E-Learning Assignment

Students: High ability, Sec 3, class size of 36 pupils

Prerequisites: Students are to have read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes in advance of this class.

http://dorinta19.bizland.ro/FLOWERS%20FOR%20ALGERNON%20.htm

They should also have been taught the concepts of theme, plot and characterization in prior lessons.

ICT requirements: Class is to take place in a computer lab where each student has a workstation of his/her own with web access. The computer lab should be equipped with a good projector, sound system and screen.

Lesson objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to describe and discuss at least one theme, one character, and/or one plot point from the short story.

5 minutes

Teacher greets class. Asks if they have done their reading. Tells them the learning objective for the day is for them to be able to describe and discuss at least one theme, one character, and/or one plot point from Flowers for Algernon, but they should try to think as deeply about the text as possible. They will undertake a discussion as part of group work, but first, they are to watch two scenes from Forrest Gump, which they can choose to incorporate in their discussion later, or just enjoy for its own sake.

10 minutes

Teacher screens the two scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usmb_UCiNGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hlx2Jr-oG0&playnext=1&list=PLE972BC7B00D11D78

10 minutes

Teacher uses IRE strategy to garner initial student responses to the Forrest Gump scenes. Asks questions that encourage expression of personal response to Forrest Gump and Flowers for Algernon. What did students feel as they read/watched the texts? How do the two texts compare? Once students are warmed up and focused on the texts, teacher asks the class is to split into four groups of 9 students each. There are 4 topics of discussion on Flowers for Algernon, which the groups can choose by calling out their preference, first come first served. The topics are 1) Themes 2) Plot 3) The Main Character 4) Other Characters. Using typewith.me , by the end of the lesson, each group has to submit their collated thoughts on their respective topic.

25 minutes

Students will engage with each other on typewith.me , chatting and typing and thus discussing, debating and organizing their opinions. Informal chatter will not be discouraged, but if necessary, students will be kept on task by the teacher, who will log in to the discussions to monitor the goings on. The teacher should remain as unobtrusive as possible so that students feel free to air their views. If the discussion is relevant to the topic and proceeds actively, the students should be left to continue without the teacher's intervention. However, if students need prompting, the teacher can provide questions to guide their discussion, such as:

1) Themes

– What is the most important theme in this story?

– This story was originally published in Fantasy and Science Fiction. How does it fit into the sci-fi genre? What other genres of text could it fall into?

– Is it ethical to carry out the central experiment in the story?

– What is the difference (if any) between Charlie and the other characters in the text?

– What is the difference (if any) between intelligent people and unintelligent people?

– What issues does the text raise about intelligence?

– What issues does the text raise about science?

– What issues does the text raise about love?

– What issues does the text raise about how people treat each other?

– What significance does the relationship between Charlie and Algernon have?

– Why is the title of this story Flowers for Algernon?

2) Plot

– Summarize the plot in 5 sentences.

– What are the changes in Charlie's relationship with Miss Kinnian? How do they affect the story?

– What are the changes that take place at Charlie's factory workplace? How do they affect the story?

– What are the changes that take place at the lab? How do they affect the story?

– What significance does the incident of the mentally retarded waiter breaking the dishes have to the story?

– Discuss the timing of Algernon's deterioration. What would be the effect on the story if Algernon does not deteriorate? What would be the effect if Algernon deteriorates at the same time as Charlie, not earlier?

– How does Algernon's death affect the story? What would be the effect if Algernon did not die?

– How does the story end? What is the effect of the ending? What alternative endings can you think of? What would their effects be?

3) The Main Character

– What are some things Charlie Gordon says about himself?

– What are some things Charlie Gordon says other people say about him?

– Is Charlie someone you would be friends with?

– Do you know anyone like Charlie?

– Do you find it easy or difficult to understand Charlie? Why?

– Charlie is the narrator of this story. What is the effect of this?

– How would the story be different if someone else was narrating?

– What are the most important things to Charlie? Do these things change as the story continues?

