Mini-Lessons 15, 16, 17: Exploring Empathy, Mass Incarceration, The Game of Soccer

SPEAK UP BE HEARD

Idea developed by Stoni

 

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The way lessons were taught made obvious that the way our classroom is structured is not conducive to a creative collaborative environment. Thus, attention was placed on classroom design and how it affects the learning environment. Please, click on the hyperlink and read about the importance of having a good furniture arrangement and setting aside space for activity centers. After the mini-lessons, we planned on showing a video of clip about how to make a classroom beautiful; although time did not allow it, we were able to watch it the following class. Please watch the video bellow.

 

 

How to Make an Ugly Classroom Beautiful

 

 

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MINI - LESSONS

 

Michaela chose to teach about 20th Century History as a way to explore empathy, primary and secondary sources, the Holocaust, WWI, Emmett Till ad Rodney King and the 1992 L.A. Riots. The mood board activity allowed students to draw their feelings in reference to the historic facts they studied. It was a great addition to her lesson, integrating history with the arts and the creative expression of empathy.

Stoni taught her lesson on Mass Incarceration in the U.S. and how it affects different communities based on racial/ethnic profile. Stoni brought attention to the factors that led to mass incarceration, namely the war on drugs, the criminalization of  drug addiction and the association of drugs and crime with black people. She remarked on the importance of advocacy and invited students to decorate pencils with an important motto.

Bob's lesson was about soccer (football elsewhere). He took us on a tour through the origin of the sport, the practice of the sport by the Han Dynasty, the different variation of the practice, Japan's style and Street football. He concluded his lesson with the way football is played today. To conclude he demonstrated how to kick the ball playfully and invited students to emulate each other.

Class Feedback

Brian

Lecture one – the history lessons were fun and doing the empathy activity was very interesting and different.

Lecture two – gathering the class to represent the numbers of the incarcerations was a really good demonstration of her point.

Lecture three – the videos were very interesting.

Irene

First presenter (Michaela): she started off by establishing classroom rules and I really liked that because it caught everyone’s attention and showed she had control of the classroom. I liked how she gave key words, it helped out so we can pay attention throughout the lecture. She did a great job in asking questions and getting the audience intrigued into the subject. She also did a great job in explaining the activity with explicit details. The mood board activity was well thought and was executed very well!

Sydney M.

Michaela's presentation on empathy within areas of US's history was very professional and thought provoking. She was very prepared and it was a really fun activity that also showed how we feel after terrible things happen. It is important to express our emotions.

The presentation on mass incarceration particularly in the Black community was extremely interesting and important. This is actually an issue I am also very interested in and hope to learn more about it in law school and maybe even pursue a career helping to resolve the issue.

Mina

Michaela - exploring Empathy: feelings are very important and Michaela showed us an interesting and exciting away on how empathy was  studied in the past. she led the class very well. 

Stoni - Mass Incarceration: This presentation was about racial identity particularly in the African American community. It is a very important issue and interesting how she taught the class about it. 

Bob - The Game of Soccer:  Bob's lesson was very inviting and informational about the history of the sport and how to play soccer itself. 

Cameron

Lesson one: I thought this lesson was really powerful and well taught. The use of primary and secondary sources really helped the class to understand the events better and the emotion boards were a great new tool to reflect on history, something I haven’t done in the past. 

Lesson 2: This was an amazing lesson. It was well researched and very informative. It was also hands on and engaging. The arts and craft bit at the end was fun and inventive. One of the best lessons!

Lesson 3: This was a really good lesson. I learned a lot about soccer and it’s history. You could tell how much the sport meant to him during his presentation and the soccer competition at the end was fun to watch. 

Andrea

1. The empathy through history lecture was awesome. It was such a great idea to have us read the primary sources which were firsthand accounts of people who lived these experiences. The mood board was also a great idea.

2. The mass incarceration presentation was another really great one and I learned a lot from it. I really liked how she started her presentation with the statistics and used the class as examples to hold up the papers. Really powerful. 

3. Bob’s soccer presentation was fun and interactive. I really liked how he asked for volunteers to try to dribble the ball because that engaged the class and made it more fun. There was also a lot of history about the sport which was good. 

Laryssa

Empathy- Well thought out and more advanced when compared to the other lessons we have seen in class. These were more children led rather than teacher which I think is important to emphasize in a school setting. 

Stoni- Interesting but I think that it is better suited for higher education. If you wanted to introduce this to children I would have started off asking what everyone finds important in their lives and what they can do to better what they feel passionate about. 

Bob- I loved how he incorporated a competition involving the class with dribbling the soccer ball. It made everyone excited for his lesson. Also, the topic is fun to learn about... most kids love to be active and can relate to a lesson when their favorite players are talked about.

Becca

Empathy:

Michaela did a great job including the class in her presentation.  The activity was very meaningful and thought provoking, I think the entire class really bought into it.

Mass Incarcerations:

Stoni did a great job making a serious topic easily understood for all age groups.  The activity she chose could have been more catered to large group participation

Soccer:

Bob’s presentation was very fun and interactive.  I liked the way he planned out the lecture.  

Jared

Bob: Engaging and fun, got everyone involved and taught me things I didn’t know prior about soccer, well thought out.

Scott

The the mass incarceration lecture was well thought out and implemented with cause. 

The empathy one really reminded us of how to treat the past in relation of how good we have it today. 

And the soccer lesson was cool and taught me how the history of soccer got us here today.  

Julia N.

Bob's presentation on soccer last week was really good because he was passionate about the subject and showed a very cool video. 

The history lesson was also very cool because it shed light on different topics in history that I forgot had happened. 

Amy 

Mikayla:

- good to have artifacts and first hand way to discover and learn things straight from the source

Stoni:

-good topic and controversial and good way to use the class as a visual cue 

Bob:

- really great job! and prize ! i loved how interactive it was

- talk a little slower

Cydney

Michaela and stoni both had amazing presentations that were on really interesting topics. They both seemed so passionate about what they were teaching and made sure everyone understood the topic. I really loved both of their presentations. 

Bobs presentation was also really good. I enjoyed how he went into so much detail about the history of soccer and how it has evolved over time. I could tell he was very excited and knowledgeable about soccer.

Danielle

Michaela: Michaela's presentation was well-planned and definitely taught the class about empathy through history, which was her goal. She was able to command the attention of the classroom, achieve her teaching goal, and foster interaction amongst students. 

Stoni: Stony's presentation clearly had been prepared well in advance. She taught the class about mass incarceration and was able to do so through presenting as well as having members of the class volunteer to represent certain statistics. She was impressive, professional, and thorough in her teaching. 

Bob: Bob's presentation clearly had been prepared well in advance. It was an especially enjoyable presentation because it was obvious that the teacher was passionate about the subject. He included interesting videos, interactive questions, and a really fun game at the end to engage all of the students in the classroom. Overall, Bob did an excellent job at teaching the class about a subject, Football, that he is passionate about. 

 Suggestions

Improved upon directions.

Exercise more control of the class.

Choose a prize with intrinsic value.

Speak slowly, articulate well, pause when needed.  

Be more inclusive when teaching sports activities. 

Ideas need to be appropriate for age group/grade level (Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development) (Too complex and or graphic ideas can make lesson uninteresting).

Give students time to think and reflect.

In history is helpful to compare and contrast several points of view about the same topic. 

(Often a slide show to represent other views give plenty of images for visual learners to understand)

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