Our Centers for Ethics:

Free teaching tools

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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

• Connect With Character — a sample for 11- to 13-year-olds from our soon-to-be-released kits
  • Fairness lesson plan
  • Fairness handout
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix discussion/study guide
• Good Ideas samples — from our best-selling series of lesson plans and activities
• Exercising Character:
  • Trustworthiness lesson plan for 4- to 6-year-olds
  • Responsibility lesson plan for 6- to 9-year-olds (activity sheets)
  • Respect lesson plan for 9- to 11-year-olds (worksheet)
  • Fairness lesson plan for 11- to 13-year-olds (handouts)
  • Caring lesson plan for teens

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

• Definitions of the Six Pillars of Character
• A Person of Character Is...
• T.E.A.M. Guide: Teach, Enforce, Advocate, Model
• E.T.H.I.C.S. Guide
• Tips for Schools, Youth & Sports Groups
• The Character Carousel
• School Bus Character — Created by the LSU AgCenter in Baton Rouge, LA
• Youth and violence
  An assessment of what works and a checklist of cases where CC! has reduced youth violence and its contributing factors. Learn more »

Plays

• "Taking a Stand": Written by students at Portola Middle School in Tarzana, CA. Includes sets of discussion questions.
• More plays are available in our store.

Rubrics

• Rubric: Modeling the Six Pillars of Character: Developed by Kaweah High School in Exeter, CA, this rubric examines how well students model the Six Pillars of Character
• Rubric: Demonstrating the Six Pillars of Character: Developed by Gordon Cooper Technology Center in Shawnee, OK, this rubric examines how well students model the Six Pillars of Character
• Rubric: Study Habits: Developed by Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District in
  Vinton, IA, this rubric aligns students' study habits with the Six Pillars of Character

Academic integrity

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

• Letters to students and parents, parent questionnaire, student readings
• Workshop materials
• Workshop slideshow

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

Children's books

• Free downloadable Worldscapes book  and activity sheet from our Worldscape series
• Recommended books aligned with the Six Pillars

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

• Discipline Referral Form: Used when students are referred to the principal’s office as a last measure for behavior infractions. The events leading up to the referral are explained, interventions taken by the teacher prior to the referral are checked, and space is provided for the student’s and parent’s signatures to ensure the reason for action is understood.
• Discipline Letter Home: Sent to parents of a child who has difficultly modeling one or more of the values of the Six Pillars of Character. The circumstances of the mis-behavior are explained in the letter and notification of a re-teaching session is given. The letter encourages the parents to discuss the situation at home, and to collaborate with the school in reinforcing the school behavior standards in the home.
• Positive Behavior Referral Letter Home: Sent to parents in acknowledgement of positive behavior exhibited by the student. A description of the events is written and parents are encouraged to discuss the positive behavior with their child and to praise and encourage them to continue demonstrating good character.

Parenting

• Parenting to Build Character
• What Parents Can Do to Teach Integrity

Other organizations: Links

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