School Counselor Lesson Plan Template
Lesson 1
Domain: Academic
Title of Lesson: The Nuts and Bolts About Earning an Honors Diploma
Grade Level: 9 th
ASCA Standards Addressed:
A:B2.1 Establish challenging academic goals in elementary, middle/ jr. high and high school
A:B2.6 Understand the relationship between classroom performance and success in school
Core and/or Indiana Standards Addressed:
9-12.1.6 Annually revise their four-year high school course plans as appropriate to reflect changes in their career and postsecondary plans, standardized test scores, report card grades, and life experiences.
9-12.1.10 Discuss annually the current relationship between their flexible career plans, postsecondary education goals, four-year high school course plans, report card grades, standardized test scores, and academic improvement plans, and revise each as appropriate.
Developmental Asset(s) Addressed:
Students will develop skills to work in teams to come up with correct answers. They will also learn about diploma requirements that directly affect their options after they finish high school.
Differentiated Instruction/Cultural Awareness:
Students will play a trivia game in teams. They will be able to pool their knowledge to come up with the correct answer if the individual whose turn it is does not know. The goal is to prevent any student who may not know the correct answer from being put on the spot.
Learning Objective(s):
Students will gain knowledge about the necessary requirements to earn the Core 40
Honors Diploma
Based on this new knowledge, students will be able to create and/or modify their fouryear plan to earn the Core 40 Honors Diploma
Collaborative Partners:
The school counselor will need to collaborate with an advisory teacher to set up a time to give the classroom guidance lesson and obtain a class list to split the class into teams
Materials Needed:
Pre-test, Post-test, pencil/pen for each student, computer, PowerPoint, class list
Activity Summary: The students will be given a pre-test that asks questions about their current knowledge of what the requirements are to earn a Core 40 Honors

Diploma. The class will then be split into two (pre-determined) teams and the counselor will lead a trivia game that asks questions about a Core 40 Honors Diploma and a regular Core 40 Diploma. The counselor will then lead a summary having students tell them what they learned and the students will complete a post-test that measures whether they have learned anything from the trivia questions and discussion
Learning Activities
Time needed for lesson: 30 minutes
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The counselor will pass out the pre-test and explain that the students will answer the questions as best they can (5 minutes)
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After collecting the pre-tests, the counselor will split the class up into 2 teams
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The teams will have been determined prior to the lesson to save time
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The two teams will alternate having one person represent them when answering questions about the Core 40 Honors Diploma and the regular Core
40 Diploma. Students may ask their teammates for help if they do not know the answer.
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The game will last for 20 minutes
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After the game is completed, the counselor will lead a summary discussion highlighting key differences between the two diploma tracks and why it is important to strive for the honors diploma.
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Students will use the remaining time to complete a post-test that measures how much they learned from the trivia game about the different diploma tracks
Evaluation Plan:
What data will you collect and how will you collect data to show:
The pre-test will show how much students knew before the lesson and the post-test will show how much new knowledge they learned. There will also be a short evaluation on the post-test that gives the counselor feedback on how effective the trivia game was at conveying the desired information.
Follow-Up Plan:
The next lesson in the unit will be about study skills that will be necessary to earn the
Core 40 Honors Diploma. The counselor will present the next lesson later in the school year.
References/Resources Used:
Indiana Department of Education Core 40 Honors Diploma Requirements and regular
Core 40 Diploma requirements
The trivia questions will be made based on these requirements