This I Believe: Failure is a Good Thing

Details

Activity Description

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

1. Be sure you have all the necessary equipment.
2. Preview site.
3. Listen to/read essay on failure (see Web Site Example above).
4. Print assignment sheet (see example document above).

How-To

1. Introduce the "This I Believe" series.
2. Discuss 'personal values' as a class.
3. 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.
4. Open the Example Document 1 (above) and go through the vocabulary.
5. 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

Levels

• Low
• Intermediate
• High
• All Levels

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