High School, New Paltz NY

Ashley Bozsik
School Counseling Intern, Lenape Elementary School, New Paltz NY

New York State Standards for Guidance

Standards
Addressed:
Section 1: The Transformed School Counselor discusses the need for
leadership, advocacy and accountability in the profession.

Section 2: The State of Education in New York details the educational
initiatives in New York State that work hand in hand with comprehensive
school counseling programs. These initiatives include, but are not limited to,
the New York State Learning Standards, Academic Intervention Services,
The Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) standards, and
the Career Plan Initiative.

Section 3: Understanding the Student investigates the impact of learning
style on academic achievement and the role of school counseling programs.

Section 4: Determining the Need offers school counselors a series of
activities they can use to assess the state of their current program and begin
the process of developing a comprehensive school counseling program.

Section 5: Foundation describes the foundation elements of school
counseling programs, such as the philosophy, vision and mission statement.

Section 6: Delivery System examines methods of delivering a school
counseling program. By examining the components of a delivery system,
school counselors can determine the amount of time they need to spend on
each component.

Section 7: Managing the System discusses methods for program
management. These include annual and monthly calendars, monthly
reports, service logs, and the school counseling advisory committee.

Section 8: Accountability looks at the most important aspect of a school
counseling program, accountability to the programs constituents and a
purposeful alignment to school improvement. Methods for ensuring school
counselor and the program accountability are offered. The forms and
activities offered in this section are offered as examples only. They should
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be modified to meet the needs of individual counselors and schools.

Section 9: Sample Curriculum Activities offers nine examples of school
counseling activities based upon ASCAs National Standards for School
Counseling Programs and the New York State Learning Standards. These
activities are easily replicated and demonstrate the ease of addressing the
standards in a comprehensive school counseling program.



ASCA National Standards for Students

Standards,
Competencies, &
Indicators
Addressed:
Personal/Social Development

ASCA National Standards for personal/social development guide school
counseling programs to provide the foundation for personal and social
growth as students progress through school and into adulthood.

Acquire Self-knowledge
PS:A1.1 Develop positive attitudes toward self as a unique and worthy
person
PS:A1.2 Identify values, attitudes and beliefs
PS:A1.5 Identify and express feelings
PS:A1.6 Distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
PS:A1.7 Recognize personal boundaries, rights and privacy needs
PS:A1.8 Understand the need for self-control and how to practice it

PS:A2 Acquire Interpersonal Skills
PS:A2.1 Recognize that everyone has rights and responsibilities
PS:A2.2 Respect alternative points of view
PS:A2.3 Recognize, accept, respect and appreciate individual
differences
PS:A2.4 Recognize, accept and appreciate ethnic and cultural
diversity
PS:A2.5 Recognize and respect differences in various family
configurations
PS:A2.6 Use effective communications skills
PS:A2.7 Know that communication involves speaking, listening and
nonverbal behavior
PS:A2.8 Learn how to make and keep friends

PS:B1 Self-knowledge Application
PS:B1.1 Use a decision-making and problem-solving model
PS:B1.2 Understand consequences of decisions and choices
PS:B1.3 Identify alternative solutions to a problem
PS:B1.4 Develop effective coping skills for dealing with problems
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PS:B1.5 Demonstrate when, where and how to seek help for solving
problems and making decisions
PS:B1.7 Demonstrate a respect and appreciation for individual and
cultural differences
PS:B1.8 Know when peer pressure is influencing a decision

Instructional Development


Grade Level (s):

Grades 6-12


Title :


Relational Aggression

Summary:

Middle and high school can present challenges for young girls in face of
changing personal and social relationships. This lesson is designed to help
students in grades 6-12 how to identify and address behaviors associated
with relational aggression. In addition, students will be encouraged to
consider the negative impact of relational aggression on each party and the
school community as a whole.

Time Frame:


25-30 minutes

Procedures:

1. Have the students sit in a circle.

2. Distribute the relational aggression pre-test.

3. Ask the students to share what they already know about relational
aggression and write key words or phrases on the board.

4. Explain to them that Relational Aggression means using friendships, as
opposed to fists or weapons, to influence others in a variety of ways.

5. Read the RA statements to the group, one by one. As you read
them, ask the girls to talk about each word and how it sometimes
represents a problematic situation.

6. Explain to the girls that they will be participating in a game where they
will need to think about the feelings of people who are on the receiving
end of one of these problems.

7. Lead the students in the relational aggression game (outlined below)

Game Directions: Place the relational aggression statements in the
bowl. Have one girl select a slip of paper and roll the dice. If she rolls an
odd number, she must give an example of a time that the problem on her
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paper has affected her and how she felt. lf she rolls an even number, the
girl on her left must give an example. lf she rolls doubles, the topic is up
to the group to discuss for a few minutesto share feelings and
experiences that resulted from this problem.
After the first girl completes her turn, have the girl to her right take a
turn.

8. Facilitate a group discussion using the following questions:

What are some of the feelings that these problems seem to bring about?
Why do you think girls are relationally aggressive to one another?
What can you do to help prevent this type of aggression from
happening?
How will you use what you have learned today in the future?

Evaluation


How will mastery
of the guidance
indicator(s) be
evaluated?

1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of how relational aggression is
defined.
2. Students will be able to provide examples of relational aggression based
on their own experiences.
3. Students will be able to discuss how they have been personally affected
by relational aggression.

Learning Resources



Resources Needed:

A pair of dice
Relational Aggression Examples (photocopied and cut apart)
Small bowl, basket, cup, hat, or similar container


Citation(s):

American School Counselor Association (2012). The ASCA national
model: A framework for school counseling programs, 3rd edition.
Alexandria, VA.

New York School Counselor Association (2005). The New York State
Model for Comprehensive K-12 School Counseling Programs: Executive
Summary. Leicester, NY.

Lesson adapted from:

Adapted from Girls in Real-Life Situations: Group Counseling Activities for
Enhancing Social and Emotional DevelopmentGrades 6-12 by Julia V.
Taylor and Shannon Trice-Black
Collaborative
Partner (s):

School Counselors, School teachers to arrange lesson times.
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