Classroom Activities
Past: Othello and Paired Works of Art
Binary Painting Split
Students will approach the painting Miracle of the Relic by splitting the classroom in half and assigning them one half of the painting. For their assigned half of the painting, students will list adjectives to describe the overall “vibe” or milieu of their side of the painting. Students will detail the social class identities present in the painting. Students will have two minutes to complete both tasks. After two minutes are up, students will discuss important details about their side of the painting and the class will come together to discuss how the painting comes together as a whole. Students will then write a short paragraph about the painting and make a prediction of how the theme presented in the painting may align to a central theme in Othello.
Socratic Seminar
Students will come together and reflect on the role of religious identity in society. This is where one’s classroom norms and expectations should be reviewed and that the instructor will model instructional language. Students will be given homework beforehand that addresses the history of slavery in Venice. Students will be tasked with generating questions based on the painting, and then one student will be fielding and facilitating discussions amongst students.
Collaborative Drawing
The drawing should happen after students have had direct instruction regarding the painting by Thomas Stothard and after students have read Act II, Scene II of Othello. Due to the notorious brevity of Act II, Scene II, students will be allowed to have their imaginations run wild. Students will be expected to pick three details found in Scene II, and vote on one to draw as a class. For example, students may choose 1) War Against Turks 2) Marriage to Desdemona 3) Othello’s victory and vote to choose one to draw as a class on a wide poster paper. Students will then discuss important details that they have added to the collaborative drawing and why it is important to understand Othello’s character for the play.
Present: There, There and Paired Works of Art
Journaling
Students will journal to the question: “Have you ever felt like a target?”. Students will be expected to write for fifteen minutes in a composition notebook and they are encouraged to share their ideas to the class. Any teacher with some good sense should anticipate emotionally charged answers, so it is important to review classroom norms prior to conversation. After journaling and conversation, students will be expected to look at the Indian Head Test Signal and read the prologue to There, There and understand the history of colonial violence against Native Americans is still happening today. Just as we have created the classroom environment for empathy and understanding, the goal with journaling is to counter powerlessness with shared mutual understanding.
Debate
Students will take the time to complete a graphic organizer of Richard White’s concept of “Middle Ground”. Students will reflect on their experiences of living in America and debate on the question: “Does America currently have a middle ground?”. Through this conversation, I am hopeful that students will be able to reflect on their social environments and the role that they have in civil society. Many times, students will feel barred from engaging in spaces that were funded and created for them and many students may not have the language to communicate with people who are unfamiliar to them. This debate will be a learning experience for students to learn from each other critical language for communication. Teachers will learn a lot from our students based on the lack of language to communicate constructively.
Create a Tradition
Students will write the top five values of Overbrook High School and then students will either create an object or find an object to represent the values of Overbrook High School. Preliminarily, students will do research of the tenets of ritual and tradition and their role in society as a writing assignment. Students will then create a tradition that has a ritual (something that repeats) that commemorates a particular point in Overbrook High History, in order to center a particular value. Students will name the tradition and write a two-page reflection about why this tradition is necessary to improve the fabric of Overbrook High School.
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