Leadership Curriculum Ideas

By: Julie Myers / Got 2 Lead Leadership Education

“The key to success in any endeavor is the ability to lead others successfully.” - Walt Emerson

The following leadership curriculum ideas are based primarily on the works of John C. Maxwell. I have found his insight and resources to be quite helpful in my own personal growth as well as that of my students. I am a high school Activities Director with a Leadership class. We meet 4 days a week on a modified block schedule. I try to do lessons twice a week, keeping them to only 20 minutes or so. Here are two lessons that I have had success with and hope you can incorporate into your classroom.

The first project is based on Maxwell’s book “Developing the Leader Within You”. After becoming familiar with the book you would present the information to your class. I use fill in the blank handouts. The chapters deal with key concepts in leadership such as: influence, priorities, integrity, creating positive change, problem solving, attitude, people, vision, self-discipline, and staff development. There are 10 chapters in the book, so if I do lessons twice a week I can get through the whole book in 5-6 weeks. That leaves the rest of the quarter for the final project, I usually give about 2 weeks to complete the project. Once the information is presented I assign the Leadership Metaphor Project. Students can work as individuals or in groups. The project involves creating a Metaphor for leadership that includes all the concepts that you presented in your lessons. The students should me completing the sentence: Leadership is like…. The culmination of the project is a presentation to the class with a written report explaining all the elements. Common metaphors are Leadership is like a Basketball game, with influence being the coach, and priorities are the court. The metaphors need to be a coherent concept; this is not a collage of ideas. Another good example is the Leaderships is like an amusement park, with influence is the roller coaster, and integrity is the arcade. In the presentation and written report there should be explanations as to why each concept is represented by that element of the metaphor. Common mistakes come from not explaining what a metaphor is correctly. The first time I did this project one third of the class turned in collages not metaphors, this could have been avoided if I had done a better job explaining what a metaphor was and giving better example I am sure that more to the projects turned in would have been what I expected.

The second project is based on two of Maxwell’s books, “The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player” and “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader”. This can be fairly involved on your part or just plain easy. It is what you make it. I am presenting it in the easiest way possible, that way you can decide to add more where you want to.

Step #1 Pass out list of qualities, and have each student pick any 10 and define them and use them in a sentence as homework. The list is a generic alphabetic list of the qualities listed in each book.

Step #2 In class: check off homework and quickly define the qualities. Then have them rank themselves on each of their 10 qualities, and explain why as homework.

Step #3 Check off homework. Assign new homework of making two lists, each student will try to figure out which qualities of that of a LEADER and which are that of TEAMWORK.

Step #4 Check off homework and give them the qualities of a LEADER and of TEAMWORK, with discussion of the difference.

Step #5 Project Assignment: each student will pick one quality and complete the following: (1) Define it, (2) Use in sentence, (3) Pick a LIVING person (non-relative) who embodies this quality, and (4)Give a Biography of this person showing why they embody this quality. Then they need to write a letter to their chosen person. In this letter they need to: (1) Explaining the project, (2) Defining the word (3) Explaining why they feel that this person embodies their quality, (4) Asking this person 3 questions pertaining to leadership or teamwork, and (5) Ask for a response. YOU Mail the letters making sure there is a self-addressed stamped envelope for the reply, with your name and the schools address. That way you know the letters are appropriate, and you get the responses. They can do this through email too, I have had them email me the letter, and then I email the letter to the person. I approve anything that goes out. If there are any responses I get then so I can share them with the rest of the class.

I hope you can use these projects in your classroom.

SHARE YOUR STUDENT ACTIVITY IDEAS

Share your student activity and leadership ideas! This site is intended to be an idea share resource for middle school / high school student body presidents, student councils, activities directors, school advisors and student leaders nation-wide. Tell us how we can make this guide more helpful to you. Send us tips on how we can improve this free online resource or convey us your very own student activities! Please submit your student activity and leadership ideas below!