Discovering My Values
The second part of this activity uses women profiled on JWA.org to help students see how values translate into individual action. After identifying which values are embodied by the profiled women, students will then be asked to choose the values that are most important to themselves and think about how those values can be transformed into actions in their day-to-day lives.
To prepare for this activity:
- Using the profiles section, pick 7-10 women to use for this activity. We encourage you to use the search filters to pick women who will complement your curriculum, and who will be most interesting and relevant to your students.
- Hang printed versions of the profiles of women from JWA.org around the room.
- Make sure that the values list generated previously is visible to all (i.e. hanging on the wall or written on the board).
Activity Plan
- Give the students time (5-10 minutes) to browse all the profiles and familiarize themselves with the women.
- If you feel your students would benefit from having more direction, pair them up and assign each pair to a profile. Then, every two minutes, have the pairs rotate to the next profile. This way, each pair will have some time to browse each profile without getting distracted or off task.
- Call the group back together and explain that you are switching gears. Read off a value from your brainstorm list and give students 10 seconds to choose the woman who most represents that value. Have 2-3 students explain why they think the individual they chose reflects the value you have read off.
- Repeat for several of the values your students came up with.
- Now transition to the students’ own lives. Ask students to think about which Jewish value from the list is most important to them. Give each student a sticky note or small piece of paper and have them write down their value.
- You may decide that you want students to pick 2 or 3 most-important values for this part and that is okay too. Students should have one value on each individual note or card.
- Next, have the students choose the woman they feel most represents the value or values they have chosen. Students should stick the value they chose onto the wall or onto a desk next to the profile they have selected.
- If you are asking the students to choose multiple values, repeat steps 5-10 for each value separately.
- Have all of the students at each profile group together and answer the following questions:
- Why did you choose this value?
- Is there a story or experience you can share about this value?
- How is this person an example of that value?
- Are there different values represented at this profile?
- Regroup as a class and ask the students to consider these questions together
- Were there different values represented by the same person? Give an example.
- What are some every-day examples of these values in action? When have you seen your friends, family members, community, or even strangers act out these values?
- Lastly, have students reflect on opportunities in their own lives to live out their Jewish values. On a piece of paper, ask students to list the top three or top five most important values to them. Then, ask them to generate ideas for how they could live out each value in their own lives.
- After students do the writing activity, have them share in partners, small groups, or as a class.
- You may also want to collect the papers and use them as the beginning focus activity for another class period or for individual service/social justice projects.
- Alternately, students could select one of the values they see as most important and write a short, fictional story that demonstrates the value.