Free teaching tools


Character education lesson plans, curriculum, handouts, and more

If you’ve attended a Character Development Seminar, you know that the best way to develop character is to weave it into the fabric of your curriculum and programs.  Here’s a guide to our free resources and lesson plans.  Visit our store for more curriculum integration materials, including standards-based lesson plans. All product sales benefit the nonprofit Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics.  

Essay-writing program
Our Foundations for Life essay program is free for you to download.  It offers character-building materials that develop writing and critical-thinking skills. Be sure to check out the free weekly writing prompt and monthly lesson plan.

Lesson plans

Teach With Movies
TeachWithMovies.org provides analysis and discussion questions to help you find "teachable moments" in movies. A CHARACTER COUNTS! partner, this website uses the Six Pillars of Character to organize its activity guides. Free sample: "Hamlet"

Making Ethical Decisions
Read the Introduction and the chapter on the Six Pillars of Character in this best-selling book.

Activity sheets for kids
"Kids for Character" Pledge in color
"Kids for Character" Pledge  in black and white for coloring

Handouts and guides

Plays

Rubrics

Academic integrity

From a Josephson Institute workshop for students at a high school in California:

Read about Honor Above All, a CHARACTER COUNTS! program aimed at preventing cheating in school.

Children's books

Referral forms (developed by Belvedere Academy, Omaha, Nebraska)

Parenting

Other organizations: Links

CHARACTER COUNTS! and Josephson Institute materials are copyright protected.  Find out about getting permission to reproduce them.