Lesson Plan: Teaching Synthesis

Lesson Plan: Teaching Synthesis

Purpose:

To teach college freshman synthesis in a way that will not bore them to tears.

This link is very helpful:

http://www.users.drew.edu/~sjamieso/Synthesis.htm

The following lesson plan should take between 30-40 minutes.

Step one:

Ask students what "synthesis" means--write on black board their contributions; remember to  give positive feedback even if they are not quite on track.

After students contribute, discuss and model for them what an academic synthesis is. Using the above link is very helpful if you need a simple, non-academic jargon way of explaining it.

Step two:

Play a song and ask students to write down their reactions to that song.

For the purpose of this lesson, I have chosen Foxy Shazam's I like it. I have chosen this song specifically because: 1) it is a fairly new song/group that students may have some contact with, 2) it is in a fun, "relate-able" genre students of this age will hopefully engage with, 3) it contains controversial lyrics and images (in the music video) that, once broken down, will give students a new way to access the song and be able to talk about as scholars.

Step three:

After students write down their initial reactions, break into groups of 4. Play song again and ask them to write further on their reaction.

Step four:

In groups, each member will share their opinion and discuss the song. Students will take notes on what each person says noting specific details of the conversation.

Step five:

Play the song again, but this time using the music video:

Again, this song/video was chosen specifically for it's content--it is my hopes that students will engage in the break down of that content and add that to their synthesis. (This lesson will further relate to a later lesson plan in which we discuss gender in art and images--being able to go back to this song/video will be a simple way into that conversation as well as refreshing students about synthesis).

Step six:

Group discussion continues with students adding their opinions and break down of the video.

Step Seven (to be completed outside the classroom):

Once discussion is complete, students will be asked to write up an academic style synthesis of the song/video discussion that took place in their groups. The synthesis will be discussed in the next class and handed in as a piece of informal writing.