Year 1, Lesson 3.1: Defining Dilemmas

Unit Learning Goal

Students will learn about dilemmas and how to navigate difficult situations.

Lesson Goal

Students will be able to define what a dilemma is and understand the elements that lead to dilemma situations.

Assessment

  • Monitor group discussion for understanding of the meaning of a dilemma.

  • Review the “Is this a Dilemma?” worksheets for comprehension of elements that lead to dilemmas.

  • Analyze Exit Tickets for student perspectives about what qualifies as a dilemma and why.

CASEL Alignment

Responsible Decision-Making

Portfolio Documentation

Resources

Prerequisites

None

Total Time

45 minutes

  • Remind students that in your last lesson you discussed the concepts of:

    • Alignment: The various people in an organization or workplace share the same goals as one another and have similar views of what constitutes success. Aligned people have common understandings of excellence, of ethical behavior, and of what engages them in the work. This makes it easier for people to do good work with one another. It makes it more likely that quality, enjoyable work will be done together and less likely that ethical breaches will occur.

    • Misalignment: The various people involved in work together do not share similar goals or views about what their work should achieve. This situation can be due to differences of opinions at the individual level or to underlying structural issues. It might be difficult to agree upon what successful “good work” looks like.

    You then discussed what your class and school missions were and whether you felt in alignment or misalignment with these missions, and whether these missions were in alignment or misalignment with each other.

    This week you’ll be discussing dilemmas. You can note that oftentimes people experience a dilemma because something is not in alignment – like their own values, or their values with someone else’s values, or what they think is right vs. what someone else thinks is right. You can encourage them to think about how alignment fits with the idea of dilemmas as you explore the concept of dilemmas more in this lesson.

Instructions

1. Opener: Turn & Talk. [5 minutes]

  • Ask students to turn to the person next to them and discuss the following questions for 2.5 minutes:

    • What do you think a “dilemma” is? 

    • Are there certain circumstances or situations that are dilemmas and certain circumstances or situations that aren’t? 

  • Bring students back together after 2.5 minutes and ask one or two groups to share out one of their answers.

2. Elements of a Dilemma. [15 minutes]

  • Ask students to break into groups of two or three. 

  • Give each group the “Is this a Dilemma?” Handout.

  • Ask groups to discuss the worksheet together and to write or draw their answers to the questions. 

    • Students should only pick one of the characters to focus on (Li Wei, Matthias, or Farah) and read all three versions of that character’s story. 

    • Ask students to compare and contrast using the following prompt: What elements are changing as the situation gets more complicated? What stays the same? 

  • Keep the completed handout for the Good Work Portfolio.

3. Class share out. [5 minutes]

  • Call on two to three groups and ask them to share a key idea they took away from this activity regarding what makes a situation a dilemma as opposed to not a dilemma. 

4. Definition of a dilemma and discussion. [15 minutes]

  • For 5 minutes: Share the following definition of what a “dilemma” is with students in a visible space (e.g., digital whiteboard, slide).

  • In a dilemma [adapted from here]: 

    • An individual must make an active choice.

    • There must be different courses of action to choose from.

    • No matter what action is taken, some element of good work (ethics, excellence, or engagement) is compromised. There is no perfect solution.

  • Discuss with the class: 

    • Is this definition similar or different to what you came up with on your own? What elements are the same? What is different? Why?

    • What tension is your character struggling with? What element(s) of good work are being compromised and why? Why was there no perfect solution? 

    • Apart from what you’ve read here, how could you change an element of your character’s story to make it less of a dilemma?

    • How are dilemmas connected to good work based on what we’ve discussed here? 

5. Closing and Exit Ticket. [5 minutes]

  • Ask students to complete Lesson 3.1 Exit Ticket. 

    • Students will read the following paragraph:

      “Lisa is a first-year college student during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her college has decided to remain open for students. Though quite shy herself, Lisa is happy to be assigned a very sociable roommate also within her major. Lisa takes her studies–-and the school’s strict honor code—seriously. Unfortunately, Lisa’s friendly roommate, Eva, does not share the same academic integrity. After noticing Eva looking up answers online during a remote exam, Lisa is distraught. Because of her timidness in making new connections, Lisa feels dependent upon Eva to introduce her to new friends and build her social community at the school. At the same time, the policy regarding remote learning explicitly prohibits online searches during exams. Should Lisa report Eva to her professors, or turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for academic honesty?”

    • Students will respond to the question: “Is this a dilemma? Why or why not?”

  • Keep the written reflection for the Good Work Portfolio.

Lesson Walkthrough

Watch this short video guide for lesson specific advice from The Good Project Research Team.