KEY LESSON

Unit Learning Goal

Students will articulate their own values and beliefs about work.

Lesson Goal

Students will understand the importance of aligning personal values, goals, and concerns with one’s work engagement and interests.

Assessment

Students’ written reflections about a “top value” of their choice will be collected and can be assessed as part of their portfolios. The in-class discussion about “challenging values” can be monitored and used to provide feedback.

portfolio documentation

  • Top Value activity

RESOURCES

Total TIME

45 minutes

Instructions

1. Opener [5 minutes].

Remind students about the definition of Engagement: a feeling of meaning in or connection to your work (consider personal, social, and professional forms of meaning).

 Use the “Review Questions” below to facilitate a discussion.

  • What does it mean to be “engaged” in work?

  • What are the feelings you have when you are “engaged” in your work?

  • When do you feel “engagement”? What kinds of activities or topics spark “engagement” for you?

2. Model your own thinking about “engagement” and values by talking about your life and/or teaching practice [5 minutes].

  • Values: the things you believe are important in the way you live and work, which often determine your priorities and whether your life is the way you want it to be.

Tell students about the core values that have guided your life (look at the list of values on the value sort activity for inspiration in having this discussion). Explain how these values relate to your feelings of “engagement” or lack of engagement in your work or other areas of your life, if more comfortable.

Use a video instead

“When the teacher modelled a reflection, [we] noticed that students would either tune out or find it difficult to correlate the reflection to their own life. Hence, we first showed a video of interesting jobs…Students were asked to refer to the list of values in [the] Value Sort activity and answer the question - ''What values do you think the people in the video might embrace to engage with their work?’” -GPLP Teacher

3. A Top Value [15 minutes].

  • Have students review the results of their value sort activity (from Lesson 1.8) and ask them to spend 3 minutes considering how they sorted their values.

  • Ask students to choose one of their top four values that they feel is related to their feelings of engagement. With this value in mind, ask them to answer the questions below in writing, a visual representation, or a short skit.

    • What does this value mean to you? Why did you choose this value? Why is it important to your feelings of engagement?

    • Offer an example of a time you have acted with this value in mind.

  • Add to the Good Work Portfolios.

4. A Challenging Value [15 minutes].

  • Ask students to choose one value from their value sort that challenges them. (It could be one of their top 4 values; it could be something that doesn’t resonate for them but seems important to others; it could be something they want to care more about but find confusing.)

  • Briefly, choose a value and model thinking how this value might be challenging to you.

  • In pairs, ask students to discuss the following questions:

    • Why is this value challenging for you?

    • Describe a time when you encountered this value in your life, and how you handled it.

5. Exit Ticket [5 minutes].

  • Have students write down their top value and challenging value that they discussed in this lesson on two sticky notes. Have students post these values on a digital or physical whiteboard so that the entire class can see what other students considered and discussed today. 

  • Point out any themes or patterns.

Possible Enrichments

  • Read the dilemma “Tough Love” and respond to the questions on the worksheet in light of today’s discussion featuring the value sort.

  • Add this activity to the Good Work Portfolio.

  • One GPLP Teacher described how they make connections between the students and the dilemma character: “First I discussed students' own experience as many of them do different sports or music school as extra activities, so they could identify with Mara easily, which made their performance more effective and gave better insight. Then I concentrated on the dilemma itself.”