Integrity and Honesty Themed Social Emotional Learning Resources for Character Development
The meaning of integrity can be defined as "the quality of being honest, adhering to strong principles and character." This post is here to help you find morning meeting resources for social emotional learning and character development - specifically integrity and honesty.
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WHEN DO I TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT INTEGRITY AND HONESTY?
One quickly finds that our reputation is highly connected to our integrity, that the ways in which we choose to act make up what others think about us and what we think about ourselves.
I have used Morning Meetings/Community Meetings in my classroom as an avenue for teaching important social emotional learning topics like these to my students. Some other social emotional learning and character development topics I focus on include empathy and compassion, conflict resolution and compromise, understanding and managing emotions, gratitude, growth mindset, courage, responsibility, perseverance, and inclusion and belonging.
I've always felt that our greatest endeavor as human beings is to work hard to help our inner beliefs and character shine through on the outside and that's why I'm such an advocate of theme-based classroom meetings and taking the time to encourage social and emotional development in our students--even when it's not in the curriculum map. #SHUTYOURDOOR&TEACHtotheirHEARTS #igiveyoupermission
It can be so tough for a child to always have their actions match their intentions and their beliefs. Children's emotions are constantly out of whack, people are constantly telling them what to do. They may feel that they are constantly making mistakes, and quite a few upper-elementary students I've taught have also felt their reputation was already tarnished and that there was no point in making changes because other students wouldn't give them a chance to grow.
We are so fortunate that we have the daily opportunity to make an impact on impressionable young people.
I know that many a teacher made an impression on me and made me believe that I could change the world and make a difference.
🌟 You can find all of the resources for the integrity and honesty unit in my website store or on Teachers Pay Teachers. Each Social Emotional Learning/Morning Meeting unit contains 15-25 days of editable lesson plans, a bulletin board, discussion questions, self-reflections and goal setting forms, student journal pages to accompany classroom discussions, activities, reflections, suggested read alouds, videos, digital Google Slides for the teacher and student, and more!
HOW DO I LAUNCH TEACHING INTEGRITY AND HONESTY?
To launch my integrity and honest social emotional learning theme, I always begin with a key read aloud. I LOVE Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna as my key read aloud for integrity, honesty, and discussions focused on reputations.
MY FAVORITE INTEGRITY ACTIVITIES AND LESSONS TO BUILD THE THEME
While my entire integrity and honesty social emotional learning unit is filled with 20 days of honesty activities and integrity lessons, I’m highlighting a few of my favorites here that you can easily do with a reflection journal and materials you have around the classroom.
ANALYZE INTEGRITY AND HONESTY QUOTES
Quotation analysis is a big part of my morning meeting routine. The following quotation is my FAVORITE from the integrity and honest unit and gets at the relationship between integrity and reputation.
“The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”
One of the journal pages includes this quotation and questions to help students analyze the meaning of the quotation.
PROVIDE SELF-ASSESSMENT & DISCUSSION OPPORTUNITIES
Provide opportunities for students to examine their own level of integrity. I like to use rating scales and prompts that encourage students to reflect on their beliefs about integrity and set personal goals in my SEL Integrity and Honesty Morning Meeting Unit.
PROVIDE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY EXAMPLES THROUGH INTEGRITY VIDEOS
I use a lot of music and videos to help support my social emotional learning units. They are instantly engaging and provide great discussion opportunities to deepen students’ understanding of the theme. Here are some of my favorite integrity videos to show to students:
What is Integrity (at minute 5:59 this video talks about God as the ultimate example of a leader with integrity. Please PREVIEW THIS VIDEO before watching with students.)
A Life of Integrity (1 minute video)
Integrity for Students (1 minute description)
“BECAUSE I SAID I WOULD” INTEGRITY ACTIVITY
I found this movement called “Because I said I would” whose mission is to
be a social movement and nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of humanity. We make and keep promises to end suffering, establish peace and build happiness. Our mission is to strengthen humanity’s will. We created the “Promise Card” to help hold people accountable to their commitments. Make and keep a promise to improve yourself, your family or your community.
