Lesson Plan Session 9: Personal Identity (C1.1) & Health and Nutrition Pt.2 (B2.2)

For the ninth session of classes my C1.1 level focused on the theme of Personal Identity while my B2.2 level continued on the previous week's theme focused on Health and Nutrition.

C1.1- Who am I?

For this week's session I was given the theme of Personal Identity to work with. Beginning by explaining what exactly personal identity is, I delved into the many different elements that make up one's identity. Having defined each, I then asked my students to give examples for each term from their own lives. Subsequently, having discussed and given examples of each, I then had my students brainstorm five words that best describe their personal identities. Once they finished I had my students share their words out loud which I typed into a WordCloud generator [https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/]. A WordCloud allows viewers to get a better sense of commonalities and differences -- the more times a word is said, the larger it appears on the screen. The ability to see each of the words my students identified themselves with allowed us to point to the commonalities we all shared as well as the differences that made us unique. For the final part of class, I set up a sort of "Speed Dating" seminar that allowed each of my students to practice sharing which aspects of their personal identities are the most important to them within two minutes -- as if they they were going on a speed date. After each round, we changed the topic of discussion until the end of class.

I found that my students had a lot to speak about when asked about their personal identity. Even though their identities are something they know well, most often it was difficult for my students to STOP speaking at the end of the rounds! They all had so much to share and I loved joining in on the conversations.

B2.2 - Healthcare in the US

As it was the second week my B2.2 level classes focused on the theme of Health, I decided to share about something even people in the United States find utterly confusing: healthcare. Speaking mostly on the topic of health insurance and coverage in the US, together my students and I discussed the outcomes and (not just the literal) price people must pay to be covered. Additionally, because Spanish citizens are covered by a universal type of healthcare, we compared the differences, similarities, drawbacks, and positives, of the two systems. Ultimately, for many of my students it came down to the hard realization that healthcare in the US is more so of a business than a public service.

As it was difficult to create a "fun" activity centered around healthcare and insurance, I decided show a computer game called SPENT which allowed my students to individually make choices of what to do. SPENT is an online game about surviving poverty and homelessness. It was created by ad agency McKinney whose mission, "is to provide food, clothing, shelter and supportive services to neighbors in need". Players must make the difficult decisions necessary to live for one month on $1000, often having to choose between equally disagreeable options. The dilemmas my students faced represented those many people in the US face every month: Do you make a healthy meal or keep the lights on? Buy health insurance or pay the rent? Hope your sick daughter gets better on her own or risk your job by leaving early to take her to the doctor? Let your son play in the after-school sports league or save the money needed for his uniform? More than anything, I used this game as a strong demonstration of how delicate -- and even dangerous -- the privatized system of healthcare in the United States can be for many citizens. While I initially included a short healthcare debate/game at the end, none of my classes found time to begin them.

I felt as though this discussion of the healthcare and insurance systems in the United States opened more doors to conversation between my students and I than any other presentation. Together we spoke about the hard truths, the advantages for some, and also why public systems such as Obamacare have failed in the past. I very much enjoyed teaching this lesson, sharing my own experiences, and even finding myself learning a great deal from my students along the way.