FINAL PROJECT
PERSPECTIVES
An Exploration in CLIL
Students explore the advantages and disadvantages of having different perspectives.
Motivation
Starting this school year with the MOOC project in mind, I had the intention to collaborate with the institute on the exploration of the idea of "perspectives". I wanted to design lessons that would strengthen the students' emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills and also have a practical application in communicating, not only with English speakers or those of a different culture, but with people they interact with in their everyday lives. I wanted to make something that could benefit them and they could identify with immediately.
While I don't know much about teaching preteens, I do know that, like many of us, they have a lot of opinions. This is something I wanted to take advantage of, as being able to express an opinion clearly is great motivation for communicating in English. I also thought about where the students might be at in their lives right now. My memories of being a teenager made me think that poor communication, seeing things only one way, and peer pressure might be some things these students are currently navigating their way through. And from that came the idea that, if we explore perspectives together, it could help them in becoming more open minded and understanding individuals.
Idea
Initially, I had planned to create a curriculum spanning 17 weeks, with one lesson per week, to explore the idea of different perspectives with the students. I quickly realized that aside from this being an ambitious endeavor, students' other English requirements and unforeseeable circumstances, as well as the due date of the MOOC project, would allot me much less time to complete and reflect on the project. Therefore, for this project, I decided to plan, teach, and document one of the activities I was most enthusiastic about- a debate.
I wanted to do a debate with the students because I wanted them to be speaking with meaningful, communicative intention for the majority of the lesson. I also personally think debating is a great way to practice and strengthen arguments and gain confidence. And the students feeling confident in an English class is a goal I have for them. I also wanted the students to debate from a perspective that was not their own so they could utilize critical thinking to show understanding of a different point of view.
I chose first-year students for this project due to their availability and gave my lessons during their English classes, being sure to include their English standards in the lesson planning. However, the material and discussions seen in my lesson plans for this project can easily be adjusted to students of higher grade or English levels.
Students elaborate on their own perspectives in the first lesson of this project.
Students prepare for their debate.
Implementation
I took two 50 minute class periods to do this project. Since it was their first debate and considering their English level, I arranged the students to debate me and their native Spanish teacher. This way, we could navigate the conversation if the students started to struggle. In the first lesson, the students were introduced to the meaning of the word "perspective" and explored what decides a person's perspective. In the second lesson, the students were presented with the issue to debate, developed their arguments, and debated from a perspective opposite their own. You can access both lesson plans and the materials used in them below.
Reflection
I finished both of these lessons feeling very proud of the students. They rose to the challenge and communicated as best as they could in English, they engaged with the material, and I think they met the lesson objectives of considering a situation from various points of view. They not only surprised me with perspectives I had never considered before, but one student was even able to leave me speechless during our debate with his retort to my point. Arguing as the student, in favor of mobile phones in the classroom, I told him that my phone would make things easier because I could just take a picture of the notes on the board without having to copy, by hand, everything the teacher was writing. His response, as the teacher, was that he could also just project a textbook or presentation on the board and sit at his desk the whole class because that would be easier for him, but I wouldn't get much out of that because easier doesn't mean better. And just like it's the teacher's job to put in effort teaching, it's the students' job to put in effort to learn.
Now, for a person who loves arguing and loves having the last word, it was a rewarding moment knowing my student could defend himself in a second language, even to me, the unrelenting arguer and English native.
If I were to do a debate again, I would like to split the students into groups and have them debate each other to maximize their participation. I think this would go smoother after their initial debate. I also think I would split the first introduction lesson into two lessons, as we did not have as much time for group discussion as I had hoped.
Further Development
Moving forward, I would like to continue to explore topics related to different perspectives with the students when their English requirements align with the content. Some ideas I have include having the students create a roleplay where the characters have a misunderstanding due to different perspectives and must ask their peers as audience members how to resolve it. Additionally, they could explore differences in values pertaining to other cultures, or practice identifying perspectives in biased media sources. I think this is a topic that has a lot to offer in the way of student development and English communication and I'm excited to keep experimenting with it for the remainder of the school year.