In the 10th Grade, pairs will explore how to grow interests into passions with time and practice, and explore their interests by getting involved in activities and planning summer. Pairs will apply a growth mindset to their academic goals . Students will name their skills and practice telling their own story by creating and presenting a resume. Students will explore social capital by mapping their networks and identifying people who can support them in their path to college.
Click here for a grade guide which summarizes the curricular goals for the year and provides a timeline for running the lessons.
- Unit 1: Launching Grade 10
- Unit 2: Get Involved!
- Unit 3: Building My Resume
- Unit 4: Summer Planning
- Unit 5: Reaching Your Goals
- Unit 6: Social Capital
- Unit 7: College Landscape (NYC Only)
- Unit 8: College Landscape
- Unit 9: Culture and Identity
Unit 1: Launching Grade 10
In this first unit, students will be re-acquainted to the program. They’ll work collaboratively to establish classroom norms and re-engage with their mentors. By taking time for students to reflect and refocus on the characteristics of a strong classroom culture and pair relationship, this unit places peer collaboration and the mentor-mentee relationship at the center of the year’s work.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.1.* Beginning of Year Survey | The beginning of the year survey records how students are feeling as they start the year. The survey allows the program to gauge student progress when compared against 9th grade, as well as against later surveys and assessments. | |
| 10.1.1 Trust Check | This lesson focuses on students’ roles in continuing to build trust with their mentors. This is an opportunity to reinforce or renew expectations for students, including the importance of in-person events. | |
| 10.1.2 Collaboration & Class Norms | In this lesson, students will reflect on their experience in their program class last year in order to develop and adjust classroom norms for this year. | |
| 10.1.3 Summer Reflections | In this lesson, students reflect on their last summer and set goals for the summer ahead. The purpose is to capture reflections on the summer while impressions are still fresh. | |
| Event_10.1 Reconnecting | This is the first event of the year. The goal for this event is to reconnect pairs and renew commitments to their work together in the upcoming year. Pairs will preview major milestones for 10th grade and reflect on the commitments they made in 9th grade, adjusting them accordingly based on what works, and what they can improve. |
Unit 2: Get Involved!
In this unit, students will explore their interests, extending the work they did on this career question in 9th grade. Students will understand that interests grow into passions when fed with time and practice. Students will learn about, and commit to pursuing, extracurricular activities aligned to their interests or passions.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.2.1 Exploring My Interests | Students will shift their focus to the program’s goals for 10th grade by identifying an interest to pursue in high school. | |
| 10.2.2 How Interests Grow | In this lesson, students will think about interests as a starting place for career exploration by selecting one interest to actively pursue throughout their 10th grade year. | |
| 10.2.3 Get Involved | Getting involved in high school can help students build their confidence and their networks while exploring their talents and interests. | |
| Event_10.2 Making Connections | This event provides students an opportunity to practice building social capital both with their mentor and with other mentors. Students and their mentors will begin initial conversations about mentee’s interests, skills, as well as summer and potential career plans. This will help students both in building their resumes and lays the groundwork for STEP (which pairs will use to research and collaborate on summer plans in the winter). |
Unit 3: Building My Resume
In this unit, students will identify their skills and strengths and discuss experiences that have helped them grow. They will then use this information to create a resume which will help them to value their strengths, tell their personal story, and apply for summer jobs or programs. All of the work of this unit will help students identify reasons for attending college.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.3.1 High School Resume | No matter what a student wants to do after high school, a great resume can help them achieve their short- and long-term goals. | |
| 10.3.2 Identifying My Skills | This lesson will help students brainstorm and list the hard and soft skills they have already developed. Students will learn the names and categories of skills they can include on their resumes. | |
| 10.3.3 Writing My Resume | Developing a resume will benefit students greatly as they begin applying for academic and employment opportunities and completing summer and extracurricular applications. | |
| 10.3.4 Polishing My Resume | Developing a resume will benefit students greatly as they begin applying for academic and employment opportunities and completing summer and extracurricular applications. | |
| Event_10.3 Resume Workshop | This event provides students and their mentors with an opportunity to work face-to-face on students’ resumes. This will allow them to get to know each other better as they discuss and explore the students’ interests and experiences. |
Unit 4: Summer Planning
In this unit, students will begin planning their summer by understanding it as an opportunity to grow their skills or pursue their interests. With their mentor’s guidance, each student will develop personalized criteria for selecting summer projects. Mentors will offer suggestions and support their mentee’s efforts to research, compare, evaluate, and apply for summer opportunities through Summer Teen Enrichment Projects (STEP).
