Ernie: The phrase "engaging ideas" is something I have used in the past; you made
use of it in a recent post. Other people have also spoken those words at different times when discussing ideas they want to promote or to try and describe, say, a spirited discussion, a story of great interest, the emergence of strong curiosity about something, someone's motivation, desire to solve a puzzle that catches hold of one's imagination, and so forth. What are "engaging ideas"? I did a short search on the Web and can only report that there were just a few sites that referred to "engaging ideas." The Aspen Ideas Festival describes its goal as working with "engaging ideas that matter." Enclosed below is an essay with the title, "20 Engaging Ideas For Lesson Starters & Plenaries" - a plenary is a working meeting. Another essay that you can look up has the title, "Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom;" the author is John C. Bean. He made the point that his purpose is to encourage inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate. Where does this get us? If we were talking about story writing a rough translation of an engaging idea would be "hook." What is it that makes someone want to read a novel or short story? There surely are analogues in sales, political campaigns, missionary outreach programs, ad campaigns,. marketing, psychological counseling, journalism, philosophy, and you-name-it. What catches someone's attention? What makes someone interested in learning new things about a subject or issue or life story? It would be useful to think about this for a while. For myself, for starters, I can at least say that controversy interests me, at least if the topic has some sort of intrinsic value to me. For instance, generally speaking the history of the Civil rights movement does not have much interest because so much of what you may read consists of hagiography, or of regurgitating facts we have all heard 1000 times. But C-Span featured a discussion with the author of a book about the life of Rosa Parks. It turns out that, while she started as a "conventional" Christian who worked with groups like the SCLC, at one point in her life she visited Japan and became a Buddhist. Presumably this was not an abandonment of Christian faith but an addition to it since there is no evidence that she ever forsook her basic social values. For me this is a "hook," an "engaging idea" -because of my interest in seeking ways to make some kind of useful relationship between Christians and Buddhists possible, to work together toward objectives each set of people believe in an seek to promote to the public at large. Still, for some people -thinking mostly about "staunch conservative Christians" in America and Nicheren Buddhists in Japan, viz, the "fundamentalists" among Buddhists, this is not engaging at all, it is a threat and something to recoil from in horror. So, there's that. Similarly, the fact is that Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote two scholarly papers about Zoroastrianism while he was a grad student in theology. He also delivered at least one sermon (at Riverside Church) where he talked about Zoroastrian religion as part of his remarks. For my own reasons this is very interesting, for some others this is either bewildering or dangerous. Engaging ideas, then, may mean one thing to some people and something very different to other people. A good story that I can identify with is also a hook. Doubtless this can be said for just about everyone else -but what constitutes a good story for me may be very different than for "you" (for anyone else). This is the dilemma of "engaging ideas." For your consideration Billy ________________________________ Rebel Angel September 9, 2015 20 Engaging Ideas For Lesson Starters & Plenaries Some of you might remember that before I worked at Bronco doing digital marketing, I actually had a little stint (almost a year in fact) as a teacher. While I ultimately decided that wasn’t the career path I wanted to take, I did love doing that job. It’s partly the reason that I do Brownies now as I love working with children, so volunteering a bit of my time weekly (or more often as I’m slowly discovering!) is my way of contributing to that still without having to do it as a full time job. One of the hard parts of the role of a teacher though is always being on the ball and having fresh content ideas – similar to blogging and my job now I guess, except focused on lessons rather than words online. Is there anything worse than hearing the phrase: “So kids, what did we cover last lesson?” It’s a bit uninspiring and isn’t the best way to grab the attention of young minds. Instead, as a teacher, you should look into various starters<http://www.sellyprk.bham.sch.uk/resources/teaching_learning/lesson_plan/pdf/good_starter_activities.pdf> which are engaging and dynamic. I had a few of these for my lessons, some of which I stole from around the internet, others from other teachers, and some I made up on the spot (oops!). These are always handy for teachers, and I thought may come in handy for Brownies too (hopefully I’m going to start sharing more and more about the activities we do for that soon as I’m currently doing my qualification – I may attempt to schedule some of these for while I’m away, although I’m pretty short on time :/), so here’s a list of 20 ideas that you can adopt to kick-start a lesson, which should all link back to the topic at hand… 1. Pass the parcel This traditional party game can be used as a great way of learning. Place statements in each layer of the parcel, play some music, then get the children to say whether the statement is true or false if it stops at them. 1. Guess the sound Teach music? Get the kids to work out which instrument is being played. This works for other subjects too, such as science and geography. It would be great for a world culture night at Brownies to mix it up a little bit. 1. Bingo You can buy a range of Bingo games, along with a range of other educational supplies<http://www.hope-education.co.uk/> for all sorts of subjects, such as Forensic or Roman Numerals bingo. 1. Countdown If you teach English or Maths, you could use the games from Channel 4’s Countdown to great effect. This will exercise the mind before an hour of learning. 1. Guess the number For Maths, say that you’re thinking of a number between 0 and 300 and give your students seven chances to guess it; this will test their mathematics and deduction skills. 1. Charades Play a round of charades with the class, giving the students a phrase or subject covered in the previous lesson. 1. Word game Get your kids in a circle, have one say a word, then get the next child to say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. Give this game a theme to relate to the subject matter. 1. Call my bluff State a new or unfamiliar term that is to be covered in the lesson plan. Give the students three possible definitions and let them work out which one is correct in teams. 1. Pictionary If you’re teaching a topic that isn’t normally responded to well, liven things up with some creativity – Pictionary works every time. 1. Never Mind The Buzzcocks Though the kids may not know the programme, the round where contestants guess the song being hummed or ‘ahh-ed’ is fantastic for music lessons, as it’ll get them excited about the subject and bring it right up to date with popular culture. 1. What’s the question? Say an answer and get the children to discuss what the question would be. 1. Odds & evens A burst of physical activity is enough to stimulate the mind. When you say an odd number, get the kids to crouch down. When you say an even number, get them to jump up. It’s also a great way to burn 1. Who am I? This classic Post-it note game is perfect for lessons. Teach history? Put historical figures on the kids’ foreheads. Geography? Go for countries. 1. Paper aeroplanes Give students a limited amount of time to write down three points about a particular topic on a sheet of paper, then have them fold them into aeroplanes ,which they must shoot into a bin – this represents their brains retaining the information.<https://makinglearningeasier.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/lesson-starters-grab-students-attention/> 1. Pupil as teacher Switch roles and have a student give a summary of the last lesson, asking questions of their fellow pupils. 1. Hangman This popular game can be played easily on the whiteboard at the start of the lesson. 1. Words Cover the board with words the children call out, which have to be about a topic covered in the last lesson. The target is to completely fill the board. 1. Mystery bag Place an object related to the topic inside a bag and get the children to guess what’s inside without looking – this is all about touch. This is one of our favourite fall back activities at Brownies. 1. Show & tell Have the children relax and get to know more about each other by starting with show and tell. 1. Visual clues Set up a slideshow with various images and have the kids guess the answer. For example, if the answer was Paris, there may be a picture of the Eiffel Tower. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
