Incorporating Character Ed Into Daily Lessons--Character Education, Part 3

Hello again, fellow educators and parents!

There is a long-standing Latin principle, docendo discimus, which means "by teaching, we learn."  This semester, I have been fortunate to again experience the truthfulness of this statement by way of my student teacher.  Let me begin by saying that I am truly blessed to be able to work with and support such a passionate, funny, talented young woman who comes to work every day excited to learn and teach.  In having to articulate my practices and rationales to her, I'm learning so much more about myself as an educator.


As I described in my last post, my students recently presented me with the opportunity to stretch my understanding and use of norms and expectations in my classroom.  This inevitably led me to revisit the idea of addressing character regularly with my students.  How do I proactively allow my students the opportunity to consider their reactions to situations that test their character, instead of just reacting to misbehavior?

In the midst of examining these questions, I began transitioning the class to my student teacher.  This allowed me to take the role of both participant and observer as I reflected on ways to use character education to reinforce the norms we had established together as a class, as well as a behavior management tool to decrease distractions in the classroom.  As I researched and reflected, I first discovered the importance and necessity of regularly reinforcing those classroom norms as part of the learning process as opposed to using them a response to bad behavior.   I won't belabor the point by going into my process.  Instead, I'll just list some of the tools I found interesting for the middle and high school levels.

• Journaling:  Given hypothetical situations to address, ask students how they would handle these situations IF they were acting according to the norms and values we set at the beginning of the year.  
• Discussion:  I like to pair journaling with discussion for the sake of allowing students time to think before they speak, but you can also use the Socratic method to help students think through the decisions they would make in response to the hypothetical situation.
• Short Articles/Stories:  As an English teacher, I also like the idea of pairing my students' thinking about character with improving literacy skills.  However, I believe that this strategy does not have to be used on in English classes; any content area can find articles related to the subject they are teaching and use a variety of methods to critically think about and discuss that topic.
• For example, one of my favorite methods is Reading for Meaning strategy that asks students to find evidence that both refutes and supports specific statements.  So, perhaps for a science course, I would pull an article about cloning or using stem cells for medical purposes.  I would then hand them a supplementary worksheet with a grid that looks as follows:

For	Statement	Against
	The use of stem cells in medicine is unethical.

Not labor-intensive on the teacher's part, but requires the student to use critical-thinking skills to look at both sides of the argument.  From a character education standpoint, this is a gold mine as the students work to define unethical and discover where their viewpoints on the subject derive (family, religion, media, etc.)

•  Videos:  Whether it is a short news clip, a documentary, a TED talk or some other video, these are great ways to start students thinking about character.  Based upon the videos, students can do a variety of activities to process it, from creating posters to hang around the room or school with information about the subject addressed in the video to creating their own videos about a similar subject.
• Character Quote Exit Slips:  You can end each class with short surveys or responses that both link the skill students were practicing that day and your agreed-upon character norms.  If a survey, you could use the data from it to begin the following class, providing a natural segue between the two separate periods.  

One aspect of all this that I want to stress is that we must allow students the opportunity to discuss these ideas from their own perspectives and explore from where these practices/beliefs are derived.  If we make just one way the standard way, we stand in danger of "otherizing" the minority viewpoints in our classes and creating an unsafe space.

To give you an example from my own experience, I often have to explain my use of the words "ma'am" and "sir" to people I meet.  Where I'm from in Tennessee, one said "ma'am" and "sir" to show respect; however, some people question whether I'm trying to call them old, and am being disrespectful.  So if I were having a conversation with my students about ways that we show respect to people we meet, I might start this discussion by saying: "There are many ways that people may use to show someone that they respect them as a person.  In my family, we do so by responding to people using the words 'ma'am' or 'sir.'  Are there any specific ways that your family or friends may use to show respect for others?"   By changing our phrasing a bit, we can invite open discussion and cultural understanding, fueling connection with others, instead of silencing the voice of a few leading them to disconnect from the remainder of their classmates.  

This brings me to the concept of culturally-responsive teaching--but I think that's a conversation best saved for another post.  Talk to you again soon, my partners in education!

