How an Educator might incorporate a Ted Talk in Class

Photo-TedTedTalks

What we are learning about today in our #diglitclass (a class devoted to education in the digital age) is creative learning aka “HackSchooling”.

I initially viewed How a teacher can use Ted Talks in class which is a blog post and walked away with rich ideas.

Then I viewed A single Story, which is a Ted talk, that provoked me to use my creativity.  I started thinking about an idea on how to use this talk in my future classroom.

I work with diverse students who are from around the world (many from the continent of Africa).   I think the African woman  that you see in this Ted Talk will serve as a bridge to connect  students who are struggling to identify themselves in the lesson content they receive in Public Schools,  a well documented issue in American classrooms.  She also, has a powerful message on perspectives.

So how might a teacher use this in a Social Studies lesson on WWII?

Let’s say a 5th grade class or team of 7-8^th graders is learning about WWII specifically the effects of the war on students. Not only students in Germany or Jewish students but on all students in that era.

In my opinion, offering American students the element of “perspective” that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s discusses in her talk  A Single Story, is ideal.  It also seems to me to be a creative way to embed a Ted Talk in a classroom lesson. In her presentation, she is asking us all to view situations or commonly held attitudes through the eyes of others. She is saying that identifying with only one perspective “risks critical misunderstanding”.  If student were to view this video after learning about the war from an American perspective or in conjunction with a story on diverse students who lived through the war what else could a student learn?  A different perspective would increase our students’ understanding of the war.

A media I would pair this talk with is a book I read last semester, the award winning novel,  The War that Saved my Life and make the book a Read Aloud.  This book is delivered to readers from the perspective of a young traumatized English girl.

I have no doubt that students would stretch their current understanding of WWII by experiencing this creative lesson to wrap up a unit on WWII.

Outcomes may include;

Students Learning to incorporate Diverse Perspectives

Student learn to find resources by using technology – Ted Talks

Differential Instruction for student learning

Maybe there are additional outcomes that I haven’t thought of?  If so, please leave a comment and share your ideas.