This past Monday, I had both of my classes of first year
composition students watch the first episode of the 30th season of
Survivor (aka Worlds Apart aka White Collar versus Blue versus No Collar)
entitled “It’s Survivor Warfare” to look out for ethical implications. Although
the reception wasn’t as warm as when I taught the first episode of “Serial”, a
lot of my students liked it. They had a “reading” quiz to prove that they
watched it which also comprised a few questions of critical thinking. One
question asked who would they have eliminated and why. Another question asked,
with a sole basis on this episode, who would be the “Sole Survivor” and why.
The results I got were interesting.
For the question on who would they have eliminated, here are
the results:
So-13
Carolyn-8
Joaquin-4
Shirin and Max-3
The students chose the particular people due to lacks of
strength, trust, and loyalty. Some were also chosen due to being considered too
much of a threat later on in the game.
Here are the results to the question of who they would think
is the Sole Survivor:
Joe-12
Mike-5
Tyler, Jenn, and Will-3
Max and Kelly-2
Joaquin, Hali, Vince, and Carolyn-1
These people were chosen due to strength, likability,
strategy, and camera time, amongst other reasons.
Overall, I would recommend using the first episode of any
Survivor season to teach ethics. After all, Survivor is a game that is fraught
with so many ethical decisions. Who do I vote out? Who do I make an alliance
with? By asking your students to place themselves in the role of the castaway
(minus the starving), it is interesting to see how they react!
This is yet another creative classroom activity! You never cease to amaze me! I really liked how you incorporated the technology into the writing classroom. Especially in today's world, I think that students almost need that visual stimulation to engage them with their learning. I'm always up for critical thinking questions, too!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you! I really do try to do something a bit out of the box. Secondly, I deleted your repeated comment. Hope you don't mind. Third, although I had some students not like it at all (which is par for a course in a first year composition course), a lot of them mentioned how they wanted to continue or had continued watching the current season of Survivor, because they wanted to see more ethical issues. You could almost do any tv-show within reason. You clearly don't want students or their parents to complain about something they watched in your class. You also don't want your students to have to pay to watch it.
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