Greyling Goes to Court

Greyling Goes to Court
Nov 14, 2001, 12:47pm

Students assume the identities of the story characters and, in their own words, convincingly project the character's point of view.

Life gives rise to issues that need to be resolved. There are moments of trial and question when answers have gray areas and the right thing to do is not necessarily obvious. Times such as these call for hard questions, critical thinking and discussion. How can a teacher give her students the skills they need to apply to such situations?
One possibility is through an LTA (Learning Through Action) activity. Ras Beirut Middle School teacher, Miss Dana Issawi is enjoying using an LTA project for these important lessons in two classes and is gratified at her students’ enthusiasm. LTA is a British methodology introduced to IC two years ago and now being employed by a number of teachers. Its foundation is making the student the principle player in student-centered activities. Students experience an event using their imagination.

Greyling's two sets of parents each had legal representation in court.

The setting for Miss Issawi’s class LTA is a court session. The actors are her students, role playing characters from a short story they have read in class. The story is Greyling written by Jane Yolen about a selchie discovered by a lonely, childless couple. “They are men upon the land and seals in the sea” the fisherman explains the selchie to his wife. They decide to raise the seal pup turned human and not return him to the sea. At age fifteen a crisis forces Greyling back into the sea for the first time. He becomes seal again.
In their LTA activity students imagine a court battle between Greyling’s seal parents and his human parents. Each set of parents is accompanied by their lawyer. There are reporters, friends, neighbors and family in the audience. There is a judge to moderate without a verdict. Everyone in the class has an active role. Now the stage is set. Students raise all the real questions of ethics, morality, responsibility and equity appropriate to the problem at hand. Their active participation gives a personal relevance to the experience allowing the memory of it to stay for years.

Greyling is a fantasy, but the interesting ideas and lessons students learned in their activity are real.

Everyone in both classes had an active role and enjoyed their day in court.