Synopses & Reviews
What reviewers have to say about Groups in Schools: Preparing, Leading, and Responding:
“This is an excellent resource for all school counselors and school counseling students. It fills a huge gap in the current literature, and the practical, informal writing style will appeal to students and practitioners alike. As a school counselor educator who is also a group worker, I am excited to have access to this book. I can’t wait to use it in my classes. One of the best books I have reviewed.”
H. George McMahon, Georgia State University
“[Groups in Schools is] a very accessible and usable piece of literature….This type of book will appeal to a broad audience in that not only will training programs likely adopt it, but I believe that practicing school counselors will also be interested in using it as a professional development tool.”
Laurie Ann Carlson, Colorado State University
“[Groups in Schools] would be a very useful text for students and new counselors to provide them with guidelines and practical intervention techniques to utilize in schools. Advantages include the inclusion of specific grad/developmental level sections.”
Jasmine E. Khan, Baylor University
“A strength of [the book] is the attention to grade-level considerations, developmental appropriateness, as well as ethical issues to conducting group work in schools.”
Kimberly Mason, Cleveland State University
Synopsis
Finally, a textbook that teaches students how to effectively lead counseling and classroom groups in schools
This practical, user-friendly book contains the most relevant information critical to working with students in both classroom psychoeducational and counseling group work in schools. Building upon students and practitioners generalist preparation to lead groups,
Group Work in Schools: Preparing, Leading, Responding offers readers practical direction in planning and facilitating groups in the school setting. The ideas presented in the book are applicable to a variety of group venues and adaptable to multiple age levels. The nuts and bolts approach in this book is complemented by a focus on how school counselors can use group work to address complex and nuanced issues (particularly those social issues frequently referred to as "diversity issues") in their school communities. In short, this book teaches school counselors to be intentional in their group work practice in schools.
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Synopsis
Finally, a textbook that teaches students how to effectively lead counseling and classroom groups in schools!
This practical, user-friendly book contains the most relevant information critical to working with students in both classroom psychoeducational and counseling group work in schools. Building upon students’ and practitioners’ generalist preparation to lead groups, Group Work in Schools: Preparing, Leading, Responding offers readers practical direction in planning and facilitating groups in the school setting. The ideas presented in the book are applicable to a variety of group venues and adaptable to multiple age levels. The ‘nuts and bolts’ approach in this book is complemented by a focus on how school counselors can use group work to address complex and nuanced issues (particularly those social issues frequently referred to as "diversity issues") in their school communities. In short, this book teaches school counselors to be intentional in their group work practice in schools.
About the Author
Dr. Geroski is an Associate Professor and Counseling Program Coordinator at the University of Vermont. Her scholarship focuses on group work in schools and on Narrative Therapy. Dr. Kraus is a professor of Counseling at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. His scholarship and clinical practice focuses on counseling children and adolescents, and he is a Fellow in the Association for Specialists in Group Work. Drs. Geroski and Kraus are former teachers, school counselors, and clinicians, who have collaborated on numerous scholarly projects over the past two decades.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Group Planning and Organization
Goals
“Lesson Plans”
Physical Space
Group Activities
Activity Selection
Timing of Activities
Processing Questions
Planning for Evaluation
Questions
Outcome Study Design and Data Sources
Conclusions and Changes
Managing the Group: Establishing a Productive Learning Environment
Leader Positioning
Group Climate
Cohesiveness
Interpersonal Learning
Caring
Safety, Challenge, Risk and Anxiety
Leader Executive Function
Preparing Students for Learning
Rule and Norm-setting
Attention
Minimize Distractions
Clear Instructions
Withitness
Learning Map
Meaning-making
Spiral Learning
Mental Models
Personal Life Context
Managing Content and Process Focus
Intentionality
Using and Processing Activities
Flexibility
Interest
Processing
Assessing Learning Objectives
Responding to Problems in the Group
General Guidelines
Ignoring
Cueing, re-focusing, and Proximity Control
Dealing with Objects and Other Distractions
Humor
Hurdle Help
Feedback Exchange and Group Problem Solving
Restating the Rule
Working with Choices
Using Consequences
Natural Consequences
Logical Consequences
Reasonable Consequences
General Guidelines for Working with Consequences
Contracts
Drafting the Contract
Working with the Contract in the Group
Unhooking from Power Struggles
Using Time-Out De-escalation