Initial Post (Due Monday)

Part 1: Character in the Media

Use the individual traits from Ten Essential Virtues (Lickona, 2003) or any vocabulary from the character programs (perseverance, grit, integrity, etc.) and find an age-appropriate short video, song, or book that teaches about that character. Post the link of your chosen resource and answer the following:

• What age level would you use this media tool with?
• What impressed you the most about the media tool you chose that led you to believe it would be valuable to bring to the classroom?
• How does this media enhance teaching character development?
• How would you implement your media choice into the curriculum, classroom or workplace?
• Be sure to cite your media choice properly in APA 6th edition format.

Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

Part 2: The Three Types of Character (Create a new thread separate from your Character in Media post)

Create a visual that shows the relationship between the three domains: moral, performance and civic character.

All character education is about morals/values/character traits. Seider (2012) has drawn an artificial distinction, calling them moral character, performance character, civic character—calling attention to the application of morals/values/character traits.

When a moral/value/character trait is applied, such as responsibility, to furthering a relationship, you are talking about moral character. When you apply responsibility to completing a project, you call it performance character. When you apply responsibility to your community, you call it civic character.

There are some traits, like grit and resourcefulness, which are mainly in the domain of performance character.

Consider Seider’s (2012) warning as you design this visual: “Performance character must always be regulated by moral character to ensure that we do not do bad things in the pursuit of our goals” (p. 128). See page 33 for an idea.

Your drawing needs to be original. Past students have used a tree, a Venn diagram, a pyramid, a train, etc. to demonstrate understanding. This is a visual metaphor that demonstrates your understanding of how these three domains are related. You may use computer graphics to refine this drawing, or online infographic tools to help you develop your ideas into a visual representation. (Hint: Imagine a bulletin board.)

Once you complete this model, post your visual (you may use a graphics program or take a picture of what you drew/created) and an explanation of how you might use your tool with families, adults, students, or others.

Peer Responses (Due Tuesday)

Read your classmates’ posts. Respond and substantively comment at least one of their posts from Part 1 (Character in the Media) and Part 2 (The Three Types of Character). Share your initial positive reactions, one take-away you would like to apply, and your vision of how you would use the tool for your classroom. Support your statements with evidence from the required studies, other research, and experiences. You are required to respond to comments or questions about your posts.

References

Lickona, T. (2003). The content of our character. Retrieved from http://character-education.info/Articles/TheContentofOurCharacter.pdf

Seider, S. (2012). Character compass: How powerful school culture can point students toward success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

>> Here are two classmates’ posts<<

Part 1: Character in the Media (Empathy) 

Teaching Students Empathy Through Media

Video Link:  https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/building-empathy/video/

        I chose an educational hip-hop song about empathy from Flocabulary. Flocabulary is created by Nearpod and is packed full of educational hip-hop videos and activities for all subject areas including social-emotional learning. It is a paid subscription for schools however, teachers can get free trials. I chose a video on empathy because I feel that empathy is vital to teach students at a young age. Lickona, depicts empathy as a virtue of love. He describes the virtue of love as “the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of another. A cluster of important human virtues-empathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, service, loyalty, patriotism (love of what is noble in one’s country), and forgiveness-make up the virtue of love.” (Lickona, 2003, p. 2). Love, compassion, and empathy are such important skills for students to learn and apply so they can become a caring member of his/her community.

        This particular video is geared more for primary students, particularly grades K-3. I chose this media tool because it presents the character trait of empathy in a way that is engaging, fun, relatable and current for kids. The video is a fun, educational rap that is paired with many different activities that promote empathy through many modalities. Some of these activities include vocabulary cards, a vocab game, a read & respond activity, a quiz, a quick review with handout, and the lyric lab, where student can create his/her own rap about empathy. Using this media helps enhance teaching character development because it allows students to see a situation where empathy is needed, explains what someone with empathy does through a song, and models it through the video. The video shows and discusses how if you notice something is bothering someone, go ask them about it, try to picture yourself in their shoes (relate to them) and come up with a solution to help make them feel better. This video and its paired activities would be easily implemented into my classroom or even within our school’s curriculum. The video is approximately 3 minutes long with the other aspects being short time wise as well. It could easily become part of how we teach the Lancer Code or even become part of our social studies lessons. With the paired activities, it also opens up the opportunity to use it as a cross-curricular tool that could even be used across multiple classrooms, in music for example.  I also love that it can be presented to a whole class or can be used as a Nearpod, if students are distant learning. Having this flexibility is such a nice feature with not knowing what will happen to our school’s format of education.  Using this video would be a fantastic way for any primary teacher to teach empathy to their students in a way that is engaging, fun, relatable and current.

References:

Educational Hip-Hop. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/building-empathy/video/

Lickona, T. (2003). The content of our character. Retrieved from http://character-education.info/Articles/TheContentofOurCharacter.pdf

Part 2:The Three Types of Character

 Attached is the image I created to represent and show the relationship between moral, performance, and civic character. During the brainstorming process, I was thinking about how I relate most to things to metaphors and use them a lot while teaching. I also thought about how my (primary) students often best retain information when I give examples using food such as, using pizza to teach fractions. As I continued to brainstorm, the metaphor, “icing on the cake”, came to mind and it got me thinking about how layers of character development could represent a layered cake.  This is how I came up with an image of a cake to represent character development.

