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Media: Text, Literary Tradebook
Lexile Level: 570L
Summary: After Grace learns from her teacher that there has never been a female president, she decides to be the first. She does this by running for president in her school's mock election.
Theme Connection: Not only does this text describe the election process and government in the U.S, but it contains the theme of leadership. Through the election, Grace finds out what it takes to be president and that in order to win she needs to be the best person she can be like displaying hardwork and courage.
Text Complexity: The Lexile Level puts this text right in the 3rd grade age range. The text structure uses clear organization for plot and a compliment of graphics that would make this text easy to comprehend. As for language features, students would need help with unfamiliar vocabulary words that are content specific.
Instructional Uses: This will be one of the introductory texts when we start looking at different governments. I will use this as a whole class read a loud. After, we will have a discussion and complete and anchor chart about Grace's character traits.

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Media: Audio- Song
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This song, song by young children, illustrates seven habits of good leaders while inspiring students' mindsets that they can easily be a good leader too.
Theme Connection: This song will help us answer one of our essential questions of what makes a good leader. Students will learn characteristic traits or habits of what is described as a good leader or what good leaders do.
Text Complexity: This song is easy to follow and very catchy. I think the strongest part of this song is that the chorus is repetitive. Since there are seven "habits", I feel the students may need to see a visual or a list of the habit title in order to comprehend each one.
Instructional Uses: We will listen to this song as a whole class. After, students will be placed in groups of 3 and given one of the seven habits. They will write down, draw, and present out what this habit means to them in their own words.

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7 Habits of Happy Kids Song - There's A Leader In Me

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Media: Visual- Political propaganda
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This political cartoon was used by the government to persuade men to join the U.S. Army for war. The main character is the political figure, Uncle Sam.
Theme Connection: The genre that my students will be working on is persuasive. This political cartoon is a good visual representative of persuasive propaganda. This piece of propaganda can also be connected about leadership for the U.S.
Text Complexity: Although this visual has simple and little text, it will be complex based on the moderately complex purpose and subject matter knowledge in order to analyze this image.
Instructional Uses: This text will be used to study the persuasion genre. As a class we will view this poster together. We will fill out a chart of our noticings and how these noticings are persuasive or convincing to an audience. Example- bold lettering, Uncle Sam pointing, red white and blue, etc.

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I Have A Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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I Have A Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Media: Audio- Speech
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This is a video that will be used to present only the audio of the, "I Have a Dream" speech presented by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He states of the life he would like to see for America as he describes this hopeful dream.
Theme Connection: As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. states his dream of civil rights in America, he exemplifies a strong leader through civil rights leadership. Based on what he tells us he wants, we can determine the type of leader and person he is.
Text Complexity: This text will be very complex for my 3rd grade students as they will have limited subject matter knowledge. This will lead to very complex vocabulary language features within the speech that will need to be accommodated for the purpose.
Instructional Uses: We will listen to this speech as a whole class. I will pause the speech and write down a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We then will analyze what he said to determine what kind of person he is or what character trait the quote would fall under. We will be creating a T-chart together in a GRR format.

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I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King .Jr HD (subtitled) (Remastered)

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Media: Text, Literary Tradebook
Lexile Level: 960L
Summary: This literary text is a story that follows world-leader, Nelson Mandela, from a boy to becoming the president of South Africa.
Theme Connection: Through Nelson Mandela's struggles and determination, my students will get to characterize Mandela's personality traits to determine a strong leader. As this story takes place in South Africa, my students will be learning about global government.
Text Complexity: The clear sentence structure accompanied with illustrations that support the text will make this literary text easy for my students to comprehend. Not that there are a lot of words, but the length of this text is the only thing I will need to accommodate for.
Instructional Uses: This will be read before we listen to the Dr. MLK Jr. speech. This will be a teacher-directed think aloud on how to make inferences about characters. I will use post it notes through the book to write my characterizations of Nelson Mandela after things he says or achievements that tell me about his character. This will also use the GRR model.

