What Does Character Education Look Like in Middle School?

Character education is paramount for middle school students as they navigate the complexities of adolescence, including increased peer pressure and more serious academic and social challenges. This age group is developing critical thinking skills and a heightened awareness of social justice, making it an ideal time to deepen their understanding of values like integrity, empathy, perseverance, and civic responsibility. Strong character equips them to resist negative influences, make ethical decisions, build healthy relationships, and develop the resilience needed to cope with setbacks and contribute meaningfully to society. 

Tips: 
For teachers, fostering character in middle school requires engaging students in authentic ways, such as facilitating discussions on real-world ethical dilemmas, encouraging student-led initiatives and service projects, and integrating character themes into various subjects (e.g., analyzing character traits in literature or historical figures). Providing opportunities for peer mediation and conflict resolution, establishing clear expectations for respectful communication, and consistently modeling the desired character traits are also crucial. Emphasizing the long-term benefits of strong character can help motivate adolescents to embrace these essential qualities.

Suggested Lesson Plans

Recommended Units of Study

• Stellar Commitment
  Students will analyze the importance of commitment in their lives and in the community by identifying ways astronaut and physicist Sally Ride demonstrated commitment throughout her life.

• Rugged Individualism
  This lesson from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum explores the lives of fur trappers, traders and mountain men of the early North American West by examining their motivations, experiences and daily challenges. Through firsthand accounts and collaborative investigations, students will analyze the character traits such individuals exhibited and connect those traits to qualities we can live by today.

• Women of the West
  Students will identify and draw conclusions about the impact of ethical principles and character traits exemplified by women of the early American West, using primary and secondary accounts of extraordinary historical figures. Provided by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. 

• Character Counts: Commitment to Ethics
  Multiple scenarios help students explain character traits in connection with an academic lesson. in order to illustrate the positive examples of ethical values in action.

• Character Counts: Trustworthiness
  Create your own monument to a trustworthy political leader from history using simple to follow guidelines and examples from the past. 

• Character Counts: Fairness
  Students analyze the need to have pre-established rules that are consistently applied and a clear system for making decisions that promotes fairness.

• Defining Civic Virtues
  From the Bill of Rights Institute, this lesson helps students understand why it is important for citizens to practice civic virtues to build and support a healthy civil society.  
  

• Being an American
  Explore the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and how our American heroes challenged the status quo in the fight for liberty, equality, justice, and a more perfect union through in-depth primary sources, lessons, activities, and discussion prompts.

• Contagious Respect for Property
  Students explore the concept of respect beyond that expected toward oneself and others, extending to respect we owe to property and our environment.

• The Rewards of Caring
  From Learning to Give, learners related enlightened self-interest to caring by discussing the thoughts is Alexis de Tocqueville about the American traditions of democracy and the common good.

• Perseverance
  Lessons from Learning to Give, ask students to analyze how Martin Luther King Jr. used perseverance to set goals and strategies to achieve progress for all Americans. 

• Stanton Standing for Women
  From Learning to Give, explores the ways Elizabeth Cady Stanton faced issues of integrity within the context of the 1800s struggle by women to gain the right to vote.

• Philanthropy Timeline
  From Learning to Give, this History of US Philanthropy Timeline features stories of individuals and organizations who have used their time and resources to make an impact on the world. Young people can examine the ways philanthropy has created lasting change and changed itself. 

• Getting Started
  A module from Overcoming Obstacles.org helps establish codes of conduct at the beginning of the school year that can set the tone for the class, based on the goals of working collaboratively in teams and setting expectations for a positive environment. 

• Confidence Building
  Facilitate the development of confidence in young people through self-respect, healthy life habits, clear values, and the development of personal power.

• Goal Setting
  Understand how to take action to achieve the goals, and develop strategies to persevere when meeting obstacles or difficulties.  

• Pass It On Stories
  From The Foundation for a Better Life, this collection of true stories demonstrate how our lives purpose and create a legacy, through the tales of individuals overcoming unexpected challenges.

