On Thu, 11 Jan 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> I am teaching a high school sociolgy course this semester and all of the material is
>so boring, even to me. I cannot find any fun, ACTIVE, classroom activites. I had this
>group of students first semester for general psych and I would like to teach this as
>more of a social psych course. Does anyone have a suggestion for resources for high
>school level informationand most importantly fun learning activities? Any suggestions
>are greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> India
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
I had great results with the following (very simple) exercise with high
school students. I had a very distinctive drinking glass that I always had
in class, and one day I told them to imagine that this glass was whatever
they most desired--love, money, power, whatever--and that they should do
whatever they could think of, short of physical violence, to get me to
give them the glass. They came up with wonderfully funny and imaginative
things, and every time one of them did something particularly effective,
I'd hand them the glass. (Later that day I gave replicas to everyone who
managed to "get the glass.")
After this wound down I asked them to recount what strategies they used
and saw everyone else using. (These ranged from bribes to threats to
attempts to distract me, serenading the glass in song, humor, "reverse
psychology," and more.) Then I led the discussion into how they tried to
persuade people in authority (teachers, parents), their peers, and those
whom they had authority over (younger siblings, baby-sittees). That led
quite organically into a lecture on language styles and power (Deborah
Tannen-type stuff).
This was great fun for them and me, and I think it prompted some
self-examination. The concepts from the lecture that followed were also
remembered well and referred to often by the students
afterward.
In addition to looking at books for in-class activities, try looking at
acting and improvisation books. Those often have really great ideas as
well, that are easily adapted to learning about social roles, power
dynamics, etc.
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Robin Pearce "The wit of a graduate student is like champagne.
Boston University Canadian champagne."
[EMAIL PROTECTED] --Robertson Davies
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