KEY LESSON

Unit Learning Goal

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

Lesson Goal

Students will be able to identify and articulate the values that are most important to them.

Assessment

Written reflections and exit tickets will be collected and assessed as part of the Good Work portfolio. Teacher impressions of group conversation can be used to provide feedback.

portfolio documentation

• Value Sort Handout or Value Sort Follow Up Questions

• Exit Ticket

Resources

• Value Sort Activity

• Video about Value Sort Activity

• Video about Talking about Values

• Value Sort Collating Activity

• Value Sort Handout [Paper Version]

• Value Sort Follow Up Questions [Online Version]

Total TIME

45 minutes

Instructions

1. Opener: Present and model the value sort activity with a “talk aloud.” [10 minutes].

• Explain to the class: “Values are Ideas or principles that we find to be important. They may guide decisions we make, such as how we spend our time in our work and in our personal lives, and are influenced by a variety of factors, such as our families and communities. Values influence how we react in situations where we aren’t sure what to do, like the dilemmas that we have been discussing in the previous lessons.”

• Explain to the students that the value sort is a combination of elements: some “values” are things that we may value (rewarding and supportive relationships, wealth), other “values” are characteristics we aspire to (honesty and integrity, hard work and commitment).

• Pull up the online value sort activity on projector. Learn more about how to use this tool by watching the video.

• Show students how you could sort the values, hypothetically, talking aloud. For example, say, “If I felt that [example value] was very important in my life, I would place it in the ‘most important’ column.” Explain to students that the value sort activity is not about right or wrong answers but about individual judgment. View the following video to learn more about how to model talking about values.

2. Allow students to individually complete their own value sort activity and follow up questions [20 minutes].

If completing the Value Sort on paper: 

• Distribute the value sort handout. 

• Allow the students time to sit individually and complete the value sort activity using the Value Sort Handout. When they have completed the sorting activity, direct students to write out answers to the follow-up questions at the end of the handout. 

• Collect the responses from the student handouts and collate the group’s answers to report back during the next class. If using paper hand-outs, you will need to tally the class’s responses yourself before returning the handouts during the next class. To do so, you may wish to engage students in the following activity:

•  Place the posters of all the values around your classroom;

• Ask your students to come up to the posters and place a "Tally Mark" on any of the values that were in their top values and a "Star" on any of the values that were in their bottom four values;

• You can then designate one or two students (or more) to go around the classroom to total the numbers for each of the values;

• These students can then create the final graph of the top and bottom values for the class.

• Students should add their value sort handouts to the Good Work portfolio.

If completing the Value Sort online: 

• Distribute the value sort link to students as well as your individual classroom key.

  Allow the students time to sit individually and complete the value sort activity. When they have completed the online activity, be sure to ask students to save the links to their completed value sorts. 

• Then, direct students to write out answers to the Value Sort Follow Up Questions [Online Version]. 

• Collect the responses from the students by asking students to share their value sort links with you. The online tool will automatically collate the class’s answers for you by tallying responses from the class as a whole and allowing students to compare their responses to the group as a whole in the following lesson.

3. Bring the class back and have a discussion based on the following questions [10 minutes].

• How easy or difficult did you find this exercise was to complete?

• What would you like to ask your classmates about their experiences?

• Does anyone want to share how you answered the value sort? (If appropriate, call on a few students.)

4. Closing and Exit Ticket [5 minutes]

• Present students with the exit ticket questions (choose one): 

  • “Provide an example of one of your values, and how it does or doesn’t support you in  your efforts to do good work.”

  • “Think about one of the dilemmas we’ve discussed: how do your values impact your understandings of that dilemma?”

Possible Enrichments

• Ask students to choose a value that they’d like to spend more time considering. It can be one that is in their top four values, or not—this is up to them.

• Ask them to find an example of an individual or a type of work that they believe exemplifies that value. It could be a story from the news, from fiction, from music or some other type of artwork.

• Students should spend 15 minutes writing about why they believe this example helps to articulate their understanding of this particular value.