Heroes: Goal Setting for Success Activity

This activity, adjusted for age-appropriate groupings from kindergarten to grade 12, allows students to explore the characteristics of heroes, conventional and unconventional.

Students will expand their definition of hero, recognize heroes in their community and neighborhood, and recognize their own heroic qualities. The objective is to motivate students to set goals and work towards them with drive and perseverance.

Division I: Heroes - Goal Setting for Success!

A. Activity Resources

1. Background information online for Phase 1, Theme 1.
   • includes examples of heroes from social history, science, sports, other Everest expeditions
   • includes Web site suggestions and references for student use, or use in a group situation with an LCD projector and computer set-up
2. Pre-recorded video/audio clips from Byron Smith
3. Books, stories, newspapers and poems with real-life heroes
4. Comic Books, movies, cartoons that feature heroic characters and superheroes

Discussion
1. Invite children to bring one comic book, action figure, video or story about their favorite heroes or superheroes (gender-neutral term including heroes and heroines)

2. Find out what the children believe to be important characteristics of these heroes. List their descriptions on chart paper, grouping similar descriptive words.

3. Ask students if they would like to be a hero. Why? Write these answers on another piece of paper, again grouping similar descriptive words.

4. Suggest that any one of your students can be a hero. Maybe not the kind that can bend steel or fly, but the kind that can do heroic things on a day-to-day basis.

5. Give a brief description of one or more people who have heroic qualities. After each description, ask if the qualities fit some of the characteristics students listed for their superheroes? Let the students make suggestions of real-life heroes to discuss.

6. Have the students identify qualities of the real-life hero. List them and point out similarities and differences between the qualities of the real-life heroes and the superheroes. Superheroes have special powers that allow them to fend off evil villains and help people. Real-life heroes have special qualities such as confidence, faith, dreams, motivation, perseverance, etc. Real-life heroes solve problems and make decisions that help them achieve their goals and help others. See Background Information for more discussion on heroic qualities.

7. Discuss how everyone has these special traits. How do we demonstrate these qualities? Examples include dedication to a hobby, sport, family, newspaper route, school, etc.

8. Ask students to name some real-life, personal heroes who they look up to, who inspire them to do certain things, or who have helped them or others in some way.

Project
9. Have the students draw a picture of someone that they know who has heroic qualities, or write about their hero in their journal/storybook. Students can write or draw on paper, or use a word processor, Web-design, Hyperstudio, etc. Electronically-produced work, (or photos of work) can be submitted to the education coordinator at info@everest2000.ca. Please use the subject heading: "Student work -- goal setting." Work may then be posted on the Everest 2000 Results and Submissions page.

Guiding Questions (for Division I journals and pictures)
Who is your real-life hero?
What are their heroic qualities?
What goal would you like to meet?
Will there be anything hard about meeting your goal?

Back to: Heroes: Goal Setting for Success, all divisions

Division II: Heroes -- Goal Setting for Success!

A. Activity Resources

1. Background information online for Phase 1, Theme 1.
   • includes examples of heroes from social history, science, sports, other Everest expeditions
   • includes Web site suggestions and references for student use, or use in a group situation with an LCD projector and computer set-up
2. Pre-recorded video/audio clips from Byron Smith
3. Books, stories, newspapers and poems with real-life heroes
4. Comic Books, movies, cartoons that feature heroic characters and superheroes

Discussion
1. Invite children to bring one comic book, action figure, video or story about their favorite heroes or superheroes (a gender-neutral term including heroes and heroines).

2. In small groups, ask students to list the most important qualities that make these characters superheroes. Through sharing, list student descriptions on one piece of chart paper, grouping similar descriptive words. To make this process shorter, ask each group to share only characteristics that have not already been listed.

3. Ask students if they would like to be a hero. Why? Write these answers on another piece of paper, again grouping similar descriptive words.

4. Suggest that any one of your students can be a hero. Maybe not the kind that can bend steel or fly, but the kind that can do some of the heroic things on a day-to-day basis.

5. Give a brief description of one or more people who have heroic qualities. After each description, ask if these people have characteristics that fit some of the characteristics listed for superheroes. Alternatively, ask students to identify real-life heroes to discuss. List their characteristics on chart paper if they are different from those of the superheroes. Check-off those that are the same as the superheroes on the other list.

6. Discuss the similarities and differences between the qualities of real-life and superheroes. Superheroes have special powers that allow them to fend off evil villains and help people. Real-life heroes have special qualities such as confidence, faith, dreams, motivation, perseverance, etc. Real-life heroes solve problems and make decisions that help them achieve goals and help others. See Background Information for more discussion on heroic qualities.

7. Discuss heroic characteristics of students in the class or school. How do they demonstrate these qualities? Examples include dedication to a hobby, sport, family, newspaper route, school, etc.

8. Ask students to name some real-life, personal heroes that they look up to, who inspire them to do certain things, or who have helped them or others in some way. They do not have to be people they know personally, as long as they are not fictional characters.

Projects
9. Have students do a poster presentation about their hero with descriptions of their hero's qualities. Posters can be created in any format - on paper or using a word processor, Web-design, Hyperstudio, etc. Please note that electronically-produced work (or photos of work) can be submitted to the education coordinator at info@everest2000.ca. Please use the subject heading: "Student work -- goal setting." Work may then be posted on the Everest 2000 Results and Submissions page.

