Activities
Introduction Activity
I would like to prime my students to understand how bad information can seem compelling. I would like to start with an outrageous statement that students will obviously know is wrong: Basketballs are not spheres – they are flat. I will then proceed to offer “compelling evidence” for my claim: photographic evidence. The photograph will be taken from an extremely up-close angle that obscures the curvature of the basketball as proof. I will then allow for class small group discussion where students will have to discuss why this claim is false, and actually provide proof to the contrary. I will also inform students that there are people who believe the Earth is flat using the same evidence. I will then prompt the class to explain why one form of proof is better than the other. The close of this activity will be for students to brainstorm any other “fake news” or urban myths that some people believe. At closing, I will introduce the concept of vaccines as something that has been controversial.
Readings
For this unit it will be important for students to do reading on the topic. A great resource that offers texts containing the same content for students at different levels is NewsELA. NewsELA is a website that has a searchable database of articles on wide range of topics, including many on the vaccine controversy. Students will read the issue overview and complete notes on the topic, before taking a short check for understanding consisting of 3-5 questions, depending on the reading. I may also prepare readings on each of the scientists in this unit which will help students understand the scientific method.
Seminar
As a class, I also intend to conduct a Socratic seminar following the readings over the political cartoon published in 1804 which can be found in figure 4. The cartoon is imaginative and depicts people sprouting cattle from their noses, ears, and rear-ends as a result of inoculation. As a class we will first conduct a pre-reading activity where we will note the features of the image as well as note the caption. Leading the seminar, I will craft questions that will elicit the controversies on display and explore them through the image. When conducting a seminar in my classroom and teaching students how to conduct group conversations as learners I furnish or post sentence starters such as “I respectfully disagree with ________’s point because…” and “I want to build on ____________’s comment about….” The goal of seminars in my classrooms is not to make each student feel as though they must answer each question, but instead to be active listeners contributing where they see fit. Typically, I do start out with a single question that goes around the room as a warm up that each student will answer. The key in crafting good seminar questions is to create space for open ended questions.
Questions for this seminar could include: What do the cows represent in this image? Why did the cartoonist create this picture? Does the creator of this image want people to get vaccinated or not? Is this a balanced idea of what vaccination is about? Do you agree with the cartoonist’s representations?
It is my belief that all of the images presented in this unit would make good catalysts for Socratic seminars depending on the needs or emphasis of teachers utilizing this unit.
It is also important for students to map the seminar either by visually representing the flow of the conversation of a labeled map of the room with student’s names, or even to jot down which comments they think are the best. This will allow students who are not engaging verbally to show that they were actively listening and learning.
Final Product
The final activity for this unit will be for students to research and develop an opinion on mandatory vaccination. Students should present quality research to illustrate both the pros and cons before then being allowed to weigh their research and come to a conclusion. Students will prepare a presentation to share with the class that must include an original piece of artwork or cartoon that demonstrates their stance on mandatory vaccination.
My expectation is that students will complete a checklist/scaffold prior to making their presentation that will ensure they are prepared to meet the expectations for the assignment.
The checklist/scaffold students will need to complete may include a list of evidence and how they know that the evidence comes from a quality source. This will go back to the class discussion from the introductory activity. Students will cite evidence and explain why it comes from a credible source as a checkpoint before constructing their presentations. Students will need a minimum of 8 slides with 3-5 sentences on each slide. Slides should be visually engaging and use multimedia. Slides can be creating utilizing Google Slides and Google Classroom, or other mediums like Prezi or Adobe Spark.
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