What are my values? Introduction

Key learning area: Studies of Society and Environment

Year level: Upper Primary/Lower Secondary

Lesson duration: 3 hours (3 lessons)

Unit topic: What are my values?

Lesson topic: Autobiographical reflection

Aim of the lesson

Students will analyse the biographies of three young Australians who have enacted and realised their values. They will then identify an issue that is important to them and consider current and future actions as a mechanism for enacting and realising their own values. This series of lessons concludes with students writing and annotating their autobiography, highlighting the values that are either explicit or implied in their work.

Curriculum Links

Links to the Australian Curriculum

Intended student learning objectives/outcomes

Knowledge:

  • Engage with values that are important to Australian democracy.
  • Define and exercise personal and shared rights and responsibilities within local contexts.
  • Recognise that citizens can individually and collectively influence decision-making.
  • Participate in civic or environmental action to effect positive change.

Skills

  • Analysis
  • Action planning
  • Writing

Values

  • Care and Compassion
  • Doing your best
  • Fair go
  • Freedom
  • Honesty and trustworthiness
  • Integrity
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Understanding, tolerance and inclusion

Resources:

  1. Civics and Citizenship website, Biography of Hugh Evans
  2. Civics and Citizenship website, Biography of Jesse Martin
  3. Civics and Citizenship website, Biography of Louise Sauvage
  4. The Dutch kids who bet on Kyoto (BBC article)
  5. Action plan (pdf format)

Note to teachers

If students are unaware of the Nine Values for Australian Schooling and what the values represent, spend some time unpacking the values before starting these lessons. Unpacking the Nine Values for Australian Schooling (pdf format) has ideas for assisting students in understanding what each value looks like, sounds like and feels like, and where they are enacted in daily life.

If students are unaware of how to identify explicitly stated and/or implied values in a biography, spend some time working on Annotating a biography to identify the values (pdf format) before starting these lessons.

Teaching and learning activities

Introduction | Activity One | Activity Two

Back to Upper Primary Teaching and Learning Activities