Manners Matter

Manners – Year 1

Goals and Objectives

• In partnership with parents, provide scholars the opportunity to learn, practice and master basic manners and etiquette.

• Build community within the Scholar’s M2M crew and with all Scholars attending.

• Practice collaboration and supporting others within the crew.

• Enhance Scholar ability to contribute to a team.

• Practice serving in an apprentice role with a Mentor coach.

• Learn to generalize etiquette skills in different contexts.

• Enhance social and relationship development through meaningful, connected conversation.

• Enhance Scholar confidence and positive self-image.

• Develop respect for others.

Course Content

Lessons on basic manners and etiquette are presented and modeled to the entire DECATS community, and then practiced in “crews” grouped by grade level, led by a Mentor coach. Scholars begin as novices, and as they improve, reach apprentice level, and ultimately, mastery level of etiquette skills. Scholars do not advance as individuals, but as a crew, providing opportunities to practice supporting and encouraging others in a team.

Through a variety of creative, inventive and participatory activities, Scholars gain new skills in areas like shaking hands, greetings, introductions, conversations (small talk), hygiene, telephone etiquette, thank you notes, active listening, and table manners. Criteria for mastery include approach, proximity, facial expression, confidence, eye contact, posture, firm grip for handshake, articulation, volume, vocabulary and topic choices in conversations, active listening, and asking appropriate questions.

Executive Functioning – Year 2

Goals and Objectives

Scholars will grow in their abilities to:

• Stop, think, and plan before acting.

• Set personal goals and develop realistic plans to achieve them.

• Self-evaluate and accept and use constructive feedback.

• Actively and independently problem solve, analyze problems, and develop strategies.

• Cooperate as a team member and recognize and regulate emotional reactions.

• Become more aware of others’ needs and feelings.

• Understand responsibility to self, family, and community.

• Develop strategies for improving their attention.

Course Content

Author Alex Michaels explains Executive Functioning this way: “Executive Functioning is the brain’s ability to absorb information, interpret this information, and make decisions based upon this information. For example, most people have a routine when they get up in the morning. Some mornings you might look out the window and see something is dripping from the sky. This dripping is interpreted as “rain” which implies a set of rules; e.g., needing to wear different clothes, the soccer game will be canceled which means you need to make other arrangements for an after school activity, rolling down the windows while you drive is not wise, you don’t need to water the grass today.”

Our entire life is mediated by our executive system as each step of the day brings about various sets of “rules” that we need to live by. The most complex of these is social interaction (if you meet someone and they are crying, your response should be very different than if they were smiling). The executive functioning system is analogous to an “executive” whose job is to organize and ensure things are running smoothly.

Executive Functions include:

• Inhibition – The ability to stop one’s own behavior at the appropriate time, including stopping actions and thoughts. The flip side of inhibition is impulsivity; if you have weak ability to stop yourself from acting on your impulses, then you are behaving “impulsively.”

• Shifting – The ability to move freely from one situation to another and to think flexibly in order to respond appropriately to the situation.

• Emotional Regulation – The ability to modulate emotional responses by bringing rational thought to bear on feelings.

• Initiative – The ability to begin a task or activity and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem-solving strategies.

• Working memory – The capacity to hold information in mind for the purpose of completing a task.

• Planning/Organization – The ability to manage current and future-oriented task demands.

• Materials Management – The ability to impose order on work, play, and storage tools and spaces.

• Social Coordination – The ability to work successfully with others in teams and other social situations.

• Attention – The ability to focus on one aspect of the environment without getting distracted by others.

At DECATS, we recognize the importance of developing executive functioning skills. These functions are better predictors of future academic success than IQ. They allow us to tie our past to our future by setting goals, delaying gratification, anticipating future problems, learning from past experiences, and evaluating our actions.