Awaken Enthusiasm

A colleague just explained to me that one of her favorite ways to introduce a new unit is to start the class with a ‘mystery box.’ There are several items in the box to hint at what the students will be studying next. It gave me so many ideas as to how I can start a few of my units. For my speech unit, I like to have the students do oral interpretations (they don’t actually write the speeches, they use their voice inflections, facial expressions, hand gestures, etc. to interpret a famous speech, section from a novel, children’s book, etc.). I’m thinking maybe I could include a children’s book, a rolled up document that turns out to be MLK’s “I Have a Dream” or Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” a microphone, and a few other artifacts…I just need to think about what else I can add. But I’m also thinking about my short story unit (one story is about time travel and going back in time to kill dinosaurs, and I could include a little toy dinosaur!) and my novel unit. I’ve got all kinds of ideas running around in my head. I know the idea for the mystery box was to awaken enthusiasm in the students before a new unit, but my enthusiasm for creating the mystery box is also very much awakened!