Should a student's hemline determine her education?

Sometimes as a teacher I hear about something going on in the world and I know I want to include it in my class. Unfortunately, I heard about this now after my classes have finished. Nonetheless, it won't leave my brain. This blog goes through my process of planning a video lesson. It does not include worksheets, etc. But it does walk through the process I would probably end up teaching. If anyone is actually interested in a worksheet, leave a comment and I'll make one up for you.

If you have any comments on ways I could improve my process please let me know.
 
I can instantly think of two ways to do this in class (but I know there are more)! The first is rather easy, and the subject of this post.

How to teach a news topic with a video

First you need to find the type of video you want. Do you want it long? Short? Different accents? I encourage teachers to use videos as a way to expose students to different accents. However, keep in mind that if it is a new accent (or a faster speaker, or something with a lot of background noise) you'll need to add more scaffolding. Does it have subtitles? Would you want to use them each time you play it?

In this case we're looking at a BBC video I found. I like it because it is rather short and to the point. The visuals help without distracting, and I think the vocabulary is rather basic.


FIRST
Identify any tricky grammar or vocabulary. If there is a really difficult word that you don't think is important, it can be a good time to discuss how sometimes you don't need to know 100% of the words.

• Give each student (or pair of students) a word. 
• I write them up ahead of time on pieces of scratch paper, but you could physically write the word in front of them, or have them pick words out of a hat. Since some of the words are usually harder than others, I differentiate a bit by handing out simpler words to students who struggle more with this task.
• Keep in mind culture! In America for example not many students will know what  dean is and middle school students may not be familiar with a state school.
• Have them look it up in the dictionary and create a sample sentence. 
• Monitor the room to be sure their sentences are making sense, AND if the word has multiple definitions they are using the one that is in the video.
• Model what you want them to do with a vocabulary word
• Teacher: Some students want to go to Harvard, Yale, or USD. I just wanted to go to my local state school, SDSU. 
• Students: Like a public school?
• Teacher: Yes, and what kind am I discussing here? Elementary, Middle school?
• Students: College
• Teacher: AWESOME! In this case a State School is?
• Students: A public college
• Then they'll present the word, and a sample sentence to the class.
• Have the class try to guess the definition based on the sentence. 
• If the class struggles, give them more information, OR ask the presenting group questions that could help them give better clues. 

Easy and effective! Now that they know the words you can do a mini-review  (Flyswatter, Kahoot, etc.), or go straight into the video.



SECOND
What do you want them to get out of the video? Is it purely informational, or is there a grammar element you want to review? This video has some transition words, and is mainly past tense. I could see a lesson about modals (what should the ladies do? What could they do? etc.

If I were going to use it for a mechanical lesson, I would actually use it for punctuation! Similar to a dictogloss. There are so many pauses that students could work in pairs to replicate the text and punctuate it appropriately. However, in this case, I am really feel the topic would provide a spring board for conversation and research, so I would focus on the information rather than a skill. 

Since I know I am just going for information, I would be sure my students had a specific task while listening.

To me this screams Compare and Contrast. Have them pick their favorite graphic organizer and keep track of the differences and similarities. Consider: location, gender, age, issue, etc.

BRAINSTORM
Do they think the schools were right? What reasons did the schools have?

This is a great time to break out four corners. Assign the four corners of the room with different responses, "Yes, No, Maybe, I don't know" or "100% Yes, 70% Yes, 100% No, 70% No." Ask questions and have students move to the corner they feel fits their answer. If you want to make it simpler, just declare two walls, "Yes," and "No."

For example:
"Should a skirt being too long be a dress code issue?"
"Should colleges have dress codes?"
"Do you agree with our school dress code?"
"Is a skirt being too short a dress code issue?"

Ask a question and when students get to their corners ask one or two people in that section to explain why they are standing there. Then ask the next question. Repeat until all questions are done (or your students seem tired)

PRODUCTION
I like giving students a choice, so I would have students select from the following activities:

• Write a letter to one of the students explaining that you agree or disagree with her opinion. Be polite, but state why you think the school was wrong / right. Give a call to action. What should she do? Wear different clothes? Write letters? Move? etc.
• You are a news reporter. Write an article where you discuss the story/stories. Does something like this happen where you live? Interview your friends and/or family members for quotes!
• Consider you are one of the girls. Write a journal entry about how you felt when you were told your attire was inappropriate.  

REFLECT
Like I stated earlier, there are many different ways this subject could be tackled (I'll post about another one this weekend). Dress codes are always  a very popular subject and considering this is timely, it should go over in your class.