Students usually think that what they know is true and unchangeable – the aim of the second lesson (and a couple lessons after that) is to make them doubt that, to through them a little out of the comfort zone and make them think about knowledge. For this reason, I am using materials available under the Knowledge page.
- I use the adaptation of a lesson Map is not a territory with additional activities from Dombrowsky et al. book as well as a couple of videos and maps.
- Discuss what is more important – questions or answers – for this I use the comic I found in Quora. This usually leads to a discussion about the progress of knowledge and the nature of knowledge.
- Definition of knowledge vs. belief vs. information vs. wisdom
- Definition of truth, fact, theory, law and hypothesis
- Introducing the concepts of evidence and justification – I use materials inspired by Larry Ferlazzo (his blog is awesome!) lesson about Syria – if possible I find a more up to date topic although the Obama speech justifying interventions in Syria is so perfect for this lesson.
- Introduction of personal knowledge and shared knowledge.
- Introduction to perspectives – for this I use an amazing TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as well as activity inspired by the workshop I participated in led by Polish Humanitarian Action.
The first unit ends with a first assignment which is a 4 paragraph formative assessment task (essay) about personal knowledge and shared knowledge (past prescribe title).