Friday, September 15, 2006
the beast is within
To file in the 10% of lessons that work better than expected:
By way of an introduction to Lord of the Flies, I did an activity with my tenth grade students yesterday. They were divided into groups of four (segregated by gender) and told that they had just crashed on a deserted, tropical island. Their job was to work together to formulate a survival plan.
There was a catch.
Each member of the group had been secretly given a note before the activity began. They were instructed to use the information in their note when they worked with their group on the plan.
These were the notes:
1. You are smarter than everyone else in your group.
2. You would make the best leader and you want to make sure everyone survives.
3. You are spiritual and sensitive.
4. You are stronger than the others, and you have a knife.
My students got very involved in the activity. They were so involved, in fact, that one of my groups began arguing. I walked closer to listen in on their argument.
These kids have never read Lord of the Flies. They don't know about Piggy and Jack and Ralph and Simon. They have no idea what happens.
And yet, in the group I overheard, the spiritual kid and the strongest one on the island were going at it. The spiritual kid kept asking, What would Jesus do?.
The strongest kid was losing her patience. She replied with a threat: If you don't stop telling us to think about what Jesus would do, I'm going to take you on the beach and kill you with this knife!
By way of an introduction to Lord of the Flies, I did an activity with my tenth grade students yesterday. They were divided into groups of four (segregated by gender) and told that they had just crashed on a deserted, tropical island. Their job was to work together to formulate a survival plan.
There was a catch.
Each member of the group had been secretly given a note before the activity began. They were instructed to use the information in their note when they worked with their group on the plan.
These were the notes:
1. You are smarter than everyone else in your group.
2. You would make the best leader and you want to make sure everyone survives.
3. You are spiritual and sensitive.
4. You are stronger than the others, and you have a knife.
My students got very involved in the activity. They were so involved, in fact, that one of my groups began arguing. I walked closer to listen in on their argument.
These kids have never read Lord of the Flies. They don't know about Piggy and Jack and Ralph and Simon. They have no idea what happens.
And yet, in the group I overheard, the spiritual kid and the strongest one on the island were going at it. The spiritual kid kept asking, What would Jesus do?.
The strongest kid was losing her patience. She replied with a threat: If you don't stop telling us to think about what Jesus would do, I'm going to take you on the beach and kill you with this knife!
