School Counseling Curriculum Overview

Middle school is a pivotal time during your child’s adolescence. The guidance department at the Galvin Middle School has selected and created guidance seminars based on current needs of students in each grade, utilizing ASCA (American School Counselor Association) standards. These lessons are tailored to promote positive academic, career, and social-emotional growth in all our students.

6^th Grade

Counselors provide guidance seminars that help facilitate a smooth transition to the middle school. Topics for our academic seminars include goal-setting, organizational and time management skills, as well as homework and test-taking strategies. Our social-emotional seminar topics include creating positive peer relationships and identifying strategies to cope with stress. 6th-grade students also begin a series of career exploration lessons that carries through grades 7 and 8. During the 6th grade year, students take a personality inventory to learn more about themselves and their individual learning styles as they may pertain to career choice.

7^th Grade

Counselors provide academic guidance seminars focus on goal setting and academic expectations in 7th grade, as well as identifying study strategies that match the student’s individual learning style. Our social-emotional seminar topics focus on evolving friendships, effective communication skills, and identifying individual support systems. During 7th grade, students will continue their career exploration by taking personality inventories to learn more about their individual personality type and career clusters that align with their results.

8^th Grade

Counselors provide academic guidance seminars that focus on goal setting, academic expectations in 8th grade, and the skills necessary for a successful transition to high school. Our social-emotional seminars focus on healthy relationships, including peer and cyber relationships.  As a culminating activity in the career exploration unit, our 8th grade students create and present a career-focused project based on interests and personality inventories taken in previous guidance seminar lessons in order to expose students to a wide variety of career opportunities. In the spring, Galvin Middle School Guidance Counselors and Canton High Guidance Counselors will collaborate to facilitate students’ transition to high school.