Announcement: Spanish and Chinese Translations

The Good Project is pleased to present Spanish and Chinese translations of our Lesson Plans. These have been designed to foster the ideas and practices of Good Work, based on many years of research, teaching, and informal experimentation. Please find the translations on our website here. 

The curriculum consists of 16 45-minute lessons, organized into 4 separate units. Each lesson is organized through timed activities and includes a specific lesson goal along with assessment recommendations. All necessary readings and worksheets are also included. Students will collect the work they generate in a portfolio; that collection can then be evaluated with respect to the central ideas and skills foregrounded in the curriculum.

Also included in the packet are introductory materials to familiarize teachers with The Good Project’s approach and theory of change. Additionally, there are two appendices–a guideline for a whole school initiative, as well as a long-term project that can be used as a capstone.  

The sequence of lessons in the full curriculum guide students in four ways: to think deeply about The Good Project’s framework of “good work;” to develop reflective habits that will allow them to navigate complexity, to understand and articulate their own beliefs and values; and to make well-informed decisions in the future.

Our hope is that the translated lesson plans will make our work accessible to the large number of educators who speak or work primarily with students in Spanish or Chinese, within the United States and across the world. 

We would like to thank The Argosy Foundation for providing the generous funding that made this work possible. The Good Project has also received significant support from The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, The Endeavor Foundation, and additional anonymous funders. 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to connect as you implement these lessons with your students. We are available via our “contact us” page, which can be found here.

Announcing The Good Project Fundamental Lessons

We are excited to announce The Good Project Fundamental Lessons, which can be found on our website here. 

This set of 16 lessons organized into 4 units serves as an introduction to the core concepts of The Good Project. Adapted from our longer 45-minute lessons (here), each fundamental lesson is approximately 15-minutes long. They are designed for secondary school students but are adaptable to middle school, and some lessons may well work with younger audiences.

Similar to our longer curriculum, the Fundamental Lessons include introductory material to familiarize teachers with The Good Project’s approach and theory of change. Each individual lesson includes an overarching goal, lists the core concepts covered in the lesson, and indicates any prerequisite lessons. The lesson instructions are detailed and broken down into separate steps with recommended timing in order to help adhere to the 15-minute window. All necessary worksheets and reading materials are also included. 

While we wish all students had the opportunity to delve deeply into the ideas and frameworks related to “good work”, we realize classroom time is at a premium. Our hope is that this abbreviated curriculum sparks interest in both students and educators, and that it provides enough of an overview for students to begin to think about how they might view themselves as “good workers.”

We would like to thank The Argosy Foundation for providing the generous funding that made this work possible. The Good Project has also received significant support from The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, The Endeavour Foundation, and additional anonymous funders. 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to connect as you implement these lessons with your students. We are available via our “contact us” page, which can be found here.

Announcing: New Animated Dilemma Series

Elena is a high school student in New Jersey who immigrated with her parents to the United States from Mexico at a young age. She is proud of her Hispanic heritage, and she volunteers at a cultural center after school to share her culture with others. However, Elena notes that Hispanic people are treated unfairly in America, something she has witnessed personally with her father, who often has a difficult time staying employed in the construction industry. She is currently required by her school to take part in a senior internship experience, and she is applying for a few different opportunities. Elena is worried she will be discriminated against in her job search like she has seen happen to her father. She wonders if she should “hide” certain aspects of herself, such as her full name and experiences related to her ethnicity, from her resume when she is applying for the internships in order to eliminate the possibility that she will be discriminated against by hiring managers.

What would you do if you were Elena? If you were her friend, what would you advise Elena to do in this situation?

This dilemma and others are part of a new set of animated videos produced by The Good Project.

In the currently four-part series, we spotlight the following dilemmas from our collection, all of which are based on true stories from our research:

• Beyond the Science Club

• Tough Love

•   Money Troubles

• Hiding Your Heritage

Each of the stories concerns a central character who faces a challenging circumstance or difficult decision related to their work or an area of passion. For example, Tough Love is about a driven young gymnast who sometimes feels pressure to attend grueling practice sessions even when she is exhausted. Money Troubles is about a nonprofit leader who must decide whether to return donations to supporters after the promise of a matching grant falls through.

Intended for use with students ages 12 and up, educators can use these videos in a variety of ways in both in-person and virtual classrooms. For example, the videos can serve as:

• The basis of a group discussion or individual reflection, in real-time or on a discussion board, about the predicament or choice each character faces, taking into account the “3 Es of good work” (excellence, ethics, and engagement)

• A chance for students to make personal connections to similar situations that they may have encountered in their own lives, or an example that students can emulate as they make their own storyboards, comic strips, or videos about their own dilemma

• Inspiration for a role-playing game or debate, assigning students to play the parts of different interest groups in each dilemma and engage in perspective taking and conflict resolution

You can view all four of the videos in the slider below, and check back in the future for additional videos to be added to our resources under our Videos page.