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I am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero by Brad Melt

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I am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero by Brad Melt

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Media: Text- Nontraditional Graphic Biography
Lexile Level: N/A (Grades K-5)
Summary: This nontraditional text is a graphic novel, illustrated by 25 authors, that follows and illustrates the life of Mahatma Gandhi from a young boy to how he is most well-known.
Theme Connection: This text illustrates the type of person and strong world-leader Gandhi was through his achievements, conflicts, and accomplishments. This text also connects to the theme of global leaders.
Text Complexity: The beautiful, detailed illustrations of this text directly support the meaning of the story but I also see that the comic book type format of the graphic novel would be moderately complex.
Instructional Uses: I will use this text as a think aloud to model the comprehension strategy of inferring. Since there are more illustrations than text, we will be practicing how to make inferences from illustrations. Through the illustrations, we will characterize Gandhi as a world leader.

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Media: Text, Literary Picture Book
Lexile Level: 390L
Summary: This literary picture book follows a seed who tells the reader just how bad he is and how he got there.
Theme Connection: Would a bad seed make a good leader? This text connects to my theme by the question above. By looking at all of the characteristic traits described in the story, my students will question if someone like this could be a good leader or if they would want them as their own leader.
Text Complexity: Falling in the first grade reading level, this book is not complex in text structure, meaning, or knowledge demands. If anything, if my students were reading this independently, they would need help with the structure of dialogue.
Instructional Uses: This will be an introductory read aloud at the start of this unit. After reading, I will scribe on an anchor chart all of the negative character traits of the bad seed which we will be recalling from the text. After, students will independently write 3-5 sentences on why the bad seed would not make a strong leader.

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Forms of Government Song by Audrey McMahon

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Forms of Government Song by Audrey McMahon

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Media: Video- Song
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This video is a song about the different forms of government around the world including democracy, monarchy, theocracy, and dictatorship.
Theme Connection: This song connects to the both the global part and government aspect of my theme. This song describes different forms of government throughout the world that will widen my students knowledge globally about government. Each government also contains different types of leaders.
Text Complexity: The text structure of this video will be most useful for my students through a repetitive,clear organization and graphics that help support the text. The vocabulary may be very complex for the subject-specific terms regarding some unfamiliar government systems.
Instructional Uses: We will watch this video as a whole class. Students will be placed in small groups and given one form of government. They will create an image to define/describe the  form of government they were given.

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Media: Visual- Quote
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This visual is a quote by emperor Caligula of Ancient Rome, who was considered one of the worst emperors in Rome.
Theme Connection: This text will exemplify traits about a bad leader to connect to the overall leadership theme. The theme global government could also be connected here as there could be a discussion on the term emperor as it relates to king or dictator.
Text Complexity: The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level readability for the text is 2.1. Although the structure and language features are not complex for my students, they will need additional help with the moderately complex meaning.
Instructional Uses: This text will be used to show someone who was not a strong leader. I will provide background information on who this ruler is. Students will work with a partner to write down what this quote means. As a whole group, we will talk about why we would or wouldn't want a leader who feels this way. What form of government can we connect this quote to?

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Media: Video- Presidential Campaign Commercial Jingle
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This video is a presidential campaign commercial created and used for President John F. Kennedy's election.
Theme Connection: Not only does this video match my genre of persuasion, but this connects to my leadership theme as well. The creators are using persuasion to convince people to vote for Kennedy based on specific characteristics that we can attribute to a strong leader.
Text Complexity: The jingle song of this text leads to strong, clear organization through pacing and repetition. This text is moderately complex for the fact that is contains a few unfamiliar words.
Instructional Uses: This will be used to study the persuasive genre. We will watch the video as a whole class two times. The first time, students will just watch. The second time, students will be recording persuasive characteristics. What did the video say or do that convinces you to vote for Kennedy? How does the video describe Kennedy?

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Kennedy for Me (Campaign jingle JFK 1960)

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http://www.todomarketingpolitico.com/2011/03/eeuu-top-10-anuncios-de-campanas-segun.html Kennedy for Me. Advertencia: Esta canción de campaña de Kennedy en 1960 conseguirá pegarse en tu cabeza por días. Es rápido, repetitiva, incluye la palabra; doggone, " y suena como una canción de tema de la comedia de enredo -- escúchela y usted esperara a medias que Dick Van Dyke se caiga sobre un otomano en cualquier momento.

