Early Release Day #1 Soft Skills Lessons

Period 1

Bell Ringer On your own paper: What are some of the characteristics of people who are on successful teams in and out of school? List at least 3 things Explain in 1 sentence each

Discussion Think-Pair-Share Turn to your Partner and discuss your answers What are some of the characteristics of people who are on successful teams in and out of school? Be Prepared to share with the class!

What Are Soft Skills?

Instructions Get into Groups of 3-5: You are being assigned the task of selecting candidates for various positions in a number of businesses. All candidates have the required educational qualifications for the job. However there are too many applications for each position and the HR Manager has requested your team to help by identifying the most important soft skills for each role. On the basis of your choices candidates will then be re-evaluated for the positions. For each job role, assign 5 skills you think are the most important for the role- but only use the skill once. (Each role will get 5 skills, but no job roles are allowed to use a skill in another job role) You have 15 minutes!

Presentation Select one Person from your Group to be the SPOKESPERSON! You have 3 minutes! Select one Person from your Group to be the SPOKESPERSON! As a Group: Select one job role from their business and explain the soft skills which are most important for that role and why. Your Spokesperson will share this!

Presentation Each Group Spokesperson will share! As they present consider the following: Are there similarities between roles? Which skills came up most often? Were any skills not selected? Notice: most of the soft skills discussed were used today in your activity! Which ones and in what ways were they useful?

Exit Ticket Think Like a Boss: IF you were hiring someone, which soft skill do you think is the most important and why?

Period 3

Bell Ringer On your own sheet of paper, write down as many solutions to following problem as you can think of: You work in a restaurant that also caters special events. A customer calls the morning of an anniversary party that the restaurant has agreed to cater that evening, to make sure that everything is all set. You find out the order was taken by an employee who no longer works there and she didn’t let anyone else know about this event. What options does the restaurant and staff have to solve this problem? You have 5 minutes!

Group Collaboration In Groups of 3-5: Discuss your solutions and come up with the best solution. You work in a restaurant that also caters special events. A customer calls the morning of an anniversary party that the restaurant has agreed to cater that evening, to make sure that everything is all set. You find out the order was taken by an employee who no longer works there and she didn’t let anyone else know about this event. What options does the restaurant and staff have to solve this problem? Be prepared to discuss why you chose this solution!

Class Discussion Share your Group Solution aloud! You work in a restaurant that also caters special events. A customer calls the morning of an anniversary party that the restaurant has agreed to cater that evening, to make sure that everything is all set. You find out the order was taken by an employee who no longer works there and she didn’t let anyone else know about this event. What options does the restaurant and staff have to solve this problem? How were your solutions different when you problem solved alone as compared to in a group?

Brainstorm Jot Down Your Ideas: What makes a good team player? 1 Minute!

Class Discussion Share Your Ideas: What makes a good team player? I need a volunteer to make a list on the board!

Team Work What makes a good team? Team has a clear goal Competent team members Collaboration, with respect for all members Focus and commitment Results driven structure High expectations understood by everyone An effective leader Part of becoming a functional member of a team is learning to understand what you bring to the group and what you need from the other members of the group.

It’s All in Your Mind Personality Assessment Read the directions You should go with your initial response and not overthink!

Discussion When finished, turn your paper over and read the characteristics of each fruit. Reflect on your results: Are they accurate? What are your strengths and areas for improvement? Which fruit type should you pair with for an effective team?

Exit Slip Do you think people have more than one fruit’s attributes? How do different personalities work together on teams? Why is important to understand not only how you work best, but to learn how others work best? KEEP your Personality Exercise – you will use this next class period!

Period 5

Bell Ringer Think about a time when you were part of a group/team and things worked really well, and a time when things didn’t work out so well. What were the situations and what made the differences?

Discussion Think about a time when you were part of a group/team and things worked really well, and a time when things didn’t work out so well. What were the situations and what made the differences? Share your Answers!

Moon Survival Guide In the “MY RANKING” column, rank the items in order of importance from 1-15 (1 being the most important and 15 being the least important) You have 7 minutes!

Groups Move to the corner of the room based on your fruit type Teacher desk Grapes Oranges Bananas Melons Door

In Groups of 4: Split into groups of 4 using your “fruit” type from the Period 2 assignment. Be sure that each group has a mix of fruits!

As a Group As a group discuss your rankings and agree on a ranking. Enter this into the TEAM RANKING column

Discussion Have one student from each group explain your group choices. How did you come up with them? What soft skills were used?

NASA ranking SALVAGED ITEMS 15 4 6 8 11 12 1 3 9 14 2 10 7 5 13  15 box of matches Virtually useless – there’s no oxygen on the moon  4 food concentrate Efficient means of supplying energy requirements  6 50 ft. of nylon rope Use for scaling cliffs and tying injured together  8 parachute silk Protection from the sun’s rays  11 2 pistols Possible means of self-propulsion  12 one case of dehydrated milk Bulkier duplication of food  1 2 - 100 pound tanks of oxygen Most important  3 stellar map Primary means of navigation  9 Self-inflating life raft CO2 bottle may be used for propulsion  14 magnetic compass Useless on moon  2 5 gallons of water Need to replace liquid loss  10 signal flares Use as distress signal to mother ship 7  first aid kit with needles Useful and take up little space  5 solar powered FM receiver For communication with mothership  13 portable heating unit Not needed unless on dark side  

Exit Ticket Complete the questions on the back of your Moon Survival Chart. If time allows, volunteers can share!