Grade 12 - Preparing to Transition

In this lesson, mentees will reflect on the value of having a mentor during high school, project the value of a mentor during college, and learn about the iMentor College Program.

• Lesson Overview
• Entry Point
• Keystone 1
• Keystone 2
• Exit Ramp
• Participant Responsibilities

Lesson Overview
Objectives: Mentees will: Reflect on the role their mentor played during high school. Project and discuss the role their mentor can play after high school. Learn about the College Program.	Guiding Questions: What role has my mentor played during my high school years? How is college different from high school? What role can my mentor play in understanding and navigating those differences?	Lesson Resources: Slide presentation College Years video College program one pager

Entry Point

• Staff will write the definition on the board or display the entry point slide.
• Tech Distribution Ritual 
• Prior Unit Recap
  • Staff will facilitate a brief review of the content and goals of prior unit.
  • Mentees will read mentor reflections.
  • Staff will facilitate brief share-out of mentor responses.

Keystone 1

Purpose:

In this lesson, mentees will anticipate experiences that they will have in college and reflect on the role of a mentor during them.

Steps:

Chunk One: Role of My Mentor

• Staff will display the slide with the dictionary definition of a mentor, or write the following on the board:
  • Mentor (noun): a wise and trusted counselor or teacher
  • Staff note: this "official" definition is taken from dictionary.com
• Staff will facilitate a brief class discussion about the word. Discussion questions could include:
  • Do you agree with this definition? Why or why not?
  • Is this how you think of your mentor? Why or why not?
  • Does this definition capture the role that your mentor plays in your life? Why or why not?
• Staff will ask mentees to reflect silently for 20-30 seconds about the role that their mentor has played for them during high school.
• Staff will ask mentees to turn to a partner to share the role that their mentors have played during high school, and brainstorm a list of words that describe the role of a mentor for a high school student.
• Staff will facilitate a brief share-out
  • It may be helpful to write some of the words that mentees brainstorm on the board, or encourage mentees to write them down on scrap paper during the exercise so that they can reference them in chunk three.

Chunk Two: College Experiences

• Staff will facilitate a brief recap of the prior lessons on the differences between high school and college (12.7.2, 12.7.3, 12.7.4).
  • This could be as simple as reminding mentees about the conversations had during those classes, or could expand to include a brief class discussion.
  • Discussion questions could include:
    • How would you summarize the differences between high school and college? (academically, socially, etc)
    • What opportunities do you expect to have in college that you haven't had during high school?
    • What challenges do you anticipate having during college?
• Staff will break mentees up into groups of 3-4.
• In their groups, mentees will create a list of as many experiences that they expect to have in one of the following four categories: Academic, Social, Personal, Cultural
  • Staff should assign one category to each group or allow each group to choose one category
  • "Experiences" could include things that mentees are excited about, opportunities they hope to have, challenges they are concerned about, questions they have, etc.
  • Encourage mentees to brainstorm as many things as possible
• Staff will facilitate a brief share-out

Chunk Three: Role of My Mentor in College

• Staff will display the College Program video
• Staff will ask mentees to return to their groups of 3-4, and discuss the following:
  • What role could your mentor have in the experiences that your group listed?
  • If iMentor could give you and your mentor one thing to support you through these experiences, what would it be? Why?
• Staff will facilitate a share-out

Keystone 2

Purpose: 

In this activity, mentees will learn about the iMentor College Program.

Steps:

Chunk One: iMentor College Program

• Staff will distribute the iMentor College Program one pager
• Staff will give mentees 1-2 minutes to review the resource on their own
• Staff will ask mentees to turn to a partner or return to their groups to debrief the resource using the following questions:
  • How would you describe the iMentor College Program to someone?
  • Why do you think that iMentor created the College Program?
  • What questions do you have about iMentor's College Program?​
• Staff will facilitate a brief Q&A about the iMentor College Program

Chunk Two: High School vs. College Program

• Staff will ask mentees to turn to a partner or return to their groups to discuss the following:
  • Knowing what you know about the differences between high school and college, how do you expect iMentor's college program to be different from the high school program? You can focus on the following categories:
    • The way you and your mentor communicate (how often you talk, how you talk, what you talk about, etc)
    • The way you and your mentor meet (how you schedule meetings, how often you meet, where you meet, what you do together, etc)
    • The kind of support that you get from your staff person
    • The kind of support that you get from your mentor
    • How you know what you and your mentor should work on together
  • Staff note: staff should feel free to revise, add to, or subtract from the list of categories above based on the concerns that they have about their mentees' participation in the college program.
• Staff will facilitate a share-out
• Staff should share any relevant logistics or timelines related to enrollment in the college program (e.g. extending matches, if relevant)

Chunk Three: Share with Mentor

• How do you expect the iMentor College Program to be different from the iMentor High School Program? What role do you hope your mentor will have in your college experiences?

Exit Ramp

• Transition
  • Biggest difference between the iMentor College and iMentor High School programs
• Planning and Reminder Ritual
• Tech Collection Ritual
• Closing

Participant Responsibilities
Mentee Deliverable How do you expect the iMentor College Program to be different from the iMentor High School Program? What role do you hope your mentor will have in your college experiences?	Mentor Deliverable Read mentee response and share: what role do you hope to play in your mentee's college experience?