– Discuss Charlie's reaction to the mentally retarded waiter who breaks the dishes.

– Have you ever been laughed at?

– Have you ever laughed at anybody?

– What significance does the relationship between Charlie and Algernon have?

– How does Charlie change in the story? At the end, is Charlie the same person as he was in the beginning?

4) Other Characters

– List the other characters.

– What does Charlie say about these people?

– What is your opinion of these people?

– Which of the characters do you empathize most with? Why?

– Which characters do you like and why?

– Which characters do you dislike and why?

– Why do the characters behave the way they do?

– Have you ever been laughed at?

– Have you ever laughed at anybody?

– Put yourself in the shoes of Miss Kinnian. Write a diary entry for the day you have your first date with Charlie. Write a diary entry for the day Charlie comes back to your adult education class at the end of the story.

– Put yourself in the shoes of Dr Strauss and Dr Nemur. Write a dialogue between them based on Charlie's May 15 progress report.

– If there was a nuclear holocaust and there was only one space left in the fallout shelter, which of the characters would you allow to go in the shelter?

– How do the characters change in the story? At the end, are they the same people as they were in the beginning?

10 minutes

Teacher tells students to make their final remarks. Groups are then to go into other groups' pages and have a look at the various discussions to read and leave their own remarks.

Follow up:

Next lesson, the teacher will supply all students with handouts summarized from the 4 group discussions.

Lesson Rationale:

"There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live." - James Truslow Adams

The choice of text is deliberately intended to get high ability students to come to grips with the implications of intelligence, and help them empathize with people who are not as bright as they are. This approach is both Deweyan in its emphasis on moral education and development of virtues, as well as Thorndikean in its prescriptive nature.

Dewey was keen on education being a means to help students realize their full potential for the greater good of society. I subscribe to his pedagogical creed of treating education as life and not a preparation for it. For students thinking through social responsibility via this text, the takeaway lessons are immediately applicable in their lives to bullies, siblings, less educated or intelligent peers and parents, janitors, domestic helpers, anybody handicapped or less privileged than they are etc. This lesson could be a means to jolt the leaders of tomorrow out of unconscious arrogance and a misbegotten sense of entitlement to help them become better people today.

I believe the ability to relate to people from all walks of life and every degree of intelligence has socioeconomic value. While the bulk of our students' education aims them toward quantifiable success in a meritocratic society, some impetus toward introspection and humility does also have a place within a Thorndikean framework. Gifted students need preparation to deal with other people in a sensitive and compassionate manner, firstly because to do so is right and good, but also pragmatically because they will struggle in the workplace without it.

The incorporation of Forrest Gump scaffolds students to the discussion of the main text. By virtue of the movie medium, Forrest Gump is more familiar and accessible to digital natives (Prensky), but deals with many of the same themes as Flowers for Algernon, and employs the same central device of a naive narrator to similar effect.

A group discussion pedagogical strategy avoids a situation where the teacher occupies a position of too much power and “banks” information into the students (Freire). Typewith.me group discussion, the main lesson activity, is another means to engage with digital natives in their own language. Further, it is the most successful tool I have encountered thus far in creating organic dialogue within the classroom. With it, students have a high degree of autonomy to discuss what they wish, how they wish and to what extent they wish. Within this online community, students take on leadership roles spontaneously, rallying peers to focus and discuss, a bit like what Grossman et al describe as happening within their observed teacher community. Teachers can facilitate the discussion easily with minimal input and minimal imposition of their views. Students can manage their discussion, get the work done, and enjoy themselves while at it.

The online discussion has a less inhibited, more relaxed atmosphere than a classroom discussion, which is predicated upon acts of public speaking. This, in addition to the clarity of accountability in the written discussion, encourages all students to contribute, including the normally silent ones. The resultant dialogue is both organic and democratic (Freire).

Finally, by using typewith.me, the end product of the discussion is acquired in a relatively simple and painless way for the teacher's assessment of student learning and instructional efficacy.