If you listen to NPR radio, you may hear both famous and unknowns discussing their core values and beliefs on weekly broadcasts of the radio spot “This I Believe,” a take-off on Edward R. Murrow’s original 1950s radio show. The site is an archive of all the modern broadcasts accompanied by the original print essays and contains a searchable database of thousands of other essays on numerous topics ranging from patriotism, to family, to sports. Each short essay that has been broadcast on NPR has a “listen now” link to hear the authors read their essays, which provides a listening component for the ABE student. The audio can be the basis for exercises on note-taking, listening for main ideas, supporting details, and cloze (listening for missing words).
Preparation
Be sure you have all the necessary equipment.
Preview site.
Listen to/read essay on failure (see Web Site Example above).
Print #2 assignment sheet This I Believe: Failure is a Good Thing by Jon Carroll. (see documents)
How-To
Introduce the "This I Believe" series.
Discuss 'personal values' as a class.
Read/listen to the Web Site Example URL (above), "Failure is a Good Thing." You will need a computer connected to the Internet and a projector with speakers to do this as a class.
Open the Document: 2. This I Believe: Failure is a Good Thing by Jon Carroll. This assignment includes reflective questions about vocabulary
Writing Assignment: Have students write about a time they felt they failed or made a mistake.
More Ways
For a one time donation, the site provides downloadable (.pdf) Educators’ Guides for use with Middle/High School and College students, both of which are applicable to and easily modified for use with adult literacy students or older adult programs. The guides’ curricula include discussion guides, pre-writing activities and prompts, and sample essays. The purpose of the guides is to assist instructors in planning lessons with the objective of students writing their own “This I Believe” essays. The curricula “help students understand the concept of belief, explore their own values, and craft them into a well-written essay.” Students can submit their essays to the site for online publication.
Program Areas
ABE: Adult Basic Education
ESL: English as a Second Language
ASE: High School Diploma
Levels
Low
Intermediate
High
Intermediate Low
Intermediate High
Advanced
View Lesson Plan
Warm-up
Engagement
As pairs, have students discuss: "Describe a time you failed at something. What happened after?" As a class ask the following questions:
How did failure make you feel?
Did anything positive come from it?
Introduction
Engagement
Students begin by discussion the question as pairs and then sharing their ideas in a class discussion.
Question: What can failure teach us that success cannot?
Objectives:
Students will:
Identify the author’s belief.
Explain how failure supports growth.
Collaborate in discussion.
Write a summary.
Draft a personal belief essay.
Briefly explain that This I Believe was a radio series where people shared personal beliefs shaped by their life experiences.
Presentation
Engagement Enhancement
Begin with a discussion of vocabulary words used in the article:
Using the worksheet This I Believe: Failure is a Good Thing. It includes Vocabulary with Definitions and an assignment to write a summary of the article and then tell about a time the student failed and what they learned from it.
Begin with students discussons the vocablulary as pairs. Share sentences using the words.
Practice
Engagement Enhancement
Students read the article, either online or printed. If you need a simplified version use the following:
What I Believe About Failure I believe that failure is a good thing. When we fail, we learn. Success is nice, but it does not teach us new things. Sometimes, when someone does something right the first time, it was just luck. There is a saying that a good cook is someone who has broken many pots. That means you learn by trying and failing. When we make mistakes, we see what we did wrong. We can try again and get better. Failure helps us grow, learn, and not give up. Failure is not the end — it is part of getting better.
This is something the writer believes.
After reading the article student pairs discuss the following questions and support their answers with examples.
What does the author mean when they say failure helps us learn?
Have you ever learned something new because you failed first?
Why might success not teach us as much as failure?
Gather as a class and share ideas.
Evaluation
Engagement Enhancement
Together students pairs discuss the assignment and brainstorm ideas of what they want to write about. Possible prompt ideas might include:
“I used to think failure was bad, but now I know…” “One failure I remember is…” “This failure taught me…”
Writing Assignment is part 2 on the worksheet This I Believe: Failure is a Good Thing
Students write a one-paragraph summary of the article followed by relating a time when they failed and what they learned from it.
Application
Engagement Enhancement Extension
Break the class into small discussion groups. Give each group on of the following Failure Case Studies (add your own)
Someone fails an exam.
Someone loses a job.
Someone starts a business that doesn’t succeed.
Someone tries to learn a new language and struggles.
Discuss what might this person learn, what positive outcomes could come later, and what advice you would give this person.
Each group presents solutions for their scenario. Discuss other applications for what has been learned.
CCR Anchor 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCR Anchor 2 - Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Writing
CCR Anchor 1 - Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCR Anchor 2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Speaking and Listening
CCR Anchor 1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Language
CCR Anchor 1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCR Anchor 2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCR Anchor 4 - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
View Tags
reading, writing, cloze activity, critical thinking, failure, I Believe, listen and read, main idea, pre-writing, prompt, publish, supporting details, text reader, thisibelieve, United States, values, values, word processing, writing, writing, writing on computer, writing process, audio assist, audio-assisted reading
View Creative Commons License
CC BY-ND:This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
View Conditions
You may copy, download one copy on a single device, and print a limited amount of content for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided that (a) you include without modification all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the content, (b) you do not modify the content, (c) you do not use the content in a manner that suggests NPR promotes or endorses your, or any third party's, causes, ideas, products, sites, applications, platforms or services, and (d) you do not use the content in any way that is unlawful or harmful. Subject to the conditions in the preceding sentence, you may use widgets and tools on the NPR Services that allow selected User Materials to appear on your personal, noncommercial blog, site, application, platform or service.
https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179876898/terms-of-use#copyrights
You may use the content feeds, APIs, podcasts, media players, and other features of the NPR Services, and content accessed therefrom, only as expressly permitted in these Terms of Use, including the "Use of Content: Conditions and Acknowledgments".
View AI Reference
ChatGPT was used to generate ideas for the lesson plan
