Soda Ban- the Remix

I went into Friday's class with some trepidation. It would be a double session- 6 hours of one class- after a pretty exhausting week, and I'd been told that we would be working in groups to discuss how to incorporate the NYC soda ban into a lesson within our respective disciplines. I had thought a bit, while writing my last post, about how to work the ban into a French class, but I wasn't entirely confident that I had enough to build on- trying to plan a French lesson around soda had felt sort of awkward and forced. (And I'm betting our professors expected that result- I'm sure they understand the merits of making their students a little uncomfortable at times!)

When we were assigned to our groups, though, I discovered that I'd been put with the English majors (English is my minor). Honestly, I was a little relieved. I thought that the discipline of English would lend itself fairly easily to a lesson on the soda ban, since it incorporates broad and flexible topics like oral and written communication. (French involves communication too, of course, but before a certain level, it's difficult to get students to discuss complex ideas like the ones brought forth by the soda ban.) When we started our small-group discussion, though, it turned out to be more complicated than I'd imagined. All of my group members had come prepared with really interesting ideas, but we initially had trouble narrowing our focus for the purposes of constructing one specific lesson. Another complication was presented by our varying perceptions about the assignment itself. Kristin had started out the day by explaining that the process, rather than the product, would be the focus of this exercise; still, we had trouble letting go of the idea that we had to create something solid, something that we could present in a formal way.

Those complications aside, however, we had a really interesting discussion. We ultimately came up with the sketch of a lesson that would incorporate research as well as oral and written communication skills. The first thing we would do is ask our students to find articles related to the soda ban, encouraging them to consider bias and the credibility of the source. Then we would arrange interviews, to be conducted via Skype or Google+, with people having varying perspectives on the soda ban (a street vendor, an intern at Mayor Bloomberg's office, an FDA representative, etc.). Finally, we would have students write "letters to the editor" about the soda ban; these letters would be posted on a blog or wiki page so that other students could respond to them.

It was interesting to talk about the ways we could incorporate technology in our classroom, and the media specialist we worked with was a big help. She encouraged discussion of when technology might or might not be appropriate in the classroom, informing us of several helpful resources (including thenerdyteacher.com, a really cool blog about integrating teaching and technology).

All in all, I think the work we did in our groups was really beneficial- and it gave us a glimpse of what it will be like for us in the field, when we're planning with our fellow teachers.

And in the end, the double session I'd been so daunted by actually went by pretty quickly- it didn't hurt that we got to play around with podcasting for a couple of hours in the afternoon!