Exemplar #2

Group Counseling Curriculum: Students with Challenging Behaviors

(Group Chill)
Standards Met: 21, 24, 26, and 27

Introduction
Creating a group counseling curriculum from the ground up gave me insight and tested
me on the knowledge and creativity necessary to truly understand the holistic supports a student
may need and that is why I have chosen the Group Counseling Curriculum as my second
exemplar for my portfolio. I created my Group Counseling Curriculum for the final project in
CSP 670 Theory and Process of Group Counseling during the spring of 2015. The curriculum
consists of information on needs assessments, prescreening, research, and six weeks of lesson
plans. Each lesson plan contains an objective, materials needed, group introductions, ice
breakers, activities, and skills. The objective of creating a group counseling curriculum was to
understand the process of delivering a support to a group of students from the ground up. For this
assignment I chose to create a curriculum for students with challenging behaviors. The goal of
the group curriculum is not to identify each students challenging classroom behavior, but to
support several students with developing ways to self-manage their behavior in class.
Standards Addressed
Standard 21: Personal and Social Development
Personal and social development is often forgotten in policy, budgets, and benchmarks. It
is ironic that personal and social development is forgotten when considering grades and test
scores are what is usually remembered by stakeholders, however personal social development is
necessary for students to perform well academically. As a School Counselor it is our
responsibility to make positive differences in students lives (ASCA, 2012). Meaning that school
counselors responsibilities goes way beyond just academics. This group counseling curriculum is
oriented to support students with personal growth through self-maintaining skills, by working
with students to develop their own interventions that can be self-managed. By empowering

students to take self-responsibility for their behaviors in class, students will be able to be more
engaged academically and have more opportunities to develop socially. It is difficult for learning
to occur when our students bodies feel the need to constantly be moving and/or seeking
attention. When students are able to self-maintain their challenging behaviors the students get to
spend more time in class and are less likely to be associated as a trouble maker. This group
curriculum is oriented to support students in self-monitoring their own behaviors to support
themselves in personal and social development.
Standard 24: Learning Achievement and Instruction
Going into this culminating assignment I knew taking a holistic approach to support
students would allow me to develop a well-rounded set of lesson plans to support all of the
different needs of the students. To make this curriculum relevant and well-rounded was a priority,
but something else became more evident to me as I began thinking about the application of this
project. This lesson plan could be the greatest lesson plan in the world, but it would not mean
anything unless I knew how to efficiently design curriculum and implement the design using
effective classroom instruction and management. Having this in mind, I prepared each week of
the lesson plan questioning the purpose of every step of implementation and also mixing in
different engaging learning styles.
Standard 26: Group Counseling and Facilitation
Making my own group counseling curriculum motivated me to understand group
counseling dynamics as much as possible. As mentioned in the previous standard, the curriculum
can be the greatest ever but not mean anything unless it is presented to the students effectively.
By studying to understand group dynamics I was able to align the group counseling lesson plans
to be easily implemented in a way that creates a safe and trusting environment for students. By

doing so students in the group are able to avoid barriers that restrict their learning and
engagement in the group.
Standard 27: Collaboration, Coordination and Team Building
Working together as a group is the cornerstone to a successful group. Collaboration,
coordination, and team building are important, not just in the group but also in preparing a group
curriculum. In a small group it is important that students can collaborate in developing new ideas
and views to how they observe themselves and grow. Collaborating, Coordinating and team
building are also important when building a small group curriculum because they allow for the
school counselor to use new, and fresh, best practices when delivering curriculum.
Conclusion
This group counseling curriculum showed me the importance of collaborating with my
peers to develop a relevant, efficient, curriculum in order to support students in their personal
and social development. A great benefit from personal and social development is academic
growth, and it also allows students to have an opportunity to develop holistically through a welldeveloped and diverse learning style curriculum. This project taught me how to implement and
infuse different group philosophies and interventions that can support students when they are in a
moment of need.