Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Inspiring. Motivating. Amazing. These are just a few words to describe Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. Besides his talk of following your childhood dreams and embracing what you are good at, Randy also tells us about a very interesting teaching method he used in his computer science classes at MIT. I found the method to be very interesting. It is the concept of learning something indirectly, or a "head fake" as Randy puts it.

Randy uses football as an example of a "head fake". While learning how to form tackle and master the three-point stance, we also learn teamwork, dedication, and heart, to name a few. The idea is to get someone to learn something through an activity. That made me think about how I could implement this concept into my own classroom one day.

I have already had this technique used on me before. In German class, we read short stories. All of which contain sentence forms and vocabulary we have NEVER seen before. We read the title, then look at the pictures and try to figure out what the story is about, sort of like a game. Then we read the story with our class' brainstorming session in mind. Believe it or not, the story makes sense and we learn the new vocabulary much faster!

I would like to do something similar in my own classroom, maybe with technology in mind. I know I have learned many new German words and phrases just by watching foreign films without subtitles. It forces your mind to connect body language, context clues, and the tone of the speaker with the words being spoken. Usually, with enough practice, someone can get the gist of what is being said without understanding every word.

How could I implement a "head fake" in a History class though? Any thoughts?
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