The first step of my drawing was to create a cake stand. The purpose of the cake stand is to show a foundation on which a cake sits. The cake stand is labeled with self (the individual), their support systems of family and school, as well as their experiences because these things uphold and shape an individual’s character. I colored the support systems to fit the other areas in which they are important pieces. I colored family purple to show its relations to moral/relationships and school, blue to show its relations to performance/individual/community.

The first layer of cake is moral character. Moral character is the first layer because it starts at a very young age and is built upon throughout an individual’s life. Moral character also regulates the other character types, without it, just like the base layer, the individual (cake) cannot reach their fullest potential. Moral character “consists of the qualities-such as integrity, justice, caring, and respect-needed for successful interpersonal relationships and ethical behavior” (Seider, 2012, p. 32). The layer of icing between the moral layer and performance layer is relationships. Moral character focuses on interpersonal relationships but those relationships are vital to and individual’s performance in a group setting.

The middle layer of the cake is performance character. Performance character is a marbled layer because it requires both moral and civic character in order to be as successful as possible. “Performance character must always be regulated by moral character to ensure that we do not do bad things in the pursuit of our goals” (Seider, 2012, p. 128). Lickona and Davidson define performance character as “consisting of the qualities such as effort, diligence, perseverance, a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, ingenuity, and self-discipline needed to realize one’s potential for excellence” in all areas. (Seider, 2012, p. 32).  The layer of icing between the performance layer and civic character is individual. The reason it is individual is because performance consists of the “skills that allow individuals to optimally regulate their thoughts and actions…[to] achieve levels of personal excellence in their conduct” (Seider, 2012, 32) which is used to support their contributions to civic character.

The third and final layer of cake is the civic character layer. This layer is the top of the cake because without the other two-character types of moral and performance character, civic character cannot exist. Seider (2012) defines civic character as, “the knowledge, skills, virtues, and commitments necessary for engaged and responsible citizenship.” (p. 164). Civic character focuses around an individual’s role within his or her local, national, and global communities while giving them the skills needed to be effective contributors to those communities. To top the cake, is icing and this icing is symbolistic of community. The metaphor “icing on the cake” came to my mind during brainstorming because the true icing on the cake is for an individual to be a positive contributor to his/her community and society. Without the layers of moral, performance, and civic character, the icing on top of the cake couldn’t/wouldn’t be present.

The candles are representative of the ten essential virtues; wisdom, justice, fortitude, self-control, love, positive attitude, hard work, integrity, gratitude, and humility. (Lickona, 2003). These virtues are vital in order for an individual to develop and maintain a strong character. I made them into candles because each one is important and should be celebrated. Lickona (2003) discussed how the virtues are a “continuum and to focus on making progress in practicing each more consistently.” (p. 3). If a candle is blown out, it can be relit by another burning candle which shows the continuum of character development. Sometimes we lack in a virtue or it isn’t a focus so it gets dim or “blows out” however, another virtue can bring it back to life and make it a priority again.

I felt the idea of a cake to represent the three components of character development is geared towards all age levels. It can be broken down into smaller parts for younger students and be “made/build” as they learn about each component. It can also be given as a whole to older students or adults so they can see the metaphors and how they are all interconnected to make a whole individual person with strong character (or a delicious layered cake)!

References:

Lickona, T. (2003). The content of our character. Retrieved from http://character-education.info/Articles/TheContentofOurCharacter.pdf

Seider, S. (2012). Character compass: How powerful school culture can point students towards success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press

 Cake-Kerstetter.jpg (1.817 MB) 

>> Classmates 2: post<<

Part 1:Character in the Media

The age group I work with is three to six-year-old children. The video All About Respect is a short rap song about respect. The reason I choose this is that it was a short 2 minute and 40 seconds video. Since I would be using it at the end of the day for ‘circle time,’ I would not want it too long. I also enjoyed how I could only have the audio on, and they could imagine the stories being told. There are four short-stories of how to show respect their age group could relate to—helping to clean up a work that was not yours, letting someone else go in front of you, not interrupting others when they are concentrating, and being kind to someone else who is bullied. I think it would bring value to the classroom because it is another way to have stories weaved in to show respect in a different narrative. It also teaches how to spell respect by spelling it out repeatedly during the chorus.

I think the video enhances the teaching of justice because it gives examples of believable stories on how to show respect to someone. I like how it says over and over again, “I always treat my friends like I hope they treat me and treating everybody respectfully.” I believe saying positive affirmations can change your mindset. So having a young child repeating they treat their friends with respect is a powerful tool. “Justice means respecting the rights of all persons. The Golden Rule, which directs us to treat other persons as we wish to be treated, is a principle of justice that can be found in cultures and religions around the world” (Lickona, 2003).

