They don’t get it.

For the past half decade or so, at the school where I work, I’ve more or less been in charge of the curriculum for second grade high school. I make the lessons and write the final exam, with input from my colleagues. Although the curriculum has the same basic outline, I’ve tried to tweak it to make things easier for both the students and my colleagues.

This doesn’t always work out.

The course is called English Expression and the emphasis is supposed to be on getting the students speaking by any means necessary. Since I’ve been in charge I’ve tried to emphasize creative learning by having the students invent both new products and new superheroes. The entire curriculum of this term culminates in the students making a TV commercial for a product they’ve invented.

To make this easier, I modified the curriculum to give them a chance to write the bulk of their final project during the next to last project. If they “invented” an original product for their Inventions presentation all they have to do is use the same product and make the script a little longer.

However, most of them have not connected the last project with this one. As a result, I spent today watching groups of students stare blankly at pieces of paper as they tried to come up with ideas.

Eventually, I forced them to find their Inventions print and convinced them that they could and should use the same invention. All they had to do was make a visual aid or two, a slogan and a logo and then add a few more lines and some acting.

I think some of them got it. But others, even the group that had the best invention, insist on creating new items.

They could be in for a long couple weeks.