River Ridge High School – Peer Counseling 1

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

### General Notes The purpose of this course is to enable students to develop basic knowledge and skills in communication, meeting human needs, and conflict resolution. The content should include the following: - Demonstrate knowledge of the functions and responsibilities of peer facilitators (e.g., listening, confidentiality, team building, conflict resolution, intervention). - Demonstrate awareness of varied behavioral responses to situational, environmental, and chemical elements; and the impact of subsequent decision-making on self and others. - Demonstrate knowledge of basic human needs (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, recognition, development, security, identity) and the ways in which they can be met while developing group cohesion. - Demonstrate use of basic facilitative communication skills (e.g., listening, questioning, feedback, paraphrasing, nonverbal communication, nonjudgmental response). - Identify own feelings and needs and communicate them in a positive way. - Demonstrate awareness of leadership styles (e.g., authoritarian, democratic, permissive). - Demonstrate awareness of methods for dealing with conflict (e.g., communication, assertion, avoidance, aggression) and steps to resolution (i.e., set rules, gather perspectives, identify needs and goals, create and evaluate options, and generate agreement) - Make inferences and justify conclusions from sample surveys, experiments, and observational studies. **Special Notes:** **Instructional Practices** Teaching from a well-written, grade-level textbook enhances students' content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any reason. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning: 1. Reading assignments from longer text passages as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex. 2. Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lesson. 3. Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments. 4. Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text. 5. Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence). **Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards** This course includes Florida’s B.E.S.T. ELA Expectations (EE) and Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning Standards (MTRs) for students. Florida educators should intentionally embed these standards within the content and their instruction as applicable. For guidance on the implementation of the EEs and MTRs, please visit