Qualities of Hero (Lesson Plan: Communications 12)
Lesson Overview/Purpose
This is a lesson that prefaced the final project that I assigned to my Communications 12 class that I was teaching during my practicum. The assignment was to write their own narrative (either a short story or a comic strip) on a hero of their own creation. The purpose of this lesson was to have the students engage in conversation with each other and build some ideas about the heroes they were going to create and what qualities they might have.
Lesson Plan
Reflection
One of the challenges with this class was that in a class of eleven students, five students experienced anxiety around speaking in larger groups, so class-wide discussions always needed to be planned very carefully so that all students could participate in whatever capacity in which they were able. I found that most students were comfortable with speaking in smaller groups, so dividing the students into groups that I knew they could work in (with at least one person in each group that was comfortable with being the "speaker" for their group who shared their ideas with the class), these kinds of activities were usually successful. Circulating around the classroom and listening in on the small group discussions, I had the opportunity to hear all of the students speak and know that they all had their own ideas about what they felt a 21st Century hero should be like.
Looking at the ideas that some of the groups came up with, I thought it was interesting that there was a conflict of ideas between some of the groups. Some groups were definitely more interested in constructing a more "traditional hero" and there was little difference between the heroes that they were already familiar with and the heroes that they were creating; other groups were very interested in creating heroes that challenged the notion of the "modern hero" and wanted a hero that was ugly, awkward, smelled funny, and other qualities that would make them more realistic and easier to relate to.
If I were to do this again, I would have spread the "hero creation" aspect of this lesson over two lessons to give students more time to organize their ideas. I would also incorporate more visuals, something like a graphic organizer to get students engaging with their hero in a little more detail before moving on to more specific questions. However, overall I felt that this lesson was a success because all students were on task and all students were engaged and interested in sharing their ideas in a way that they felt comfortable with.
Looking at the ideas that some of the groups came up with, I thought it was interesting that there was a conflict of ideas between some of the groups. Some groups were definitely more interested in constructing a more "traditional hero" and there was little difference between the heroes that they were already familiar with and the heroes that they were creating; other groups were very interested in creating heroes that challenged the notion of the "modern hero" and wanted a hero that was ugly, awkward, smelled funny, and other qualities that would make them more realistic and easier to relate to.
If I were to do this again, I would have spread the "hero creation" aspect of this lesson over two lessons to give students more time to organize their ideas. I would also incorporate more visuals, something like a graphic organizer to get students engaging with their hero in a little more detail before moving on to more specific questions. However, overall I felt that this lesson was a success because all students were on task and all students were engaged and interested in sharing their ideas in a way that they felt comfortable with.