Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement
generationOn
Purpose:
The learners imagine life changes one, four and five years from the present time. They determine skills and attitudes of self-discipline that will help them be successful in the future.
Duration:
One 20-minute lesson
Objectives:
The learner will:
- visualize how his or her life will change in one, four and five years.
- determine two skills or attitudes that will be important in future success.
- make a plan to begin working toward a goal.
Service Experience:
Learn more about the stages of service-learning.
This character education mini-lesson is not intended to be a service learning lesson or to meet the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. The character education units will be most effective when taught in conjunction with a student-designed service project that provides a real world setting in which students can develop and practice good character and leadership skills. For ideas and suggestions for organizing service events go to www.generationon.org.
Materials:
- completed Self-Discipline Survey from Lesson One
- Self-Discipline Vocabulary from Lesson Three
- character education journals
Instructional Procedure(s):
Anticipatory Set:
Teacher: Imagine your own life if what you did was dictated entirely by whether you felt like doing it or not. What exactly would you do? And more importantly what wouldn’t you do? What would the consequences be for your life? Give a personal example, then allow a few minutes for discussion.
- Ask the students to imagine where they will be in one year and how their life/school experiences might be different and what they hope for (freshman in high school, lowest grade in the school, harder courses, more homework). Jot the list in a display area as they respond. Then ask the same question about imagining their life in four years from today (senior in high school, driving/owning a car, making college or job plans) and then five years from today (at college or a full-time job, different living situation, managing their own time and money).
- Ask the students to take out the Self-Discipline Survey from Lesson One and the Self-Discipline Vocabulary list from Lesson Three. Tell the students you want them to think about how the survey statements relate to successfully navigating life over the next five years. Read down the survey choices one at a time. Students raise their hands after each statement if they think it would be helpful to their success to exercise self-discipline in this area. Probe their thinking more deeply by asking a few students each time "Why do you think so?" Ask them to match words from the vocabulary list that they think are appropriate to the skill or attitude. They write the related vocabulary words next to each survey statement.
- After all the choices have been discussed, ask the students to individually highlight or circle the two skills or attitudes they feel will be most important for them to develop to assure their success.
- In their character education journals, students write one thing they can do immediately to begin to work on a self-discipline skill.
Lesson Developed By:
Betsy FlikkemaAssociate Director
Learning to Give
Barbara Dillbeck
Director
Learning to Give
Handouts:
Unit Contents:
Overview:Character Education: Self-Discipline (Grade 8) Summary
Lessons:
- 1.
- Resolutions
- 2.
- What It's Not and What It Is
- 3.
- Sandra Cisneros
- 4.
- Imagine That!
- 5.
- Character and Self-Discipline
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to freely use this information for nonprofit (noncommercial), educational purposes only. Copyright must be acknowledged on all copies.
