Field Journal 3.3

Rachel Lorenzo
11/4/11
LAE 4530.001
Tara Payor & Nina Graham




Lesson 2

For the next lesson Ms. Rich suggested I introduce the concept of censorship to the students as a precursor to the novel they were going to be reading soon, Fahrenheit 451. I am thankful to Ms. Rich for finding good days for me to teach the class without having to necessarily have read the material they will be getting ready for.
I thought of having some sort of a discussion with the class so Ms. Rich suggested using "philosophical chairs." Philosophical chairs was new to me so I looked up how to do it online and found a good website that explained it well. I borrowed their lesson and modified it slightly.
For the bellwork I used the comic below and asked the students to write down why they think each woman believes the other lives in a "male-dominated culture." Before showing them the image I reminded students to be respectful of others' beliefs and practices in their answers. I walked past each student and looked to see if they were working on the bellwork. One student didn't have anything written down and when I asked him about it he said he wasn't a judgmental person and so didn't know what to write down. I told him that he was to answer from the perspective of the women, so it wasn't his judgment but rather theirs. He seemed more comfortable with this idea but still didn't know how to start so I told him he could use stereotypes each culture might have of the other to answer.

As students were wrapping up with the bellwork I asked for volunteers to give their answers to the bellwork and whatever else they thought about the comic. Students had a lot to say but all three classes eventually concluded that it's their choice whether they decide to cover themselves completely or not. Many also explained that in the Muslim religion men probably think a woman who covers her body is more respectful. One student even gave a personal anecdote about his cousin who lives in an Arabic country and what happens when she dresses like most people here in the states do. I was surprised at how respectful the students were in their comments. After they shared I explained to them the names of the coverings the women wear, the hijab and jilbad, telling them that there are many Muslim women wearing these in USF because it is such a diverse school.
As a transition, I explained that clothing can be one form of censorship and went on to explain that they would take sides on whether censorship is conducive to society. I told them that they would be taking sides of "agree, disagree, or neutral" and sitting in the part of the room that corresponded with each. Surprisingly to me, many students in each of the three classes did not know what "censorship" meant. In a couple of classes I explained the meaning and gave examples, in another class I asked students to give a definition and examples. After being sure students knew what it meant, I let the class divide itself up according to their views. 
We spoke extensively about media censorship, especially with curse words in songs, books, and everyday life. Many students felt that censorship was not necessary, arguing that these days curse words are everywhere and it's inevitable that people hear them. If parents don't want their children to hear them, they said, it was their responsibility to make that happen. To further broaden their horizons from this and see if they would change their minds, I asked in what other ways censorship could be used. In every class the government was brought up. Here students generally agreed that censorship was necessary.  When introducing philosophical chairs I noticed students were continuously asking what to do and were confused before letting me explain. I need to find a way to introduce the directions better so that they aren't jumping with questions. I had also initially had them write their names down along with their initial positions as name tags on post-it notes. However after the first two classes I found this a poor way to keep up with names and did not serve any other purpose so I did not do this for the last class.
The class would have benefited from using the follow-up worksheet provided on the website I referenced. This is a lesson I have learned and will keep in mind for the next time I do something similar. 
Ms. Rich seemed to really enjoy the bellwork but also lamented my not having used the follow-up worksheet. I hope to make the next lesson the best yet!