Life Skills and Leadership Manual - Peace Corps

Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 2, Session 3: Making Decisions | Page 46 of 127

B. Summary
Conclude the activity by saying:

“PAUSE is not always easy to remember to do. Taking the time to do this kind of practice helps you

become more familiar with each of the steps and more confident using them.

V. Assessment (15 minutes)
Materials:
Handout 3: Decision Making Question Cards
Trainer Material 2: Interpretation of Decision-Making Question Cards

A. Question Sorting
Participants review the steps involved in good decision making.

1. Divide participants into groups of three and give each small group a set of Decision-Making Question
   Cards. Explain the activity by saying:

“We’ve talked about how to make better decisions by using PAUSE to stop, analyze the situation, think

of options, weigh the options, choose the best action, and evaluate whether the decision needs to be

changed. At each step of PAUSE you need to ask yourself some questions.

“I have given your group a stack of cards. Each card has a question that you might ask during one of the

steps of PAUSE. Working with your two partners, read the cards and decide the step of PAUSE in which

you might use that question. Sort all of your cards into separate piles for Pause, Ask, Understand,

Select, Evaluate.”

2. Give participants five to seven minutes to sort their cards then ask groups to share how they
   categorized the cards. Begin by asking two or three groups to say which cards they categorized under
   “Pause.” Confirm their correct answers by referring to Trainer Material 2: Interpretation of Decision
   Making Question Cards. If a group puts a card in the wrong category, rather than saying an answer is
   wrong, ask the group to explain its reasoning. Because of differing interpretations, some questions
   may fit in more than one category. Say:

“You can probably use some of these questions for more than one step of PAUSE. That particular

question will also be helpful in (name of PAUSE step).”

3. Repeat this process for the categories of “Ask,” “Understand,” “Select,” and “Evaluate.” Invite
   participants to label each question card with its appropriate category name.

Note: “Question Sorting” serves as an assessment of Learning Objective 1.