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Who Runs This Country Anyway? A Guide to Canadian Government by Joanne Stanbridge

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Who Runs This Country Anyway? A Guide to Canadian Government by Joanne Stanbridge

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Media: Text, Informational Tradebook
Lexile Level: N/A (Ages 8-12)
Summary: This text is an informational tradebook that informs on the government of Canada.
Theme Connection: Through learning about the Canadian government, this text connects to global government. We will see how different or similar Canada's government is to the government of the U.S. Leadership is also connected as we learn about the type of leaders this government contains.
Text Complexity: The sentence structure is moderately to very complex but the organization with use of text features makes the writing easy to comprehend and digest.
Instructional Uses: I will read a portion of this text to the whole class. Through GRR, students will complete a venn diagram comparing the U.S government of democracy to the form of government in Canada.

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Media: Text, Informational Tradebook
Lexile Level: N/A (Grades 3-5)
Summary: This text is an informational tradebook that presents facts about different forms of government used throughout the world and makes connections to the United States.
Theme Connection: This text relates to my theme of global government. By learning about the different forms of government throughout the world, while also comparing them to democracy in the U.S, my students will widen their lens of global government.
Text Complexity: The primary documents within this text would be the hardest for my students to comprehend regarding knowledge demands and purpose. My students will not be analyzing primary documents so the use of text features and clear organization makes the text slightly complex.
Instructional Uses: Students will be placed in groups to jig saw sections of this text. Only the introductory paragraphs will be given that describe each form of government. We will look at democracy, monarchies, and dictatorship.  Students will write down a definition, what it means in their own words, and an illustration.

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Who was King Henry VIII by Ellen Labreque

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Who was King Henry VIII by Ellen Labreque

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Media: Text, Informational Tradebook
Lexile Level: 880L
Summary: This informational tradebook is a chapter book which presents facts on the life of Henry VIII who is known as one of the most famous kings of England.
Theme Connection: This text connects to my theme of global leadership through learning about the monarchy by one particular king, King Henry VIII. Through reading about his life, my students will be able to characterize his personality traits and accomplishments to analyze his leadership strengths or weaknesses.
Text Complexity: The meaning of this text is obvious and one level as we learn about the life of Henry VIII. In addition, the conventionality and sentence structure is easy to comprehend but the nonfiction text features will be slightly complex for my students with this informational text.
Instructional Uses: Students will read this text in reading groups. Individually, students will place sticky notes on sections where we can easily characterize Henry VIII, just as I showed them with the Nelson Mandela text.

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Five Leadership Lessons from Malala Yousafzai 

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Five Leadership Lessons from Malala Yousafzai 

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Media: Text- Nontraditional online article
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This online article uses Malala Yousafzai's life, accomplishments, and personality to determine a list of five leadership attributes.
Theme Connection: This text connects to my overall theme of leadership by compiling a list of five leadership attributes. This text also makes a connection to the global study of third grade looking at the life of this civil right's leader from Pakistan.
Text Complexity: The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level states a readability of 10.6 which will be exceedingly complex for my third graders. The factors that attribute to exceedingly complex are sentence structure and the life experiences that are distinctly different from the leader.
Instructional Uses: As a whole class, I will read the article for them either using a smart board or document camera as my students have their own versions to follow along. Then, students will be in groups and given one of the five leadership abilities. They will need to write what this leadership "lesson" or attribute means to them and try to give an example from their life or make one up that describes it.

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You probably wouldn't think to look to a high school junior for lessons in leadership. But the 18-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai is no ordinary high school student. In her short life, she's not only drawn international attention to a massive problem-that of the 61 million girls around the world who don't have access to an education -she's persuaded world leaders to start taking real action to fix it.

As the filmmaker Davis Guggenheim's ( An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman) new documentary He Named Me Malala hits theaters this week, it's worth drawing a few lessons from someone whose influence, courage, and resolve have been felt around the world before she's even hit 20.

Malala was raised in a household that valued education, but when the Taliban started to close schools throughout Pakistan's Swat Valley-bombing many of them-her dream of getting an education started to slip away. Many girls were terrorized into staying at home, but Malala, a devout Muslim and just 11 years old at the time, defiantly continued to go to school.

Leaders who publicly stand up for their beliefs can accomplish something even greater than motivating others to take action on their behalf.

