Blog Post 3

Frankly, I have not had the chance to test out my 'creative' lesson due to time constraint. As such, I will present a not-so-exciting lesson that I had implemented.

The students in my class are in the habit of shouting out generalized answers without checking for its accuracy in the text. As such, I was trying to encourage them to actively look for details in their texts, instead of recalling sometimes (in)accurate facts off their heads.  

In this lesson, I needed students to recall the details of the physical transformation (from a male to a female) made by the main character Andrew, in the short story “Father and Son” by Catherine Lim, to help them visualize how Andrew could turn into a girl by the end of the story. So, instead of having students shout out generalized answers, I drew a picture of a boy on the whiteboard and told students that they are to look for specific details of Andrew’s physical transformation then, run up to the board to make changes to the picture.

Initially, the changes made by students were conservative, where they only added details to the image. However, they quickly warmed up to the ‘game’ and started erasing details I had drawn, and replacing it with details they had identified in the book. For example, they erased the black shorts I had drawn, to replace it with a red cheongsam.

While this has not been a particularly creative lesson idea, the students had fun as they were excitedly volunteering to draw the next transformation. Through this activity, apart from being able to visualize the physical transformation, students also familiarized themselves with the specific changes that Andrew had taken, to transform himself from a boy to a girl.