Lesson Plan: Teaching Character Education through Poetry

Teenagers do not always make good decisions in how they treat their peers. Teachers can help young people make better decisions through modeling positive characteristics and teaching correct principles. The following lesson plan involves teaching poetry and teaching positive character traits.

I require my seniors in English to memorize Edgar Guest’s poem “Myself” in which the poem's speaker asserts a person must live with his or her own conscience regardless of the way they treat others or the decisions they make.

The objective is that students will understand they have to live with themselves and the decisions that they make. As they learn the poem, they must recite it several times in hope that the poem's message sinks in. The goal is that students will have a moment of reflection and realize they should treat others with respect and dignity. Once they decide to treat each another respectfully, they discover that living with themselves is a little easier.

All in all, the poem calls attention to the fact that students must live with themselves. The hope is that even if students make a bad decision, they will learn from it and make a better decision next time. It is my hope that this poem will stay somewhere in my students’ head, and when they are considering doing something inappropriate, they will take a moment and make a wise decision. The goal is just to get students to think before they act.

I would encourage fellow teachers to assign this poem to their high school students. In addition to encouraging your students to treat others with respect and to make wise decisions, a poem recitation is a fairly easy grade for students to earn. Besides it being a grade, students get immersed in learning the poem and take interest in it. More importantly, they absorb the message the poem gives about possessing a superior character.