Shaping a lesson

Sometimes students sit in class waiting for the bell to ring. And time slows almost to a standstill until students wonder if the clock has stopped working. Teachers tend not to notice this time drag as much because they are busy thinking how to finish the lesson before the bell rings.

While this is bound to happen to all teachers once in a while, you try not to make a practice of it. So, how do you design a lesson that keeps students involved?

My advice is short: "Make students work." One of my professors said it another way. He said "in a good classroom, the students are working harder than the teacher." This does not mean that teachers don't work hard, but it does mean the goal of school is not for teachers to learn how to work hard, and for students to learn how to listen. The goal of school is for students to learn, and learning does not happen without some work.

Now the work does not need to be a drudgery. I think this is the biggest misconception about schoolwork. On the whole, I think students prefer meaningful work to boredom. However, you might need prep them to get them to that point.

Contrary to popular opinion, this is not complicated. There is a universal law for preparing someone to work well. Show them the problem, explain what you would like in the end, and give them the tools/info they need to get started.

So, for this lesson, the problem is that wealth in countries can be very unequal. Too much inequality is a problem. I can show them this by buying candy and splitting it very unevenly among the class. (2 or 3 students get half the candy, the rest get to split what is left.) The majority of the class should be able to name the problems with this! However, we'll discuss this as a class to make sure everybody sees it. We will also watch a video clip from The Great Divide by Globalpost that puts faces to this problem.


Now, what I want two things from them. I want them to tell me why inequality happens. I also want them to identify in which countries inequality is the worst. To do this, I need to introduce them to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per Capita GDP,  and the Gini Index. I'll need to explain how these tools work, and how to find reliable sources for these statistics online. The CIA World Factbook is great for this. This could even be a homework assignment.

And that's it. If you want to see what these details look like in a lesson plan, check out my Latin America Inequality Lesson Plan page. There are many ways to organize a lesson plan, but this is a template that works well for me.

Why learn this?

Students like to ask questions. One of the most common is "when will I use this?" Sometimes this question is real, sometimes it is laced with sarcasm (because they assume the answer is never).

Well, the question itself is a fair question. One of a teacher's many jobs is to make a lesson apply to the lives of students. So how do you do that? Let's try.

I am teaching a unit on South America. One of the themes that always comes up in the textbook is income inequality. There is usually a picture like this. . .

...with a question along the lines of "Why is there such a large gap between the rich and poor in this region?"

Well why does it matter to students if in another country most people fall into the category of "very rich" or "very poor?" After all, it's not their problem...they are not the ones living in poverty...

Bam! There's something they care about: being poor or rich. After all, students care very much about who has money and who doesn't. Just listen to them talk about classmates who they think are rich, and you will find out that it strikes a nerve that some people have more money than others.

So, let's zoom out on this issue. Can you boil the issue down into one simple question? (Because once you have a question they agree on and care about, you have a lesson.)

How about this for a question: "Why do some people have more than others?" Do they care if someone in their town can afford a better phone or care than them? I would guess they do.

Or, another question could be "What changes someone's wealth?" The reality is that people can and do go from poverty to wealth, and vice-versa. But it is the exception to the rule. In most countries, the wealth or poverty level you were born into is probably where you will stay. So how do some people break this rule?

And that is it. Not rocket science. Not even a revolutionary question. But it is a question that matters. And once students realize the question matters, you have a decent start to a lesson.

Teacher

I am a teacher.

Yes, that describes me, and what I do. You're confused? I'll explain. (I'm a teacher after all!)

I am by nature teacher oriented -- I like being part of the learning process. But, I also chose to teach -- I happen to enjoy it. Here's why I enjoy it

There is no lack of excitement or challenge in the classroom. I am entering my third year as a teacher, and I can confidently say I have learned as much from students as they have learned from me. (I'll let you draw your own conclusion on that one!)

So, this blog is a look into what happens in the classroom. Hence the name of this blog. Enjoy a look into
the life of teaching!

This is a regular view for a teacher.