View Content #20880

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TitleLong Bets
SourceCASLS Activity of the Week
Body

by Lindsay Marean, InterCom Editor

When I was in middle and high school, some teachers' projects were legendary, even if I never took the class myself. Home Economics student carried flour sacks to simulate caring for a baby. Shop students build an actual shed that was sold to a local person each year. Spanish 2 students wrote timelines of their lives, an event for each year since they were born, which were displayed for everyone to see.  Here is a project that can be used with advanced language learners, or with learners of any proficiency level in their first language. It calls on students to expand not only their awareness of their place in this world but also their awareness of the long span of time and how current events can have long-reaching impacts. The project is long on teacher and student investment, but hopefully will facilitate a life-long change in student awareness of place and time. Your binder of years of student predictions may become a cherished part of your shared classroom culture.

Targeted Proficiency Level: Advanced Low

Learning Objectives: 

  • Students will be able to make a mid-range prediction about a community issue.
  • Students will be able to make a long-term prediction about a global issue.
  • Students will be able to support their predictions with reasonable arguments.
  • Students will be able to evaluate the likelihood of their classmates’ predictions.
  • Students will be able to negotiate a “bet” on the likelihood of an outcome with a classmate.

Modes:  Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading, Interpersonal

Recommended Materials:

Download the entire project plan with step-by-step procedure here.

For a background on the "long now" perspective that inspired this activity, read this essay.

Learn more about Long Bets here.

Publishdate2016-02-29 02:15:01