Year 2, Lesson 1.3 - Values and Engagement

Unit Learning Goal

Students will reflect on the meaning of the three Es of Good Work (excellence, ethics, and engagement) in applicable contexts.

Lesson Goal

Students will be able to (re)identify and evaluate their personal values and the connection between their values and feelings of engagement.

Assessment

  • Monitor participation during “speed sharing” activities for understanding of the connection between values and engagement.

  • Analyze Exit Ticket activity for patterns in contributed values from students.

Casel Alignment

Self-Awareness, Identity 

portfolio documentation

RESOURCES

Prerequisites

None

Total TIME

45 minutes

Instructions

    1. 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). Asks students to turn and talk with a partner about what they think it means to feel “engaged” in their work. 

    2. Explain that today you’ll be exploring how values connect to our feelings of engagement in our work.

1. Reviewing your values [10 minutes]. 

  • Ask one or two students to share out with the class what they think the word “values” means. 

  • Then, remind students that values are: 

    • the things you believe that are important in the way you live and work; they often determine your priorities and whether your life is the way you want it to be.

  • Next, provide students with the online or paper version of the value sort. Tell students that even though they probably completed the value sort last year, values can change over time and even throughout the day depending on our environments. 

  • Explain to students that they’ll complete the value sort again today to think about how their values may have changed or stayed the same. In addition, stress to students that when completing the value sort this time, they should specifically consider what’s important to them and what they value in their work: either in their current work as students or what they think they will value in a potential job in the future. 

  • Provide students with approximately 10 minutes to complete the value sort.

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

  • 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 “Speed Stories” [15 minutes].

  • Put students in groups of four. 

  • Create a “speed-sharing” setup where students have 2 minutes each (4 minutes total per pair) with different partners to quickly share a story about a time one of their top values contributed to their feelings of purpose, meaning, or engagement. After the 4 minutes are up, members rotate, and after the next 4 minutes, members rotate again  until all combinations of partners have spoken.

4. A Challenging Value [10 minutes].

  • Keep students in their small groups of 4. 

  • Ask students to choose one of their values that they find challenging or that is often in tension with being purposeful or engaged. This could be one of the student’s 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.

  • Ask students in their small group to create a poster or artistic representation of their four challenging values altogether and how they challenge the students. Students can consider if there are areas of overlap or areas of divergence.

5. Closing and Exit Activity [5 minutes].

  • Ask students to complete the following Exit Activity: 

    • Students will 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.

    • Keep the sticky notes or a picture of the sticky notes for The Good Work Portfolio.

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 educator from The Good Project Community of Practice 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.”

Lesson Walkthrough

Watch this short video guide for lesson specific advice from The Good Project Research Team.