Blog #3: Creative Lesson

         One interesting lesson I conducted was when I taught the class about the historical and social context (setting) of To Kill A Mockingbird. It required me to research on the history of slavery and important movements like the Civil Rights Movement in order to paint to the class a clearer picture of the time period in the play. I started the lesson with a trivia quiz about the book. Students were tasked to read the book during the March holidays so this was a chance for both teacher and student to assess how much was understood. Thereafter, I introduced the setting of the play and taught about the events and attitudes prevalent during the 1930s such as the segregation laws in the southern states and racism. To aid in teaching, I made a worksheet with the timeline of all the important events that students need to take note of and showed pictures of that period. I also showed a video which depicted the lives of the black slaves to the time when slavery was abolished. Having understood the idea of white slavery, I made the class take on the perspective of a black American in the 1930s and reflect about how they would have felt during that period. This is an application of what Atticus (from the play) would like everyone do: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Students were emotional and angry after the lesson as they could not understand why the blacks were so badly treated which to me, shows that the lesson was successful as they were emotionally involved with what they were learning.