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Phoenix Wings: A closed grief support and coping skills group for children 4th-6th grade for students who have experienced the loss

of a loved one.

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The following are a list of Mindset and Behavior standards as outlined by ASCA that students participating in this group will master before the conclusion of the group:

M 2. Sense of acceptance, respect, support and inclusion for self and others in the school environment

B-SMS 7. Effective coping skills

B-SS 2. Positive, respectful and supportive

relationships with students who are

similar to and different from them

B-SS 3. Positive relationships with adults to

support success

B-SS 10. Cultural awareness, sensitivity and

responsiveness

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Parent Information:

Disseminated through the use of a class made in Class Dojo to receive information.

School-wide:

General information and group sign-ups will be posted on the school feed.

Teacher:

Teachers who have students who will be pulled out for group will receive private emails regarding the time of pullout services, frequency of meetings, and conclusion of services. They will also be given paper flyers to send home that are paper copies of what is posted in Dojo for parents who may not be on the app.

Students:

Students will receive paper copies of timelines, objectives, consent forms, and pertinent information once the student is admitted to the group.

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I will introduce the group during guidance lessons to ensure all students are able to hear about the group and ask questions privately after guidance, if needed. I will assess participant readiness by speaking with them directly and their families using a brief questionnaire to analyze willingness, how recent their loss was, and if the group is a need. Each member will be individually screened, as the information being shared may not be appropriate for the whole group to hear.

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In order for students to participate in this group, they will fill out a district-required informed consent. In the bottom right hand corner, I will write in that the student will be participating in Phoenix Wings: a grief support group. I will also attach the informational flyer to the consent form so that they have specific details regarding the group. The students must return the informed consent prior to joining.

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Elementary School Counseling Informed Consent 

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Group rules will be set by students using a Respect Agreement that is geared towards the group setting. This is a district-wide resource. The students will cultivate an agreement or set of rules they will abide by during group sessions. The counselor will lead the students to predetermined rules such as: keeping confidential information confidential, let others speak without being interrupted, see the other person's point of view, do not make fun of others. Students will create their own version of how they expect to be treated, and will agree to do during the group and sign their name. It will be hung up in the counseling room during group.

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Stage 1 - I will develop relationships and trust between the students by demonstrating unconditional positive regard, validating expressed thoughts and feelings, and respecting what the student does or does not want to share. I will address confidentiality with students by explaining that confidentiality among members is expected, and breaking confidentiality will result in the student being dismissed from group. I will also make sure students know that confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, despite it being the expectation, and to share information only as they are comfortable. We will also discuss that I will break confidentiality if the student is hurting themselves, someone is hurting them, or if they are going to hurt someone in order to keep everyone safe. Norms will be expressly stated and followed in the lesson plan template every week.

Stage 2 - I will intentionally create lessons where each person has the opportunity to share and relate to others. Group participation will be encouraged, as I link students when I see similarities, using a multitude of group leadership strategies. At the end of each session, we will fill out an attitudes Likert scale and I will informally observe the students work. Over time, I will make notes about if each student is using their coping skills to determine progress and effectiveness.

Stage 3 - In order to close the group, we will summarize all that we learned. The final lesson lends itself to a closure, as we melt together all of our individual experiences to create one cohesive final project to symbolize our progress. I will do exit interviews with each student to determine if the student has a need for continued individual services outside of school counseling or will need check-ins. We will revisit confidentiality and the consequences of such if it is broken even after the conclusion of group.

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I feel that the participative leadership style will be most effective for this age group. I will be providing guidance on the expectations, goals, and activities for the group, but I want the majority of the group and its participation to be led by the group members. This will better meet the needs of the students and allow them to develop social skills, a deeper support network, and explore their own feelings in a better way.

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The top 3 therapeutic factors that I would like to instill in my group members are:

Universality - I want the focus of this group to be the idea that we are all together in our grief experience, though the experience itself might be unique. While we are working through our grief, we do not have to do it alone.

