Stress and Coping Strategies Small Group: TBD

Focus: When looking at our needs assessment results, 78% of girls surveyed at Chase
experience stress at school. Compared to where only 56% of boys have experienced
stress. 76% of the seventh graders surveyed have experienced stress at school within
the last month. Compared to where only 56% of sixth graders and 66% of eighth
graders have experienced stress within the last month. The group will focus on stress
management and coping mechanisms for seventh grade girls. If these students are less
stressed, we believe they will get better grades by June 2021.

Number of Students: Two separate closed groups will consist of five seventh grade
girls who are below the average 2.94 GPA. Selected via teacher and counselor
referrals.

Group Sessions: The groups will meet once a week for 5 weeks during January. The
group sessions will occur after lunch during the student’s 25-minute recess time.

Goal: To help students identify triggers of stress and gain coping strategies in order to
improve self-confidence and increase grades and test scores.

Group Facilitator: School Counselor Elizabeth Rosenfeld

Mindsets and Behaviors:

M 1. Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of mental,
social/emotional and physical well-being

M 5. Belief in using abilities to their fullest to achieve high-quality results and outcomes

B-SMS 5. Demonstrate perseverance to achieve long- and short-term goals

B-SMS 8. Demonstrate the ability to balance school, home and community activities

B-SS 2. Create positive and supportive relationships with other students

Group Materials:

● Informed consent form

● Small group agreement form
● Pencils
● Sticky notes
● Pre and post test
● Personal dry erase boards
● Expo markers
● Glass jar
● “Calm” app

Meeting One: Stressed at school? You’re not alone

● Informed Consent/Group paperwork and forms

● Introductions
● Group collaboration on naming small group
● Define the group and our goals
● Discussion of group norms
● Pre-test

· Anonymous stress trigger points exercise: Each student list three stress areas
which they find difficult to handle.

o Anonymously, shuffle and distribute the lists.

o Have the students read the list they received and ask them to share
how they would handle these situations.
 o Debrief by discussing the similarities and differences.

o Goal is that the students will realize that they are not alone and can
conquer these feelings.

Meeting Two: Mindfulness and Meditation

● Begin by doing a five-minute meditation on the “Calm” app.

● Ask the students how they are feeling directly after that experience.
● Go around in a circle and ask each student individually what they know about
mindfulness and meditation. Discuss similarities and differences that were
discussed.
● Facilitate the “Five Things Exercise”

Five Things Exercise:

1. Notice five things that you can see.

Look around you and bring your attention to five things that you can see. Instruct the students to
pick something that you don’t normally notice.

2. Notice four things that you can feel.

Bring awareness to four things that you are currently feeling, like the texture of your pants, the
feeling of the breeze on your skin, or the smooth surface of a table you are resting your hands on.

3. Notice three things you can hear.

Take a 20 second pause to listen. Note three things that you hear in the background. This can be
the chirp of a bird, the hum of the refrigerator, or the faint sounds of traffic from a nearby road.

4. Notice two things you can smell.

Bring your awareness to smells that you usually filter out, whether they’re pleasant or
unpleasant. Perhaps the breeze is carrying a whiff of pine trees if you’re outside, or the smell of a
fast food restaurant across the street.

5. Notice one thing you can taste.

Focus on one thing that you can taste right now, in this moment. You can take a sip of a drink,
chew a piece of gum, eat something, or just notice the current taste in your mouth or open your
mouth to search the air for a taste.

*Gratitudeboxes.com

Meeting Three: Self Care

● Pull out the student whiteboards and ask the students to write down their own
definition of self-care.
● Discuss the responses and find commonalities and differences.
● Watch “Self-Care: What It Really Is” TED Talk on YouTube
● Pull back out the whiteboards, have the students brainstorm ways that they
practice self-care when they are stressed.

Meeting Four: Multitasking and Time Management

● Have the students fill out “Mindful Exercises: Dealing with busy schedules”.
● Discuss how the students felt while filling out the worksheet. Were the students
able to recognize their emotions and feelings when they are busy?
● Facilitate “Time Squared Activity”
○ Each person gets 3 pages with 24 squares that represent the 24 hours of
the day.
○ On the first page, participants fill it out with routine activities of their day.
○ The second page has the students fill out non-productive times of the day.
○ On the third, they add everything from the first two onto it. The students
can then see what they can reduce or eliminate to increase their
productive time.
○ Debrief and ask the students what they thought about the exercises

Meeting Five: Don’t Forget to Laugh

● Start the session by having each group member bring in an item that makes
them laugh. This might be a picture, meme, or video. The group facilitator joins in
as well.
● Have all the students share their item with the group
 ● Have each student write down an embarrassing moment they’ve experienced
recently onto a sticky note. Put all the papers in a jar and share them with the
group.
● Post-Test
● Goodbyes

Plans for Evaluation

Participation Data: Ten seventh grade girls took part in small group intervention
sessions focused on stress management and coping strategies. The students met once
a week for five weeks during the month of January.

Mindsets & Behaviors Data: After completing all five sessions,100% of participating
seventh grade girls will be able to identify when they are stressed, and 90% will be able
to name three ways to help cope with these feelings.

Outcome Data: By June 2021, the average GPA in core classes for seventh grade girls
will increase by 2.04% from 2.94 to 3.0.

Follow Up Evaluation: After Q3, the school counselor will meet with administration and
the seventh-grade teachers. They will determine if GPA has increased with seventh
grade students.