This week I was still recovering from a minor medical procedure, a mountain of essays to grade, lessons to record for my online classes, and much more! In short, I needed something engaging and high level for my students to do while I got some much needed work done. I quickly remembered how much I loved completing a Bloom Ball activity in college one time and decided to have my 10th graders complete something similar.
On Day One, I broke them up into their groups from a previous poll I’d taken. Per the county’s unit they were supposed to be researching other cultures and identifying cultural “truths” about them. I have them 6 options: Viking, Greek, Japanese, Indian, Mali, and British. Whichever group they were in resulted in them researching some cultural values of the culture and reading a prized heroic story.
For Greek it was Perseus; Viking was Sigurd; Indian was Rama vs Ravana; Japanese was Prince Yamato; British was more King Arthur Tales; and Mali was part of Sundiata.
That first day they researched and made a Venn diagram about ways they saw the cultures overlapping with ours and then started reading. But, then Day 2 came and 15 minutes before class I realized I still didn’t have anything concrete for them to actually do with it!
I went into my Mind Palace (for all you Sherlock fans!) and BAM! I remembered one of my professors having us work in small groups creating a Bloom Ball. It was engaging, creative, and rigorous. I found a template online, made the copies moments before they walked in 😂
I told them to make 2 sides for each of the following categories:
Characters (main and secondary or heroes vs villains)
Theme (one for the theme statement and one to explain it fully from the text)
2 Cultural values and how they were seen within the story
2 powerful quotes and a brief explanation of why they were important
2 sides for setting (most of our heroes were on a journey and were in several different places)
2 drawings of critical/iconic scenes
I had NO IDEA how well this would go over! They were engaged in some fantastic higher thinking conversations, discussion over the stories, and taking their creativity to a whole other level. I ended up giving them a little over 2 class periods. I got a lot of stuff done and they did some truly amazing work- total win-win!
I have to say that this is the first time I’ve ever actually done Bloom Balls. Not sure why I waited all these years, but I’m so glad I went with my gut! I hope this brings some inspiration your way as well!
If you like the idea of this project, but want to save the leg work of creating everything involved; check out my store and you will have everything you need!
Around the World With Mrs. C 