Resources:
GoodCharacter.com by Live Wire Media--an excellent resource specifically created for educators. http://goodcharacter.com

Character.org--a variety of lesson plans for educators to use in the classroom. http://character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/

Talking With Trees--stories and worksheets that teach characters. MAINLY ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL.  http://talkingtreebooks.com/character-education-worksheets.html

There are many more websites, but these are my go-tos.

Managing the Classroom Through Norms and Expectations--Character Education, Part 2

So, Murphy's Law states that everything that can go wrong will.  The educational equivalent of this seems to be that everything students can do to test the validity of a lesson plan or educational philosophy, they will.  Some teachers might write it off as just a bad crop of students; however, the empathetic teachers use this opportunity to discover more about themselves and their students.  Truth of the matter is that depending on the circumstances, we can find both teachers within the same person.  Perhaps it just takes a minute for one to lament the number of "challenging students" the counselors placed in one classroom before he or she can move into remembering that all students are entitled to a teacher who advocates for them.

Want an example?  In my last post, I shared a lesson plan with you that guided you through how to establish norms in your classrooms that allow students to have a sense of ownership in the climate of the classroom environment.  I, myself, completed this lesson with all of my classes at the beginning of the new semester.  However, the hopes I stated for the lesson were quickly tested as I was forced to take a personal day the very next week.  My son left for the US Navy's basic training, and I took the day off to spend with him.  Upon my return, I received a substitute report that made me question whether my freshmen had perhaps gone feral in my absence.  Needless to say, all of those lovely norms that we worked to create together were broken in a single block.

Traditionally, I would have thought about handling this situation from a punitive standpoint.  What can I do to scare them so badly that they would never DARE to act out like this again?  However, whenever I've dealt with a situation using this guiding question, I've found that it negatively impacted the safe environment I hoped to establish in my classroom.  It eroded the students' ability to see me as someone who has their best interests at heart because the punishment came from a place of anger instead of love and support.

So I knew that I did not want to address their behavior from that perspective, but instead from a disciplinary one.  To me, the essential difference between the two is the idea of training.  Punishment is simply retribution for an offense; discipline provides training for what to do instead.  This is the whole principle behind restorative discipline.

I decided to change my guiding questions for this situation.  Instead of thinking what I could do to scare them, I tried to answer this question: what can I do to train students in a way that enhances, not harms, the relationship I am striving to build with and among them?  Thinking from this perspective, I created a lesson plan which allowed for students to reflect on their behavior, and discuss what should be done instead.

Here's what I did the very next class period.

1.  I let the students know that the feedback from the substitute had not been very positive, and that I was disappointed that they had not followed the norms that they set for themselves.

2.  I passed out the students' signed norms and reviewed the expectations with them again.

3.  I gave them the following writing prompt:  What did I do last class to positively contribute to the safe environment we are trying to build in this class?  What actions negatively impacted this safe environment?  They were given 5 minutes to reflect and write.

4.  Afterward, we discussed their responses, but kept it in terms of "we."  First I asked students what we did well last class.  After processing and reinforcing the positive behaviors, I asked students what we could have done better.  This discussion lasted for some time as students made their observations.

5.  I ended the discussion by reinforcing my expectation that each student brings his or her best self to our classroom and helps to create a safe environment for all, including substitutes. I also added a small punitive aspect by removing the privilege of sitting in the seat of their choice and instead in a permanent seating chart (not the temporary one we might use for cooperative learning activities).

The outcome of this approach has been the continued building of relationship with my students and among my students, as well as a more positive classroom climate.  As we now enter week five of this semester, I am beginning to enjoy the classes that I previously struggled with from a management perspective.  Students are feeling safe enough to reveal aspects of their personal and educational identities that they might not have previously.  Such a great outcome, a much better one than I've had in previous years.

So, here's my take-away:  when I encounter challenges in the classroom, I can't always go with my knee-jerk reaction.  Sometimes, that leads to my beginning with the wrong guiding question which produces an unintended and uninspired outcome.  Also, as a reflective educator, I must continually question whether my practice is matching up with my principles.  When it doesn't, I must have the courage to admit this, and humbleness to search for solutions that do.

My Diverse Lights deserve no less than that.