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Welcome to our small group counseling page! This semester's focus will be: testing anxiety & test-taking strategies. 

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Welcome to our small group counseling page! This semester's focus will be: testing anxiety & test-taking strategies. 

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The Texas Administrative Code (TAC) states that counselors must facilitate learners' ability to achieve their potential by helping them set and attain challenging educational, career, personal, and social goals based on various types of information (19 TAC §239.15).

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The small group name will be “Teens Tackling Test Anxiety” and it will be comprised of students who struggle with test anxiety. The group will discuss what test anxiety is, its effects, and techniques to decrease test anxiety by utilizing healthy coping mechanisms for anxiety and test-taking strategies

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The small group name will be “Teens Tackling Test Anxiety” and it will be comprised of students who struggle with test anxiety. The group will discuss what test anxiety is, its effects, and techniques to decrease test anxiety by utilizing healthy coping mechanisms for anxiety and test-taking strategies

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In high school, students are required to take significant exams that determine grade progression, credit retrieval/recovery and college admission. Often, these exams cause stress and extreme nervousness for some students.

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In high school, students are required to take significant exams that determine grade progression, credit retrieval/recovery and college admission. Often, these exams cause stress and extreme nervousness for some students.

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Self-Management Skill: Perseverance to achieve long and short-term goals.

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Self-Management Skill: Perseverance to achieve long and short-term goals.

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Students will learn healthy ways to decrease test-anxiety to persevere in achieving their goals in preparation for state testing.

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Learning Strategies: Long- and short-term academic, career and social/emotional goals.

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Learning Strategies: Long- and short-term academic, career and social/emotional goals.

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Students will set a SMART goal to help prepare themselves for the STAAR test. Goals may involve setting aside time for studying English I/English II topics or improving a sleep routing to be better rested for school.

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Parents will receive a letter sent home containing details about the small group along with a consent form and can indicate whether they give consent for their student to participate or not.

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Students will receive emails about the small group, and flyers will be posted in classrooms to increase student awareness about the group. Teachers will also be asked to make announcements about the small group.

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In the weekly staff meeting, the school counselor will take time to discuss the need for and purpose of the small group to the teachers and administrators. The counselor will ask for feedback, concerns and suggestions to encourage collaboration between the teachers, administrators, and counseling department. Information about the small group will also be posted on the campus website.

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Because the campus is small (120 students total), only one counselor serves the school; however, the counseling department meets bi-weekly in a virtual setting. During the bi-weekly counseling department meeting, the school counselor will discuss the small group on their campus and receive feedback or suggestions from counselors on other campuses within the district.

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Please refer to the small group action plan for details on how the group will work, student learning objectives, and planned activities.

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Students will be informed of the group by teachers announcements made in class. They will also receive emails about the small group and its purpose.

Using the Tap-In process, the counselor will inform the students about details of the group such as group expectations, meeting times, and group goals. The counsel will then ask students about their interest in the group. Screening questions will be sent to students through a Google Form so the counselor can have adequate data to choose participants.

Students will be screened individually using a Google Form and based on their responses, the counselor will choose participants and place them on a roster. Teachers will then be informed of which students in their classes will be participating in small group counseling.

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My organization does not specifically provide information on informed consent, so ASCA guidelines will be followed to ensure students have the knowledge to give their informed consent.

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The counselor will either make copies of the Ground Rules worksheet or project it so the group can collaborate to establish guidelines and expectations for their group sessions. The counselor will work through each expectation and ask students for example scenarios for each statement. Additionally, the counselor and students will create a Social Contract that can be posted in the meeting room for students to refer to throughout the sessions. The Social Contract will be comprised of a poster board with words that describe how students expect to be treated and how they will treat others. Examples of descriptors that may be included in the Social Contract: respect, honesty, vulnerability, acceptance, non-judgement.

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From the first session, students will engage in team building activities to build relationships and trust among group members. Using the Social Contract, students will provide their input regarding their expectations on how they'd like to be treated and how they will treat others.

For each session moving forward, the counselor and group members can start with Good Things: an activity where each group member states one or two positive things they observed, or experienced. This will help start each session on a positive note and allow group members to learn about a little bit about each other at the start of each session, further developing their relationships with each other.

For establishing limits on confidentiality, the counselor will thoroughly explain limitations in the first session. Students can create a poster together with the main points of limitations to serve as a reminder throughout the sessions. The Social Contract and Confidentiality Limitations posters can be hung in the meeting room for future reference.

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For this small group, the counselor will use participative or democratic leadership to guide the group. This approach would work best for this specific population because high school students want to practice independence and autonomy. They want to know that their thoughts, feelings, and ideas are valued; they want to be heard. Utilizing participative leadership will help students take ownership of their learning and progress throughout the sessions.

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For Teens Tackling Test Anxiety, group members will experience Imparting of Information (Yalom, 1995). They will learn about test-anxiety, its effects, and how it might impact their academic performance and opportunities. Psychoeducation is crucial for this small group, because their awareness of the issue will help them take steps to address and remedy the problem.

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TAC legal requirements help guide me, as a school counselor, by providing explicitly stated expectations for my role. The TAC requirement helps me determine how to best serve my students to help them meet their full potential. By providing this legal guidance, I am equipped with the appropriate knowledge to create a comprehensive guidance counseling program that contains all of the necessary requirements as established by the TAC.

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To encourage student ownership of the small group, the counselor will not predetermine any rules, but will allow the students to establish rules they believe are fair and just. This will help students feel their input is valuable and important in the small group.

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To keep group members working cohesively and productively through each session, a Q&A session will be available at the end of each formal group session. This will help group members provide feedback, concerns, and thoughts about the session's activities and help them look forward to the next session.

To check-in with group members throughout the sessions, a short quiz at the end of each session will allow the counselor to gauge learning outcomes and group member progress.

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The final session will allow group members to engage in an activity where they create a poster summarizing what they learned in the small group and how they can utilize those skills to be more successful on upcoming exams.

The counselor will lead a brief discussion once more on confidentiality and how it still applies even though the group will no longer meet regularly. Groups members will sign a confidentiality agreement to hold them accountable post-session. Group members will also be informed of the follow-up session and when it will occur. At this time, the group members will provide final thoughts in a group discussion before disbanding.

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors

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ASCA Ethical Standards state that counselor's must use data to measure member needs to establish well-defined
expectations of group members. This standard helps guide my work for group counseling in establishing the need to gather and analyze student data to ensure the counseling topics are relevant and necessary. Doing so will ensure that the students in my caseload experience real benefit from the counseling program (ASCA, 2016).