SAMPLE ACTIVITY FROM CURRICULUM

Following is a sample activity from the Wise Guys curriculum manual.

Chapter 2: Personal & Family Values

What Is Important To Me?

ACTIVITY: Rank Your Values

Purpose: To help teens become more aware of what they value.

Materials: Activity worksheet entitled "Rank Your Values" for each participant; scissors; tape; pieces of colored 8 ½ x 11" paper; envelopes (optional).

Time: 30-40 minutes.

Planning Notes: You may want to cut the value statements on the worksheets into strips and place them in envelopes before you meet your group. An alternative is to have scissors for each participant and let them cut the statements into strips themselves.

Procedure: Be sure each teen in your group has a packet of value statements before you begin. Tell the group that one way to find out what you value is to be forced to decide between certain things and select the one that is most important, the one that is second most important, and so on. Have each teen sit at a table or floor space large enough to lay out all the value statements. Then tell the participants to look over the statements carefully and begin to move them around until they have a list with their most important value at the top and their least important value at the bottom, like this:

Most important

Least important

Rank Your Values - Leader Discussion Points:

1. Would anyone like to share his top five value statements with the group? 

Teacher's Note:  Make notes on which five value statements were selected.  Make a scenario out of at least 3 of the 5 mentioned by the participant, in which he can only choose 1 option.  For example: The three most important values,  "Being Popular With My Friends", "Getting Along With My Parents", and "Being Good in Sports" were selected by a student in the group.   Ask the student which he would choose if:

1. There is a huge party coming up Friday night and everyone is going to be there;
2. You're on the school basketball team, and you have a huge game against your arch rivals on Friday night;
3. You're family reunion is coming up this weekend, and your parents want you to fly out with them on Friday night.

The student can only pick one of these.  During this process, the student will better understand what is most important to him, and what he would be willing to sacrifice for it.

2. How did it feel to have to make a decision like this, when it means missing out on other things that you may want to do?

3. Would anyone else have chosen a different option?  Why?

4. When more than one thing is valuable to you, are there times when it's important to know what's most valuable to you?

5. Does everyone have the same values as you do?  Is that wrong?

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