Ted Talk Back to School

Students will:

• Be able to collaborate with classmates to create a poster based on the Ted Talk.
• Be able to listen attentively to a Ted Talk and answer questions throughout the talk.

Vocabulary Words:

1. Hackschooling: Logan coined this term because he didn't like the reactions he got when he told people he was homeschooled.

2. Priority: Priority is a thing that is regarded as more important than the other.

To prepare for this lesson:

• Go to the Ted Talks website and feel free to look around. You can sign up for a free account if you want so it can save your favorite videos you might want to use in the future.  Feel free to type in a topic in the search bar.   

• Watch the video on Classroom Inspiration by a 13-year-old boy. You will answer embedded questions throughout the talk.

• If you have a Google Classroom or another bookmarking website, make sure to copy and paste this website as an assignment. 

• Have poster boards and markers ready to go for each team of four-six at the end of the lesson.

• Make sure students have their own Chromebook and headphones for the assignment.

Note:

• This lesson is on Classroom Inspiration.  This video presentation is by a 13-year-old boy from Nevada,  Logan LaPlante. In this video, he discusses how education and schooling are really completely in the hands of each learner.  Logan talks about how to be on your way to being happy and healthy by “hackschooling” your own education! This talk is perfect for back-to-school time to help establish your classroom culture.
• There are so many Ted Talks videos that are appropriate for student use. If the lesson on hackschooling is not relevant to your classroom, there are many other Talks to choose from. 

See Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students.net site in the Teacher Resources. 

Directions for this activity:

1. Teachers should bookmark this website for easy access. Log into Google Classroom, Symbaloo, Diigo or Wakelet and post the website as an assignment for students to do.  

2. Give some background knowledge to the students on what “Ted Talks” are.  Tell students that as they are listening to the talk, they will be answering questions that will pop up on their screen throughout the talk. It will tell them right away if they got it correct or incorrect.

3. If applicable, have students log into Google Classroom and begin the assignment.  

4. When students are done (about 15-20 min.), have them divide into teams of four-six.  Give each team a poster board. Students will use markers to reflect on their observations from the video onto the poster.

Different options for assessing the students:

• Observations
• Check for understanding
• Ted Talk has embedded questions throughout the talk to ensure listening comprehension and guide class discussion.