view a plan
This six pillars of character student publishing project yields a free full-color hardbound class book
Art, Language Arts
K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Title – Character Counts Writing Project
By – Stephanie Myers
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Art
Grade Level – K-5
Character Counts! StudentreasuresÃ‚Â® Publishing Lesson Plan
- In this lesson, students will learn how the values of the Six Pillars of Character are reflected in their world.
- They’ll identify behaviors that represent trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship and explore the relationship between good character and values.
- Students will become published authors by collaborating to create a full-color hardbound Character Counts! classbook!
- Sample book for each school to use as a guide
- Publishing kit with manuscript to create a hardbound book
- Project Coordinator instructions to conduct project
- Teacher’s guides with detailed instructions for all participating teachers
- Author instructions to guide students through the writing, illustrating and publishing process
- Provided by StudentreasuresÃ‚Â® Publishing:
- Additional Supplies:
- Information on the Six Pillars of Character (see list above or available from www.charactercounts.org )
- The Six Pillar Shuffle Song (optional – available for purchase at www.charactercounts.org/lesson-plans and available for viewing with movements ” Twist for Trustworthiness… ” on YouTube)
- Images or illustrations that represent behaviors demonstrating the values of the Six Pillars of Character
- Digital photos or scanned images (if not drawing illustrations)
- Pencils for first drafts of drawings (if using student illustrations)
- Water-based markers for final illustrations (if using student illustrations)
- Age-appropriate writing rubric
- Draft paper for writing
- Black ink for final writing
- Introduce the class to the Six Pillars of Character using the Six Pillar Shuffle song or another idea that is age-appropriate to engage the students in the concept.
- Ask students if they’ve ever heard of the words of the Six Pillars before (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship). Go over each pillar and ask the students to share where they’ve heard the word. Ask if they can give an example of what that word means.
- Next, consolidate the learning by showing pictures of the behaviors represented by each of the Six Pillar values. As you show each picture or photo, have the class call out the name of the pillar represented by the picture.
- Once everyone understands what the words mean, have them think about specific situations in their lives where they experienced one of the values. This can be a time when they demonstrated trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, or citizenship or a time when someone else demonstrated a pillar behavior. Prompt them by sharing examples from books they know well or TV characters with whom they’re familiar.
- Tell them they’re going to draw a picture that shows what happened when they saw or demonstrated good character. If your students are drawing directly onto the pages, have them start with pencil so they can erase mistakes.
- Once the images are ready, tell the students to write about them. Use an age-appropriate writing rubric to guide their writing. Enlist older students to help with editing. Follow this writing process:
- First draft
- Edit and review
- Final text
- When the paragraphs are ready, have each student transfer their writing to a manuscript page provided in the Classbook Publishing Kit.
- Next, create the final images on the manuscript pages to correspond with each student’s image. Colored pencils and crayons do not reproduce well. For more vivid illustrations, water-based washable markers work best.
- When all the materials are ready, ship them to StudentreasuresÃ‚Â® following the Project Coordinator Guidelines sheet.
- When the book is returned, celebrate by having an Author’s Party.
- Invite parents, students, and other guests to attend the reading and author signing.
- Have the students talk about what good character means to them in their lives and what they hope to see demonstrated by the adults in their lives that shows CHARACTER COUNTS! everywhere, all the time.
E-Mail Stephanie Myers !