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.4.1 STEP: Personal Growth | This lesson introduces Summer Teen Enrichment Projects (STEP). Approaching the summer strategically and with the support of their mentor can help prevent summer melt and encourage students to build good academic habits outside of the classroom. | |
| 10.4.2 STEP: Requirements | In this lesson, students will continue digging into the Summer Teen Enrichment Project (STEP) and research opportunities within the boundaries of the time they can commit and their financial resources/goals. | |
| 10.4.3 My STEP Research | In this lesson, students research summer opportunities that are aligned to the knowledge, skills, and experiences they want grow, and that meet their time and financial Fit Factors. | |
| Event_10.4 My STEP Plan | This is an important opportunity for pairs to work together to maximize how mentees are spending free time over the summer, developing knowledge, skills or experience. The mentor will also develop his or her Summer STEP Plan, which helps to deepen the pair relationship through mutual trust, encouragement, and accountability. |
Unit 5: Reaching Your Goals
In this unit, students will build on the goal-setting strategies they learned in 9th grade and apply them to academic planning. Students will begin by reflecting on long-term goals by envisioning their future selves. They will then establish a related intermediate goal followed by specific immediate goals using the SMART goal framework. Finally, students will develop and implement a plan for achieving a specific academic goal.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.5.* SMART Goals | This lesson introduces students to the SMART goal framework by guiding students in developing specific, measurable goals. Understanding the importance of working toward specific goals will set a foundation for developing and working towards specific academic goals throughout the rest of the year. | |
| 10.5.1 Picture of Happiness | To prepare for the college process ahead, students need to first have a clear picture of where they want to go so they can figure out what it takes to get there. In this lesson, students will develop a holistic vision of a happy and successful life. This will build on the process of career exploration from previous units. It will also build a “why” for college and for the upcoming goal setting work. | |
| 10.5.2 Message From the Future | Students will reflect on their vision for the future and start thinking about the education and/or career goal they will need to achieve to realize that vision. Mentors will use the message that results from this lesson to understand what their mentee hopes to accomplish, and to fill in the steps that their mentee may not know about. | |
| 10.5.3 High School Graduation | In this lesson, students will determine where they are on- and off-track on their path to high school graduation. This should encourage students to work toward high grades in every class, and will possibly provide an opportunity to catch transcript or registration errors. Students can also apply this review process to monitoring their progress toward a college degree when they enter the post-secondary space. | |
| 10.5.4 My Academic Goal | Now that students have established a clear vision for their future and have reviewed the reality of high school graduation/college admissions requirements, they need to connect that vision to specific, actionable goals and tasks they can work on now. In this lesson, students will be introduced to or will review SMART goals, and create an academic goal. | |
| 10.5.5 Seeking Support | In this lesson, students will identify resources and people who can help them reach their academic goal. Successful goal-setting is a vital skill for students’ success in college and in their future careers. Talking through the challenges of achieving a goal and reinforcing a process for developing solutions will give students more confidence as they tackle new goals and challenges this year and in the future. | |
| 10.5.6 Acing the SAT | Practicing for the SAT is important for college admission, potential scholarships, and possibly being exempt from college placement tests like the Accuplacer at some institutions. In this lesson, students will be shown a free tool that is designed specifically to help them practice for the SAT. Using this tool in class will make students more likely to use it for practice outside of class. | |
| 10.5.7 Problem-Solving | Students will always have hurdles to overcome in high school, as they work toward academic goals, in the process of applying to colleges and financial aid,and beyond. It is important to give students tools for addressing those challenges and to provide authentic opportunities for them to practice how to overcome them. In this lesson, students will identify a challenge in meeting their academic goal and use the tools of reflecting and asking for help to figure out a solution. | |
| Event_10.5 Career Exploration Check-Up | Each year, pairs will connect at one event to discuss and check-in on their “big picture” progress towards figuring out a happy and fulfilling life after high school. The program’s career exploration model is organized around four key questions: What do I like to do? What am I good at? What do I value? What can I get paid to do? Once a year, pairs will use a rubric based on those four questions, plus one more related to post-secondary pathways: How will I get there? | |
| Event_10.5 Solving Problems Together | This event provides students and their mentors time to work through the process of addressing challenges in person. Practicing the process of brainstorming solutions helps students become more comfortable directly addressing challenges to make a plan to move forward. Working on this together with their mentors helps build trust, as well as the likelihood that students will reach out when future challenges arise in high school and in the transition to an unfamiliar post-secondary environment. |
Unit 6: Social Capital
In this unit, students will build a Social Capital Toolkit as a resource for the college process they’ll undergo in 11th and 12th grade. Students will first learn the meaning and significance of social capital, building on the foundation established in 9th and 10th grade via STEP and the goal-setting exercises. Students will then map the social capital they already have in their lives and create a social capital directory. Finally, students will examine how to strengthen and expand social capital through the lens of social media. They’ll end the year by expressing gratitude to their mentor.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.6.1 What is Social Capital | Students learn about social capital and the role others have in our happiness and success. This lesson reinforces the important role others play in setting and achieving goals, and is the first step in developing students’ Social Capital Toolkit. | |
| 10.6.2 My Social Capital | In this lesson, students will consider who in their network can help them work through an academic challenge. Practicing how to reach out to their network for support will increase students’ comfort, confidence, and proactivity. | |
| 10.6.3 Mastering Social Capital | In this lesson, students examine the role that social media plays in building social capital, and specifically, how the image they portray through social media sites can affect the sort of social capital they are able to build. | |
| 10.6.4 End of Year Survey | The end of the year survey allows PMs to gauge where students are, and how they have progressed compared to earlier surveys. | |
| 10.6.5 Closing Out the Year | In this lesson, students wrap up the year by practicing an important strategy for strengthening relationships and social capital: expressing and receiving gratitude. | |
| Event_10.6 Growing Social Capital | This event provides students with an opportunity to plan for and to practice accessing their social capital. For many students, initiating conversations with the important adults in their lives can be intimidating. Students can gain confidence by practicing these conversations with their mentors. The process of receiving and incorporating feedback will also improve students’ communication skills and foster a growth mindset. |
Unit 7: College Landscape (NYC Only)
In this unit, students and mentors will gain a full understanding of the college/post-secondary landscape of NYC/NYS through a series of lessons and prompts around NYC- and NYS-based public (CUNY & SUNY) and private institutions. This understanding of the options available to students will be immensely helpful to pairs, as the next two years of the match will be focused primarily on post-secondary planning.
