Blogpost 3: Creative Lesson

My most creative lesson was, undoubtedly, the introduction to the character of Joseph Strorm, the father of the protagonist in The Chrysalids. To get the students to have a feel of the character, I had to do a little acting during the start of the lesson.

I studied the character for a week through his appearances in the first few chapters of the novel, paying attention to his speech (the specifics words he says as well) and mannerisms. I then printed out the class rules (each rule on A3-sized paper) and taped them around the classroom, to make it look similar to the description of the protagonist's home, where rules from The Repentances (the other book that survived the nuclear fallout in The Chrysalids) are put up on every wall of the house.

The students were shocked when I greeted them with a scowl and I proceeded to discipline them about their behaviour, lack of punctuality and attitude. Their flaws did aid in the portrayal, as they genuinely thought I was disciplining them. Talks later with some of the boys revealed that they did find it odd that I used terms that seemed oddly familiar (they were from the book). The boys did say afterwards that they felt oppressed in the classroom, and it felt weird that I was so furious for a good ten minutes ("I thought Sir had lost it"). The ruse ended when I got the boys to "bow their heads and pray for repentance", something which is common in The Chrysalids after any character makes a mistake, and my CT and I started laughing that they actually did so!

The lesson continued with a handout that required them to record how they felt when put in an environment like this, as well as how my character looked, moved, and interacted with others. They then compared their observations with their knowledge of Joseph Strorm, a character who they now had to produce a character sketch of. To aid them in their task, I had two volunteers from the class to act out two key incidents from the book with me to let the boys get a visual feel of what was happening in the novel. Their character sketch and a mindmap they produced afterwards (this was also something that was required of them) did inform me about their understanding of the character and all signs did point to a successful lesson in the end.