Instillation of Hope - There is life after grief and new ways of our loved ones remaining part of our lives. We can learn through community and our support systems how to honor those that we have lost and look forward to our own futures.

Interpersonal learning - We are learning that we are all different, but share similar experiences. We can learn new ways to relate to others and explore ways that we can support each other.

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TEA Code e.4. (e)Standard IV. Learner-Centered Equity and Excellence for All Learners: The certified school counselor promotes academic success for all learners by acknowledging, respecting, and responding to diversity while building on similarities that bond all people. The certified school counselor must: (4) take a positive, strength-based approach that builds on commonalities versus differences in all learners

This will be essential because the grief process is very individualized and often specific to a person's religious beliefs, culture, or both. I will want to focus on the commonalities of students and how we can learn from each other and how we can draw from each other's strengths.

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ACA Code of Ethics A.2.d. When counseling minors, incapacitated adults, or other persons unable

to give voluntary consent, counselors

seek the assent of clients to services

and include them in decision making

as appropriate. Counselors recognize

the need to balance the ethical rights

of clients to make choices, their capac-

ity to give consent or assent to receive

services, and parental or familial legal

rights and responsibilities to protect

these clients and make decisions on

their behalf.

I must make sure that I have consent prior to pulling students, and that the information that I provide is sufficient for the child's guardians or parents to make an informed decision on whether or not they want their child to participate. Although it is good to obtain consent from the child, it is not sufficient to only obtain their consent because they are a minor.

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American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. https://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Cherry, K. (2023). How to Lead: 6 Leadership Styles and Frameworks. VeryWellMind. https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312

Guidance and Counseling. (n.d.) Elementary School Counseling Informed Consent.

Arlington ISD. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gG5pF1psSFiQifigSl4xQDioyxcQd24l/view

Guidance and Counseling. (n.d.) Respect Agreement. Arlington ISD.

https://staff.arlingtonisd.org/departments/positive-behavior-interventions-and-support/

Texas Administrative Code. (n.d.) Texas Administrative Code Title 19, Part 7, Chapter 239, Subchapter A, Rule 239.15. https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=7&ch=239&rl=15

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Leadership styles are classifications of how a person behaves while directing, motivating, guiding, and managing groups of people. There are many leadership styles. Some of the most widely discussed include: authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic), delegative (laissez-faire), transformational, transactional, and situational.

Great leaders can inspire political movements and social change. They can also motivate others to perform, create, and innovate. As you start to consider some of the people who you think of as great leaders, you can immediately see that there are often vast differences in how each person leads.

Fortunately, researchers have developed different theories and frameworks that allow us to better identify and understand these different leadership styles.

Lewin's Leadership Styles

In 1939, a group of researchers led by psychologist Kurt Lewin set out to identify different styles of leadership.﻿﻿ While further research has identified more distinct types of leadership, this early study was very influential and established three major leadership styles that have provided a springboard for more defined leadership theories.

In Lewin's study, schoolchildren were assigned to one of three groups with an authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire leader. The children were then led in an arts and crafts project while researchers observed the behavior of children in response to the different styles of leadership. The researchers found that democratic leadership tended to be the most effective at inspiring followers to perform well.

Authoritarian Leadership (Autocratic)

Authoritarian leaders, also known as autocratic leaders, provide clear expectations for what needs to be done, when it should be done, and how it should be done. This style of leadership is strongly focused on both command by the leader and control of the followers. There is also a clear division between the leader and the members. Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently, with little or no input from the rest of the group.

Researchers found that decision-making was less creative under authoritarian leadership.﻿﻿ Lewin also concluded that it is harder to move from an authoritarian style to a democratic style than vice versa. Abuse of this method is usually viewed as controlling, bossy, and dictatorial.

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Authoritarian leadership is best applied to situations where there is little time for group decision-making or where the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group. The autocratic approach can be a good one when the situation calls for rapid decisions and decisive actions. However, it tends to create dysfunctional and even hostile environments, often pitting followers against the domineering leader.