BISIW will even send you promise cards if you request them.
A fantastic extension of this mission and project would be to create a classroom integrity book or individual cards where students make commitments to themselves and their classroom community.
Just imagine all of the integrity pledge ideas they can come up with...B.I.S.I.W. be kind to a classmate who needs it; stand up to a bully; use a kind voice when speaking to classmates; apologize when my actions don't represent the person that I want to be.
I think an effort like BISIW in your classroom would help students be more courageous in their actions and act with more and more integrity!
We can make being the kind of person who sticks to our commitments and our convictions #COOL in our classrooms!
Another option would be to create general integrity pledge “because I said I would” cards together based on desired classroom behaviors, copy these cards as a set for each child as a reminder. Perhaps children can receive a “because I said I would“ card from the teacher or another student when caught doing the expected behaviors.
PROVIDE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY EXAMPLES THROUGH INTEGRITY BOOKS
Other fantastic integrity books that I read aloud to students throughout the unit to build the theme and provide relatable honesty and integrity examples include Babushka Baba Yaga by Patricia Polacco, A Day’s Work by Eve Bunting, The Empty Pot by Demi, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe, and A Hen for Izzy Pippik by Aubrey Davis.
I also love sharing this article about Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Spanish runner who intentionally lost the race so his opponent, who was in the lead but fell down, could win. I like to have students discuss whether or not they would have made the same choice and what we can infer about Ivan based on his choice. We relate his actions back to integrity and what kind of belief systems he must have to do something so courageous and selfless.
Check out these other amazing resources from participants in #kindnessnation and #weholdthesetruths.
NEED MORE RESOURCES AND DONE-FOR-YOU INTEGRITY AND HONESTY ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS?
In my Integrity and Honest SEL-themed morning meeting unit, you will find all of the resources you need to teach your students about integrity and honesty, including suggested integrity books to read aloud, engaging integrity activities and lesson ideas, discussion questions, integrity and honesty quotes (in journal and poster form), and a personal self-assessment. Student journal pages highlight activities like my character vs. my reputation activity, “Because I Said I Would” movement pledge cards, integrity examples for students, and brainstorming challenges of always acting with integrity and honesty and identifying strategies for each.
You can manage to do each of these activities with a reflection journal and materials you have around the classroom, but if you want some of the work done for you, including Google Slides, you can check out my Integrity and Honesty SEL theme unit. I use this unit for a 2-3 week morning meeting unit. It includes student journal pages, detailed and editable lesson plans, integrity bulletin board materials with key vocabulary and integrity and honesty quotes, Google Slides for the teacher, and a digital student notebook. This Integrity and Honesty theme unit is also included in the SEL Morning Meeting MEGA Bundle which contains 17 social-emotional learning themes. If you’re looking to increase your social-emotional learning focus, you’ve come to the right place!
SEL THEMES TO GUIDE YOUR MORNING MEETINGS ALL YEAR LONG
If you’d like more social emotional theme units with a focus on encouraging students’ social, emotional, and academic success, you may be interested in the Morning Meeting Mega Bundle of 17 theme units. With units focused on kindness, empathy and compassion, growth mindset, gratitude, grit and perseverance, responsibility, understanding and managing emotions, and so much more, your engaging morning meeting plans are done for you and your students will love them! You can save 10% on the Mega Bundle of all 17 themes with the code MM10.
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT MORNING MEETINGS? What about Morning Meeting Professional Development that you can WATCH and learn in your PJ's?
Want to learn more about what the professional development is all about and what you will learn in the 5-day training? Head to this Morning Meeting Professional Development blog post where I've laid out all of the details for you!
As I’ve said, I use Morning Meetings/Community Meetings in my classroom as an avenue for having important conversations with my students about topics like integrity and honesty. I’d love to know when you carve out time for character development! Comment below!
