Literature and Reading Handout

The Best Lesson Series: Literature

15 Master Teachers Share What Works

Outline:

Each lesson is split into 6 sections

·         An Introduction

·         Learning Goals stating:

o   Broad Implications

o   Knowledge Gained

o   Skills Acquired

o   Evidence of Learning

·         Learning Plan

·         Handouts/Resources

o   I have an ebook version of the book that contains links to handouts and resources for the lesson, including poems, short stories, and pictures.

·         What Made It Memorable

·         Short Bio on Teacher

1.      Finding Courage to Fly Close to the Sun: Interpreting Icarus – Ruth Arseneault

a.      “I once had a theatre mentor tell me that she saw her job, not as building actors, but as building audiences. That is how I see my English classes. So few of them will go on to become English majors, but by heavens, I want them to continue to experience the joys of deep reading, regardless of what text they encounter. I also want them to have the ability to move through the world experiencing the joys of art and culture, but always with a critical eye.”

2.      The American Dream – Susan Barber

a.      “I want students to understand the idea of the American Dream and have a sense of how varied the dream is among different people throughout different time periods. Students will also comprehend how the arts, not just literature, reflect current events and be able to identify common themes and ideas reflected in the arts.”

3.      Thinking Icons for Literary Analysis – Laura Bradley

a.      “Students will learn a variety of ways to read, think about, and write analytically in response to literature. They will choose significant excerpts from text and choose lenses through which to write analytical responses to them.”

4.      Teaching Symbolism and Characterization in Of Mice and Men – Brianna Crowley

a.      “I want students to analyze visual and written texts to understand characterization and symbolism more deeply. This lesson fosters an understanding of different points of view. It teaches them that literary characters are multi-faceted and complex, reflecting true human nature and motivation.

5.      Ignite Talks – Gerard Dawson

a.      “We grow when we are pushed to the edges of our capabilities. When students perform, hit ‘publish’ and put themselves out there in their own way, real learning happens.”

6.      Multi-Draft Reading Using Print and Visual Texts – Todd Finley

a.      “My main goal is to help students realize that deeper analytical reading of print and visual texts can be achieved through re-reading. I also want students to see how inquiry can be aided when both a ‘paradigmatic’ and ‘narrative’ lens are used. More important than the literature and visual texts chosen are the analytical skills that can be transferred to subsequent texts.”

7.      Student-Generated Questions Using Science Fiction – Joy Kirr

a.      “Students’ questions often go unasked and unanswered. We need to give them space to ask their own questions and find the answers together. This can be a catalyst to get students asking the questions and learning from each other for life.”

8.      Demystifying Poetry: 3-Step Poetry Analysis and “The Red Wheelbarrow” – Jori Krulder

a.      “I want students to develop independence in analyzing poetry, moving beyond the misconception that a poem is a puzzle with one correct answer to the understanding that through thoughtful application of their perceptions and prior knowledge to various aspects of the text, they can create meaning competently on their own.”

9.      Building Bridges with Visual Literacy – Shanna Peeples

a.      “Both the film and the short story require students to practice critical thinking and questioning skills because the pieces are sufficiently complex in terms of character, theme, and necessity to infer.”

10.  What Makes a Work of Literature? – Amy Rasmussen

a.      “Through the lens of language, students will begin their inquiry into what makes a work of literature. They will read two pieces of literary criticism and discuss the writers’ assertions as the genesis of developing their own response to the question: What makes a work of literature?”

11.  Literary 3x3: Literary Analysis Remixed & Reshuffled – Dan Ryder

a.      “They should find themselves equipped with a powerful analytical tool and dynamic synthesis process that will evolve throughout the school year. They will be able to distill a text down to its most essential concepts and themes, identify the benefits and challenges of collaborative analysis, and recognize trends across a collection of analyses.”

12.  April Awesomeness Poetry Challenge – Joshua Stock

a.      “I want them to determine the effectiveness of a poem in relation to other poems and support their position with evidence from the text. They will use the views of their classmates to strengthen their position and actively participate in moving the dialogue forward.”

13.  When Novels Start with Bathroom Scenes – Dave Stuart, Jr.

a.      “I first want students to realize how much we often miss on a first reading and then to see how delightfully confusing subsequent close readings of a passage can be. Students will analyze how one scene contributes to the book as a whole.”

14.  Think Like a Poet – Brian Sztabnik

a.      “Perhaps the reason many students are turned off by poetry is because we make them read it rather than experience it. This lesson puts students in the mind of a poet. Without even realizing it, they will be analyzing the clues to determine its subject, imagery, point of view, and meaning. It is time they had a new experience with poetry, one where they think like a poet.”

15.  The Excitement Graph – Heather Wolpert-Gawron

a.      “I want students to walk away with a sense of what jazzes them about a particular story or book and then recognize that narratives generally have patterns of writing that lead them to feel that way at certain points of the storytelling. They will analyze the plot structure in a narrative by literally plotting symbols on a graph to indicate their level of excitement during different parts of the tale. The resulting line that can be drawn between these symbols should indicate the ‘story swoop’ of the narrative.”

Why this Book:

·         The title drew me in

o   It makes a broad claim that makes me want to examine

Teaching Ideas and Implementations:

·         The book gives 15 detailed lessons

o   Lessons can be adapted for different texts

·         Most lessons push multiple forms of media and visuals as literature: images, movies, tv shows, and songs

·         Details ways of annotating texts and how to teach students how to annotate a text

Challenges:

·         Some writes provide a lot of detail and structure on their lessons

o   Can make lessons seem rigid and inflexible

o   Can make lessons overwhelming

·         Some lessons are vague and made to be modified for different situations

o   Can make lessons overwhelming

o   The teacher has to do more work to prepare the lesson

o   Teacher is left not knowing what to do

·         The lessons are individualized as they are designed by the specific teachers for their grade-level and teaching style

Cool Information:

Many lessons are made to be changed and adapted to most any teacher, grade-level, and student need.

·         What changes do the authors mention?

·         What changes can you think of?

Example Lesson to Think About

Thinking Icons for Literary Analysis

Analyze and annotate a familiar story such as a fairytale, the author uses “Goldilocks”, before moving on to a more complex text.

You do not need to use the authors texts. What other texts would work? Could you use another medium than a piece of literature?

What about the Thinking Icon themselves? How could they be modified to better support a lesson?