In fact, she did more than that. She started to write about her life, anonymously, for BBC Urdu online. Malala's blog went viral, but it didn't change things where she lived. The Taliban was still in control. At great personal risk, Malala started to speak out, using her real identity-"wherever, whenever, to who[m]ever would listen"-on radio and TV and to national and foreign journalists. It took tremendous courage to do that, but because she did, Malala's message has caught on and compelled millions of people to listen.

Any leader-whether an educator, entrepreneur, or activist-who is advocating for a new way of doing things is bound to face resistance. The status quo never changes on its own. Facing down resistance takes commitment and sacrifice. But leaders who publicly stand up for their beliefs can accomplish something even greater than motivating others to take action on their behalf. They can inspire people to see a new potential within themselves. Those who lead by example empower others to imagine that they, too, can be more and do more than they might have ever thought possible.

Malala knew that to win support for her cause, she'd have to master the art of persuasion-in a word, storytelling. She says she spent many hours standing in the bathroom, "staring at the mirror and practicing speeches" so diligently, that her little brothers would pound on the door, desperate to get in.

Malala came to realize that her life, her struggles, and her aspirations made the most effective story. That's why she wrote a book and called it , and that's why she agreed to let Guggenheim make a film about her. Malala doesn't recount her experiences just for the sake of publicity. She does it to grab people's attention and inspire them to join a cause that's far bigger than her.

Leaders can become so immersed in the details of their undertakings that they forget to communicate why they're important in the first place. One of the best ways to get across your message is with a simple and memorable story. And of course, no one is a born storyteller. It's a learned art. No matter what form of messaging a leader turns to-social media, writing, public speaking-becoming a good storyteller and message shaper requires practice, humility, openness to criticism, and plenty of trial and error.

No one is a born storyteller. It's a learned art.

Malala might have a voice on the world stage, but she doesn't pretend she's the world's greatest authority on education. She understands that to persuade people, she needs to let them see who she really is. Although she always advocates for what she believes in, she uses her pranksterish humor, candor, and youthful charm to disarm people, whether they're global leaders like President Obama and Queen Elizabeth or late-night talk show hosts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Malala is honest and direct. She shares things about herself-some lighthearted, like how she loves to tease her brothers and her obsession with arm wrestling, and some poignant, like her concern for her homeland and her insecurities about being a teenager. Because Malala is unapologetically herself, her message resonates with that thing all leaders require: authenticity.

It's natural for leaders to want to impress others, to play a part that sometimes isn't quite genuine-to come off as the smartest one in the room or the one with all the answers. Manufactured personas turn people off. A true leader knows that they'll be more compelling, persuasive, and inspiring to others if they express all parts of their personality evenhandedly-including their humor, humility, and even their vulnerability. Sometimes the messenger is just as important as the message.

Malala travels the globe, visiting troubled communities to meet girls facing some of the same obstacles she faced in Pakistan. Malala intuitively understands that she won't be able to help if she assumes she knows exactly what they need. Once there-in Gaza, in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, in Nigeria, Kenya, and Sierra Leone-she asks young women questions that are too often answered for them by others: What do you need? What do you want your future to look like? What can I do for you?

Two years ago, Malala met with young Syrian refugees living in camps in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, where there were no schools. The girls told Malala that since they'd been driven from their homes, they desperately needed to learn vocational skills along with standard academics. Malala took this message back to her organization, the Malala Fund, in order to help open a school that provides teaching in both to more than 200 Syrian teenage girls.

Because Malala is unapologetically herself, her message resonates with that thing all leaders require: authenticity.

Because she's become an adept listener, Malala has developed a brain trust of young local activists. They keep her informed of their ideas and their progress. And for her part, Malala uses her powerful infrastructure-the fund's blog and social media and her high-powered global connections-to amplify their voices, getting their messages out, and raising money to support their efforts to bring educational opportunities to their communities.

Leaders, short on time and long on commitment, can sometimes overlook this crucial aspect of leadership-listening. No individual can know everything. When leaders isolate themselves from their employees or customers, they risk missing opportunities and even losing control of their organizations. Knowledge is power, and those who listen will always know more than those who don't.

