LISTENING ACTIVITY ADAPTED FOR MULTIPLE LEVELS
The following activies are all based off of the above clip from Law & Order showing the closing arguments for Randall Bailey's murder trial. I hope to further adapt and use these activities in future classes.
ACTIVITY ONE: LOW-INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS
Focus: General Overview
SLOs: Students will be able to understand the gist of a fictional murder trial. Students will practice giving opinions.
Activity: Show students video as whole class. Teacher controls the video. Teacher stops the video at 2:23. After first viewing, teacher asks the following questions:
Questions:
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Where is this taking place? Courtroom
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Who are the involved parties? Defense attorney, Randall Bailey (defendant), Prosecutor, Judge (Students will likely just know lawyers, not technical terms, which is fine. The instructor can provide the technical terms if desired.)
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What is Randall Bailey on trial for? Murdering his daughter
Teacher instructs students to pretend they are the members of the jury. They are to listen to the arguments of each attorney and decide whether they believe Randall Bailey is guilty or innocent of murdering his daughter. Teacher shows the video to the class once more, stopping at 2:23 (Teacher offers to show video again if needed). Teacher instructs students to summarize each attorney’s argument and then discuss if they believe Randall is guilty or not guilty. Once discussion has ended, teacher instructs students to vote guilty or not guilty by hand. As with a regular jury, they need to be unanimous.
Once the students have reached a unanimous verdict, the teacher plays from 2:31 to 2:37. Students then give their verdict.
Rationale: I selected the above task for this level of students as I believe it is an interesting, interactive way to get the students to listen for general understanding. The prosecutor’s argument is a bit heavy on the legalese for low-intermediate students, but by showing the video and allowing them to experience her gestures/visuals as the jury would in a courtroom, I believe they will be able to gain the basic concept of her argument. This activity also allows students to practice giving opinions. During “jury deliberation,” they will be able to use phrases such as “I think,” “I feel,” “I believe,” etc.
ACTIVITY TWO: HIGH-INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS
Focus: Specific Details
SLO: Students will practice listening to a dialogue for details instead of overall concept. Students will practice voicing their opinions.
Activity: Teacher sets the scene: “Senator Randall Bailey has been charged with the murder of his daughter. After several days of testimony, the trial has reached its final stages – closing arguments.” Teacher hands out question sheet and instructs students to listen to all arguments and answer each question.
Questions: Answers
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What does the defense attorney say happened? Trina Bailey beat her stepmother to death with a tire iron and then attacked her father, who defended himself.
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How does the defense attorney describe Trina Bailey? As a raging psychopath
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What is the relationship between Randall Bailey and Trina? Father-daughter
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Is there evidence of a history of Randall abusing Trina? If so, what kind of evidence is there? Yes - pictures
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How tall is Randall Bailey? How much does he weigh? 6 foot 180 lbs.
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How tall was Trina Bailey? How much did she weigh? 5 foot 5 110 lbs.
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How many times did Randall Bailey stab Trina? How many times did Trina Bailey stab Randall? 13 times. 8 times.
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How does the prosecutor describe what Randall Bailey did to Trina? As murderous rage
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What does Randall Bailey call Judge Dilwynn? A hack and a pin-headed idiot
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What does Randall Bailey threaten to do as he’s taken away to jail? What do you think that means? Have Judge Dilwynn thrown off the bench. Have the judge fired.
The teacher provides a copy of the video to each student, allowing them to have control over it. However, the teacher instructs the students that they will only have 6 minutes to answer the questions. The teacher then pairs up students to check their answers.
Once pair check has finished, the teacher asks the students if they believe the jury got the verdict right given the facts presented by the attorneys and their impression of Senator Bailey.
Rationale: I selected the above activity for this level of students as I wanted to force them to focus on listening for important facts. Students at this level should be able to understand the gist of a conversation with relative ease, but listening for details is likely still a challenge. As such, providing them questions that force them to listen for such details allows them to practice honing this skill. Additionally, students will be able to practice giving their opinion on the outcome of the trial by having picked up on and interpreted the main facts of the case.
ACTIVITY THREE: ADVANCED LEARNERS
Focus: Expand on content provided
SLO: Students will be able to take the facts provided and weave a narrative reinforcing their position. Students will be able to play devil’s advocate to a provided dialogue.
Activity: Teacher introduces the following situation to class:
Imagine that you are a defense attorney. Your client, Senator Randall Bailey, has been arrested for murdering his daughter Trina. Here is what happened on the night of the murder: Randall’s daughter, Trina, beat your client’s wife, her stepmother, to death with a tire iron and then attacked your client with a kitchen knife, stabbing him 8 times. During the attack, your client stabbed Trina 13 times, ultimately killing her.
Trina was described by others as troubled and violent. She repeatedly told others that her father, your client, abused her as a child, but your client has never been arrested or charged for child abuse and to this day denies he ever hurt Trina.
The teacher then tells the listen to the prosecution’s closing argument (use from 0:50 to 2:25). The teacher plays the video segment twice, telling students to take notes if needed, but lets the students know that they can ask to see the video again individually as needed while doing the assigned task. After showing the video a second time, the teacher instructs students to write a closing argument defending their client.
Rationale: I selected the above task for this level of students because I believe at this level of language learning, students will be able to take the information provided, and that gleaned from the video, and interpret it in a manner that successfully completes the task. I wanted to challenge them by giving them the unsympathetic side, forcing them to think alternately to what they have listened to. This task meets the above SLOs by requiring students to use the language they have acquired thus far to alter the narrative of what happened in a way that proves their client’s innocence.