Due to my CURR-314 course, I feel that I am constantly searching for new ways to evaluate my students and make my lessons effective. When I was in sixth grade, I remember doing "mock trials" for characters in fairy tales. It was a great deal of fun, and a very interesting lesson! I feel that this type of tool should be used for grades beyond sixth grade (I never participated in a mock trial again) and can be used to aid in the understanding and involvement with the curriculum. As many classrooms are beginning to teach or talk about The Hunger Games, I feel that this very popular and well written book could be used in this way. I found this article about a Hunger Games Mock Trial that was used during "take your child to work day" in a law firm. It is very apparent how easily one could transfer over this idea into the classroom.
To adapt the The Hunger Games into an interactive mock trial, I would have to break my students into groups. I feel that if the class is large, I can propose two different trials. Firstly, there could be a trial similar to the one in the article that charges President Snow with the crimes he commits in allowing/continuing the Hunger Games. The second trial could be Katniss and Peeta's trial in the Capitol for defying the rules of the Hunger Games. From there, the students could divide into defense or prosecution; if there are many people volunteering for one side, then I would have to split the groups myself. From there, the process of research, representation and various other aspects for a court proceeding will begin.
I think the most fun in this lesson will be integrating technology. The students could use clips from the movies to show the recorded data of the defendant(s). This would be a great visual tool in the "court room." Further, students will need to do research on how court proceedings occur, this capitalizing on the internet to come up with strategies for their teams. Each student could create a blog as their character (prosecutor, witness, defendant, judge, etc) with required daily updates. In this way, students have a quick way to come up with topics and work together outside of the classroom by commenting on each others posts. Another useful tool would be a SmartBoard. If students were aware of how to use a SmartBoard, and many are, they could use it to project text from the novel and create interactive visual data to share in "court."
This would be a performance assessment as I am asking students to act out a trial that would demonstrate their understanding of the literature. There would have to be several check points for the students to make sure they were on track and give them small grades along the way. I feel that it would be intimidating to have a huge grade just be on the actual day of the "trial." While that is obviously important, it would not be fair. Therefore, I would want to grade them along the check points. Perhaps there could be checkpoints to research, the opening and closing arguments, the script, and who will be called for witnesses with the questions to ask. Further, grading them while they participate in their blogs will be useful to continue to track progress and give grading boosters. It is not uncommon for students to be overwhelmed while performing, therefore, packing in additional grades should help alleviate some of the pressure about grading and allow them to focus on the success of their group.
As someone who enjoyed reading The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games film, this is wonderfully creative, Liz. I love that a law firm actually employed this tactic to entertain and teach the children who visited, and I agree, it can be easily appropriated into a classroom. I think the blog idea is especially fun because it's so interesting to me to put myself in a character's perspective and it can be just as fun to students, not to mention teachable.
ReplyDeleteLizz,
ReplyDeleteOverall, this lesson is a very thorough lesson that seems to accomplish multiple standards. Technology is included, as well as the 21st century standards. I like how the roleplaying puts the students in situations that they may encounter in real life one day. Integrating the technology portion, helps students with their analyzing skills, as they must discern between reliable information, and not. It also helps to develop their creative writing skills as they work on their blogs. I think that without technology, this lesson plan would fall flat. What student wants to research law out of a book when they could include multimedia aspects into their project?
More lessons likes these are what we as educators must strive to include in order to keep our students' attentions. Especially with books such as The Hunger Games. We need to take advantage of the fads that are occurring with the students because that is what is in, and that is what sells, and when it sells to them, it sticks in their brains!
Lizz,
ReplyDeleteI found this lesson to be extremely interactive and engaging for students. I feel that this lesson directly incorporates literature which is appealing to students and allows students to learn valuable lessons about being held accountable for your actions. I enjoyed how you chose to grade students along the way instead of giving them a lump sum at the end.
Hi Liz,
ReplyDeleteI came across your site whilst doing research to find out if anyone had developed a mock trial lesson for 'The Hunger Games'. I too thought about splitting the class and conducting two trials: one against Katniss and one against President Snow. I had thought about having an 'objective' outside country coming in to conduct the proceedings (possibly a futuristic UN)after revolution had devastated Panem.
I cannot afford much time on the lesson since our main lesson objective is to do a critical evaluation of the film: To show how the director uses film techniques to convey various themes in ‘The Hunger Games’.
At the end of our exploration of the theme of power (who has the power?), I thought it would be fun to do a mock trial as it would enrich their learning (In Scotland (UK) it is all about experiences and outcomes with the new Curriculum for Excellence).
We will be spending 3 lessons exploring the theme by looking at various scenes that show Katniss's growing power, and how President Snow controls Panem. Then I thought it would be good if they spent 2 lessons preparing for the trial and 2 conducting the trials (still need to sort out exact timings!). The assessment would be formative (self-assessment and peer-assessment), as the essay would be their summative assessment. This is purely an exericise to help their engagement with the text and give additional information for their essays.
What I would like to ask you is: Have you used the lesson yourself? And if so, how did it work?
I like the inclusion of media and the blog and would definitely think about using it for a different class and outcome. However, as a student teacher, I am a bit tied to what the class teacher wants me to acheive from these lessons (and not absolutely sure he will see the trial as a good learning experience).
I am about to start my series of lessons with the class (of 29 14-15 year olds) after having already watched the film. I have developed a blog to give them extra support. I will be adding information from our lessons, but it is early days yet!
http://hungergames4b3.wordpress.com/