There’s a scene in Ted Lasso where Ted swaps his bushy-stached, folksy optimism for harsh, mean-spirited foolishness. Coach Beard knows just what Ted’s doing: the Led Tasso.
On most days, you and I need to be the folks in the room who are rock solid in our grasp of why the work of learning in our class matters. If we don’t know the Value of the work, we can’t expect our students to. But once a semester or so, it’s both fun and useful to swap personas.
When I do this in my classroom, I think of it as Bizarro Stu. After my students finish their warm-up, I begin the class with a loud and despairing tone:
“Students, I’ve had it. I can no longer see why the work we do in here is worthwhile. In fact, I’m convinced it’s not. It’s garbage. It’s pointless. It’s done nothing for you.”
“I mean, think about it: when are you ever going to need to read literature in real life? To write essays? To take notes on new material? To engage in pop-up debates? These are not real-world activities — they are contrived, cutesy school things.”
“That’s right, today I’ve become Bizarro Stu. I have no hope for learning, for school, for this class. I’m now going to put you in groups of four. Your job is to talk me out of my funk.”
Group your students into fours and give the groups three minutes to come up with the best arguments they can muster. At the end of the time, each group nominates a speaker to make their best case.
As they’re sharing out, keep track of their arguments on the whiteboard or a document camera. Then continue playing the skeptic. “Okay, okay. Thank you for your efforts, but I’m still not convinced. Next group, go.”
When all groups have shared, make a show of going over their arguments, wrestling with the points they’ve made.
Finally, give a dramatic sigh of relief.
“Phew. You’ve talked me out of it. Thank you.”
Then move on to today’s lesson.
This is great for the end of the school year because it gives your students practice at what they’ll need to do for the rest of their lives: figure out why the work of learning is valuable, even when that Value has its skeptics, even when the person in charge has lost their way. It’s a variation on Strategy 6 in The Will to Learn, “Valued Within.”
Also, it’s fun for the teacher — so, there’s that.
Teaching right beside you,
DSJR
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