Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

LESSON 12:
SESSION 12:
DECISION MAKING DECISION MAKING
90 Minutes
Ages 10-24

Learning Objectives:

Students will learn:

• The dierence between making a decision based on your heart, head, social
inuences, and goals
• A decision making process called PAUSE
• How to apply the PAUSE decision making steps to hypothetical and real-life
situations

Materials to run this session:

• Facilitator will need to arrange seating in various ways (see instructions of

lesson), which requires stones, and signs that indicate, “do not sit here,” “re-
served” etc.
• Students will need to bring their work book to class, with homework com-
pleted and ready to discuss
• Poster with the group rules clearly written
• The script for delivering this session is in italics below

Aim Format Timing

Welcome • NOTE: Today’s lesson will begin dierent- 5

Introduction ly than most sessions. You will begin with minutes
an experiment when participants walk in
the door. You will discuss home exercise
review after.
• Before participants arrive, set up the
learning space with some special chairs
and the objects below. (If you do not have
chairs, place the objects on the cushions
or in those places people would typically
sit.)

23
Parts of this section adapted from: Peace Corps Life Skills for Leadership Manual

128 129
Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

What are your • A chair with stones on the seat 15 Lastly, there is a chair facing into a corner
dreams and goals? • A chair positioned at the front or focus minutes that no one chose (or if they did, they proba-
point of the learning space bly turned it to face the right direction). Why
• A chair with a sign that says “Reserved,” didn’t any of you sit there?
“Do Not Sit Here,” or “Save this Chair” • Possible response: I wanted to see what
• A chair facing a corner or at the edge and was going on. I wanted to be a part of the
facing outside the learning space class – I could not do that if the chair was
turned away.
• Allow participants to enter and sit down
as they usually do. If you are coming to a class, you probably
• Point out how regularly we make deci- want to see and participate so this would be
sions, sometimes without giving it much a bad choice. It’s an illustration of the way we
thought. Say: make choices that are in line with our goals,
our purpose, and our hopes for the future.
We make countless decisions every day,
from what to eat to what to wear, and which So these are the starting points for many of
friends to spend time with. Making decisions our decisions – DECISION MAKING is our top-
is so much a part of our daily lives that, most ic today! Some decisions we make using log-
of the time we don’t even realize we have de- ic -- others with our emotion - sometimes we
cided on something. base a decision on social rules -- and other
times our decision is made because we want
In fact, I can imagine that most of you made to achieve a goal or we have an expectation.
some decisions as soon as you walked into
the room and you weren’t even aware that Ground Rules Quickly reference the group rules on the 10
you did. For example, here’s a chair with and Home poster board: minutes
some rocks on it. Why didn’t anyone sit here? Exercise Check In • Use respectful communication and be-
• Possible response: It looks uncomfortable havior
or dirty. • The group belongs to everyone and ev-
There are logical reasons that no one would eryone is equal in importance
want to sit in a chair with rocks on it. • Listen to each other
• Take turns – give others an equal chance
Why didn’t anyone want to sit in the chair to speak if they want to
that’s right up front? • Be supportive of one another
• Possible response: I don’t want to have • Any personal information revealed during
everyone looking at me. the lessons remains strictly condential
• No verbal abuse or violence
Being right up at the focus of attention might
make someone feel uncomfortable so there Check in and review last week’s homework
are emotional reasons for choosing not to sit
here. • Note: It is ne and expected that students
may not have answered all questions
This other chair has a reserved sign on it. correctly. This time is for “safe” learning
Why wouldn’t people typically sit there? where children can make mistakes without
• Possible response: It’s being saved for any judgment. Remind them that these
someone else. skills are skills for life – and they take time
and practice
Yes, people tend to respect the social rules
so this chair represents the social factors in- Decision Making Sometimes it’s dicult to know what the 20
volved in making choices. best decision is in a situation. We can easily minutes
become confused when there are many

