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.
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As Gallagher and Barrett both attest, I agree that there are many benefits to preparing the students for lessons. I use a motivational pre-writing activity with "Love". For many short stories, I use pre-writing activities of that sort. It's a great way for connecting the student's real life experiences with the text.
ReplyDeleteIt's also helpful to block out 5-10 minutes for students to share their writing.
For example, consider the essay "The Hawk is Flying," by Harry Crewes. Crewes found an injured hawk in Okeefenokee Swamp and nursed it back to health. Prior to reading, I shared a personal story about my pug, Big Steve, who was recently diagnosed with auto-immune hemolytic anemia, and how we nursed him back to health. This made students more willing to share their own stories. Many told me about injured birds or bunnies that they'd found. After the discussion, I showed an interesting 2 minute video clip from National Geographic about peregrine falcons. The relatively short investment of time to make things personal really brought students into what would could have been an otherwise boring essay.
Not that I think the essay is boring, I mean. Students don't always enjoy it.