Malala never dreamed of taking vengeance against her attackers. In fact, when she spoke to the U.N. Youth Assembly, she advocated for the "right of education for every child," even "the sons and daughters of the Taliban." It's not that Malala is a saint, a pushover, or disconnected from her emotions, but she realizes that stewing in anger and hating her enemies won't help a single child go to school.

That self-awareness prevents Malala from misdirecting her energy and instead channels her passion into what really matters. Any leader who takes on a big challenge will face complex problems that kick up a dust storm of emotions, from frustration and anger to depression and despair. As the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio writes, humans aren't purely "thinking machines," but "feeling machines that think."

True leaders make every effort not to surrender to the emotions that threaten to undermine them. It's not that any particular emotion is necessarily good or bad. Even anger or despair can at times trigger positive action. But the question to pose to yourself is this: Will acting out this emotion help me get what I've been working so hard for, or just get in the way?

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Five Leadership Lessons From Malala Yousafzai

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You probably wouldn't think to look to a high school junior for lessons in leadership. But the 18-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai is no ordinary high school student. In her short life, she's not only drawn international attention to a massive problem-that of the 61 million girls around the world who don't have access to an education -she's persuaded world leaders to start taking real action to fix it.

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Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union by Simple History

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Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union by Simple History

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Media: Video
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This video briefly explains the life and personality of Joseph Stalin who was the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920's to 1953.
Theme Connection: This text connects to the theme of leadership in global governments. The communist government of the Soviet Union will widen my students' global government knowledge. This text also exemplifies the leadership theme as Stalin as a leader is described and characterized.
Text Complexity: The cultural knowledge and the vocabulary demands will be very complex for my students. The text structure such as the use of graphics will greatly strengthen their comprehension as the illustrations of the video directly supports the text.
Instructional Uses: As a whole class, we will watch this video. Based on the amount of information and vocabulary, I will frequently pause this video so we can discuss and they will not have to recall too far back. We will be filling out a characterization chart together of traits of Joseph Stalin. We will also be making the connection to what form of government.

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Joseph Stalin,  Leader of the Soviet Union (1878-1953)

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What Makes an Awesome Leader by Kid President

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What Makes an Awesome Leader by Kid President

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Media: Video
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This video is a compilation of other kids speaking about how kids can be strong leaders or how they can make changes for our world or country.
Theme Connection: This video connects to my theme of what it takes to be a leader. These young adults will help my students determine the personality traits  desired to be a strong leader to help the world for good.
Text Complexity: This video has clear connections between ideas and the vocabulary is also slightly complex. Some students may find the subject matter knowledge moderately complex.
Instructional Uses: After watching this video as a whole text, we will discuss the issue of "who" can be strong leaders. What do strong leaders do? Independently, students will reflect and write one way on an exit ticket of how they can be a strong leader right now.

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Kid President Asks "What Makes an Awesome Leader?"

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Media: Audio- Speech
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This text is a video that will be used only for the audio of Barack Obama's Acceptance speech for president during his 2008 presidential campaign.
Theme Connection: This speech by Barack Obama connects to my theme of global leadership as he exemplifies what it takes to be a strong leader. In his empowering and motivational speech, he tells the audience what type of leader he will be.
Text Complexity: Some information of this speech, such as the characteristics of a good leader, will be directly stated for my students while others will be more indirect where the purpose of the text may be very complex. The vocabulary and subject matter knowledge will also be very complex at times.
Instructional Uses: We will listen to the first few minutes (around 5) of this speech. After listening, students will reflect orally or through writing how this speech made them feel. "I heard..... and I feel...." We will answer questions such as what made you feel like this and what does this say about Barack Obama's leadership?

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Raw Video: Barack Obama's 2008 acceptance speech

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Who is the Dalai Lama? by Dana Meachen Ra

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Who is the Dalai Lama? by Dana Meachen Ra

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Media: Text, Informational Tradebook
Lexile Level: 900L
Summary: This informational tradebook is a chapter book on the life of world-leader, the Dalai Lama.
Theme Connection: Not only will my students learn about the Dalai Lama as a leader, and his leadership traits, but they will learn about his role in government in Tibet which connects to my theme of leadership and governments globally.
Text Complexity: The purpose of the text is slightly complex as it is clear and the use of graphics is used to support readers. The sentence structure is moderately complex in this chapter book type format.
Instructional Uses: I will use this text as an interactive read aloud to the whole class. I will demonstrate how to characterize and provide a lot of time for think-pair-share. Students will be able to write on post it notes and stick them on the page with me.

