focus

My students are reading books with tragic heroes and writing literary papers on those heroes. I'm using a variety of focus activities to help them with the task.

Students are to write a literary paper on a tragic hero. They had five to choose from. We began by reading as a group a book with a tragic hero and using him as an example for discussion of the tragic hero traits. This also acted as scaffolding for students with more trouble in reading and comprehending. Now as they begin reading on their own, I'm giving them focus questions to answer at the end of each chapter: Write a brief summary of the chapter. Note evidence for any of the tragic hero traits that appears in that chapter. Write down any quotes that would help to explain one of the traits in your paper. (I modeled this using one of the chapters from the book we read as a group.) In addition, we will use focus groups, with students who are doing their papers on the same character meeting to discuss ideas and findings.

So far it's working quite well. During the discussion of the group book, they became so familiar with the concepts that they began suggesting characters from other books and films who display the traits. It's too long a project for me to give a complete reflection before the end of the nine weeks, but I think all this has given them the background and the skills to do well.

Jigsaw Activities

I really enjoy doing jigsaw activities with my students. I think it gives them some ownership of the material...rather than having the teacher stand up and present all of the material to them in his or her teaching style, students are able to "teach" their classmates in a manner that appeals to them.

Most recently, my kids did a jigsaw activity over some sections in the book about Ancient India and Ancient China. The kids worked in groups of 3-4 students each and were assigned an individual section...essentially, one group dealt with religion while another dealt with culture, and so on. After the original groups had worked, the groups were then scrambled into groups made up of members of the original groups (at least one member of the original groupings was in each new grouping). Each original group member "taught" their assigned section to their new group....they were required to create some type of visual (be it PowerPoint, a graphic organizer, whatever) and to have an "assignment" for the other kids.

As the 2nd groups discussed and worked, I walked around to observe and took mental notes on what was not being addressed. I covered what I did not feel was covered by the groups with the whole class. I think the kids got a pretty good view of the material, and they got it in a non-teacher centered way.

Chapter 2

In preparation for short stories in the unit, we do a prep that introduces character types. For "The Quiet Man" we listed the characteristics of an admirable person on the board -- someone we would enjoy having as a friend. Then we listed the characteristics of someone who would not be a good friend. This helped prepare students for the story which dealt with a clash between two types that reflected those views.

For "Love" I adapted the idea of looking at past experiences that correlated with the story. Students wrote about their favorite teachers, looking back over all their years in school. The results strengthened their writing skills and gave me some lovely insights into some of my colleagues. This was in advance of beginning the story.

2nd Draft Reading

In his book, Gallagher discusses first readings, second readings, etc... in order for a student to understand and appreciate a book. As a student, I know that their are some works that require to reread (more than once at times) in order to gain understanding. I also know that the more I read a book, the greater I appreciate what the author is attempting to say. However, asking students to read something once is like getting them to line up for the firing squad. With all the testing and material that must be covered in a single semester, is having students read and reread a wishful fantasy?

In the chapter titled "Reading the World," Gallagher discusses the importance of having students read a diverse assortment of material. Gallagher believes (as Do I) that if a student graduates with the ability to analyze a major literary work but can not understand how to use a newspaper or instruction manual he has failed as a teacher. I firmly believe in this idea; children should be socially literate. Having students read classic text will enrich their vocabulary and help them with difficult concepts in life, but we as teachers need to make sure that we are sending productive (as much as their ability allows) citizens out into the world. I am going to assign a different student everyday to read and present a newspaper article they found. At the end of the month, the class will vote on the most interesting article and then winner will recieve extra credit! Hopefully, this will show them that reading the newspaper can be interesting.

Metaphorically Speaking

As english teachers, we have all had students take notes and identify example of metaphors. However, we rarely ask our students to think metaphorically. Instead of students simply stating "Hamlet is crazy," they can say "Hamlet is like a calculator because he is always trying to figure out complex problems." Getting students to think this way causes them to reflect and analyze a work more deeply in order to gain comprehension. Deeper Reading has great metaphorical graphic organizers on pages 134-147.

Theme Triangles

I recently used theme triangles (one of the methods discussed for colloboration in Deeper Reading) in my classroom to facilitate deeper levels of comprehension. The purpose of this activity is to get students to produce a relevant theme from a reading and then make connections to life and pop-culture. Using a posterboard, students complete the following task:

1. Draw a triangle and place the name of their chosen story at the at the top of the triangle.
2. Students then come up with a theme and write it down in the middle of the triangle.
3. On the right hand side of the triangle, students explain how this theme can be applied to life and give specific examples.
4. On the left hand side of the triangle, students relate the theme to a popular movie, book, song, or poem that has the same theme.

It is a very good activity to show students how readings are prevelant to their lives.

Deeper Reading

Although laden with the almighty sports metaphor, Gallagher seems to have a tight hold on methods that can work with our reluctant readers. I particularly like the insights on helping students understand the layers of meaning that can be garnered from reading and rereading a text.

Social Studies Strategy

The two-column note taking strategy is a simple chart in which the student creates two columns with headings as the teacher directs. The student organizes the lesson material. This could be text pages, newspaper articles, novels, notes, etc.

I use this often to organize large amounts of information. It allows students to control or get a handle on information that might otherwise overwhelm them. For example, our current unit requires students to look at the similarities and differences in the physical and cultural geography of the U.S. and Canada. I ask students to make a chart with similarities on one side and differences on the other. As they take notes students mark their notes with an S or D. At the end of the unit, students fill in this chart with the appropriate information. This strategy helps students dig deeper into why the U.S. and Canada are in a region together.

The two-column note taking strategy is a favorite of mine because the manipulations are endless, it require low output from the teacher and higher output from the student, requires minimum planning and is a strategy used as part of various professional learning activities. With all of this, one might ask if this strategy pays off in terms of student achievement. I believe that it does. Students want to feel as if they are not having to memorize information because that is an overwhelming task. When they take ownership of the material they know it and therefore have less rote memorization. Fun alternatives include filling in the chart together on the board. This strategy is simple and an example of how strategies for content and critical literacy can easily be used to learn standards and increase student literacy.