Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 1, Session 3: Building Self-Confidence | Page 31 of 93What agencies or organizations are available in our community to help adolescents with physical,
mental, emotional, and social concerns?
Who are some specific people in your lives who can help with concerns in each of the four areas?
How can we learn more about any of these concerns or about the resources available to us?- Provide each person with an index card and have them use the notes on the flip chart to create a short
list of important resources they want to remember. Say:
“On your index card, write the word ‘Resources’ at the top. Then use the notes we created as a group to
identify two or three resources you want to remember. These might be new resources you want to
explore or resources you have used or know about that you would like to re-examine. Then keep this
card handy so you can refer to it in the moment when you might need a resource.”B. Summary
- Summarize by saying:
“These are all ways we can protect ourselves, our ‘house,’ from the storms of criticism that can, over
time, damage our self-esteem and confidence. The resources we have identified can help us withstand
‘stormy weather.’”III. Practice (30 minutes)
Materials:
Script for skit: Sammy and Samantha Plan a Party (two copies)
Name badges for characters
Two blank flip charts
A. Doomed to Failure ... Or Not!
Participants describe characteristics of self-confidence.
- Further describe what is meant by self-confidence. Say:
“We might hear criticism from others, or we might be the one to say negative things about ourselves.
The truth is no one is smart, or good, or trustworthy, or any other quality all the time. Each of us has
times we are all these things, both good and bad, but we also strive to become better people.
Unfortunately, that’s difficult to do when we repeat to ourselves the same critical comments that
others are telling us. This makes it even harder to be successful at what we do because we are thinking
we aren’t good enough or smart enough. It’s what we mean by a lack of self-confidence.”“In just a moment, we’ll watch a short skit and I’d like you to be ready to talk about the things you see
that one of the actors does to ‘put-down’ or decrease the confidence of the other person.”- Ask for two volunteers, give them copies of the script, and have them retreat to a more private space
to rehearse the skit a couple times. (Note: The Sammy character can be a boy or a girl. Samantha is typically a girl.)
While they are practicing, ask the remaining participants to share examples of what someone might
say that would “put-down” another person’s self-confidence. Write these examples on a flip chart.