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Life Skills Development in the 4-H Youth Development Program. Richard P. Enfield, 4-H Youth Development Advisor. San Luis Obispo County November 1, 2003. What Are Life Skills ?. Examples of Life Skills. Self-Motivation & Teamwork. Organizing & Goal Setting.
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Life Skills Development in the 4-H Youth Development Program Richard P. Enfield, 4-H Youth Development Advisor San Luis Obispo County November 1, 2003
What Are Life Skills? Examples of Life Skills • Self-Motivation & Teamwork • Organizing & Goal Setting • Leadership & Responsible Citizenship • Problem Solving • Self-responsibility & Character • Social Skills & Cooperation • Safety & Healthy Lifestyle Choices • Concern for others
Assumptions about Life Skills • Life skills are on a continuum; learning builds upon past experience. • Life skills are incorporated with content as the method of delivery. • It is best to focus on building and measuring one, two, or a few.
A Targeting Life Skill (TLS) Activity • The best way to learn the TLS process is to use it when planning your project meetings and activities. • There is no right or wrong way. • Adapt it to your work style. • Not linear – but cyclical.
1. Topic: • The topic is the overall subject matter or theme around which the curriculum will be developed. • The topic is usually in response to a need. • Generic title that is specific as possible • Example: Ages and stages of the pre-school child vs. child development.
2. Life Skills: • Life skills are ways of applying information learned to real life situations. • Which of the eight life skill categories do you want to coordinate with the topic identified? • Life skills determine how the subject matter is delivered – the life skill drives the activity. • Identify from the list of life skill components those that correlate best with the content. • Question: Which life skills will be practiced?
3. Age: • The age or grade of the learners helps to establish the developmental stage of the target audience. • Growth is a continuum: Mental, physical emotional & social development continues from birth throughout life. • A young person will not fit into exactly any category. Each youth progresses at an individual rate.
3. Age, continued: • Development is not equal across all areas. • There is a range of development within each stage. • Question: What is the appropriate level of delivery? • Refer to the handout of “Developmentally Appropriate Life Tasks”
4. Desired Impacts: • The desired impact/goal is the overall program purpose in terms of youth development. • Question: What will the learners be able to demonstrate after completing the program because of participating in the project meeting?
4. Desired Impacts, Examples: • Youth in grades 4-6 will demonstrate knowledge gained of the principles of photography by taking well-composed pictures. • Youth in grades 4-6 will improve their ability to communicate their ideas, thoughts, and feelings through photography while learning how to take well-compose pictures.
5. Key Concepts: • Key concepts are subtopics or segments of information by which the content is divided for delivery. Like a brief outline . • The total of the subtopics equals the entire topic. • Question: What do 4-H members need/want to learn?
6. Content Objective: • The content objectives identify the information to be delivered to the learner. • Content objectives relate to the subject matter information to be presented. • Question: What will the learner be expected to know after completing the activities?
7. Life Skill Objective • The life skill objective identifies how the content will be applied and practiced. • Identify the life skill component to be integrated with the content objective. • Question: What will the learner be able to do after the activity or activities? • Example: If you want to develop communication skills in youth, identify whether it will be writing skills, speaking skills, listening skills, interpretation of body language, etc.
8. Instructional Plan • The Instructional plan is the design of activities needed to accomplish the objectives and achieve the desired impact. • Question: What do learners need to experience to be able to demonstrate the desired impact?
9. Observable indicators • …Identification of Measurable indicators of success. • Indicators are specific, observable, and measurable changes in knowledge, attitude, skill, or behavior that are linked to goal achievement. • Question: How will you know if the desired learning has taken place?
Conclusions • High quality youth development experiences are more likely to happen when well planned. • Targeting Life Skills Model provides a structure to plan & achieve desired results.
Ending Thoughts: • The most important idea I will take home from this training is… • One thing that I will use right away is… • Two things about the topic that I want to learn more about in the future are…
Credits and Thanks: • Many of the graphics contributed by Peggy Gregory, 4-H Youth Development Advisor, Kings County, CA • Much of the content taken from the Targeting Life Skills Model: Training Guide (1998) by Patricia A Hendricks, Ph.D., Extension Youth Development Specialist, Iowa State University