The materials in this book have been designed to offer an eight-to-ten-week course in character education. I am currently teaching ten-week courses at our school. I have been using this material at the sixth-grade level.
You will see ten chapters along with lesson plans and assessments to help you teach this course. One or two of the chapters are flexible and can be combined if you choose to teach for a shorter period of time.
I have provided hands-on worksheets in each chapter for students to help them learn the various skills through practice. I have also included assessments in eight of the chapters. These assessments will help you to see if the students understand the material and if they are learning the skills that you are teaching. Chapters nine and ten do not have assessments and are only designed to help students have exposure to careers as well as budgeting and finance.
I have also provided discussion notes at the end of this book as well as some examples of role plays for you to use in your class. Feel free to develop your own role plays. Students do a great job creating them as well. You will note that I have also included answers to the assessments at the end of this book. These are to be used only as guidelines for you to grade the students’ papers. You can use these answers, but remember you need to know your students when correcting their answers and grade them accordingly. You may also have your own ideas.
I do not believe that the information provided in this book is the correct and only way to teach this material. I have provided these materials from my own perspective. Feel free to interject your own thoughts and ideas into this course. I use a lot of dialogue with my students to help get them thinking. Feel free to mold this program to fit you. You will have better results in the classroom if you do so. And last but not least, have fun with this material. If students are having fun, they are more likely to learn some of these skills that are very necessary for them to be successful.
Character
Character is a term used to describe what we look like, who we are, and the way we behave and act in all areas of our lives. There is no question of having character. It is not like you have a choice. People are going to see you, and you are going to be judged by how you behave. For example, if you see a person speeding, you may think that that person has no regard for the rules; if you see a person using drugs, you may think that the person has no regard for his or her life; or if you see a person beating up another person, you may think that that person is violent and has no regard for others. How do these people look to you? Would you consider these people to be responsible, dependable, and trustworthy? We are going to cover a variety of areas that make up what character is.
This section contains worksheets for you to read and complete while you learn about your character. Character is developed over time as you learn about yourself and how to behave. This will help you improve your skills and be successful.
The following pages contain areas that, when learned, demonstrate good character. Working on each area will help you understand it better. This will help to improve your skills.