Decision Making

Anticipating Consequences

Mountain View High School

Fairfax County Public Schools

Something to consider…..

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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The yellow slides are not intended to be shown to students. They provide suggestions and additional information for the presenter.

Yellow slides can be skipped when presenting to students.

Also, these lessons contain a lot of information. This is intentional so the presenter can pick and choose the slides that best fit the group of students and the time requirements.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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It is important to intentionally discuss with the students that their brains are still developing. It is possible to change the brain for the better!

All the executive functioning, thinking errors, and social-emotional learning lessons end on this note.

While useful in school, these are life-long skills. These lessons are intended to support positive changes in the brain while it is still developing.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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These lessons were developed to be compatible with the Pear Deck add-on for Google Slides.

Pear Deck functionality is not available in the preview slides, but you do not need Pear Deck to use the lesson plans with your students.

To receive a copy of this lesson to use with your Pear Deck account you can click on the link below the preview window.

General Lesson Reminders

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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- Arrival Welcome: set a positive tone; provide a sense of recognition, create an emotionally safe place, communicate respect, let students know they matter and are welcome.

- Announcements: connect students to larger school community, promote effective student to school communication, encourage students to take positive actions individually or as a group.

- Acknowledgements: greet each other by name, make positive connections with their peers, build communication skills, contribute to positive classroom community.

- Activity: includes all students,is active and engaging, promotes students’ sense of cooperation and responsibility.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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What does “anticipating consequences” really mean?

• There are both positive and negative consequences.
• Anticipating consequences is the idea of predicting an outcome reasonably well.
• There are some things in life that, of course, simply can not be predicted.
• The hope is that students will understand that consequences can often be predicted and should be considered when taking an action or making a decision.
• Students are sometimes surprised by consequences because they are only considering their last action or decision.
• The goal of the lesson is to help the students understand that single decisions usually do not result in negative consequences (there are exceptions of course), but generally it is the string of poor decisions that have negative consequences.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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What’s the connection between EF and SEL? *function combined with awareness*

When thinking about making choices, good executive function allows us to:

• Take in enough information to have a basis for our choice.�
• See that there are options to that choice.�
• Take enough time to make the best decision.

Social and emotional learning allows us to:

- Make a choice better by integrating the needs of others.

- Including environmental norms and expectations into the context of the decision.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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What’s the connection between EF and SEL? (cont.)

When children’s executive function is working smoothly and expectations are developmentally appropriate, they develop a flexibility of thinking that supports follow-through or the acquisition of the skill.

When EF is delayed or impaired, children are more likely to fail at, or miss, our message. Additionally, they are then more likely to function out of their fight-or-flight response because the inability to meet the expectation of someone you want to please increases stress, leading to even less function in the prefrontal cortex and a sense of disconnection.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

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What’s the connection between Resilience and SEL?

Resilience is important because it gives people the strength needed to process and overcome hardship. Those lacking resilience get easily overwhelmed, and may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.

SEL skills involve being able to adapt and deal with daily challenges, which incorporates the need to be resilient and have a range of coping skills, while living a life of purpose and fulfilment.

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

Videos should be previewed to determine the most appropriate video (and length of time) for your group of students.

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Videos can be substituted, or omitted, as necessary.

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The videos may not be appropriate for some age groups.

Our social emotional skills are built on the foundation of strong executive functioning skills. Together they allow us to be more resilient!

Executive Function and Social Emotional Learning Connections

Click on the image to �open and enlarge.

Consequences--what does it mean?

Anticipating Consequences

When we use the term ‘anticipating consequences’, we are talking about being able to predict what is going to happen next.

It’s not magic!

It’s just ‘common sense’.

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What’s going to happen next?

What is going to happen to the person taking this picture? Why do you think this?

What do you think she is going to do with her second ice cream cone? Why do you think this?

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

• The next three slides are trying to get to the idea that we are usually able to predict consequences in some areas in our lives better than some other areas of our lives.
• The next slide is asking the students to think about how good they are at predicting the future in general.
• The following two slides ask them to consider different areas of their life.
• Looking at these SEL skills in a variety of environments is important.
• SEL is not a school thing; it is a life thing.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how often are you surprised by what happens in your life?

1: I am constantly surprised - 10: I am never surprised

Where do you feel most comfortable ‘Anticipating Consequences’?

School

Friends

Work

Home

Where do you find it least comfortable to ‘Anticipate Consequences’?

School

Friends

Work

Home

Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

Anticipating consequences game (next slide) is a ‘choose your own adventure’ type activity done as a class.

The students are given a familiar/common situation and they need to navigate through the process of making many small decisions and thinking about the potential outcome/consequence for each decision.

Once the students finish the adventure, it will be important to point out that it brings them back to the same place…. back on Tik Tok late at night. The students have to make these small decisions each and every day. Anticipating the outcome and understanding you can recover from a few poor decisions is important.

A lot of times, our students give up after one or two bad decisions thinking there’s no chance for recovery. This adventure will hopefully illustrate that you can make some poor decisions but you can also make a few good ones and end up in a more productive place.

Let’s have some fun!

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As a class, you are going to play a game.

Your teacher will read the words in the black banner and your class will make decisions and see how it goes.

If you don’t win, try again!

Click the link on the right when you are ready!

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Anticipating Consequences Game

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How did your class do?

What is your reaction to this activity?

Did it seem like choices you have to make every day?

Did you notice anything about how many times you can to make a ‘bad’ decision and still get your work done?

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Instructional Notes

Yellow slides do not need be shown to students.

In preparation of the next slide, the teacher may want to think about things they do to anticipate consequences.

• How do you, as an adult, anticipate consequences? Some ideas could be:
• Visualize possible outcomes.
• Think about similar situations.
• Make connections to previous experiences.
• Ask a trusted person for advice.
• Think about whether this next decision going to get me closer to my goal/wanted outcome.
• Play an If/Then game and run through possible outcomes.
• Utilize my understanding of psychology and my knowledge of people.

Would anyone like to share one thing that helps them anticipate consequences?

The best way to predict the future?

Pause.

Stop and think.

Reflect on what has happened in the past.

If you keep doing the same thing you will get the same result

Some Things Think About…..

• Usually, but NOT always, one ‘bad’ decision does not lead to a ‘bad’ outcome.
• Negative consequences are usually NOT the result of one bad decision -- but several bad decisions in a row.
• Think about your decisions as a ‘group of decisions’. If you make a ‘bad’ decision, how can you follow that up with a ‘good’ decision?
• When something bad happens, think back several decisions, not just the last decision, and ask yourself, “could I have made a good decision along the way to avoid this?”

Some Things Think About…..

• Sometimes, a single ‘bad decision’ can be overcome, but it can add stress to your day.
• Also, the more ‘bad decisions’ you make, the more likely there will be a ‘bad outcome’.
• ‘Bad decisions’ that are repeated can easily become a habit.
• Once a habit is formed, it is harder to move in a positive direction.

Reflection Time-

Are you likely to think about your decisions in the past, or are you more likely to just deal with what is happening now?

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How’s that working for you?

Social Emotional Learning and Resilience

Remember, resilience is when you are able to recover from difficulties; think of mental and physical toughness.��Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.

You can Train your brain!

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Your brain is still developing; you can change it! �This skill is not just a ‘school’ skill. �The effort you put into this skill will help you the rest of your life.

Did you find this useful?

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If you did, please consider donating to the

Mountain View High School Foundation’s

Scholarship Fund.

​

For details, see Our Story on the homepage.

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Thanks!