Remember a few months back when I said I was interested in creating a course for second semester high school seniors that was based entirely on asking questions and reflecting? (click here if you need to jog your memory)
I started building it!
Good grief, it’s going to take me forever to do it at the pace I’m moving. I’m struggling to find time. But oh dang, I’m pumped.
So here’s what I want to do—I want to get feedback as I go so I can revise and hopefully have better first drafts for future lessons. This means I’m dropping in the entire first lesson below. You’ll see I literally script out everything. For my educator friends reading this, I know you don’t script out lessons but this is something I’ve always done with every presentation/speech/pitch I’ve done in the past. I don’t read when it’s time to present but this process helps me get my thoughts arranged.
Remember the audience is second semester seniors and this would be an elective course they would sign up for voluntarily.
Buckle up….
What do you value?
Group Reflection (5 minutes)
How many of you have seen or heard of a tv show called Breaking Bad?
What is the general premise of the show?
Why did Walter White first begin to break the law?
Eventually he had the financial security but continued to break the law—why?
He began to value something beyond the financial security and his family—power.
Hopefully you are never in a position where you have to make those types of decisions. But you will be faced with your own unique series of challenging decisions to make that will force you to confront the reality of what you truly value.
It’s easy to have a values conversation in the safety of a classroom.
It’s much harder when there is real money, emotion, power, and opportunity on the line.
Over the next two classes, we’re going to focus on this one question:
What do you value?
You’re going to understand your own values, the role they play in your everyday decisions, how they impact your relationships, and the work you do with others.
Before we jump in and just start choosing values, I want you to reflect on several questions that will help you paint a realistic picture of your choices and actions. Because we know that our actions are really a reflection of the things we value, we want to see them in action and then look at what we value. If I asked you to just list your values down, you would likely end up creating a list of values that are both aspirational and currently being lived. Our goal for right now is to gain an accurate picture of reality.
ACTIVITY: Discover your values (25 minutes)
You’re going to take the next 25 minutes to reflect on the following list of questions. In your journal, you will show these however you want. You can list them, do a mind map, or find some other way.
Here’s what might happen. You might be tempted to fly through this and be complete in 5-10 minutes. I’m intentionally giving you more time to do this than you think you need. The goal is not efficient completion. The goal is intentional, thoughtful, reflection.
One thing you are going to find in this course is that I am going to create space for you. Space that you may not have anywhere else in your life. While the rest of your life might be about trying to get as much done as possible, our goal here is depth.
It’s possible this might be uncomfortable for some of you. That’s ok - embrace it. Just sit and focus on the questions and see where you end up. Allow yourself to go deeper and search harder for concrete examples from your life to reflect on.
So, take 25 minutes and just sit with these questions and remember that these answers should be rooted in reality, not wishful thinking. Look for specific examples to note.
What do you fill your space with? (everyday carry items, always on your desk, your bedroom, in your backpack, etc.)
How do you spend your time?
What do you spend your money on?
What areas are you most disciplined or reliable?
What are some of your habits (don’t judge between good/bad)
What do you spend most of your time thinking about?
What topics of conversation get you most engaged?
Who do you look up to and more importantly, what is it about them that you admire or want to emulate most?
Ok, let’s talk about how that went and what stood out to you.
Group Reflection (10 minutes)
What did you notice as you answered these questions?
Did any themes begin to emerge?
What did you learn about yourself?
Was this too much time or not enough time? What did you notice about your answers the further we got into the time?
Now that you have some material to work with, I’m going to give you a deck of cards. On these cards are different words that represent possible values you may have.
I want you to use the reflection you just completed to guide this next activity.
ACTIVITY: Values cards (10 minutes)
You’re going to skim through your deck of cards and choose 10 values. Which 10 values do you see lived out most frequently in your life based on the reflection you just completed?
Remember, this is not about what you hope you value or wish to someday value, this is about selecting the 10 values that most closely align with your life as it is being lived at this moment.
You’ll notice there are three blank cards as well in case there is something you believe is a value but is not captured in the deck itself.
I’m only going to give you 10 minutes:
Acceptance Accountability Accuracy Adaptability Alertness Altruism Assertiveness Attentive Balance Boldness Brave Calm Candor Capable Careful Charity Commitment Common sense Communication Community Compassion Competence Confidence Connection Consciousness Contentment Cooperation Courage Courtesy Creativity Curiosity Decisive Dedication Dependability Determination Devotion Dignity Discipline Diversity Drive Effectiveness Efficiency Empathy Empower Endurance Energy Enjoyment Enthusiasm Equality Equity Ethical Excellence Fairness Family Famous Fearless Fidelity Focus Fun Generosity Gratitude Growth Harmony Health Honesty Honour Hope Humility Improvement Inclusion Independence Individuality Innovation Insightful Inspiring Integrity Intelligence Intuitive Justice Kindness Knowledge Lawful Leadership Learning Love Loyalty Mastery Maturity Motivation Openness Optimism Organization Originality Passion Patience Peace Persistence Playfulness Productivity Professionalism Quality Realistic Reason Reflective Respect Responsibility Restraint Results-oriented Satisfaction Security Self-reliance Selfless Service Sharing Simplicity Sincerity Spirituality Strength Support Teamwork Thankful Thorough Thoughtful Tolerance Transparency Trustworthy Truth Understanding Uniqueness Unity Valor Vitality Welcoming Wisdom Wonder
Ok, you’ve narrowed it down to 10.
Write these down in your journal.
Now, looking at these 10, I’m going to give you 5 minutes to narrow it down once more to your top 5 values.
Let’s be clear, this doesn’t mean you don’t value anything else or that other values don’t show themselves in your life at various times. These are just the five values you believe are lived out most frequently in your life right now.
Group Reflection (5 minutes)
What did you notice as you did this activity?
What did you learn about yourself?
Ok, we’re going to add another layer to this.
ACTIVITY: Adding meaning to your values (20 minutes)
The words we use are important specifically because of the meaning we attach to them. So let’s add some meaning.
We’re going to do two things for each of the five values you have selected.
First, I’d like you to write out your own definition of what you think is meant by this value. If you chose loyalty as one of your five values, you’ll come up with your own definition of this word. You don’t need to look up the word because what’s most important at the moment is that we understand your perception of this word and the application in your life. This is not about finding the “right” definition.
Second, I want you to list one specific example from your life where you have seen this value lived out in your everyday life.
What we’re doing now is creating a very concrete set of data that is representative of you.
We’re going to come back to these definitions and examples next time.
FEEDBACK (5 minutes)
This course was created specifically for you at this stage of life as you prepare for a significant transition and a series of major life decisions. It’s meant to give you questions that help you understand yourself and others better. At the end of each class I’ll have you write on one notecard two pieces of very specific feedback.
Something valuable you learned or experienced in class
Something that didn’t click for you or that needs to be refined a bit more
INVITATION: Observe
Over the next few days, look at some of the decisions you make and note any possible connection to the 5 values you listed today.
Alright, there it is—my first fully designed lesson.
Leave a comment or DM me and let me know any thoughts you have. I didn’t list it here, but I also have an outline I built using “Understanding By Design” as my guide, which is a guide recommended to me by a number of the educators I work with here at Singapore American School.
We’ll see if I can get another lesson cranked out by next week…
Keep Asking,
Kyle
WOW, this is impressive! I love it. I wish this had been available to me as a teenager!
I think you are off to a great start, Kyle!
This course will be a gift to every student that takes it. I also think there could be a version for adults. This would be a valuable exercise for someone considering a career change.