• Heroes and Villains
  An extended inquiry from the Bill of Rights Institute that uses rich narratives, critical questions, meaningful discussions, and personal application to examine the civic virtue assumptions of our nation’s Founders and their relevance today.

• Mission U.S.
  Simulations place students in historical situations where they must make choices, encouraging perspective-taking and critical thinking about the factors that shaped historical events. This indirectly fosters character development through ethical dilemmas and understanding motivations.

• Leadworthy Character Education Grades 6-8
  From Capturing Kids Hearts, is grade-level specific, progressive, and easy to use suite of lessons that can become a monthly focus on specific character traits. 

•  Learning to Give
  Teaches traits such as responsibility, fairness, and integrity through 20-minite creative lesson plans that encourage discussion and reflection. 

• Trustworthiness *Grades 6,7,8
  From Learning to Give, the set of lessons designed for each middle school grade level examines the role trustworthiness plays in life's success, using contemporary situations and role models from history.

• Caring
  From Learning to Give, helps learners recognize that famous philanthropists started with small acts of kindness before they performed the influential acts for which they are remembered.

• Honesty
  Students explore the role honesty plays in relationships and life success, including how developing honesty can equip people as citizens who contribute to the common good.

• Courage
  From Learning to Give, the series of lessons for each middle school grade level examines heroes from American pop culture, American history, our Founding Fathers and today's communities to identify acts of courage.

Multimedia Resources

Teacher References 

• A Woman of Courage
  Students will examine the meaning of courage as exemplified by the work of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker during the American Civil War.  
• Better Together
  Brief videoclip exemplifying the strength of generations and families of a community working together. 
• Honesty: Pass It On
  Scenarios of how the trait of honesty is a worthy path from The Foundation for a Better Life. 
• Hard Work: Pass It On
  Using an example from a child's view of lessons learned from parents' guidance. 
• Caring: Pass It On
  A lesson learned from a role model about caring and charity impacts an adult for life. 
• Sportsmanship: Pass It On
  Everyday example of the role honesty and good sportsmanship plays in impacting a better world. 

• Character Education Playlist by The Mr Saad Show: This playlist offers a wide range of videos on different character qualities, including optimism, responsibility, courage, empathy, inclusiveness, gratitude, and kindness.

• Service Learning Handbook, Overcoming Obstacles.org
  One of the most effective ways for students to apply life skills to the context of their lives is through well-planned and well-executed service learning projects.

• Evidence-Based Character Education Programs, an article from Positive Action for teacher reference.

• The Power of Character Education: Instilling Values for a Brighter Future from Positive Action:
  This piece discusses how character education empowers students with values like respect, honesty, and responsibility, leading to increased confidence and better communication.

• Curricular Resources - Character Counts!
  Character Counts! is a widely recognized program based on the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship). Their website offers various fee-based curricular resources for elementary grades.

• Character Education Programs for Middle and High Schools from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

  This resource highlights the importance of character education in shaping thoughtful, responsible, and compassionate individuals. It specifically references how lessons around values like courage, sacrifice, and integrity can be taught.

• Getting Up to Speed on Character Education from the Walton Family Foundation.
  This article discusses various frameworks for character education and identifies six overarching concepts relevant to secondary students: mindfulness, curiosity, courage, resilience, ethics, and leadership.

• Teaching Tuesday: Character Education in Schools from Grand Canyon University.

  This piece emphasizes that character education is a comprehensive, school-based approach, not just an isolated project. It covers how character is "caught" (modeled by adults) and "taught" (explicitly instructed) through curriculum and school ethos.

• The Promise of Character Education in Middle School from ERIC

  While specifically focused on middle school, this analysis demonstrates positive associations between character education and academic and behavioral success.

• Character and Academic Attainment: Does Character Education Matter? 
  from the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues.

  This paper explores the link between character education programs and academic success, finding stronger positive associations for middle and high school students compared to younger children. It also highlights indirect benefits like increased self-control and reduced disruptive behavior.