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Michelle Obama 2016 Democratic Convention Speech

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Michelle Obama 2016 Democratic Convention Speech

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Media: Audio- Speech
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This video is a speech by former first lady, Michelle Obama, at the 2016 Democratic convention that will be used as audio.
Theme Connection: This text connects to my theme of leadership as Michelle Obama describes her husband, former president, Barack Obama and what made him such a good leader. She describes the type of leader that she wants for her children and the world for the future.
Text Complexity: This text contains an explicitly stated purpose and a simple sentence structure. As for language features, the vocabulary of the speech would be moderately complex.
Instructional Uses: We will listen to this speech as a whole class. After, we will be discussing this speech together to answer the questions of how does Michelle Obama describe her husband as a leader and what type of leader does she describe for the future? We will create a T-chart with one side being for Barack Obama and the other being a future leader.

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Watch first lady Michelle Obama’s full speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention

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What Makes a Bad Leader? by Leadership Management Australia

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What Makes a Bad Leader? by Leadership Management Australia

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Media: Text- Nontraditional online article
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This online nontraditional article lists and describes seven traits that make a bad leader.
Theme Connection: This text relates to my theme of leadership. Not only do my students need to know the traits of a good leader, but they need to recognize the traits of a bad leader. This text will help them continue to characterize leadership traits.
Text Complexity: The Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level score is a 10.4. The vocabulary is very complex due to the unfamiliar words but the organization connects ideas clearly with great sequence.
Instructional Uses: This will be a similar activity to the Malala leadership activity but this will focus on negative characteristic traits. I will read the article to them and give each group their on trait to focus on. They will put it in their own words. After we all share out, students will pick one trait and reflect on an exit ticket. They will choose one trait and write how i would be if their teacher had one of these traits.

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At Leadership Management Australia (LMA) we talk a lot about what it takes to be an instrumental and 'good' leader. We thought we'd look at it from a different perspective to get a fresh look at what the traits are of what we consider to be 'bad' leaders.

While it's not as simple as one way is the right way in terms of leadership, there are some stand out traits that a lot of ineffective leaders demonstrate that can affect their performance and in turn, the performance of their team.

They don't have empathy for others

Unresponsive leaders will often not be able to emotionally connect with those around them. They will also disregard the needs or requests of those around them as unimportant or trivial. Remember, empathy and sympathy are two different things. Empathy requires the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, whereas sympathy means feelings of pity for someone else's situation. Empathy requires a high level of emotional intelligence and is often underutilised in cases of poor leadership.

Strong leaders will take responsibility for their actions and will defend those around them to their upmost. Poor leaders will do exactly the opposite. They will blame those around them and will evade their responsibilities to save face.

When the blame game has been demonstrated as a fixture of the behaviour of a leader, it can be hard to regain morale from the team around them. Instead of looking for scapegoats, good leaders look for partners in their team to problem solve and deliver lasting solutions that work.

Not everyone will be welcoming of change. In fact, more risk adverse people tend to avoid change in both their personal and professional lives. However, good leaders acknowledge that change is necessary for developments to happen and for growth to occur. Ineffective leaders will avoid change at any cost. New systems, innovations and divergent opinions will be opposed and sidelined in favour of what has worked to date.

They are not a good listener

Part of feeling empathy for someone else is being able to listen to what they have to say, really hear what it being said and being able to respond accordingly. Poor leaders will only focus on the ideas that back up their own perspective. They will disregard differing opinions and will not engage when the person they disagree with is speaking. They will avoid having open discussions with those around them and will instead revert to their own opinion when making all decisions.

Good leaders not only walk the walk, they talk the talk and inspire others to do the same. Leaders who are inconsistent in their behaviour will quickly convince others that they are not reliable enough to be at the helm of projects and company direction. Inconsistency can leave a team baffled and confused, increasing the likelihood of costly and time consuming mistakes and missed connections.

