Playing team sports is about more than just scoring the most goals or winning the most games. Read this passage with your class and learn how athletes build character as members of a team. When finished, individuals identify the main...

It is all in the details. Scholars read The Life of Miné Okubo and pay special attention to details that reveal Okubo's character. Completing their Understanding Miné: Character Traits graphic organizers and recalling the descriptions...

Building upon prior lessons in the series, this reading and writing exercise requires pupils to look back at their own writing, track character development in the novel The Cay, and analyze how Phillip has changed. The reading focus is...

Be proactive. Begin with the end in mind. Synergize. These are just a few strategies outlined in Sean Covey's ground-breaking best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. With a series of five character development workshops...

Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource...

Small groups brainstorm their roles in the community. Then, individually, complete a community roles web worksheet. Peers share their completed product and extend the conversation to include the feelings and character traits that go...

Reflecting on character strengths can bring a little sunshine as the gray days of winter approach. Tweens and teens view a PowerPoint presentation, watch a short video about character strengths, and take a survey that helps them identify...

Can anyone become a peacebuilder? A lesson on character education challenges scholars to examine the characteristics of well-known peacebuilders. Pupils then look within themselves to discover their own strengths as they relate to...

Who? Where? Why? Scholars answer these questions to help identify the gist of Inside Out & Back Again. First, they add text evidence to their research folders. They then begin looking at a performance task in which they write their...

Scholars read "Doc-Lap at Last" and participate in a Three Threes in a Row activity in which they answer three questions about the text in their rows. They then discuss the central idea of the text. Readers finish the lesson plan with a...

Do your actions reflect your values? Scholars examine their day-to-day activities versus their passions during the eighth installment in a series of 12 character-building lessons. After defining their values, participants create...

Three apples—green, red, and rotten—exemplify character traits, negative and positive. Following a discussion about the classroom community, scholars complete an apple-themed worksheet that challenges them to read each trait, color it...

Scholars participate in a gallery walk to examine photographs related to WWII and record thoughts about the pictures in note catchers. At the end of the gallery walk, pupils share their observations before participating in a discussion...

Perspective changes everything. Scholars use a close reading guide while analyzing pages 38-47 in Unbroken. Readers learn that the governments of Japan and the United States had very different perspectives about the attack on Pearl...

Characters often change over the course of a story or novel. Use the sample graphic organizer provided here to track how the narrator has responded to the sequence of events in chapter four through six of The Cay. In addition to this...

There are few things as frustrating to a teacher as a disrespectful student. Luckily this collection of activities, worksheets, and writing exercises is here to help eliminate this problem by teaching young leaners...

Pupils first participate in a drama circle as they continue reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream aloud with classmates. Next, scholars move around and discuss text-dependent questions about the play with a Three Threes in a...

Use a vocabulary asssignment as a quick activity between reading chapters of Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Young readers choose their favorite words from the vocabulary word list to describe Sal, Phoebe, or any other character from...

How can you help pupils view feedback as a blessing and not a curse? Lesson seven in a series of 12 character and leadership activities focuses on the S.A.R.A mindset and how to support budding leaders in their journeys toward the...

Here's a lesson you can really build on! Middle schoolers describe the occupants of an imaginary house during a character-building lesson. They create a cast of characters who share living space and provide details about their attitudes,...

Build your classroom community with an activity that uses apples to examine oneself and their classmates. Participants draw four large apples on blank paper then exchange them within a small group. Group members write a character trait...

Angela Shelf Medearis' Poppa's New Pants provides third graders with an opportunity to stitch together their own narrative filled with sensory details. After reading the story and noting the sensory and concrete details in the tale...

Watch young leaders as they totally rock this activity! Pupils partner up and set appointments with one another during the third in a series of 12 character-building lessons. Instructors call out the appointment time, then partners meet...

What are some of life's most tried-and-true lessons? Pupils listen to examples from the book Live and Learn and Pass It On by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. They write down their own life lessons to later compile in a class booklet. As...