10. Alternatively, use the guiding questions below to encourage students to write an essay or poem about their personal hero. Ask students to consider their own goals, the barriers they might face and how they will make decisions to solve the problems they face in reaching their goal.

Guiding questions (for Division II posters and essays)
Who is your real-life hero?
What are their heroic qualities?
What challenges did they face while working towards their goal (whether it was a instantaneous event or life-time goal)?
How did they overcome the challenges?
Have they achieved their ultimate goal? If not, are they still a hero?
How are you a hero?
What challenging goal would you like to meet?
What are some of the barriers you might face?
How might you overcome the difficulties to achieve your goal?

Back to: Heroes: Goal Setting for Success, all divisions

Divisions III and IV: Heroes -- Goal Setting for Success!

A. Activity Resources

1. Background information online for Phase 1, Theme 1.
   • includes examples of heroes from social history, science, sports, other Everest expeditions
   • includes Web site suggestions and references for student use, or use in a group situation with an LCD projector and computer set-up
2. Pre-recorded video/audio clips from Byron Smith
3. Books, stories, newspapers and poems with real-life heroes

B. What to Do

Discussion
1. Invite students to bring one book, story, newspaper article, movie, poem, or comic book, with heroes and superheroes of any kind (fictional and non-fictional). Note: There is no need to discuss heroes before assigning this activity since the purpose is to discover who they consider heroes (intended as a gender-neutral term including heroes and heroines).

2. Organize students in small groups and ask them to sort the most important qualities of their heroes into categories. Through sharing, ask each group to describe how they categorized the qualities of a hero and why. Then list student descriptions on one piece of chart paper. Group them according to whether the character is fictional or non-fictional and group similar descriptive words.
TIP: To make this process shorter, ask each successive group to share only characteristics that have not already been listed.

3. Give a brief description of one or more people who have heroic qualities. Ask students to identify the heroic qualities of the example heroes. How are they similar to their lists of qualities for fictional superheroes and real-life (non-fictional) heroes?
Some examples of hero descriptions are found in the Goal Setting and Decision Making background information.

4. Alternatively, ask students to identify their own examples of real-life heroes to discuss. List the real-life hero's characteristics on chart paper if they are different from those of the superheroes. Check-off qualities that are the same as the superheroes on the other list. Discuss the similarities and differences between the real-life and fictional heroes.

5. Superheroes and fictional characters often have special powers that allow them to defend off evil villains and help people. Real-life heroes have special qualities, such as confidence, faith, dreams, motivation, perseverance and more. They solve problems and make decisions that help them meet their goals and help others. See Background Information for more.

6. Discuss heroic characteristics of students in the class or school. How do they demonstrate these qualities? Examples include dedication to a hobby, sport, family, newspaper routes, school, etc.

7. Ask students to name their personal, real-life heroes. If your students are having difficulty applying the word 'hero' for people they know, describe heroes as people they look up to, who inspire them to do certain things, or who have helped them or others in some way. They do not have to be people they know personally, as long as they are not fictional characters.

Projects
8. Assign students to identify someone in their community whom they consider a hero. It might be helpful for them to read the background information for Phase 1, Theme 1, for ideas. This can be an individual project or a small group project.

Students should create a plan for the project, including how they will ask this person to be part of their project, and what questions they would ask in an interview.
Note: It might be useful to provide them with a list of Guiding Questions (provided below).

Suggestions for community heroes:

• Someone who has gone back to school as an adult to get their high school diploma;
• A healthy elderly person with an active lifestyle;
• Someone who has overcome a disability;
• Someone who does nice things for others;
• A really great parent, coach or teacher;
• A classmate who really improved their grades, is a musician, a writer; or
• Someone who does their job very well.

Please note that electronically-produced work, (or photos of work) can be submitted to the education coordinator at info@everest2000.ca. Please use the subject heading: "Student work -- goal setting." Work may then be posted on the Everest 2000 Results and Submissions page. Teachers should consider privacy issues when deciding to post information, especially if the subject of the project is not an adult.

Alternatively, you might ask students to use the guiding questions, the list of heroic qualities generated by the class, and the information they gain through their interview, to write an essay or poem about their personal community hero.

9. Give students the option of using the guiding questions below and the list of heroic qualities generated by the class to consider their own goals. They should consider the barriers they might face in achieving their goal, and how they will make decisions to solve the challenges they face in reaching their goal.

The presentation of this information would have to be approved by the teacher, but poster or essay formats would be appropriate.
NOTE: This project might be less appropriate for posting on the Everest 2000 website due to its personal nature.

10. If you wish to broaden the choice of heroes to include people who the student may not know personally, an alternate project in the form of an essay, poster or multimedia presentation would be appropriate. This hero may be a scientist, humanitarian or adventurer as long as he or she is a real person. Instead of an interview, the student may conduct research to find newspaper articles, journals, books or Internet sites to complete this project.

Guiding Questions

• Who is your hero?
  What are their heroic qualities?
  What challenges did they face while working towards their goal (whether it was a instantaneous event or life-time goal)?
  How did they overcome the challenges?
  Have they achieved their ultimate goal? If not, are they still a hero?

• What qualities do you think a hero should have?

• What would be a challenging goal for you?

• Is a challenging goal the same for everyone?
  Is it necessary for people to achieve their goals to be considered a hero?
  Is the dedication/effort or the final success more admirable?
  If a person sets easily attainable goals, is he or she considered a hero?

Back to: Heroes: Goal Setting for Success, all divisions