10th grade English. They're reading To Kill a Mockingbird. However, on this day they were doing some related studies. They were to watch a video on the Scottsboro Boys.
We were to watch about 50 minutes of the video (via YouTube), then they had some questions to answer. It was a rather standard type of lesson. And, as I do, when the video was playing, I wasn't paying close attention. (It is April. I was reading blogs...)
However, I was sort of listening. So, when the video went from being in the midst of a court trial back to the men being arrested from earlier in the doc, I knew something was wrong. The class was not happy. They were riveted, and they wanted to know more about the woman's testimony.
After some investigation, I discovered that the rest of the video was just a repeat of what they'd already seen. What to do? I called one of the other 10th grade English teachers (they work as a team), and she said it was okay to go on to the next thing as they weren't going to finish the video anyway.
The class, however, wasn't having it. They could see that there was a part 2 on the YouTube page, and they wanted me to explore it. Which they repeated while we went over the next part of the assignment. Repeatedly. (They were worse than middle schoolers.)
On the one hand, I'm glad they were so invested in the doc that they wanted to see how things turned out. But on the other hand, they weren't going to finish the video, and the next part of the assignment told them how things turned out. (Spoiler alert: not good.)
(In case you're interested, you can find the video here: Part 1; Part 2.)
It turned out that the part 2 was the rest of the video. I was curious. While they were doing the next part of the assignment, I previewed it. So, when they finished their stuff, I did play about 15 more minutes for them. (It was a long period, so we had the time.)
Of course they wanted me to play the video for longer...
At least I knew what the issue was (and how to fix it) for the next class. Of course, right at the point when it was time to change the video was when the phone rang... Naturally.
Has YouTube ever disappointed you with a video glitch? Would you have shown the rest of the video to the annoying class?
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...
That was cool that something held their attention enough that they wanted to watch more of it. Of course even if you hadn't played any part of part 2 for them, they still could have found it on YouTube later. Sounds like a fascinating thing to watch sometime down the road.
ReplyDeletebetty
Hi Liz - no ... thankfully don't have to deal with things with kids watching over me! But well done ... and good they got to see a bit nore ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteNot surprising considering how interested in justice this generation is. I hope they remember the vids for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThis brought back memories of my generations version of this happening, when the teacher would roll in the portable TV and VHS player and spend ages hitting remote control buttons trying to get the recorded programme to play. The technology has changed, but the experiences are still the same! :-)
ReplyDeletehttps://iainkellywriting.com/2018/04/25/v-is-for-vienna-austria/
And it's changed rather quickly, too. It wasn't that long ago that we were playing DVDs...
DeleteAmazing how it caught and held them. It must be a an awesome movie.
ReplyDeleteYou can watch it yourself. I provided links to the videos on YouTube, in case you're interested.
DeleteKnowing my insatiable curiosity, I would be one of those kids or asking the name and looking it up once I got home. I would maybe have played the video but that's a hard call. At least they were invested which is good
ReplyDeleteI actually had a kid stay after class asking what the names of the boys were. We looked them up via Google.
DeleteI remember reading that book back in school, I don't think we were lucky enough to get to watch a video though
ReplyDeleteEvery required book seems to have at least a movie version attached. But that could just be the teachers in this area.
DeleteI definitely would have showed it to them! If something is engaging a group of teens that much, give them all you can!
ReplyDeleteTrue, that doesn't frequently happen.
DeleteI read that book in school and also went to book club thing at our local library and that was the book we read.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son were in high school it was require reading
Coffee is on
I probably would have showed them the 2nd video as well.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it.
DeleteYouTube can be glitchy...but I’m glad to hear the kids were so curious about what happened. I read Mockingbird in high school, read it again when my daughter had to read it in high school, it’s a great book.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great book.
DeleteI am glad they were invested. Impossible to say how I would have handled it. Hmmm... Be well!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to handle half the situations I'm in ;)
DeleteI might have been inclined to let them see the rest of the video. It seems highly relevant to their assignment, and I'm not sure that someone watching a documentary could ever be a bad thing. I'm kind of wondering why whoever came up with the assignment decided they would only watch part of it. Who does that? I don't think anyone likes to stop in the middle of something like that.
ReplyDeleteThe video is over an hour long. A class period is typically 58 minutes. There's no way to see the whole thing and get the rest of the relevant information. Besides, kiddos tune out when it's "just a video", so it's better to start them off with something, give them some partner pair share, and then have them write something.
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