Teacher Discussion Forums

[MegCast]

I recently witnessed several lesson presentations in my ESL certification class. I was impressed with how well some teachers touched on “hot topics” or controversial issues within their lesson. It got me thinking about how I would handle teaching such topics while remaining neutral and sensitive to my students. Can someone please give me some tips or examples of how they teach with social responsibility? What kinds of activities have proven effective for elementary and adult learners?

[Sally Olsen]

Just pick up a local newspaper and see what is the current topic for the community. Bullying is the big thing here at the moment, environmental concerns, safety of children when in the parks from predators, people who kill others in strange ways, wars that are on the news, wars that are affecting the children's families, gay-straight clubs in schools, the freqency of garbage collection. how to sort garbage and on and on.

As for being neutral, it is something you have to practice. I used to put up three columns on the board and get the students to take sides on an issue and put up their arguments and statements. We always found some that went in that middle column and sometimes had a fourth point of view. I emphasized that the students had to make up their own minds on the issue but should keep in mind the ideas in the other columns. Sometimes we continued the debate on and off for a few weeks.