Mrs. Gillmore's last post was incredibly relevant to my week. I assigned a story from the textbook (which is one that has to be covered; it wasn't a particular choice of mine) about Apartheid. I was shocked and dismayed to find my students had never heard of it. The kids were bored, uninterested, and some were even angry with me for making them read such "boring" material. I tried to explain to them the injustice of Apartheid. I might as well have been speaking Greek.
I started thinking about how I was presenting my information. On Thursday I came in with Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles tests. I told the students I knew they were brilliant, but I wanted to see what kind of brilliant they were. This, and a recommendation from a friend who grew up in rural Arkansas (since I grew up in what might as well have been another country) seemed to break the ice. After breaking them up into learning styles groups, I began a worksheet on stereotypes. None of them knew what a stereotype was.
I finally got the idea of Apartheid across by asking the students how they would like it if some rich people came from somewhere else and told them that they no longer owned their farms and took away all of their independence and rights. They definitely got fired up by this, telling me exactly what they would do to those people. When I asked what they would do if there were too many of these people, or if they were armed, or they threatened to hurt the students' families, I saw the wheels turning. I am not claiming that they immediately became enthralled by the history of Apartheid or enraged as I am over the injustice, but they were listening. They actually tried.
Even though it took all week, this was a victory for me. Now that I know the students' learning styles and what they find interesting, I assigned an activity I think they will find more fun for this week: role-play.
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