“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” The close examination of presented evidence. Mark Furhman’s racist comments and the bloody sock and glove. White bronco. Rodney King. The closing statements and the defendant’s football stardom. This case was fascinating.
Tragic, but fascinating. I remember watching the OJ Simpson verdict in eighth grade French class. Big box TV on a rolly cart, making mouths drop across America and Shelby Jr. High School. Twenty years later bring documentaries and a mini-series reminding us of the tragedy’s monumental court case, as well as conversations around racism, sexism and the justice system.
Teachers are always thinking about teaching even when we’re not. Sparks fly when something catches our eye that we could use for next week’s lessons. Ooh, my kids would looovvve this.
Knowing that my kids’ current weakness is finding strong evidence to support a claim, my comrade and I agreed that slowly revealing key evidence from the OJ Simpson trial would hook them, make them think and force them to differentiate between good and great evidence.
We call it sneaking in the vegetables. Keep it so real that they forget they’re learning.
Six days into the OJ lessons and critical eyes are popping out of their beautiful minds. Our new law students are inquiring, researching and having debates all on their own time. They are questioning arguments and pulling stronger evidence than ever. Well, most of them.
In the last two days, I’ve had one student fall asleep in class due to his late night video game addiction. Another student throwing paper balls and dying for any kind of attention, likely due to a recent family situation. One child writing notes to her ex-best friend, accusing her of stealing her other ex-best friend. Plus there was the one who walked out of class because I wouldn’t repeat the directions to her for the third time.
Is the OJ trial real and relevant and highly engaging? Yes. If I would’ve been observed during the OJ lessons, would I have scored highly effective on the “student engagement” rubric? Probably not. Only ten of the thirty-two students raised their hands when I asked for the meaning of “acquit.” Ignoring the child dozing off or the girls passing notes mid lesson would not have looked good. But did I care? Nope. Most of my kids were into it. And thinking critically. And some things I just can’t control.
We’ve all heard it before...an effective teacher is the number one factor in impacting student achievement. And that’s true, in terms of school-related factors. For some reason, we forget, though, the key word here is school-related factors.
Yes, the classroom teacher has a greater effect on a student compared to school facilities, curriculum or leadership. Digging deeper into the research, though, we find that non-school factors, such as family characteristics and family circumstances have a much greater impact on student achievement. We know this, we just forget it sometimes.
This information is not meant to encourage educators to make excuses for bad teaching or blame families and poverty for lack of student progress. Knowing the truth, though, helps us cope with the pressures put on us to be perfect.
Since I’m keeping it real, here, I ask, teachers, that you cut yourself some slack.
Be real, be relevant, think like your students and sneak in the vegetables. But realize that there will always be non-school factors that impact your students’ daily actions and states of mind.
Digging deeper to find the roots of these student issues and showing love and compassion for tough family situations is what you already do, so keep doing it. Your lesson probably is amaaazing, but 100% of students engaged and on task is perfect, and nobody’s perfect. Not you or your students.
So I’ll wake up tomorrow, proud of my kiddos and proud of my comrade and I for discovering a different angle that Christopher Darden could’ve used, or wondering what Robert Kardashian would say to OJ if he were alive today. And I’ll strive to do my best, not be the best.
Keep it real...Power to the teacher.
Do you want to get the conversation going? For future blog post ideas, email me at chilloutteacher@gmail.com
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