Participative Leadership (Democratic)

Lewin's study found that participative leadership, also known as democratic leadership, is typically the most effective leadership style. Democratic leaders offer guidance to group members, but they also participate in the group and allow input from other group members. In Lewin's study, children in this group were less productive than the members of the authoritarian group, but their contributions were of a higher quality.

Participative leaders encourage group members to participate, but retain the final say in the decision-making process. Group members feel engaged in the process and are more motivated and creative. Democratic leaders tend to make followers feel like they are an important part of the team, which helps foster commitment to the goals of the group.

Delegative Leadership (Laissez-Faire)

Lewin found that children under delegative leadership, also known as laissez-faire leadership, were the least productive of all three groups. The children in this group also made more demands on the leader, showed little cooperation, and were unable to work independently.

Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave the decision-making up to group members. While this style can be useful in situations involving highly qualified experts, it often leads to poorly defined roles and a lack of motivation.

Lewin noted that laissez-faire leadership tended to result in groups that lacked direction and members who blamed each other for mistakes, refused to accept personal responsibility, made less progress, and produced less work.

Observations About Lewin's Leadership Styles

In their book, The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications, Bass and Bass note that authoritarian leadership is often presented solely in negative, often disapproving, terms. Authoritarian leaders are often described as controlling and close-minded, yet this overlooks the potential positives of stressing rules, expecting obedience, and taking responsibility.

While authoritarian leadership certainly is not the best choice for every situation, it can be effective and beneficial in cases where followers need a great deal of direction and where rules and standards must be followed to the letter. Another often overlooked benefit of the authoritarian style is the ability to maintain a sense of order.

Bass and Bass note that democratic leadership tends to be centered on the followers and is an effective approach when trying to maintain relationships with others. People who work under such leaders tend to get along well, support one another, and consult other members of the group when making decisions.

Additional Leadership Styles and Models

In addition to the three styles identified by Lewin and his colleagues, researchers have described numerous other characteristic patterns of leadership. A few of the best-known include:

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is often identified as the single most effective style. This style was first described during the late 1970s and later expanded upon by researcher Bernard M. Bass. Transformational leaders are able to motivate and inspire followers and to direct positive changes in groups.

These leaders tend to be emotionally intelligent, energetic, and passionate. They are not only committed to helping the organization achieve its goals, but also to helping group members fulfill their potential.

Research shows that this style of leadership results in higher performance and more improved group satisfaction than other leadership styles. One study also found that transformational leadership led to improved well-being among group members.

Transactional Leadership

The transactional leadership style views the leader-follower relationship as a transaction. By accepting a position as a member of the group, the individual has agreed to obey the leader. In most situations, this involves the employer-employee relationship, and the transaction focuses on the follower completing required tasks in exchange for monetary compensation.

One of the main advantages of this leadership style is that it creates clearly defined roles. People know what they are required to do and what they will be receiving in exchange. This style allows leaders to offer a great deal of supervision and direction, if needed.

Group members may also be motivated to perform well to receive rewards. One of the biggest downsides is that the transactional style tends to stifle creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.

Situational Leadership

Situational theories of leadership stress the significant influence of the environment and the situation on leadership. Hersey and Blanchard's leadership stylesis one of the best-known situational theories. First published in 1969, this model describes four primary styles of leadership, including:

1. Telling: Telling people what to do

2. Selling: Convincing followers to buy into their ideas and messages

3. Participating: Allowing group members to take a more active role in the decision-making process

4. Delegating: Taking a hands-off approach to leadership and allowing group members to make the majority of decisions

Later, Blanchard expanded upon the original Hersey and Blanchard model to emphasize how the developmental and skill level of learners influences the style that should be used by leaders. Blanchard's SLII leadership styles model also described four different leading styles:

1. Directing: Giving orders and expecting obedience, but offering little guidance and assistance

2. Coaching: Giving lots of orders, but also lots of support

3. Supporting: Offering plenty of help, but very little direction

4. Delegating: Offering little direction or support

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It seems like there are as many different styles of leadership as there are leaders. Discover some of the most common leadership style frameworks.