Lesson Planning nightmare
Normally lesson planning for me is a completely enjoyable experience: I look at the title, the key question and the lesson objective and my mind is off on a wave of ideas that link together and produce a lesson fairly quickly. This process is especially easy if I am familiar with the subject as things like videos, songs or activities are already filling my mind. But not today.
Today I am planning a lesson on Immortality for my Year 10s; a subject I love and am hugely enthusiastic about. But could I think of a lesson? No. And seemingly I am not alone, I have asked friends, family, browsed TES, google, anywhere I could think....and no one can think of a lesson that doesn't just involve worksheets and learning by rote, and there is no way I am proposing that to my year 10s; I am bored just thinking about it.
Nope, instead of giving them a boring lesson I have wasted an entire Sunday afternoon when I should have been going for a run and washing my car racking my brains, and youtube, trying to find something fun for them to do that will make this information stick in their minds.
I have found videos from Lord of the Rings to show immortality and legacy, and one from Dr Who that will illustrate reincarnation, but the whole lesson can't be videos.
So I am left with either the dreaded worksheet or something completely off the wall that I have no idea if it will work or not: off the wall it is. The plan is to get them to split into 5 groups and do a short sketch (2 or 3 minutes) where their character dies in an inventive way and then finds that death is not the end. Each group has one of the 'methods' of immortality to portray to their classmates.
This may backfire horrendously, but hey, at least I'll have something to evaluate! So here's to off the wall teaching; to risk taking and imagination. We will see on Thursday if it pays off!
Today I am planning a lesson on Immortality for my Year 10s; a subject I love and am hugely enthusiastic about. But could I think of a lesson? No. And seemingly I am not alone, I have asked friends, family, browsed TES, google, anywhere I could think....and no one can think of a lesson that doesn't just involve worksheets and learning by rote, and there is no way I am proposing that to my year 10s; I am bored just thinking about it.
Nope, instead of giving them a boring lesson I have wasted an entire Sunday afternoon when I should have been going for a run and washing my car racking my brains, and youtube, trying to find something fun for them to do that will make this information stick in their minds.
I have found videos from Lord of the Rings to show immortality and legacy, and one from Dr Who that will illustrate reincarnation, but the whole lesson can't be videos.
So I am left with either the dreaded worksheet or something completely off the wall that I have no idea if it will work or not: off the wall it is. The plan is to get them to split into 5 groups and do a short sketch (2 or 3 minutes) where their character dies in an inventive way and then finds that death is not the end. Each group has one of the 'methods' of immortality to portray to their classmates.
This may backfire horrendously, but hey, at least I'll have something to evaluate! So here's to off the wall teaching; to risk taking and imagination. We will see on Thursday if it pays off!
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