Teachers Fit Character Education Into Their Lessons
Students are writing, discussing, painting, acting, and finding as many ways to learn about good character as their teachers can fit into their classroom.
"From the outset this was seen, not as a separate class, not as an add-on, not as something that motivated teachers would do three times a week at the beginning of the day, but as an integral part of the school day from the time students arrive at school until the time they leave," said Anne Lee, Wake County Schools character education consultant. "They need to make good decisions based on these eight character traits. For that reason, there is no stand-alone character education curriculum."
In Wake County Schools, character education is incorporated into academic subjects and other school activities, emphasizing eight character traits: responsibility, respect, good judgment, perseverance, integrity, courage, kindness, and self-discipline.
At Durant Road Elementary, the school takes an organized approach with the entire school looking at a different character trait each month.
"At the beginning of each year, we work with the PTA to brainstorm and come up with a motto or slogan that can go with each of the character traits," said Pat Kelly, a school counselor. "We come up with something that is concrete to give out each month because we recognize the character traits are abstract and that children in our grade levels may not easily understand abstract concepts."
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The PTA decorates the media center for the months' character trait. A giant spider adorns the bulletin board, which bears the slogan: spin the web of respect. After discussing respect in class, each student will receive a spider ring. In the past, students received a freeze pop to help them remember that courage is cool and they received blue ribbons to remind them that fairness is win-win.
"When they gave us the ribbons, I told my class that I was going to give the students that were wearing blue that day a blue ribbon," said Susan Everette, a kindergarten teacher. "They told me, Mrs. Everette that's not fair. I asked, 'Why not?' So all the concrete things that we get can be used in applying a teaching lesson."
Each month, counselors Pat Kelly and Veronica Hargett plow through books and websites to find activities and discussion starters for the month's character trait.
| Durant Road Middle School's 1999-2000 Character Education Project |
"I used one of the lessons the counselors shared with us about responsibility with the idea to interview someone about a time they were responsible. My third graders went home and interviewed a family member," said teacher Elizabeth Pagach. "One of the questions they had was what advice would you give someone who is going to be irresponsible and the parents said the coolest stuff, like there are no rewards for being irresponsible. And the kids would stand up in class and repeat it. They were so proud. They liked quoting their parents."
The students' reports are being collected and will be printed as a newspaper, The Responsibility Times.
"In third grade, the students live the responsibility trait. That is a big transitional year and students have to remember to take certain books home and take supplies home," said Pagach. "It's one of those big changes the students have to make whether we're teaching it or not."
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| Teacher Cindy Jarrett's class cut headlines out of magazines and newspapers to create their own headline. The first letter of each line helped spell out the word, respect. |
In Cindy Jarrett's fifth-grade class, students have discussed character traits in circle groups. Jarrett has led discussions where each student has contributed to the conversation about the month's trait.
"Cindy's class was involved in a discussion on good judgment and she asked them to describe a time they had not used good judgment and what they should have done instead," Kelly said. "Every one of them said, 'I should have listened to my mother.' When she asked them to define good judgment, one of the student's said: 'It's like your mother being there on your shoulder.'"
The character education program helps children learn to think before they act, to understand fundamental differences between right and wrong, and to make good decisions.
The program seeks to affirm and support the character goals of families who send their children to Wake County schools by providing instruction on broadly-supported traits of good character and affirming their practice.
Each school has a character education coordinator. There are periodic training sessions when they share ideas and materials and take them back to their schools.
"We also ask them to bring us ideas from their schools," said Lee, the district character education consultant. "We have been sharing them. The creativity in this school system amazes me."
At Leesville Middle School, Assistant Principal Diane West has led the school's character education committee and seventh-grade language arts teacher Dr. Mirka Christesen designed the first lesson plans on kindness, respect, responsibility, and self-discipline, which the faculty taught schoolwide. Since then Christesen has written lesson plans blending character education with language arts, social studies, math, art, music, and community service. One of her first projects that eventually involved all members of her teaching team was based on Ray Bradbury's story, "All Summer in a Day," about a little girl, Margot, who lives on Venus.
"She is treated badly by the local kids," Christesen said. "My students agreed we should teach the Venus children a lesson in character education."
She divided the class into eight groups, each assigned a trait to teach. The result was a book the students titled, "Trait Trek: On the Voyage of ET (Eight Traits)." The students wrote poems, explained a design for a monument and created sound montages by taping music that illustrated their character trait. Bradbury's story has no ending, so the students' final task was to write an ending that reflected their character education effort and the impact it had on Margot.
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| Teacher Dr. Mirka Christesen displays her students' character education projects. |
"Then the students, parents and teachers from our teaching team went to the Helping Hands Mission, a Raleigh homeless shelter. There were about 20 little kids living there," Christesen said. "Our students decided they would make a playroom for them. And they started collecting toys, games and children's books."
Together with some parents and some people at the shelter, the students cleaned up a room and put in shelves for storing the toys.
"Our children seemed to be happy to help others, to show them that we care. I had not seen such excitement," Christesen said. "They also told me they didn't know these people would be just like us. It is wonderful that they observed that."
Since then, Christesen's classes have analyzed a series of 60 myths, tales and legends and written and performed a play about a bear that has learned manners. They are currently reflecting on their family's use of proverbs. Art students of Susan Wasilewski, a member of the teaching team, are designing a mural to capture the proverb information in visual form.
"What I find especially rewarding is that our entire school is involved in creating a true awareness of admirable character education traits and encouraging students to do good," Christesen said.
| Seventh Grade Character Education projects |
In the six years since Wake County Schools launched the character education initiative, teachers have found many ways to introduce teaching the character traits in their classes.
"We have stressed the fact that character education does not fit in just one curriculum area. It is across the board. We have also stressed that it is the responsibility of everyone in that school building, the custodians, the office staff, the cafeteria workers, the principal, the bus drivers," said Lee. "All of us are role models for students and we need to both model good character and we need to affirm it when we see students displaying good character, we should not just take it for granted."