In the last years of my previous school, my students produced incredible homeworks where they began to think like writers, journalists and cultural commentators. They spent huge amounts of time questioning what they, and I, might believe about the world around us, and produced stimulating pieces of work that were often exceptional.
At best, I think that students should produce most of their work outside classroom under independent conditions. The time spent with the teacher should be guidance to lay foundations and to encourage extended study.
TED-Ed looks to be an incredible way in for (m)any student(s) to extend their study. Essentially it involves created a variety of resources in response to a video that guide students through various thinking skills.
A video that shows introduces the concept well is on the website itself: http://blog.ted.com/2012/04/25/flip-it-a-new-way-to-teach-with-video-from-ted-ed/
A lesson that I may set will be this: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/mining-literature-for-deeper-meanings-amy-e-harter
