The Character Formation Project generates rich conversations:

We taught the “Pappy’s Handkerchief” lesson to our third graders. My students were thoroughly engaged in the story, and afterwards we discussed what the moral of the story was. They came up with many good answers, among them: the importance of persevering. Then, many students had examples from their own lives to share–of how they personally had to overcome obstacles to achieve a goal. One student told me about how their family had run out of grocery money and so she went around her neighborhood to do odd jobs to raise a bit of money. I was saddened by how matter of fact she related this story, because apparently that was a usual circumstance that her family experiences. However, I noticed that other students in the class were nodding along and seemed impressed by her can-do attitude.  — Third grade teacher in an Illinois public school district

We recently did a lesson about Respect that had the book Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco as the main text. We watched a read aloud version on YouTube and discussed. Respect is something my class has struggled with all year, especially peer to peer respect. We had a great discussion on how they can be respectful to one another and adults, a conversation that then went on to discuss empathy and how it goes along with respect. My students completed a “What Would You Do?” assignment. We all shared our different scenario reactions, and, hearing the others’ answers, a lot of the students said they would think about using each other’s ideas to handle a situation that was similar.  —  Fifth grade teacher in an Illinois public school district