I can also see how this exercise can be adapted to other subjects. I was thinking that when I used to teach business that it would have worked well when the baking system in the U.S. was in collapse by using the different financial institutions such as Wall Street, the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and various other institutions as the "islands."
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I really enjoyed Chris's demonstration this morning. Of course, I was the one who let the power go to my head and was ready to bump someone off by the end of the exercise, but I can see how students would learn a lot about how governments need to make hard decisions sometimes that may or may not be popular. This can help with their understanding with these issues.
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I have never taught that lesson before today, where someone didn't bring a gun to the island and try to take someone else's resources, either at the beginning, or raise an army and attack later. This is the first time that has not happened! Good job!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering why you were asking about a gun. Then, I thought about if I this was my class and I realized that so many of them would do just that!
ReplyDeleteI love the way this makes us think--present and future. It is such a difficult problem but oh so good to be forced to think through those scenarios carefully and to have to care for your comrades in the process. . . .
ReplyDeleteLoved this lesson! I can't stop thinking about the possibilities in all learning environments - already trying to figure out how to incorporate it into one of Hocking's Job Search Techniques classes. Thanks, Chris!
ReplyDeleteI loved the imaginary island that Chris created, and I believe this was a "power package" in that the lesson hit so many areas (standards, benchmarks, you pick the educational terms) for the students. What a great presentation!
ReplyDeleteI can totally see how I could adapt this wonderful lesson to music! I could have five genres of music from around the world and either give them a song to sing in that genre/style or ask them to write their own lyrics and music for their area of the world. Great job, Chris! Thank you for your great presentation and for the tasty gifts!
ReplyDeleteBack to the gun and violence-- I found my initial reaction to the problems Chris posed for our island group government to be a solution typical of dictatorships. I had to force myself to think of more civilized solutions. Great critical thinking opportunities!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of your demonstration was the group dynamic. You had each of us record our personal ideas so when we came back to the group to discuss we had ideas. But then it wasn't enough to just say, "This is what I think" but rather we had to decide as a group what our course of action was to be to solve the problem. I think this combines the best of both worlds: independent thought and group decision making. That concept is something I really want to use in my classroom for discussions.
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