130 131
Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

What are your factors to consider. Today we are going to 15 (or thoughts cloud) and say:
dreams and goals? learn a system for making decisions. We will minutes To remember the role our goals t in making
also practice making decisions so you can be decisions, think about your hopes for the fu-
more condent about your own choices in ture. In this fip chart, I’ve drawn some wings
the future. (or a cloud bubble) to represent the dreams
and hopes for a better life. GOALS
• Have prepared on a ip chart or chalk When making a decision, ask yourself ...
board a drawing of a drawing of a stick How will it affect me in the long term?
gure person with parts labeled (see im- Will it help me reach my goal?
age following this lesson plan) Will it help me be a better person?
• Direct students to turn the page in their
workbooks to: Lesson 12, Activity A: It’s important to know which factors you are
PAUSE for Better Decisions using to make a decision. For example, if you
use only your head and ignore what your
• On the gure you prepared, point to the heart tells you, you may not be as happy in
head and say: the end.
To remember the logical, thinking aspect of • Listen to some examples that participants
making decisions, picture your head. That’s share. Say:
where your thinking begins. It’s obvious that every day each of you has
Ask yourself questions like these: used a variety of your head, heart, hands, and
Is it right? hope to make decisions. In some cases you
Does it make sense? used several, if not all, of these aspects of de-
What does my experience tell me about this? cision making. You might prefer one aspect
How much does it cost? more than another but, as we’ll see, it’s usu-
Is it safe? ally better to use more than 1 aspect to make
our best decisions.
• On the gure you drew point to the heart • Introduce the 5-step process for making
and say: decisions. Say:
To remember the emotional aspect of mak- Making good decisions during adolescence/
ing decisions, picture your heart. That’s the youth/young adulthood can be tough. What
center of your feelings. seems like a good thing at rst may not turn
Ask yourself: out as you expected. And sometimes, teen-
How do I feel about it? agers/youth/young adults don’t even realize
Do I have pains in my stomach when I think that they could have made a decision and
about this decision? avoided problems in the rst place.
What are my instincts telling me?
Part o the diculty is that, during adoles-
• On the gure you drew point to the hands cence and young adulthood, our brains work
and say: differently than when we are fully matured
To remember the social aspect of making adults.
decisions, visualize your hands. We use our
hands to greet other people or to help them With so many changes in our development,
out. our environment going on at once, making
So before you make a decision, think about ... decisions can become very complicated.
Who might help you with advice?
Who might be affected by your decision? Fortunately, young people can learn to make
What do other people expect? better decisions even while their brains are
Who will approve or disapprove? undergoing this incredible growth. Today you
will learn some simple steps that will improve
• On the gure you drew point to the wings your decisions and lead to better outcomes.

132 133
Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

To start, it’s usually better to take some time • Divide participants into groups of 2-5.
to think about decisions rather than rush- • Direct students to refer to their work-
ing and deciding something quickly. You books, and Lesson 12, Activity C: Practice
can avoid making a bad decision by slowing with PAUSE.
down. Here’s a way to do that, which we will
call ‘PAUSE.’ Here’s a chance for you to practice using
PAUSE. Your group has several situations
• Direct students to their workbooks, Les- where someone needs to make a decision.
son 12, Activity B Read Aloud, and have
students volunteer to read aloud each As a group, work through the steps of PAUSE.
step, as follows: You can use a different sheet for each situa-
tion to keep notes. Later, I’ll ask your group
Each letter of the word ‘PAUSE’ stands for a to describe your thinking about the situations
step in the decision-making process: you used for this activity.
P is for Pause – ask yourself: what is the de-
cision that needs to be made/about? Some- • Give the groups about 10 minutes to work,
times we don’t realize that there is a decision then ask each group to share highlights of
to be made. Slow down. It might be dicult their discussion about at least one situa-
to realize that we can take charge and be in tion.
control. • Invite other groups to make a short com-
ment about the situations if they came to
A is for Ask yourself – what are the options? a dierent conclusion.
List as many choices as possible. Try to no-
tice those choices you can make and those Use PAUSE for a • Make sure that each student has a piece 20
where you have no control. That said, be cre- real-life decision24 of paper to write on for this activity minutes
ative and let your mind come up with inven- I’d like to give you a chance to use the steps
tive ideas. o PAUSE in a situation that’s more specic
to you. Please note that you will be sharing
U is for Understand the consequences. Try to this with a partner, so only consider some-
guess what will happen as a result of each thing you are not embarrassed to discuss.
choice. This is a mental activity that may be
dicult since we are not usually used to con- Please take a moment to think of a situation
sidering the consequences – however but from your own life when using PAUSE would
you will get better at this with practice. be helpful.

