Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Personal Growth Group Lesson on Mental Growth (lesson title)
for

School Counselor: JJ Oden

Target Audience: College Students in Personal Growth Group
Mindsets & Behaviors: M 1: Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of
mental, social/emotional, and physical well-being.
(limit of three)
Lesson 3 Of 8

Learning Objective(s)/Competency
Students will: Learn how to increase their focusing capabilities.

Students will: Practice focusing activities to increase understanding of mental growth.

Materials:
Increasing Focus handout
Sudoku Puzzles
Word Searches

Evidence Base:
 Best Practice: The purpose of this lesson is to increase participant understanding of ways to
increase focus and attentiveness and to teach them ways to increase those mental faculties
on their own.
Procedure:
Introduce:  Greetings for group

Ask the following discussion questions:

 How did last week go? What was an opportunity you had to
practice building healthy habits or breaking bad ones?
 What do you think of when you hear the terms “focus” and
“attention”? How do you feel about these terms?

Communicate The purpose of this lesson is to help increase focusing capabilities and to
Lesson Objective: give you practice increasing those mental faculties.
Teach Content: Increasing Focus Activity: The counselor passes out the Focusing
handout. The counselor then walks through the handout with the
participants, asking the following discussion questions when they are
done:

 Which of these Focus Increasing activities would be the easiest

for you? Which is the hardest?
 How might combining some of these activities impact your focus?
Are there any particularly “good” or “bad” combinations for you
personally?
 Could it be possible for one of these focus increasing activities to
become a distraction itself? How might we go about avoiding that
fate?

Practice Content: Sudoku/Word Search Activity: The counselor should pass out either a
sudoku or word search to each participant for them to complete.

After 10 minutes (or once the group has each completed their chosen
activity), the counselor should lead the group through the following
discussion questions:

 What was it like to complete this activity?

 How do you feel your level of focus has changed since completing
this activity?
 Did you find it hard to focus on the activity at certain points?
What were those points? What distracted you?
 How might regularly doing an activity like this increase your
focusing abilities?

Forced Focus Activity: The counselor should instruct the participants to

turn their previous activity sheet over. On the back, they will be
instructed to draw something or doodle for the next 7 minutes. It is
encouraged that they draw or doodle for the entire time.

After the timer has expired, the counselor should ask the following
discussion questions:

 How did this activity make you feel?

 What was difficult about it? Was it hard to remain focused on
drawing for the entire timer? Why or why not?
 How focused do you feel now compared to prior to the activity?
 How might doing an activity like this once a day impact your
ability to focus?
Summarize: The counselor will lead the group through the following questions:
 What was one interesting part of today’s session? What made
that so interesting?
 What is something that you learned today that you will be able to
use in this next week?

Close: Remind of confidentiality, next week we will be focusing on better time

management as a form of mental growth.

Data Collection Plan – For multiple lessons in a unit, this section only need be completed once
Participation Data: 
Anticipated number See Lesson 1 for details.
of students:
Planned length of
lesson(s):
Mindsets & Behaviors Data:
 Pre-test administered before first lesson
 Post-test administered after lesson (if standalone) or after last lesson of unit/group session 
 Pre-/post-assessment attached
Outcome Data: (choose one)
 Achievement (describe):
 Increasing Focus
The following are 10 ways to increase your focusing capabilities. Each of the 10 ways
has a short description to help you understand how it may help increase your ability to remain
concentrated or focused.

1. Brain Bootcamp
Playing Brain Games can help to increase your focusing capacity. Some of the
best options are sudoku, crossword puzzles, chess, word searches, jigsaw puzzles,
or memory games.
2. Gaming for your Brain
Video games can actually help improve your visual selective attention (ability to
tune out distractions) according to one study. Spending an hour or so gaming a
day can be beneficial to improving your focus according to those findings.
3. Better Sleep
When we are sleepy, it is hard to focus because we are too tired! Be sure to
develop healthy sleeping habits, like going to bed and waking up at consistent
times. While everyone’s sleep needs vary, adults should aim for 7-8 hours of
sleep a night on average.
4. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise
Regularly exercising, even if it is going for short walks, can improve focus. When
we sit still for too long, we get restless and become easily distracted. Burning
some of those calories (and some of that penned up energy) can go a long way
towards focusing on your next task when you are done.
5. Go and Smell the Roses
Studies have shown that spending time in nature can naturally improve your
focusing capabilities. Simply spending 15-20 minutes sitting outside each day can
help you to focus better. If the outdoors is not to your liking thanks to the weather,
having small plants indoors can help too!
6. Meditation Station
Meditation and other mindfulness activities can help to clear the clutter in your
mind and increase your ability to focus. With fewer distracting things to think
about, you may find it much easier to focus!
7. Break Time
 Don’t forget to take breaks! Your trouble with focus may come from your brain
needing a rest. You can either schedule in the breaks throughout your day for
smaller projects or be sure to leave the project be after a certain time each night
for longer projects to help your brain wind down and recover.
8. Crank the Tunes
Listening to music can help your brain to focus! While many experts recommend
listening to classical music or natural sounds to help you focus, the general
consensus is that any music without lyrics can help you zone in on the task at
hand.
9. A Healthy and Balanced Meal
Diet can drastically impact your ability to focus. Be sure to be eating foods from
each of the food groups as often as possible. Keeping things balanced in your
belly can help keep your mind primed for action.
10. Forced Focus Time
Taking time every day to intentionally work on focusing on something can help as
well. Just like any muscle needs training, so does your ability to focus! Some
good activities to do this could be to draw or doodle for 15 minutes, spend some
time tossing a small ball with a friend, set a timer and try not to blink for the
duration of the timer, or suck on a hard candy until it dissolves while resisting the
urge to bite into it.