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  • Curiosity - Novice High

    • Curiosity - Novice High

    Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes: Students will learn what curiosity is and share topics they are curious about, and they will understand that people are curious about different subjects and respect those differences. Language Learning Outcomes: Students will connect content to background knowledge, identify a speaker’s point of view and understand main ideas, and converse about topics familiar to them and ask questions about topics they may not be familiar with.

    Lesson Information

    Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes

    Students will...

    1. learn what curiosity is and share topics they are curious about.
    2. understand that people are curious about different subjects and respect those differences.

    Language Learning Outcomes

    Students will...

    1. connect content to background knowledge.
    2. identify a speaker’s point of view and understand main ideas.
    3. converse about topics familiar to them and ask questions about topics they may not be familiar with.

    Materials Needed

    Overview

    The definition of curiousity is the desire to know about something. 

    Activate Background Knowledge

    Have students make a list of topics they're interested in. Discuss as a class and make a list on the board. Explain that all of the list items are exaples of what they're curious about.

    Activity 1: Listening/Speaking

    Have students choose one of their list items from the previous activity, and find a picture, example, and/or more information. When they are finished, they should share with a partner. Discuss as a class afterwards. 

    Activity 2: Listening/Speaking

    Help students understand the word oberve/observation

    • observe (v): to see and notice something
    • observation(n): the process of watching something or someone carefully for a period of time
    • notice(v): to  realize that something exists, especially because you can see, hear, or feel it

    Observation is helpful to become more curious. When you are cuirious, observation helps you learn more. 

    Have students walk around the the school/classroom and make observations. 

    Examples

    • colors of things 
    • paintings
    • size of things 
    • cleanliness of things 

    Students should share with a partner what they observed. 

    • Did you notice anything new? 

    Activity 3: Listening/Speaking

    Go over the following words: 

    • uninterested(adj): not interested 
    • nosy(adj): curious about people's private business (studetns may need to translate this word) 

    Use the following scenerios. Studetns must choose curious, uninterested, or nosy: 

    Card 1: “I just got a new dog!”
    Prompt 1: “That’s nice. Are you going to be in class tomorrow?”
    Prompt 2: “Wow, that’s cool. What kind of dog is it?”
    Prompt 3: “Who did you get your dog from and how much exactly did it cost?”

    Card 2: “I hurt my ankle this week so I will not be coming to soccer practice.”
    Prompt 1: “That’s too bad. Talk to you later!”
    Prompt 2: “Oh, ouch! Do you have to use crutches?”
    Prompt 3: “I bet it cost you a lot to go to the doctor. Do you have other health problems?”

    Card 3: “I think I ripped my pants while I was giving my presentation!”
    Prompt 1: “ Oh well, better luck next time.”
    Prompt 2: “Oh, no! What did you do then?”
    Prompt 3: “Did the whole class see your underwear? What color is it?”

    Activity 4: Speaking/Listening

    Watch the following video on this website: National Geographic--Curiosity 

    Partner discussion questions: 

    • What are the people in the video curious about? 
    • What kind of job do they have? 
    • Are you curious about anything you see in the video? 

    Homework

    Find someone outside of our class and ask them to tell you about something they're curious about. Be prepared to share in class who you talked to and what you learned. 

    Follow-Up

    Tuesday:

    Follow up with original homework. Have the students share with a partner (not the same partner they did the homework with) the activity that they tried and what they thought about it, as well as the activity they introduced to someone else and how it felt to share something they are curious about. 

    Wednesday:

    Show the following list of examples of topics students might be cuious about. Give them 3 min to research one topic. 

    • art 
    • sports
    • technology 
    • food 
    • travel 
    • music 
    • fashion

    Share what they learned with a parter. 

    Thursday:

    Ask studetns what they would be curious to learn about a new person. Have them make a list of questions and ask those questions to a classmate. 

    This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.

    Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/PositivePsychologyintheClassroom/curiosity_novice_high.