QCR523 3rd Post: Creative lesson

I've to admit that I did not conduct anything wildly creative for my Sec 1 Lang-Arts class, because of very practical reasons: my Lang-Arts CT likes group activities that are fun, but prefers tried and tested activities, and I absorb her ideas and try to conduct lessons that incorporate her ideas in my own style; also, she sits in for most of my lessons, so I don't have much leeway to try things, and when I do go into the class on my own, she inserts administrative things that she did not get to settle with the class.

As it is, this post occurs before my chance to truly try out something new in my class later this week, which I am able to do so because my CT will be away 11-19 April. Hence, although I have not conducted the creative lesson, I will post my lesson idea here in advance.

I plan to teach the class about major themes in the novel Kira-kira and get them to pick out major events from the entire novel. There will be a discussion on major themes as a starter, which is a follow up of previous lessons on historical background (Japanese Internment, WWII, US-Japan tensions, racism, racial identity, Japanese-Americans poverty) to Kira-kira.

I will then ask students to quickly mark out the major events or events that they think are significant in plot/character development. They may do this in groups of 4-5. After about 10mins, I will divide the class into 2 halves. Each half would have around 4 groups. Each group would need to send a representative to the front to take turns listing the events that their groups think are significant. The 2 halves are 2 teams that are competing against each other to see who completes the list in a shorter time. They will write on the board, which would be separated into 3 blocks; 2 blocks would be for the 2 teams to list their significant events, while the 3rd would be for the teacher's input during the class discussion on the appropriateness and significance of events listed by students - the teacher would be mapping the major events along a timeline, depicting rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.