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Trial by Jury |
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- Write an "indictment" that states the basic
positions of the sides in a controversy, such as "a literary
character or . . . [historical] person with moral failings,
a controversial book, an unproven theory, a value . . . [of
questionable] merit; a faulty process, law, or institution"
(Silberman 92).
- Post the indictment at a discussion forum.
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- Roles assigned to students might
include
 | "defendant," or spokesperson for the theory, idea or
value
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| "defense attorney," or scientific advisor to the
President
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| "defense witnesses," or testifying experts
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| "prosecuting attorney," or inquisitor or chief
opponent
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| "prosecution witnesses," or opposing experts
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| "friends of the court," or interested other experts
who have crucial information
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| "judge," or Grand Inquisitor or President of the
U.S.
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| "jury member[s]," or board of inquiry |
Give students enough time to prepare using course
materials or research, reflection or journaling, as
appropriate for the problem or controversy.
Structure the trial. Include, for instance,
| opening arguments
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| evidentiary documents and displays (exhibits)
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| friend of the court briefs
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| perhaps news reports
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| closing arguments |
Time the parts of the trial. For a discussion
forum, allow at least a day for each part.
Have the jury members conduct online discussion, or "deliberations,"
with the rest of the class reading only.
| The Trial of Hamlet
A famous example of this exercise is "The Trial of
Hamlet," a classroom role play that puts the famous
tragic protagonist on trial for murder; someone plays
Horatio, Hamlet's best friend and confidant; another can
play the ghost of Hamlet's father. Perhaps other dead
characters could testify. The prosecution tries to prove
that Hamlet is an assassin; the defense could try to
prove that Hamlet is an instrument of divine justice or
go for the insanity defense. |
| Click the photo of
Galileo, above, for materials that could be used to
research his ecclesiastical trial. |
Silberman* offers this variation:
Use only a judge instead of a jury.
My variation: Simulate a "juried" journal by having class
members submit essays, reports, research write-ups, even
original creative works that can be read, heard, or seen online
(perhaps from a previous semester's students) and have the
"jury" members or editorial board confer by email but report
their reasons at the online forum or website where the entries
are posted. (EH) |
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*Adapting Silberman |
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A popular new book
making the rounds of the VCCS Centers
for Teaching Excellence these days is
Mel Silberman's Active Learning: 101
Strategies to Teach Any Subject
(Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996).
Several of the 101
strategies could be adapted for online
learning in the ways noted in the series
of pages that begins with this one.
Silberman suggests
in-class uses of these methods;
suggested here are online adaptations of
these procedures, with directions for
timing and some steps that differ
markedly from classroom applications of
the same methods. |
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1999