Personal Values Lesson

busanjosh

This reflective ELL lesson urges students to look deep within themselves to consider their core personal values and how those values drive their behavior. They start with a little Total Physical Response (TPR) warm-up, flesh out their ideas in partner chats, and finish with a fun small-group task that reveals which values reign supreme among students in the class. What do you value?

Language Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Time: 50 minutes

I. WARM-UP (5 min.)

  • Give students laminated red and green cards.
  • Using PPT, proceed through a series of Would You Rather questions. Record their responses on board in tally form, to show the overall orientation of the class.

II. RANKING DIFFICULTY (5 min.)

  • Hand out ranking page (first pic below)
  • Tell students to rank the difficulty of their choices, using my PPT example.
This is the handout for students.

III. SPEED DATING DISCUSSION (12-15 min.)

  • Tell students they are going to use their ranking pages to have short discussions with different partners. Use PPT to explain process and emphasize the importance of being a great convo partner.
    • (Try for ~4 different partners, but could do fewer or more, depending on time)

IV. PLENARY / PERSONAL VALUE INTRO (8 min.)

  • Ask a few students to share interesting parts of their discussions.
  • Transition to “personal values” by telling students, we are using something to make these choices. What we value influences the decisions we make.

V. GROUP VALUE DISCUSSION / PRESENTATION (15 min.)

  • Divide students into groups of ~4. Hand each group a set of about 4 value cards.
  • Give students time to discuss and choose their most important value among those given.
  • One student from each group quickly presents their top value.
    • As student presents, could ask some follow-up questions.
    • Depending on time, the presentations could require each member to speak, simply by reading the cards, as I show them on the screen. Then their group rep tells which they chose and if it was hard, easy, etc.

VI. CLASS TOURNAMENT (5 min.)

  • After presentations, have a tournament for top class value.
    • Fill in the Top Personal Value from each group in the bracket on PPT.
    • Semifinals: Everyone votes (heads down) on each matchup.
    • Finals: Same
    • Mention to students to observe how these values influence their decisions and those of others.

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