This year my favourite lesson was designed for a College English class ( freshmen course integrating all 4 communication skills). I showed the students an abridged version of Ken Robinson's "Paperclip". I chose a rather ambitious learning objective: students will be able to obtain a deeper level of learning on the subject of genius, creativity and the current Western education system, including the ability to relate it to their own education system in Korea.
Surface-learning activities included viewing the video several times, pausing, rewinding and replaying certain segments in order to improve listening, grasp relevant vocabulary and enhance overall comprehension skills.Deeper-level learning activities included assigning it for homework to view again, and preparing some basic notes on the author's ideas, as well as their personal reaction and ideas about the film. Ultimately, the students had to be prepared to discuss it within their learning group and possibly in front of the class.
It was a lively discussion and I was pleasantly surprised to see how engaged my students were in expressing themselves about the flaws within their own education system, and offer some possible ways to improve it for future generations. Final reinforcement of the concepts they learned from this video were used as part of a multiple-choice reflective question in their final exam. As a final reflection, I can say that some topics you think will be successful discussion topics can and do flop in the classroom, while others might pleasantly surprise you and your students, so it always helps to have a back-up plan. This was a very successful lesson and I also learned some interesting things from my students!
Hi Danae!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your lesson was very detailed and greatly appreciated and enjoyed by your students. It's always exciting when a lesson leads to students engaging their classmates and you can observe their passion and personalities through their conversations. I agree with you that having a back up topic or plan is a good idea, but is it always possible with a 50 minute class. Sometimes I find it difficult to abandon a selected topic midstream without loosing the entire objective for the lesson. I like the idea of using deeper -learning activities in the homework. I find it helps students to absorb the fullness of the content of the lesson. Thanks for sharing!