Activity - Explaining the image & oppositional class

My reflection …

First, Explaining the image

In my opinion, this exercise had a “freshness” appeal because it is not something that is done on a regular basis. The exercise allowed each of us to have an opinion on the issue. It also promoted discussion among the three of us. I do wish we had more time so we could have done the ‘possible inferences’ and ‘explanation’.

Ex) when Homer was voting the machine kept saying, “McCain” and I inferred from that the election could be possibly manipulated to allow a different outcome as might have possibly happened in Florida when George Bush won the presidency in the 2000 election. A good thing about this type of activity is that it allows every student to have a say while maintaining a discussion type format.

This is especially important when the class is multicultural with different levels of English proficiency.

The format was nice because it guided the students and the sample prompts were very helpful too. However, a bad thing about this activity is that it could hinder ‘free thought’ since it provided sample prompts from the teacher. I think I would like to try this one day with my students.

Second,  Oppositional activity :

Two challenges among 6 are “ Irrelevant” and “ Teacher’s lack of Knowledge”

My advice for “irrelevant issue” was:

1. Use the students’ background information to learn about the students so the teacher has a better idea of the relevancy of certain issues to minimize the chances of having irrelevant topics.

2. Give students the option to choose among the topics.

3. Give the students freedom to suggest a list of topics.

Advice  I  received  from  Andy  about “teacher’s knowledge” was:

1. Teachers should be confident so students don’t think the teacher is lacking knowledge that way the teacher can instill trust in the student,

2. Teachers should be prepared and try to anticipate what will happen.

3. Teachers should develop themselves. (including further study & research..etc)

For me, the activity was innovative because I had never experience a lesson like that where a person can be an expert and express their opinion while the other person is just listens and asks clarifying questions. Overall, this activity would be good for ESL to develop  “listening and speaking skills”.