This week involved developing multimodal activities to engage different learning styles.
It's amazing how one work of art can inspire all kinds of activities. It's important to keep in mind that they need to be developmentally appropriate and support your outcome/objectives/theme/goals/big idea/whatever you want to call it. It's easy to be driven by a "cool" activity, but I think that getting across the "big idea" is more important than focusing all of your energy on the activities.
A "big idea" can be "advocate for unheard voices." Such a broad idea like this can be broken down into several units. You can do a unit on slavery--past and present. A unit on endangered and extinct animals. A cultural studies of women in Middle Eastern cultures. With each of these units, even if you can't find a work of art to go with it, remember that it doesn't always have to be a work of art. It can be a photograph, a letter, a piece of clothing, etc.
And then comes the activities. By this point, you will probably know what kinds of activities will help drive your big idea home. Will it be a play? A creative writing assignment? A documentary?
I did enjoy all the different kinds of activities that were discussed through the video lectures, readings, and discussion forums. I will definitely refer to them when I need them. But I must remind myself not to let the activities rule the lesson. If that's the case, my lessons will seem disjointed and incoherent. The big idea should be the thread that holds everything together. Keep that in mind, and the activities will fall into place.
It's amazing how one work of art can inspire all kinds of activities. It's important to keep in mind that they need to be developmentally appropriate and support your outcome/objectives/theme/goals/big idea/whatever you want to call it. It's easy to be driven by a "cool" activity, but I think that getting across the "big idea" is more important than focusing all of your energy on the activities.
A "big idea" can be "advocate for unheard voices." Such a broad idea like this can be broken down into several units. You can do a unit on slavery--past and present. A unit on endangered and extinct animals. A cultural studies of women in Middle Eastern cultures. With each of these units, even if you can't find a work of art to go with it, remember that it doesn't always have to be a work of art. It can be a photograph, a letter, a piece of clothing, etc.
And then comes the activities. By this point, you will probably know what kinds of activities will help drive your big idea home. Will it be a play? A creative writing assignment? A documentary?
I did enjoy all the different kinds of activities that were discussed through the video lectures, readings, and discussion forums. I will definitely refer to them when I need them. But I must remind myself not to let the activities rule the lesson. If that's the case, my lessons will seem disjointed and incoherent. The big idea should be the thread that holds everything together. Keep that in mind, and the activities will fall into place.