My favorite lesson was model on the Theoretical History of life on Mars and why the planet "died."  The students at this particular level are just below fluency and have the ability to speak at a impressive level.  We call it "Bridge" because its bringing together everything they have learned before taking college entrance exams.

 The objective in class, was understanding and identifying "cause and effect" while annotating correctly in their books; with the added task of understanding the "transitions" that are related with "cause and effect" academic readings.  These transitions - first, when, then, caused, as a result, because, etc - weren't new to the students as vocabulary, but the context in which they were used and the significance attached to them in making their lives easier as students was fully appreciated.

First, what made this lesson so engaging for the students was the amount of additional multi-media that was available on the subject.  Introducing the lesson with digital models from the BBC and from specific movies like Mission to Mars; grabbed their attention from the beginning.  Instantly, disinterested students were raising their hands to talk, the best students weren't the most engaged and the actual details from the reading material, seemed to hit home, because the students could visualize what we were learning about.

Then, as we went into the material, their was more enthusiasm in actually finding the major details throughout the text, because they actually seemed to want to learn about how:

**  the inner molten core of Mars slowed down -> reducing the magnetic field -> solar winds began to enter the atmosphere -> which reduced the amount of atmosphere available -> which limited how much water vapor returned to the planet in terms of rain -> the water vapor disappeared into space ->  which is why the planet dried up.

It was my favorite lesson, because we all felt really really smart.  Everyone was motivated to learn more, because they were engaged from the beginning and felt empowered, because they could do it, they could see it, they could anticipate what was coming next and as a result, when it came time to do their projects at the end of class, they were jumping out of their seat, because they thought they had the best ideas.  It was Great.

Great Multi-media resources literally resulted in engaging the students more effectively.  Even though it wasn't everyones favorite topic and maybe they didn't know the word.  They could visualize it enough to feel confident in even asking questions.  With their ability to see it form the beginning, they felt better throughout the class and to be honest, they really preformed.