Lesson Plan on Sharing Appreciations

FACILITATOR NOTES

Introduction: Skill-based lesson plan for anyone with any number of participants of any age.

Goal: When this session is complete, participants should be able to…

• Understand that their group forms a “community” of its own
• Acknowledge the strengths of the group as a whole and among individuals

Time: 5-15 minutes

Materials: None

Space: Enough for group to break into pairs separately from others.

Considerations: This short and simple lesson plan has a variety of uses and adaptations which all serve to focus group awareness on the talents and contributions of members. At the same time, sharing appreciations builds one’s confidence in oneself and in the group.

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PROCEDURES

1. Explain to the group that,
   “The goal of this lesson is to share something you appreciate about someone in the group. The variations and ways by which you structure this positive feedback are endless. While the options are endless, there are a couple ground rules:
   • Nothing negative may be said
   • The person receiving appreciation cannot respond, but must simply accept the good things being said about him or her.
   • Everyone at some point must have a chance to be appreciated.”

Variations:

• Ask everyone say something they appreciate about the person to their left.
• Pick a different person at the end of each meeting who will hear appreciations from the rest of the group for seven minutes.
• Write each person’s name on a separate piece of paper and put it up on the wall during a retreat. People write appreciations on the papers.

For every person in the group, go around the circle and have everyone else say one word that expresses a positive thing about that person.

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