Slide outline for Lesson 2.1. Eleven slides. The tone is personal and quiet; this is the first day of a unit about the student, not about the kitchen.
Values and What Matters to Me
- Lesson 2.1: Who I Am
- Unit 2: Me, My Goals, My Money
- Today: find out what you care about, then check whether your week agrees
Teacher notes
Image: a plain deck of 24 small cards fanned out on a table, the top card reading "Honesty."
Leave this up while students enter. Decks and sort sheets are already at every seat. Say: do not open the deck yet.
Do now
- Finish this sentence: The most important thing to me is ___
- Now write one thing you did this week that shows it
- Two minutes, one sentence each
Teacher notes
Cold call four students for the first blank only. Write the answers in a column. Ask which ones you could buy in a store. Circle the ones you cannot buy. Those are values.
What a value is
- A value is something that matters to you so much that it changes what you do
- A like: pizza
- A goal: make the team
- A value: health, family, being honest
- The test: if it changes how you spend money, time, or attention, it is a value
Teacher notes
Give two of your own values, one sentence each. [Sal: your two.] Students copy the definition and the test into Part 1 of the sort sheet.
The three-pile sort
- Every card goes in a pile: Matters a lot, Matters some, Matters less
- No card stays in your hand
- No pile can be empty
- No talking until the timer ends
- 6 minutes
Teacher notes
Image: three index cards on a table labeled with the three pile names, a few value cards under each.
The sort is about you, this year, not about whether the thing is good. Watch for the student with 20 cards in "matters a lot." Ask: if you could keep only ten, which ten?
Top five
- From your "Matters a lot" pile, choose five
- Write them on the sort sheet, Part 2
- 90 seconds
Teacher notes
Do not let them skip to three. The cut from five to three is where the thinking happens.
Top three
- Cross off two
- The three left are your core values
- Write one sentence: one you cut, and why
- Partner turn: tell your partner your top three and one you cut
Teacher notes
Two minutes for the partner turn. A student who does not want to share writes a second "why I cut it" sentence instead.
Where does it show up?
- Pick one of your top three
- Money: I spend my money on ___
- Time: I spend my time on ___
- Friends: My friends are people who ___
- Each sentence names something you do, not something you feel
Teacher notes
Image: three columns with a coin, a clock, and two stick figures at the top.
Model first with your own value. "I value health. Money: I buy running shoes before video games. Time: I run before work. Friends: I pick friends who do not make fun of that." Then they write Part 3.
Values and standards
- A value is what matters: health
- A standard is the rule you hold yourself to because of it: I go to bed by 10 on school nights
- Value: honesty. Standard: I do not lie to my mother even when I will get in trouble
- Value: learning. Standard: I finish homework before I open a game
- The best standards have a number or a time in them
Teacher notes
This pairing is the state's line (IGLR 2. a)). Students get "value" fast and "standard" slowly. Use the bedtime and phone examples; they already have those rules and did not call them standards.
Your standard, and an honest check
- My value: ___
- My standard: ___ (a rule, with a number or a time if you can)
- Honesty check: did one choice this week meet that standard? Yes or no, one sentence
- The honesty check stays private
Teacher notes
Two volunteers read a value and standard pair aloud. Nobody reads the honesty check. A "No" with an honest sentence is the point.
Exit card
- One of your top three values
- One standard that goes with it
- One question you still have about the difference between a value and a goal
Teacher notes
Two students read the value and standard aloud. Collect the sheets and the decks. Sort into "got it" (action plus a rule) and "needs more" (feelings only).
Tomorrow
- Traits, strengths, and what you are good at
- Your top three values come back on day 39 for the All About Me one-pager
- Optional: ask an adult at home for their top three values, and guess first
Teacher notes
One line. Leave it up while they pack. Keep the sort sheets in the FACS folder.