This unit can truly make the learning a two-way street for both mentee and mentor. Many mentors are not from New York City or the state, and do not know what our processes look like here. Also, many mentors have negative views of the CUNY system, viewing it as less-than and lacking opportunities or rigor for their mentees. This unit will allow pairs to explore college options together. Most high schools enforce students applying to CUNY/SUNY colleges as a part of their post-secondary planning process.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.7.1 College Landscape - CUNY | The purpose of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore CUNY and the schools that are a part of the CUNY system. | |
| 10.7.2 College Landscape - SUNY | The purpose of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore SUNY and the schools that are a part of the SUNY system. | |
| 10.7.3 College Landscape - Private Schools | In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to compare CUNY/SUNY schools to private schools. The lesson will also highlight ways in which private schools specialize or focus on specific fields, and will cover the cost of attendance, student-to-professor ratios, and financial aid offered in comparison to CUNY or SUNY institutions. | |
| Event_10.7 Leveraging Your Mentor | Mentors can be a valuable resource for mentees as they navigate personal challenges and the post-secondary process as well as figure out a career that interests them and how to pursue it. In this event, pairs reflect on their relationship and when mentees go to their mentors for help, and identify new ways mentors can support mentees. |
Unit 8: College Landscape
In this unit, students and mentors will gain a full understanding of the college/post-secondary landscape through a series of lessons and prompts around public and private institutions. This understanding of the options available to students will be immensely helpful to pairs, as the next two years of the match will be focused primarily on post-secondary planning.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.8.1 College Landscape - Community College | The purpose of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore community colleges. | |
| 10.8.2 College Landscape - Public Universities | The purpose of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore public four-year universities including a specific public university in their city or state. | |
| 10.8.3 College Landscape - Private Colleges | In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to explore private colleges, including a specific private college in their city or state. | |
| 10.8.4 College Landscape - Comparing Options | Students will have the opportunity to compare community colleges, private colleges, and public four-year universities in order to understand the benefits, drawbacks, opportunities and challenges of each. | |
| Event_10.8 Leveraging Your Mentor | Mentors can be a valuable resource for mentees as they navigate personal challenges and the post-secondary process as well as figure out a career that interests them and how to pursue it. In this event, pairs reflect on their relationship and when mentees go to their mentors for help, and identify new ways mentors can support mentees. |
Unit 9: Culture and Identity
In this unit, students explore their culture in order to increase self-awareness by reflecting on their culture(s) and sharing about it with their mentors and peers. Increased self-awareness is an important step in helping students to identify their unique perspective, interests, and needs as they plan for their post-secondary lives and beyond.
| Lesson | Purpose | Resources |
| 10.9.1 Defining Culture | Students will create a definition of culture that recognizes the variations within a particular culture, as well as the different cultural identities each individual holds. | |
| 10.9.2 Cultural Markers | Students consider the ways in which culture is communicated through objects, language, dress, etc. This will encourage deeper reflection on their own culture(s), as well as help them to start planning their own cultural photographs for later in the unit. | |
| 10.9.3 Power of Photography | Students will examine how culture is conveyed via photography in order to think about how visual representations can lead to snap judgments or a rethinking of assumptions. This lesson will prepare students to use photography to convey meaning about their own culture(s). | |
| 10.9.4 My Cultural Photograph | To continue to develop self-awareness and cultural attunement, students will apply what they have learned about culture and photography to create their own cultural photograph. | |
| Event_10.9 End of Year Celebration | In any relationship, long stretches without meaningful communication can be damaging. It is important for pairs to determine how and how often they will communicate over the summer as well as determine whether they will meet in-person, perhaps with their families or in a group with other mentor/mentee pairs if it is their first out-of-program meetup. |
Enrichment Lessons
These are designed "extra" lessons that are at the discretion of the region to utilize. These lessons are designed to not be time sensitive and can be implemented when necessary.
Lesson | Objective | Resources |
| Current Event | SWBAT will learn about, discuss and respond to a current event. |
