Trials and Trips
One of the challenges of teaching any course is getting students
to look closely enough--to see the data, to visualize a process--in order to
start recognizing implications. Two "best moments in teaching"
have to do with meeting that challenge in uncommon ways.
The Trial of Fluer
One teacher wanted her students to look more critically at a story
rather than to accept at face value what a character said. The
eyewitness in the story, Pauline, claimed that a victim of a sexual
assault had turned into the wind and killer her attackers by blowing a
meat locker door and sealing it with snow. Donning her graduation
gown and bringing a gavel, the teacher became a "judge"
(inquisitor) who could ask the characters pointed questions. Under
closer scrutiny, Pauline confesses that she was protecting the attackers
from Fluer, who was the wind, by locking them inside the meat freezer.
Although students groan when they realize they had been too easily led,
they applauded the teacher's dramatization. The image of the
teacher-as-jurist will no doubt stay with these students and encourage
them to read more critically. |
A Field Trip
Many teachers know the value of a field trip for increasing students'
interest, understanding, and practice time. One teacher needed to
teach relatively uneducated Turkish women to shop in a Dutch market. After
classroom study of the vocabulary and necessary questions the students
would have to handle in such a context, the teacher and students headed
for a local market. This experience gave the students supervised
practice, thereby making the first trial more productive and a positive,
though challenging, experience. This faculty member, like others,
saw the necessity of adapting lessons for students. |
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1999