Tag Archives: Reflection

Lesson plan ideas using (English) Weather  

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After looking at the song, the poem, and the weather charts for Manchester, we became more aware of the extremities of weather by month in the UK. By comparing the charts to the song and the poem, we got an insight on a few different opinions of these extremities (although sometimes a bit over exaggerated) and thought of some interesting ways to incorporate weather in a possible lesson plan.

Our lesson plan is designed around intermediate-advanced students. We would start by having the students connect to their home country by picking a month (probably the month that the lesson is being taught in) and ask them to describe the weather in their home town, using some adjectives. This could be shared in the whole class or in small groups based on the seating arrangement.

After they have had a little time to reflect and connect to the topic, we present new vocabulary. The words we thought of using would all be adjectives and would also connect to weather, such as “dank,” “humid,” “muggy,” etc. We would also supply our students with charts or pictures of weather (depending on the level of the learners). For lower level we could have pictures of weather and ask them to come up with as many adjectives and other connections as they can to that picture. If we used charts the students would have to be aware of Celsius or Fahrenheit, and be more aware of the symbols used on weather charts. If we were to apply the song or the poem, we would need to make them aware of the artistic element of the writing, seeing as they incorporate the adjectives differently (using “filthy” to describe weather can confuse even native speakers of English).

At the end of the lesson, we think it’s a good idea to bring back the home country aspect using the new vocab to help them connect it to something personal. They can use their new vocabulary to describe each month, and depending on their level of creativity, they can come up with a way to describe each month in a song/poem/story format instead of a list. They then get together in small groups and present their ideas to their classmates, and lastly, it’s all brought together in the class as a whole.

Sara, Ben, Willow, Brieanna

Contemplative and related pedagogies

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One aspect of my approach to education is called Contemplative Pedagogy.  This is steadily becoming a significant movement in higher education (see Arthur Zojinc’s 2013 article “Contemplative pedagogy: a quiet revolution in higher education” in volume 134, pages 83 to 94 of the journal New Directions for teaching and Learning), appearing in institutions across the country, from USC (see here) to Ohio State (here) to Vanderbilt (here). This means creating a community of contemplative practice and this category is the place for the expression of that community’s insights and discussions.

This is related to what Stephen D. Brookfield calls “critically reflective practice,” which is based in  making use of four distinct (though interrelated) lenses: one’s own learning and teaching autobiography; the eyes and ears of our students; perceptions and insights of our colleagues (through over observations, for example); and through relevant literature.  (Brookfield’s 1995 book is called Becoming a critically reflective teacher.)   So we might similarly talk about “a community of critical reflective practice,” which means that any exercise in learning or teaching may be subjected to a reflective, critical review: how does the experience inform our own developing practice?  Our own conceptual and theoretical framework?

One final related approach is the Pedagogy of Vulnerability, which I have explored in workshops with an envelope-pushing colleague called Ed Brantmeier (see here).  The concept can seem naive (“. . . open yourself, contextualize that self in societal constructs and systems, co-learn, admit that you don’t know, and be human”) but I believe it is a necessary foundation for  meaningful, rich and productive practice of critical pedagogy.  I can’t, in other words, expect those I work with to regularly reflect critically on what we just did together if I behave in ways which suggest that I never do anything wrong.