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Intended activity outcome: Increase parent awareness that ethics is all around us and a part of everyday life.

Audience: Parents from middle school, high school, or college.

Materials: Current newspapers

Timing (start to finish): 45 minutes

Activity Steps:

1. Welcome your participants and emphasize the role parents play in students’ learning.
2. Explain the broad definition of ethics as “the study of what is right and what is good.” Explain that generally “what is right and what is good” relates to basic principles like honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, or compassion.
3. Break participants into groups of 5 – 6. Hand a newspaper to each group and ask them to divide the front section (current events) pages among themselves.
4. Ask each participant to scan his/her page for news articles that relate to “what is right and/or what is good.” Explain that if an article relates to what is not right and/or what is not good, this fits within the broad definition (since this informs our understanding of what is right or good). Likewise, the opposite of basic values (“dishonest”, “unfair” etc.) relates to ethics.
5. After five minutes of scanning, ask participants to debrief in their small group. Give them fifteen minutes or so to do this.
6. Debrief as a large group by having volunteers read a headline and briefly explain how the article relates to ethics. Low literacy parents?  Replace steps 4, 5, 6 with a small group brainstorm about topics in the news or on their minds and how these relate to “what’s right”.
7. Now ask participants to think about their day and jot down three decisions they made today. Give them two or three minutes to do this.
8. Remind participants of the broad definition of ethics. Now ask participants to pair up and discuss which of the decisions they made today had to do with ethics, and why.
9. Come together again and get reactions about pair work and the broad topic of ethics. Ask participants to be on the lookout for ethics in daily life. Ask that they point out these examples to their kids as often as they can.

Adjourn for refreshments and informal conversation.

© 2011 The Institute For Global Ethics.  All rights reserved.

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Click here to download a PDF version of this activity.

Background

This activity was developed for use by schools attending the 2011 Ethical Literacy® Conference presentation “Values in Action: GO HDR!”

Relates to

• Skill development: “Ethical Awareness.”

Objectives

• To increase student buy-in to your school’s Ethical Literacy initiative

Audience

Administrators, faculty, and students

Timing

Allow for at least 30 minutes

Activity

Student buy-in is important for a school’s ethical literacy program. One way to motivate students to take ownership of ethics is to create a buzz and make it fun. In this exercise, your group will design a school-wide ethics program that students would find appealing.

Step 1. Divide into small groups (3-5 per group)

Step 2. Have each group brainstorm 4-5 core values you feel are important to school culture

Step 3. Use the core values to design an acronym or catchy phrase that gives your core values a fun or exciting appeal.

Step 4. You may need to experiment with synonyms to make the words fit together.

Step 5. Have each group report their core values and how they were able to make it fun.

Step 6. Examples: STARS (Success, Tenacity, Accountability, Respect, Safety), TIGERS (Tigers Instill Generosity and Encourage a Respectful School)

Reflection

Upon completion of the activity, ask participants:

1.    To what degree did you have to compromise your values in order to make them fit into a neat package?

2.    Where should we draw the line between emphasizing student buy-in and having an authoritative ethical structure?

3.    What are some ways you could promote this new initiative to get the word out and create buzz?

Acknowledgments

Developed by Chris Cooper and Jill Reilly

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Objective

What’s the connection between self expression and ethics?  Could adolescents’ natural need to express themselves and to explore self-expression (through music, visual arts and other forms) be a way to encourage more thinking about “what’s right?”

Audience, Timing, & Preparation

Audience: Students

Timing: Long-term project

Preparation: Be prepared to allow students to discover what speaks to them (see, NOTE).  Provide your own “snapshot of what speaks to you” as a model. Collect examples to use with future audiences.

Activity

Students need to share a piece of artwork with their group.  The assignment is:  “Present a snapshot of artwork that ‘speaks to you’ about one or more of the ethical values of our school” (see, NOTE)

Once students understand the kinds of art you want them to explore, remind them of the assignment:  “Present a snapshot of artwork that ‘speaks to you’ about one or more of the ethical values of our school. Your snap shot can be a stanza, scene, segment, or any other excerpt that demonstrates why you chose it.” Ask students to prepare responses to these questions:

• How did you discover this art?
• Do you think this art speaks to very few or lots of people your age? Why or why not?
• Which core ethical values does this artwork represent to you, and why?
• Does this artwork remind you about anything from your own life, or inspire your hopes and dreams?  Explain.
• If you could talk to this artist, what questions would you ask and what would you want to say?

Reflection

Return for updates on artwork from time to time – do responses to the above questions change over time?

When to Use

You may need to provide time to study art generally first, but once underway this activity could be used to keep the teacher updated on art trends and student interests periodically across the year.

Note

Students may need some time to learn or think about/explore what to share. As a first step, talk to your students about what “counts” as art, or what they consider “art”, if the broad definition is “any form of expression that is meaningful.” This is an opportunity to find out what art forms your students are engaging with (if any) to make sense of the world and their lives. If they can’t think of any “artwork” that “speaks to them”, take your time in helping them to explore and connect with human kind through the arts! Encourage them to consider a Facebook Photo, a YouTube excerpt, art from an online gallery, an acceptable “graphic novel” excerpt (Maus by Art Spiegelman is an example) or any form of “traditional art” like music, paintings, literature etc.

Click here to download a PDF version of this activity.

© 2010 Institute for Global Ethics. All rights reserved.

This activity as part of the Ethical Literacy® program, includes implementation and communication strategies of the Institute for Global Ethics® and its education program. Further, it uses components of the Institute’s trademarks and copyrights including Ethical Fitness®, Moral Courage™, and Ethics Newsline®. You may not copy, quote, or publish these materials without our written permission. Please contact us if you would like permission.

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Intended activity outcome: To increase content area teachers’ awareness about the possibilities for integrating ethics.

Audience: Middle and high school level faculty

Activity Steps:

1. Review the definition of ethics as “the study of what is right and what is good.” Discuss teachers’ understanding of the broadest aims of education. Ask:

• Beyond basic competencies, what’s the purpose of school?
• Based on the definition we just discussed, what do ethics have to do with this purpose?

2. Small Group Work: Have teacher’s divide into “mixed” groups–with different content areas represented in each group. Ask them to discuss this question:

• Do you think every content area has a connection to ethics?
• If so, provide examples for each content area represented in your group.
• If not, provide examples for why not.

3. Keep participants in small groups. Explain that math teachers often have a heard time connecting their lessons to ethics because much of their work is around specific instruction with no room for interpretation, like Algebra. Ask each small group to brainstorm the ethical dimensions of:

• Accounting
• Financial services such as credit cards and other loans
• Rounding in advertising, and other “small print” aspects
• Statistics
• Gender in math-related fields

4. Have each group choose their three favorite ideas from #3 and de-brief as a large group.

5. Ask everyone to be on the lookout for more examples of the ethical dilemmas of math. Ask for these examples to start your next meeting.

© 2008 Institute for Global Ethics. All rights reserved.

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