This week my Forensic class examined Crime 360--a television show that follows detectives, medical examiners, and forensic technicians as they work to solve a crime. I previewed the episode prior to showing it to my students and created guided notes for the students to complete as they watched. I was simply amazed as I watched my students engage in this activity. They were asking me to pause it, so that they could reflect on the questions. Some even said, can you rewind that Coach so that we can make sure we get it? That just doesn't happen that often and I was very pleased with how the entire activity went. They even asked me when they would get to watch another episode. The discussion that followed was invaluable and we were able to discuss as a class how different this was from say an episode of CSI--basically we discussed the differences between reality and television. This was a great opportunity for my students to be introduced to the topics that will be covered in chapter on evidence.
JT
This sounds like a great lesson plan. The guided notes you offered were a great complement to the video. I show a lot of videos in my BVP classes. As teachers, we know how easy it is for some kids to “check out” once you press the play button. I think this says a lot about your ability to engage your students. Additionally, you are right- a student asking you to pause a video so they do not miss something important does not happen very often. I believe many learning opportunities are missed because students want to be spoon fed the information instead of critically extracting it. I will pause the video in my classes and insert some brief commentary. I do this to underscore a learning objective and also to reinforce to the class that video screenings are not free time.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a very interesting class. Your strategy of having them take targeted notes is sound and good practice. Dr. J.
ReplyDelete