Freshmen in Sydney Schuler's English 1A class recently had a chance to showcase their critical thinking skills during a unit on Reginald Rose's classic play
Twelve Angry Men. As students read the play, Schuler focused their attention on how they could use evidence from the text to make inferences about each juror's character.
Students then worked in groups to demonstrate their understanding of the play and the characterization of each juror. The students completed a project designed by former BHS teacher Cathy Olson (
check our her blog here!) in which they recorded a news interview with one of the jurors from the play and published it as a podcast.
The project had four parts. Students first had to collaborate using Google Docs to create an interview prep. sheet for the interviewer with biographical information about the juror. This required students to find evidence from the text to support their claims about the juror's life. Next, students collaborated on writing a script for their interview before recording the actual podcast. Students used a Chrome app called
Twisted Wave to record their audio. They also had to find music suitable for an introduction and conclusion and edit it into their recording -- the music needed to reflect the mood of the interview. Twisted Wave integrates easily with Google, so it was a snap for students to save their podcasts into their own Google Drives. Finally, each group collectively wrote a document explaining the rationale for each of their choices in creating the juror's biography, the interview questions, and the juror's answers.
While students used technology to record and publish their podcasts, the true focus of the project was on the students' learning. They had to think critically about how to best represent their chosen juror and then had to defend their thinking, all while negotiating through the dynamics of working with a group. Click the links below to listen to a few amazing examples.
