Spotlight on Life Skills

In every segment of society, cooperation produces more effective results than individual effort. Spotlight On Life Skills focuses on this fact to enable students, teachers, and administrators to work together to make their school a better place to learn. Divided into 41 different topics and including extras for six holidays, the program’s 170 daily lessons are presented by homeroom teachers four days a week. A discussion period follows the teacher’s short introduction, and the teacher later summarizes an administrator’s comments made to the entire school. Every student hears the same message, discusses the same subject, and is given the same task to perform during the day.

Topics include:

• Responsibility
• Respect
• Cooperation
• Accountability
• Work Habits
• Coping Skills
• Test-Taking
• Study Skills
• Bullying
• Personal Growth
• Friendship Skills

Other uses for this program include classroom guidance lessons, individual counseling sessions, social skills groups, behavior-intervention program curriculum, and resources to address teachers’ target needs. Includes ASCA standards.

RESEARCH-BASED

The author, Lois Rothberg, a middle school counselor in Maryland, based this program on more than 30 years of experience plus various theories and research. Her middle school has used this character-development/advisory program for years. At the end of each year, students evaluate the program. Data collected from the 2008 school year indicate:

• 100% of students listed that the topics that were helpful:
• 98% of students specified something about succeeding in school that they learned from the program
• 98% of students specified something about getting along with others that they learned from the program
• 98% of students specified something about themselves that they learned from the program
• 97% of students listed something they learned from the program that will help prepare them for high school
• 95% of students listed something they learned from the program that would help them succeed in the future at work