ICC Lesson # 1 - A Good Man is Hard to Find

Video Pt 1   http://youtu.be/wgwOzN1bN_c
Video Pt 2   http://youtu.be/L23wSVj1Wjo

I took this activity from the DeCapua book pretty early in the semester. I did a little adaptation to it by adding some information to the job candidates, specifically giving them educational levels. I thought this would be interesting to see if that had a lot of effect on how they evaluated nationality. I did this for two classes at different levels, but the recording for the more advanced class was interrupted by a lovely gmarket text message, so it only recorded about 2 minutes.

Problems: There were a couple of things about this activity that I might change. Time limits were not planned well for this first class, as it took them a little longer to complete the initial step. Perhaps for their level, i could have used fewer options and positions to fill. This left less time for the final discussion of why certain people were chosen. Also, I could have added more CI's and whatnot to activate the students more. I think what they could say was pretty limited.

Successes: These were probably limited in this class because the time limitation issues. We did have a few good instances to communicate about some of their decisions in class, but I would have like to have more time. This was a writing class, so I adapted the activity to have a writing response. For homework they completed a writing task explaining their choices and how culture, sex or background influenced their decisions. We did reflect on these in the following class, but I didn't record it.

After seeing this activity in two classes, I think it would be a great activity in a number of business class settings. It is designed to have the students think critically, but leaves room for their own prejudices and stereotypes to interfere with their choices. Having them speak and write about it are both good opportunities for them to use English to explain their opinion, or summarize details. The difficulty is approaching or evaluating this activity from a neutral perspective as a teacher. It was difficult for me to limit my own moral attitudes from the lesson in order to avoid sending some moral message. But I think responding to some of their biased opinions with no emotion would betray my own beliefs.