I would implement this tool through audio vs. visual media. AMI Montessori doesn’t have children use computers until they are in upper elementary. There are no smart boards, or tv’s in our classrooms. So we would listen to it during our group time. I would engage them in sharing what they heard; if anyone has a story of how they showed respect to someone by letting them go first, being kind to someone when others were not, or quiet when they wanted to talk? I would encourage conversation on what it could look like to show respect in the classroom, outside, and home? 

We would do role plays that Dr. Montessori called ‘Grace and Courtesy’ lessons throughout the following weeks. At Roxbury Prep they call these Advocacy Skills, “These are the skills that I think every student should have, but in this case, they’re coming perhaps from an environment where they don’t see it done all the time-where they don’t have parents who have the time to teach them explicitly” (Seider, 2012, p. 140). Even though the children are younger than those of Roxbury Prep, we set them up to gain self-confidence by knowing how to act when the time comes. One example I show the children is how to ask someone if they would like help. I usually have an older child or my assistant to help illustrate how to act out the Grace and Courtesy first. One person would ‘accidentally’ spill water on the floor, and then I would go up to her and say, “Would you like some help cleaning up the water?” The child or the assistant can either say “yes” or “no, thank you.” I could implement, asking, “How did I show respect?” 

Grace and Courtesy is a way to teach children how to interact with their surroundings respectfully. I implement a lot of them throughout the year, especially at the beginning of the year. I present Grace and Courtesy at least once a day with large groups or small groups. Now I can start calling out the characteristics we want to foster. For example, in answering someone’s response about how did I show respect? I could respond with, “Yes, I showed Sue respect when I stopped and asked her if she wanted help. I made sure to respect her if she wanted to do it by herself.” As Samuel Casey Carter writes, “Great school cultures state what virtues or habits they expect to see on display at all times from members of their community” (Seider, 2012, p. 113). After the children had a turn to practice the Grace and Courtesy, if they chose to do so, I will affirm the action of respect by stating what I saw. 

References: 

Harrykindergartenmusic. (2016, April, 20). All about respect! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmRjyQlWyQg

Lickona, T. (2003). The content of our character. Retrieved from http://character-education.info/ Articles/TheContentofOurCharacter.pdf

Seider, S. (2012). Character Compass: How powerful school culture can point students toward success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education     

Part 2: The Three Types of Character 

I chose to use an umbrella to demonstrate how moral, civic, and performance characteristics are intertwined. I used the umbrella because it is an item we are all familiar with to help keep us dry. I felt it demonstrates how using moral, civil, and character development tools can help us and those around us. 

Let us look at what is character? A development psychologist Marvin Berkowitz defines character as a “set of psychological characteristics that motivate and enable individuals to function as competent moral agents” (Seider, 2012, p.15). In the book, Character Compass: How powerful school culture can point students to success, the author conceived three different ways to explain what character is. “Some conceive of character as the possession or refinement of particular qualities such as patience, humility, or respectfulness. Others conceive of character as situated in particular types of prosocial behaviors such as sharing or helping. Still others conceive of character as one’s beliefs in and adherence to particular principles such as the golden rule or equality for all” (Sedier, 2012, p. 21). 

The umbrella is divided into three distinct areas, moral character (canopy), performance character (runner), and civic character (shaft). These are three different character educational models. Character education is a way to implement “intentional strategies within schools to foster children’s capacities and motivations to act as moral agents’ (Seider, 2012, p. 15). On top of the umbrella is the canopy or the fabric. It is the part that protects the users from the sun or rain. It is a crucial part of the umbrella, and so is moral character. If you do not have moral character, then the educational model will not be successful. If you do not have a canopy, then the umbrella itself will not be successful. By exercising the different virtues such as self-control, love, integrity, justice, wisdom, and so on, we can work successfully and ethically in relationships with others.  

Secondly, there is performance character. It is defined as “the qualities such as effort, diligence, perseverance, a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, ingenuity, and self-discipline needed to realize one’s potential for excellence in academics, co-curricular activities, the workplace or any other area of endeavor” (Seider, 2012, p. 110). It is represented by the runner that pushes up the rungs to display the canopy. The runner is the performer of the umbrella. It takes effort to push forward, stretch out, and to display the canopy. Without the canopy of good moral character, the runner and ribs of performance character will come up spindly and could hurt someone. “Performance character must always be regulated by moral character to ensure that we do not do bad things in the pursuit of our goals, and moral character always needs performance character to enable us to be effective in carrying out our good intentions” (Seider, 2012, p. 128). 

Thirdly, civic character is described as “the knowledge, skills, virtues, and commitments necessary for engaged and responsible citizenship” (Seider, 2012, p.164). The shaft represents the civic character model. To hold the shaft of the umbrella takes commitment; it takes strength to hold it for a certain period of time. There is an investment in using your moral character to help communities. The way the umbrella is held will influence the dryness of the group and the one who holds it. 

When the umbrella is thoughtfully constructed, the pieces of the umbrella will work well together. The development of moral characteristics and educational programs also need to be thoughtfully constructed. When developed for a particular school, the three aspects of character education work together to better all. 

References: 

Seider, S. (2012). Character Compass: How powerful school culture can point students toward success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education   Press.

 Umbrella.jpg (1.898 MB)