“S is for Select an option – use your Head, This could be a decision that you made in the
Heart, Hands, Hope. Check in with yourself past that you’d like to review. It could be a
on all levels; consider them all. How do the decision that you will need to make in the
options t logically, emotionally, socially, and near future. Or it could be a decision about a
in terms of your goals? situation that happens to you a lot.

E is for Evaluate the outcome. Make a plan to It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as some
review your decision and make sure it’s still of the examples we’ve already looked at. It
what you want. Often we think a decision will could be as simple as choosing whether to
be nal; that there is no going back. Fortu- go out with friends or to study for a test at
nately, most decisions can be changed and school.
often, over time, new options present them-
selves as solutions that we had not seen be-
fore.
24
Adapted from the Peace Corps Life Skills for Leadership Manual

134 135
Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

• Divide participants into groups of 2-5 • with a short discussion with the whole
and Have them turn to their workbooks: group using these questions:
Lesson 12, Activity D: Real Life PAUSE for What similarities are there among the situ-
Better Decisions. Say: ations for decision making chosen by the
One a separate piece of paper I would like members of your group?
you to write the decision (choice) you have How condent do you eel about using
to make at the top of the page. PAUSE in other situations?

• When participants have all written some- PAUSE is not always easy to remember to
thing, ask them to exchange their papers do. Taking the time to do this kind of practice
within their own group so each participant helps you become more familiar with each of
has the paper of a dierent person. Say: the steps and more condent using them.
Look at the new paper you have. The next
step of PAUSE is to Ask what all the options Ending • Indicate the 2 home exercises for this les- 5
might be. Please look at your new paper and son: Practice using PAUSE at home (to minutes
list at least three options that someone could make a small, and medium to large deci-
do for the decision written at the top of the sion)
page • Allow 3-4 students to volunteer to name 1
thing they learned in the session
• Allow a few moments so participants can • Thank students for their participation
respond. Then ask them to exchange their
papers once again and say: Dear Facilitator, Draw this gure on a ip chart or chalkboard to assist in teach-
With this new paper, please read the deci- ing the lesson on DECISION MAKING
sion and the options. Then complete the
third step of PAUSE, Understand. Look at the
possible choices and try to guess what will
happen as a result. Take a few moments to
write some ideas

• This will take more time so allow three Hopes (Goals)

to ve minutes for people to write ideas,
then say:
Return the papers to their owners. When you
get your own paper, read through everything Head (Intellectuals)
and use the next step of PAUSE to Select an
option.
Hands (Social)
Then talk about your paper with the other
members of your small group. You can use
some of these questions: Heart (Emotional)

Which option did you choose and why?

How helpful was it to get ideas about the
steps in PAUSE from friends?
Did you use your Head, Heart, Hands, or Hope
in choosing from among the options?
How and when will you review your decision?

• After participants have had a chance for

these conversations, you can follow up

136 137
Basic Life Skills Course Facilitator’s Manual

LESSON 13:
SESSION 13:
PROBLEM SOLVING PROBLEM SOLVING
90 Minutes
Ages 10-24

Learning Objectives:

Students will learn:

• The 6 steps of problem solving

• To work in groups to solve a community issue, using the 6 problem solving
steps
• Link problem solving to decision-making

Materials to run this session:

• Facilitator preparation: Facilitator will need to cut the 6 steps of problem

solving (can be found following this lesson plan) and make as many copies of
each step as needed (see lesson)
• Students will need to bring their work book to class, with homework com-
pleted and ready to discuss
• Poster with the group rules clearly written
• The script for delivering this session is in italics below

Aim Format Timing

Welcome Welcome students to the group and today’s 5

Introduction topic “GROUP Problem Solving” minutes

Briey refer to the group’s ground rules

(point to poster with rules clearly written):
• Use respectful communication and be-
havior
• The group belongs to everyone and ev-
eryone is equal in importance
• Listen to each other
• Take turns – give others an equal chance
to speak if they want to
• Be supportive of one another
• Any personal information revealed during
the lessons remains strictly condential
make this more explicit

138 139