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Effects of the Lessons in Character English Language Arts Character Education Program on Behavior and Academic OutcomesEffects of the Lessons in Character English Language Arts Character Education Program on Behavior and Academic Outcomes

Intervention description

Developed by Dr. B. David Brooks, with support from Young People's Press, the Lessons in Character curriculum is delivered by classroom teachers, with implementation support from Dr. Brooks. Through multicultural literature (lap books) and audiocassettes, it teaches character and integrates the language of character into the English language arts curriculum. Designed for grades K–9, the curriculum is aligned with California education standards. Teachers in schools randomly assigned to the treatment condition participate in a one-day training session and in the fall semester receive a day of coaching support to deliver the curricular material.

The curricular material comprises two components, both designed to reinforce good character and support language arts learning standards: the core curriculum, Lessons in Character, and the supplemental materials, Daily Oral Language with Character and Writing with Character. The core curriculum, with a focus on teaching for understanding, explicitly integrates the language of character into the curriculum—emphasizing civility, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, loyalty, and self-control. A literature-based language arts program, it relies on multicultural literature, enrichment activities, cross-curricular activities, read-aloud books, and questioning that help instill habits of good character. The core curriculum consists of 24 twenty-minute lessons; study participants are asked to implement at least 19 lessons during the academic year. The program begins with a decisionmaking model—STAR, or stop, think, act, review—that is used throughout the year as a classroom management tool and reinforcement of the program lessons.

Daily Oral Language with Character and Writing with Character are optional for teachers. Daily Oral Language with Character materials consist of sentence correction activities followed by short writing assignments that emphasize decisionmaking, goal setting, civic responsibility, and other character education components. Designed for daily use, Daily Oral Language with Character augments the regular language arts program with lessons that take no longer than five minutes. Writing with Character materials (for grades 3–8) consist of 36 weekly twenty-minute writing assignments that focus on the mechanics of writing as well as character education.

Although Lessons in Character is a comprehensive schoolwide character education program, it is the program's integration into the curriculum that secures teacher support. Teachers become program experts through daily teaching, and this acquired expertise helps build support for comprehensive schoolwide character education policies and practices.

To date, there has been one randomized controlled trial to investigate the short-term effectiveness of Lessons in Character. Dietsch, Bayha, and Zheng (2005)—in a sample of 372 grade 4 students in Louisiana and Florida—compare outcomes for 11 classrooms that used the program for one semester and 10 control classrooms. Statistically significant results favoring the treatment group were found for attendance and for reading and mathematics grades. And while item-level analyses of student surveys favored the treatment group on character-related knowledge, attitudes, and values, only a few differences were statistically significant.

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