Friday August 2nd, when Ms. R broke out spanking new copies of a book I was like “cool – new book smell.” Then I saw it was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. I thought hmmm. I have seen a chapter or two of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I suspected at this point that they would be similar. [Spoiler alert!!! The 7 habits are the same in both books and I will be listing them in this blog entry.] Before having the students crack the books she had them get out a piece of notebook paper and individually define the word “habit.” Their desks are clustered in groups of 4 or 6, so it made sense that Ms. R next had them define it as a group. Each group had to add their definition to the SMART Board. In addition she had them stand and give an example of a habit. Some student examples included playing with hair, tapping pens and brushing teeth. She also took a few items from the book, though I didn't know it at the time. She had the students stand up and cross their arms. Then cross them the other way. It demonstrated how strange it felt to cross your arms in a non-habitual way. The students were surprised and attentive. (I am so stealing that.)
Ms. R had them discuss a Samuel Smiles quote from the book (Covey, Page 8):
“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”
Whoo-hoo, talk about deep. She kept the discussions short, around a minute, but that handy little quote contains much to work with. She utilized another quote for a mini-discussion. It was a portion of a much bigger riddle, author unknown. “Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am a Habit.” I am going to make a poster of this for my future classroom.
Then she did something amazing. She gave them a writing assignment prompt. On the PowerPoint slide she titled it “3 Point Source Integration.” The rest of the slide looked like this:
“In the text ________(title), _________ (author) __________(verb). This is a valuable point because _________.”
Example: In the text The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey states “Take me...(rest of quote).” This is a valuable point because....
Ms. R gave an example of the quotes value because it is a 21st Century Skill. The students then copied down the example, writing the entire quote, and finishing with their own analysis. They not only got more familiar with the book, they learned about source integration, formatting, and were made cognizant of the fact that this quote addresses their 21st Century Skills. Only then did she give them the reading assignment and have them find the correlating handout Get in the Habit. It was fabulous.
I read the assigned pages as I walked around the room. I stopped to answer questions, redirect and observe but I still got through half of the reading. Enough to answer pertinent questions. I found it colorful and interesting. I was shocked by the “The 7 Habits of Highly Defective Teens” list (Covey, Page 7). I have in the past possessed all of those bad habits! I scrambled back to page 5 and the 7 habits the book is about. How ineffective, or defective, was I now?!
Even though Ms. R says she is only going to work on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens a few weeks, I ordered a copy. It has good information in a fun package that I think will be invaluable to self-reflection as a person and a teacher. I figure I can always add it to my classroom library when I have a classroom of my own. Besides I already had an Amazon cart full of YA books for CI 454E, a book for ENGL 362, and Umbrella Corporation parking permit stickers for myself and my husband. (You have to laugh and smile at some point.) What's another $8 towards my education?
Take a peek at the lists in my blog entry appendix. Where do you stand? What about your students? For a laugh check out Part 2.
Appendix to this blog entry:
Sean Covey's list of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens:
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Covey's “The 7 Habits of Highly Defective Teens”:
Habit 1: React
Habit 2: Begin with No End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things Last
Habit 4: Think Win-Lose
Habit 5: Seek First to Talk, Then Pretend to Be Listen
Habit 6: Don't Cooperate
Habit 7: Wear Yourself Out
From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey pages 5-8.
I love this book! I also like the additional habits which you added.
ReplyDeleteI think alot of students learn these bad habits, or good habits, from their teachers. If we are disorganized, apathetic, and do not cooperate with other teachers, we cannot expect different behavior from our students.
One additional bad habit you mentioned was doing our best thinking in the hot tub - or shower, or in bed, or while working out, or eating dinner - you get the idea. I think this is a result of the tention many students have regarding school assignments requiring individual thought. When stressing out and demanding one's self to come up with ideas, it is difficult - or impossible.
However,when we relax our minds somehow, such as when we are working out, it is much easier to brainstorm ideas. Thus, it is really easy to get into the habit of coming up with ideas when it is most difficult to write them down or work on them.
I think there are two things one could do to address this problem. One is to decrease the tention and demand within one's classroom. The other is to make accommodations for the fact that you may have your best idea *right* when you are about to fall asleep (leaving a pad of paper and a pen by your bed).
Thanks for a thought provoking post!
~Elena