They don't recognise individual achievement

Great leaders have a special ability of being able to single out individual achievement while still making each of their team members feel necessary and valued. Poor leaders will not bother to acknowledge their team, no matter how well they perform. Leaders who don't push their teams to achieve more, and don't recognise high achievement when it does happen, will soon be faced with a situation where no one will wish to work outside their comfort zone, or be motivated to do so.

While all of the aforementioned traits are certainly indicative of a poor leader, this one could be the most important overarching one when it comes to separating an exceptional leader from a poor leader. Poor leaders fail to inform others of decisions being made. They don't clarify important things with people and are surprised when others don't understand them. They assume that others have the same opinion as them. They don't ask for feedback, or are dismissive of it when they receive it.

We are determined to be at the forefront of helping to mould great leaders. If you are curious to find out more about your strengths and areas for improvement as a leader, LMA has created the DIY Leadership Analysis to help you determine your weak spots and strategies to help you improve your leadership style.

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At Leadership Management Australia (LMA) we talk a lot about what it takes to be an instrumental and 'good' leader. We thought we'd look at it from a different perspective to get a fresh look at what the traits are of what we consider to be 'bad' leaders.

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Media: Text- Nontraditional. Quote
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This text is a quote by world leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Theme Connection: This text is an empowering quotation that not only describes Gandhi as a leader, but it hints to what type of leaders we should have in our world.
Text Complexity: The Flesh-Kincaid reading ease readability is 100 or a 5th grade level. Based on the sentence structure, my students will not have a hard time reading the text but the complexity will be due to the analysis of the moderately complex purpose of the text.
Instructional Uses: Students will explore this quote independently. Students will either analyze through writing or orally what this text means. Why would you want a leader to believe in this? What characteristic traits can we attribute to this quote.

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Media: Visual- Cartoon
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This text is a visual that is a cartoon displaying a negative leader.
Theme Connection: This text relates to my theme of leadership by illustrating qualities that are not representative of good leaders. This text is illustrating a poor or bad leader.
Text Complexity: Although the little text in this visual contains simple sentences for the sentence structure, making it easy to read, the purpose or meaning is harder to infer. The complexity comes from the implied meaning through the sarcasm being used in the text.
Instructional Uses: We will look at this cartoon together and have a whole class discussion with think-pair-share break offs. After the initial read, we will analyze the picture. We will share what we notice about the cartoon. We will share who and what we see. We will then talk about if the text is being serious or sarcastic to avoid misconceptions. How is this NOT illustrating strong leadership? What would need to be different?

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The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

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The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

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Media: Text, Literary Tradebook
Lexile Level: AD500L
Summary: This text is a literary picture book where toys need to find the right train for the job in transporting. They come across many trains until they find the right one.
Theme Connection: Although abstract at first thought, this text is connected to my theme of leadership. Each engine the characters meet can be characterized. One is superior feeling, one is lazy, one is old, and so on. The little blue engine represents a strong leader as she believes in herself and doesn't give up, doing what the other engines didn't want to or couldn't.
Text Complexity: Based on the Lexile Level, this text falls in the second grade reading level. The text structure and language features, such as the use of graphics to support and the simple sentences are beneficial to the students. The students would also have no problem when determining the meaning.
Instructional Uses: This might be the first text read starting this unit. I will read aloud the text as I follow the GRR model and model how to make characterizations based on actions and speech by characters. I will/we will/they will characterize the different engines within this story and connect them to strong leaders or not.

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Media: Visual- Political Poster
Lexile Level: N/A
Summary: This text is a visual political poster of icon Rosie the Riveter that was displayed in the United States during World War II. It represented women in the workforce during the war when taking over for men who joined the military.
Theme Connection: This text represents political propaganda that connects to my theme's genre of persuasion. My students can study this poster to determine what was used for effective persuasion. This text also connects to my theme of leadership as Rosie was seen as a leader and to represent leaders. This poster is meant to be empowering and motivational for women.
Text Complexity: This visual contains a simple sentence and a graphic to support the text. The purpose of this text is implied but needs to be identified based on context which makes this text moderately complex.
Instructional Uses: This text will be used to study the genre of persuasion. Each student will fill out an observation chart. They will write what they SEE in the poster first. Then, I will give them more background information about who this person is and WHY this poster was created. We will look back at their observations and discuss the importance of what made this so persuasive.