Marshmallows and Spaghetti - A Partnership Made In Critical Thinking Heaven

    All students at my university must take four semesters of English classes. For the native Korean students, this consists typically of conversation classes. The textbooks used are full of the standard fare of topics (greetings, family, daily routines, etc.), which have been taught to Korean students since the 3rd grade of elementary school. In the last couple of years, we have seen an influx of international students at the university, and just like the Korean students, they have to take four semesters of English classes. These international students have a minimum CEFR level of B2, their subject classes are delivered in English, and many come from English-speaking countries. It was decided that a new English course was needed for these international students and that it was my job to design the course, happy days.

    From consultations with students and other professors, we decided to embark on a more general education course that would involve task-based activities, presentations, debates, role-plays and focus on developing the 21st-century skills the students would need to succeed. I modified one of the excellent lessons from the TED Talk "21st-Century Communication" textbook.

    The first class after the vacation is challenging. We all have to get into the swing. We might have new students, we might have that feeling in our stomach of "is teaching right for me" we might be a long way away from making a good assessment of our student's needs, but we still need to hit the ground running and start as we mean to go on.

    The premise of the lesson was to discuss teams and teamwork. From discussions with the students, I knew their major subjects have many activities which focus on group work. I wanted to help them reflect on what makes a good team, their role in a team, why collaboration is an essential skill for them to learn, especially in a foreign country, and most importantly, I wanted the first class to be fun. The lesson started with a brief discussion about working in a team. We discussed that in assignments where grades are rewarded, it is sometimes unfair as one person might do more work than the others. After the discussion, we moved on to a brainstorming session about what makes a successful team and the roles people play in a team (experts, planners, experimenters). I put the students into pairs for these exercises, but groups of three or four would also work.
    The next section of the lesson involved watching a short TED Talk called Build a Tower, Build a Team. After the talk, the students completed the comprehension and critical thinking questions and discussed their answers. We then reviewed our understanding of what makes a successful team and completed the mind map bubble. Using Bloom's Taxonomy: Teacher Planning Kit,  I created a couple of critical thinking questions based on the reflection and application thinking skills. These questions are designed to encourage students to focus on the dynamics of the group and start the critical planning stage of the upcoming activity.
    After the break, I assigned students to their groups and gave them their activities. The marshmallow challenge consists of groups trying to build the tallest freestanding structure made of twenty pieces of spaghetti, tape, string and a marshmallow. The detailed rules are displayed on the worksheet, the students have twenty minutes, and the whole marshmallow must be at the top of their structure. The students went to work on their structures, and  I walked around the class observing their progress, making mental notes of how well the individuals worked together. After twenty minutes, we judged the size of the structures. The tallest structure was 71cm tall. The students were then allowed to explore the other designs and discuss the activity with their classmates, there then followed a period of reflection and interpretation of the activity. The students enjoyed the activity and admitted they worked well in their groups and believed the time spent planning and understanding the different roles in the groups helped them focus on the final goal.
    The class is a mix of students from different nationalities, and as such, all communication was done in English. This class fulfilled my ambition of allowing the students to use English to create and cooperate with others and use the language to help solve problems. It also worked well as a fun and engaging first class of the semester. I have included some of the students' journal entries. If you want the worksheet for this lesson, please email me.