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Personal Values Lesson Plan

While the bulk of 4th grade’s Life Skills curriculum this year is on positive communication, there’s a personal identity/awareness component as well. We kicked off 2017 with a lesson about personal values (with some mention of reputation thrown in). Due to a few scheduling issues, I ended up doing this lesson before the “Staying True to Yourself” (with Ludwig’s Sorry!) lesson in some of the classes and after in some others. Both ways were great for tying the lessons together; I haven’t decide which way I’ll do it next year.

A good friend of mine who is a middle school counselor sent me the link to this lesson that she adapts and uses: Overcoming Obstacles – Clarifying Values

I adapted it even further (to shorten it and to make it more elementary level) and began using it myself. It’s fun, it’s silly, it’s interactive, and it gets their brains going. I’ll admit that while the majority of my lessons are skills-based, this one is more “planting the seed” and helping develop some introspection as they prepare to enter the intense and challenging world of middle school.

I use a PPT to facilitate the first half of the lesson. We start with a quick game of  “Would you rather?” – the students either move to the side of the room that goes with their answer or they use arm motions (which in one room resulted in us all “dabbing”!). I explain how their answers are the result of some of their personal values…and then I explain what personal values are and give some examples.

The last slide in the PPT gives them an example of how to complete their “personal values table”. It’s essentially a worksheet where they list 16 of their personal values using different categories to guide them. After they’ve all finished filling theirs in, I ask them to cut them all out and group them by category on their desk/table.

Lesson plan Personal Values Student's exampler of their personal values table.Students sorting their values during Personal Values lesson

Then the real fun begins! I explain that just like in “Would you rather?”, in real life, we sometimes have to choose between values and decide what’s more important to us. In the activity we do next, I ask the students to literally throw away some of their values; they do much better if I prep them ahead of time and let them know that’s coming. Then I read aloud a silly story about them going on a wild and crazy trip to the zoo, with lots of shenanigans and dilemmas, that ends with them having their top three personal values left.

 

Personal Values lesson story used to help students process their values.

 

Then together we process and I ask them:

o How did you feel about the decisions you made? Why?
o Which were the hardest ones for you to make?
o If you were to play this game again, would you choose to have different squares at the end? Raise your hand if you would. Write on the back of the squares the values you wish you’d kept.

Student example of their most important values after completion of Personal Values Lesson activities.

*This is a pretty accurate depiction of what most of them were left with!

10 Responses

  1. Thank you for writing articles that are useful to me. During this time I was looking for a quality article as you write today. Hopefully, this article is also useful for other people who need articles like this.

    1. Hello, and sorry for the delayed response! Since I didn’t create the lesson idea, I don’t feel comfortable sharing the slides without spending some time editing them to properly attribute the authors. It may be something I get to in the future!

    1. Hi! I’m sorry, I don’t have it anymore – died with a computer crash a few years back. It was just a few Would You Rathers and then some directions for the activity. I lost so many things when that happened, unfortunately!

    1. Hello! I had a slideshow I used, and there was a slide with example ideas like:
      Honesty
      Popularity (Being Cool)
      Bravery
      Self-Control (Making good choices)
      Kindness
      Beauty
      Respect
      Humor (Being Funny)
      Thankful
      Athleticism (Good at Sports)
      Generosity
      Intelligence (Being Smart)
      Power (Being in Charge)
      Grades
      Perseverance
      Family
      Friendships
      Religion (God)

      Last summer I created a separate Personal Values lesson as well: https://shop.theresponsivecounselor.com/product/personal-values-lesson/

      Best,
      Sara

    1. With examples! Here are some I shared with them that might be important ideas for them:
      Honesty
      Popularity (Being Cool)
      Bravery
      Self-Control (Making good choices)
      Kindness
      Beauty
      Respect
      Humor (Being Funny)
      Thankful
      Athleticism (Good at Sports)
      Generosity
      Intelligence (Being Smart)
      Power (Being in Charge)
      Grades
      Perseverance
      Family
      Friendships
      Religion (God)

      Best,
      Sara

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Hello, I’m Sara!

With 10 years of experience in
elementary school counseling,
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Sara

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