Sociology - Class activities to beat the New Year slump

The start of the spring term is always tricky- the sixth form tend to be a combination of stressed about UCAS and sluggish from the holidays, with the view that the exam ‘isn’t for months yet’. This lacklustre attitude seems to really come to the fore when we hit some of the ‘drier’ elements of the A-Level course, or in fact at any given point based on their mood that day - we are dealing with teenagers after all! As such, this year we have been really trying to focus on how to keep the students engaged in their studies.

Here are a few ideas for activities to beat the post-holidays slump:

Putting method into action– I find ‘practical’ trials of the methods work well here. For example, we head into the local town to conduct surveys; watch Youtube clips of interviews (e.g Alan Carr or similar, contrasted with Andrew Marr); carry out participant observation in classrooms; and hold group interviews with other students. This seems to help them engage with this section of the unit, and aids their evaluation of each method.

Pass the Parcel – This can be done two ways, either an actual parcel with each layer having a question and sweet inside for a revision game (I haven’t tried this, but colleagues used it for A2 History recently); or the ‘parcels’ are in fact just excerpts from articles or text books which are then passed around and students have some form of sheet to complete. For example, recently with yet more ‘internal factors’ influencing education, I copied sections from the textbook and students had 4 boxes to fill in – their task was to condense each ‘parcel’ into 3 bullet points before the timer ran out. A sand-timer on the board and chart music via Youtube helped keep the pace.

Word and time-limit presentations – Each student or pairs can be assigned a section of a topic and asked to give a presentation. But, in order to keep focus and to ensure the presentation isn't simply chunks of Wikipedia pasted onto slides, give a strict word and time limit. For example: no more than 10 words on a slide, a maximum of 20 seconds per slide and 10 slides in total to deliver the content. This forces the students to prepare and actually know what they are saying, but also adds an element of competition as other ‘teams’ can be timers and word counters.

Mr Men cartoons – Divide class into pairs and assign each a Mr Men character based on New Religious Movements – they need to produce a comic strip to be compiled into a booklet for the class to illustrate their life in the movement, reasons why they joined etc. (E.g. Little Miss Scientologist, Mr Summum, Mr Hare Krishna, Little Miss People’s Temple etc). This could also be used for theorists for any unit, or be substituted for Sociologist Top Trumps which would work in a similar way!

Online research – The Texas Department of Criminal Justice website is a great resource for looking at capital punishment. An interesting angle is to get the students to tally up ethnic backgrounds as a link to the Ethnicity and Crime section of the A2 unit.

Esther Zarifi

Esther Zarifi teaches Sociology at Prudhoe High School, Northumberland.

New Year is coming – keep taking the tablets

As a child of the sixties I was no stranger to books and magazines featuring artists’ impressions of cities of the future.  Sleek skyscrapers, elevated freeways and even personal jetpacks were all clearly going to be on offer; it was a case of when rather than if.  They indicated a clear optimism that the future was going to be better than the past and a belief that technology would be a key driver, presenting lifestyle choices that anyone in their right mind would seize.  When these did arrive, they somehow seemed a little less glamorous and not quite as exciting.  I’m still optimistic about the jetpacks though.

I think this resonates with ICT, which sometimes seems to arrive a little later than promised, not saving quite as much time as we’d thought and always needing a back-up.  However we’re still sometimes promised game changers and, true to my optimistic roots, I’m willing to believe it.

Copyright Sean McEntee

Enter the iPad.  Not being used to Apple systems I was keen to explore and wanted to learn about the potential for use in the classroom.  Three things won me over – Cox, the camera and Machinarium.  “Wonders of the Universe”, already a TV series and a book, was introduced as an iBook.  Seductive in its beauty and simplicity, it invited exploration.  Pictures grow to fill the screen and up pops Brian himself in an exotic location to explain some tricky concept.  What’s not to like?

The camera was next – not so much that the images were stunning as the speed and ease with which they can be displayed.  Anything in the classroom worthy of sharing, be it a chemical product from an experiment or a set of notes from a group task can be snapped and projected, without missing a beat.

Then came Machinarium.  A colleague of mine is involved in a British Council Anglo-Indian project (UnBox 21) to develop the use of computer games in science teaching.  Machinarium was one of his favourites; I asked my 18 year old son to road test it – last I saw of the iPad (and son) for the next four days.  The game is a surreal little world of problems to be solved by using logic, science and technology; entirely devoid of language it nevertheless stimulates a lot of discussion amongst users.

As many of you will know, New Year is closely followed by the ASE Annual Meeting, this time in Reading (January 2^nd – 5^th).  I’m running a number of sessions there for Collins including ones on iPads (as long as I get the kit back) and others on developing extended writing and effective revision strategies.  If you’re there it would be great to see you.  Either way, have a wonderful Christmas.

Ed Walsh

Ed Walsh is Science adviser for Cornwall Learning. In the past, he has worked extensively with teachers, schools, local authorities and national agencies in relation to science education.