Handing Students Plates of Opportunity using Heroes

Sometimes we see something and feel it vibrate inside of us, causing us to say, "I wish I could do that!" or "That looks like fun!"

I have this happen to me when I watch this scene from the movie, Benny and June”. I even brought in my Charlie Chaplin poster to class to inspire me to use his genius somehow in my teaching.

Yesterday I realized how I could add Charlie Chaplin (the inspiration for Johnny Depp in this movie) to our faculty of the School of Athens Heroes.

I created a reading and math board game on one of our circular tables that requires them to first think like our hero Leonardo da Vinci. 

What do I see?

Starting with 6 players, each one has one minute to take advantage of the opportunity I am putting on their "plates" by answering the empirical who, what, where, why, when, or how question they have landed on from the book we're reading. 

If they're right they earn money and get to stay in the game. 

If they're wrong they leave the game and I hand the "plate of opportunity” to a student from the audience who is prepared and knows the answer. That student earns the money and places their piece on the board where the student who wasn't prepared has left.

While they are developing these reading and math skills they are also developing another one of our "School of Athens" life goals from our hero, Abraham Lincoln: 

"I will study and prepare, and someday my opportunity will come."

And once a student is able to answer the empirical questions that are directly from the text, I "speed up the plates" by handing them inferential questions that require them to use their minds to see what the answer is that they cannot see with their eyes (not explicitly stated in the text).

This requires the use of another hero: Miyamoto Musashi, who was so developed in “seeing” where his opponents would be before they moved that he never lost a battle. 

(The game of chess is also a great way to develop these skills:

Where is your opponent now? (da Vinci)

Where will he or she be on their next move? (Musashi))

Now Plato has introduced us to two new heroes to our faculty teachers, Charlie Chaplin and Johnny Depp (who overcame his dyslexia).