A Teacher’s Guide to The Go-Giver
A Curriculum for Making a Difference
Ever since The Go-Giver was first published, at the end of 2007, it’s been making its way into classrooms. Yes, it was subtitled “A Little Story about a Business Idea,” and yes, we more or less targeted it toward a business readership … but it seemed to touch a chord in people from all walks of life—including avid young readers.
Soon after its publication it was picked up by Randy Stelter, a high school English teacher and athletic director in northwest Indiana (go Hoosiers!). Randy started teaching it to his students, saying it would help give them perspective on “what it’s going to take to be successful in the real world.” He has taken his school’s senior class through the book every year since since. Soon others followed suit, and before long we were being contacted by a steady stream of educators who were adopting the book as part of their curricula at every level from high school through grad school. The demand for an organized curriculum guide finally became so strong we decided it was time to produce one ourselves. Now it’s here!
We teamed up with Randy to create this Teacher’s Guide based on his own curriculum. The Guide offers a detailed lesson plan that includes vocabulary lists, assigned readings, questions for comprehension and critical thinking, extensive topics for class discussion, and a set of final projects designed to deepen students’ understanding of the book and to ground its lessons in their own everyday experience.
Designed as a high school curriculum, the Guide’s content and approach can also be (and has been!) readily adapted for use by college professors in higher-education settings.
NOTE: A separate PDF file of all the worksheets included in the Guide (designed for easy distribution of individual worksheets to students, in either paper or digital form) is available at www.thegogiver.com/tgworksheets.
A Teacher’s Guide to The Go-Giver Reviews
“As educators, our highest purpose is to help prepare our students to provide greater value to their world and, as a result, live lives of success and significance. The lessons and narrative in The Go-Giver offer students of all ages a wonderful foundation for genuine success.”
—Nido Qubein, president, High Point University, High Point NC
“So many of our young people desire a vision for their lives. The Go Giver provides just that—great rules and values to put into place to ensure success from an early age. I can’t imagine a better way to pull students into a positive life view than studying The Go-Giver curriculum.”
—Chris Mack, board president, Longview Independent School District, Longview, Texas
“Randy Stelter’s experience in the classroom, on the fields, and as a leader in the educational system, gives this Guide substance and value. As an English teacher for the past fifteen years, I see unprecedented value in teaching my students these real-life lessons within their reading.”
—Aimee Costello, Morris Community High School, Morris, Illinois
“When I began teaching Entrepreneurship at Rochester Institute of Technology, The Go-Giver was the natural course textbook. I not only believe its meaning is a good way to live, I see the power daily in what it helps our students achieve.”
—Dave Fuehrer, president, Emerging Space
“For a generation often criticized for their selfishness, The Go-Giver and its accompanying curriculum serve to break through the noise and empower students to be their best version possible.”
—Casey J. Cornelius, founder and CEO, ForCollegeForLife
“The students in my Applied Business Development class read The Go-Giver and wrote remarkable stories about how they applied the principles taught in each chapter. They were so excited about the book that they talked about it at home, and their parents starting reading the book and doing the assignments along with them!”
—Melinda Rangel, director of career and technical education, Newton High School, Newton, Kansas
“Reading The Go-Giver not only changed my thinking; as the first book selected to study in our city-wide book club, it changed the thinking of our entire community. By focusing on the principles contained in The Go-Giver with intentionality, positivity abounds.”
— Mayor Andy Mack, Longview, Texas
“When the first edition of The Go-Giver was published in 2007, I started using it with my advanced leadership college group at our annual retreat. While this new Teacher’s Guide was developed for high school teachers, there are many pearls throughout that college professors can use with their students. The final project suggestions at the end of the Guide will stimulate possibilities for more in-depth integration of The Go-Giver concepts into our students’ everyday lives. As educators, we ultimately are called to improve the world through our students. The Go-Giver and this Teacher’s Guide will assist us in that noble calling!”
—Tim O. Peterson, Ph.D., associate dean and professor of management, North Dakota State University
“In our seminar for juniors and seniors in the College of Business at Colorado State University we use The Go-Giver to help create in our students a sense of individual self-efficacy, personal leadership, and the understanding that they can lead immediately.
—William Shuster, MBA, professor of management, Colorado State University
“I have known Randy Stelter for over forty years and have closely followed his extraordinary teaching and coaching career. In this Teacher’s Guide he makes the concepts in The Go-Giver become a reality in the students’ lives. I plan to teach The Go-Giver in my leadership class at the University of St. Francis, and I know this Guide will greatly enhance my teaching.”
—Pat Sullivan, professor and former head basketball coach, University of St. Francis
“I am impressed with the way this Teacher’s Guide approaches the concepts of the book through critical thinking. While not a teacher per se, I use the principles in The Go-Giver every day in interactions with my children, my patients, and my employees. As parents, doctors, and leaders, we are all first teachers. This book is not just for teachers, it’s for everyone.”
—Kelli Winarksi, B.A., D.C., Family First Chiropractic and Wellness Center, Columbia, Missouri
Excerpt from A Teacher’s Guide to The Go-Giver
LESSON ONE: Core Concept Discussion
What is success?
“Success” can mean different things to different people. When you hear the phrase, “a very successful person,” what comes to mind for you? How would you define success? Financially? Spiritually? Mentally? Physically? Relationally? Socially?
How would you consider yourself as successful?
What do you think it takes to be, or to become, a genuinely successful person?
Have you ever wished you could ask a highly successful person the keys to his or her success? What questions would you ask them?
Quick Write and Group Discussion
Write down the name of a person you consider to be highly successful. This can be someone from history, or someone alive today. In the next two minutes, write down as many questions as you can think of that you would like to ask this person about how they became successful.
(After two minutes)
Put down your pen, form yourselves into groups of three, and share in your groups what you have written.
(After two or three minutes)
While still in your groups, take three minutes to consider this question: “What can you learn from successful people, and how can they influence you today?”
(After three minutes)
Now have one student from each of your groups report to the whole class what you discussed.
The Go-Giver’s Laws of Success
In this course you will be reading a book about a man named Joe who learns many valuable business lessons, which also serve as life lessons. He learns these lessons primarily from a man named Pindar, but also from a number of Pindar’s friends.
As you follow along with Joe on his journey, you will also learn about five key principles called the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” Joe will be asked to test out these each one of these five laws by applying it in his own life, immediately, the same day he learns it.
As you read we’ll ask you to brainstorm ways you can apply these five laws in your own lives, too, just as Joe does.
