Communication Topic: General and Specific Praise

Objectives:
1. The students will demonstrate that they are giving general and specific praise.

Resources/Materials: none

Spring Board Role Play:
Give specific praise to 2 students.
Freeze role each role play and Ask students to describe what happened.
Follow up questions:
1. Was the praise sincere? What was the tone of the praise?
2. Was the praise clear?
3. How powerful was the praise?
4. How specific was the praise?

Define General and Specific Praise:
General Praise involves praise that gives a person(s)
Examples of General Praise: "Way to go!"
"Good job!"
"Excellent!"
Specific Praise focuses on a specific ability or behaviour that is praiseworthy. This type of praise is very powerful.
Examples of Specific Praise:
"Wow, Jenny your paragraph is very insightful!"
"Good job Peter, you made a great catch!"

Group Role Plays:
Have the students break up into groups of two and create role plays that involve general praise.
Have two or three groups perform role plays.
Repeat activity, but have students create role plays that involve specific praise.

Follow up Activity:
Have students write down the following guidelines for praise:
1. Only use praise when it is deserved.
2. Occasional praise is stronger than too much praise, but no praise at all is often ineffective.
3. Specific praise is considered to be more powerful than general praise, but is more appropriate
to use both.
4. Praise should be sincere, but natural.

Communication Challenge:
Send 3 specific praises a day ... 1 to friend, 1 to a teacher, 1 to a parent.
Make a list of what praise you sent. Due next ...