KEY LESSON

Unit Learning Goal

Students will understand the term “good work” as defined by excellence, ethics, and engagement. 

Lesson Goal

Students will be introduced to the “good work” framework’s three elements: excellence, ethics, and engagement. They will be able to define these elements with nuance.

Assessment

Students will engage in discussions of the 3 Es as a class. Impressions of the discussion may be used to determine level of student understanding. Exit tickets will display whether students have evolved in their thinking about the meaning of “good work.”

portfolio documentation

Resources

Total TIME

45 minutes

Instructions

1. Revisiting “Good Worker” Qualities [5 minutes].

  • Remind students of the qualities of good workers generated previously.

  • Look over the list of qualities together and briefly discuss.

From Peggy Dunstan at Mountain View High School in Virginia

From Peggy Dunstan at Mountain View High School in Virginia

2. The 3 Es [10 minutes].

  • Introduce the 3 Es of Good Work: Excellence, Ethics, and Engagement. You may wish to do this in a few different ways.

    • You may watch the 3 Es video from The Good Project website.

    • You may wish to display the visual of the framework and talk through the three parts.

    • You may wish to ask students what these words mean to them and crowd-source a set of definitions for these terms that are similar to the definitions provided by The Good Project.

  • Ensure that students understand what each one of the 3 Es mean. Ask for clarifications and questions. (This conversation may take some deep exploration of a term like ethics, which can be complicated.)

3. Categorizing the Qualities [20 minutes].

  • In a visible physical or digital space, create a chart with three columns, one for each of the 3 Es (excellence, ethics, and engagement).

  • Ask students to look over the qualities of good workers that they generated in the previous class. Ask them to try to categorize the qualities by placing each one under one (or more) of the 3 Es columns. (Consider letting students do this in breakouts if time allows, or as a full class if preferred.)

  • If it’s difficult to determine whether a word belongs in one or another column, discuss why. Decide as a group if perhaps it should appear in more than one column. 

  • If there are qualities that appear to be unrelated to the 3 Es, perhaps create a new overarching category or special column for those.

  • Note: Make clear to the students that you will be using the 3 Es as a framework going forward, but allow them to explore their own interpretations of these concepts and additions to this framework during this activity.

4. Wrap up by discussing the way that the 3 Es are intertwined with one another. [5 minutes]

  • Point out that excellence, ethics, and engagement interrelate in practice.

    • Pick up on areas where the qualities or descriptors you categorized may cross areas or have caused disagreement and why.

    • Describe how the 3 Es interact with and support one another: a strong sense of ethics may allow someone to do work that is more excellent; feeling engaged might lead someone to stay motivated and to do work that is more ethical and excellent, etc.

5. Exit Ticket [5 minutes].

  • Complete the thinking routine: “I used to think good work meant… Now I think…”

  • Keep the written reflection for the Good Work Portfolio.