By Jennifer Unger Confucius stated, "Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." Who am I to argue with this great philosopher? As a teacher of English, I have always used music when I teach poetry. I always start the unit by asking, "Who likes poetry?" There are always a few hands in the air (mostly girls who compose their own love poetry to their current crush). I then ask, "Who likes music?" Amazingly, almost all hands are voraciously waving and wanting to share their favorite artists and titles. Then I hit them with the realization that music is indeed poetry, so those who love music, love poetry. I go over the poetry devices and show them a slide show of examples in songs. As a first assignment, I ask them to bring in the lyrics to one of their favorite songs (school appropriate, of course). In pairs they are given a list of poetry terms and definitions. They are then to annotate the song identifying at least five devices in their pieces. We continue to use music as we work through the poetry unit. They will look at a narrative poem and a narrative song (such as Hazard by Richard Marx- I try to use songs from my heyday) in order to find voice and other commonalities. They also find a poem and a song that share the same theme (e.g. Finding strength from within) and create a digital project explaining how both works support the theme using text evidence and images. Poetry lessons are perfect connections with music, but after spending most of my hall duty saying, "Take your headphones off, please," I recognized that students spend so much time listening to music, and I hate to quash the things they are passionate about, so I have been using it more and more in my other units. Some of the examples in which I have used music are:
These are just some of the ways I have taken their love of one form of art and connected it to another form. I have had such luck and love with these assignments. Students take great care in their work and the other students enjoy listening. It doesn't seem all that amazing that these lessons work. People from the beginning of time have turned to music as a way to celebrate, teach, relax, and praise. "Where words fail, music speaks."- Hans Christian Anderson. WVCTE is wondering... Is music part of your class? What creative ways do you connect students' love of music with literature? Would these activities work with your classes? Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Jennifer C. Unger teaches English 10 inclusion, English 10 Honors, Speech and Broadcast Journalism at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, WV. This is her 17th year of teaching. She values being able to teach her students new ideas and introduce works of literature for them to dissect. Her favorite part of the job, though, is learning new things from her students. Her favorite parts of life are her daughters, Kylie and Katie. She is treasurer of the newly formed WVCTE.
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“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of the Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of august is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.” It’s the beginning August which means that teachers everywhere have gotten up and looked at their calendars with some weird combination of dread, joy, foreboding, excitement, reluctance, and determination. As Babbitt so eloquently put it, the first week of August is both an end and a beginning. And I love and hate that feeling. The bittersweet last days of summer. The delicious anticipation of a new school year and new beginnings. But letting go of summer is hard, and I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that part of me feels this way this time of year: I’ll admit, I LOVE summer. I spend most summer days catching up on reading that I couldn’t find time for during the school year, growing tomatoes, and playing barefoot in my backyard with my kids. I love that feeling of “oh-my-gosh-I actually-got-enough-sleep.” I love drinking coffee while it’s still hot. I love being able to sit down and have head space to do my own writing. Everything slows down to be savored. And when I'm sitting in the shade of my back porch with a great book in my hand, or hiking up a hill where the trees look like this: I can't help but to sometimes think things like, "Man, what would a whole life of summer be like?" Which is why the first week of August for me is just as Babbit describes. I often feel frozen between two times and two versions of myself. I'm at the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Because I also really LOVE going back to school. When I walk through that school supply aisle at the end of July/beginning of August, I get the same butterflies of excitement and expectation that I got as a kid. I think about all that promise--all those kids who see this new school year as a fresh start, as a chance to be the best versions of themselves—and I can’t wait to meet them. And summer for me isn't all hammocks and lemonade. I spend more than a few summer days planning, training, and preparing to greet those kids with the best I have to offer. I attend conferences and professional developments. I meet with colleagues, share best practices, and think about what worked and what didn’t, rewriting units and plans to meet my students’ 21st Century needs. So I spend my first week of August feeling a bit conflicted--.like one of those old Looney Toons characters with an angel and devil on each shoulder, one whispering "suuuummmmmmerrrrrrrrrrrrr" while the other whispering "schhhhooooooooooooooollll." I teeter at the top of Babbit's Ferris wheel trying to decide to when to move forward. So how do I get ready to meet the year? How do I make sure that when the yellow school buses pull up, I'm less like Billy Madison and more like this: In this Monday’s “Back to School Blog” post, I’m going to share a few ways I prepare and motivate myself to charge back into my classroom like Jordan in the 1995 Chicago Bulls warm-up. 1. Get Inspired! Watch this TED Talk by Educational Superstar, Rita Pierson: Pierson was an educational dynamo who passed away in 2013. In this, one of her last major public appearances, Pierson talks about the key to success for all students. Now, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, but get ready to laugh, cry, and be inspired. It’s just under 8 minutes long, and Pearson reminds us of the incredible impact a real teacher/student connection can be. If you have seen it, watch it again. It’s worth it. I watch it at least once a year, and it’s a wonderful reminder of how important teachers are. 2. Pump up the Morning Those early mornings can be tough after a summer of restful, normal, human sleep. And I’ll be honest here…before 7:00 AM I am not the best version of myself. My senior year of college, a veteran teacher named Cathy Chitester came in to talk to my education class, and she gave this advice: “Mornings are hard. Some mornings, you won’t want to go at all. Make a mix-tape of songs you love. Songs that make you want to dance and sing. Songs that make you happy, and use that time in the car to get in a mood that will make you want to see your students.” Now, these days we call them “play-lists” not “mix-tapes,” but the advice is still sound. A great jam on the radio in the morning can turn the whole morning around for me. Below in no particular order is my ultimate drive to school playlist: Titanium, Sia Starships, Nikki Minaj Seven Nation Army, White Stripes Applause, Lady Gaga Three Little Birds, Bob Marley Work, Rihanna Nothing But a “G” Thang, Snoop Dogg featuring Dr. Dre I will Survive, Gloria Gaynor Ho Hey, Lumineers Changes, Tupac Freedom, Beyonce Respect, Aretha Franklin Don’t Stop Believing, Journey 3. Make it Look Good We all know that the amount of time given to work in our rooms before the students come is woefully limited. Often our teacher work days before students’ first day are consumed with meetings, training, and in-services. And to top it off, most of us have had to pack our rooms up before summer, and now we need to reassemble our classrooms into the magical learning centers we know and love. Trying to make our classrooms look like our Pinterest boards in the 20 minutes between meetings leaves most of frazzled, stressed, and overwhelmed. But here’s the thing: your room is important. It’s where you’re going to be spending most of your time for the next 10 months, it’s going to be the first thing your students see, and it will be the first impression your students have of you. If you are trying to teach in an unorganized, messy, sterile space, whether you realize it or not, it will affect your mood and your teaching which will directly impact your students. You’ll be less stressed and more prepared to deal with new beginning of the year policies, procedures, and information if you’re not worried about when you’re going to get time to tape your favorite motivational posters to the wall. So here’s what I do: I go into school and set up my room before I’m supposed to be “back,” usually a day or two before teachers' first day. Now, some of my colleagues will view this as working for nothing or “giving up” my free time, and maybe they’re right. But for me, the juice is worth the squeeze. When my first official day to return to school arrives, I feel “ready” knowing I’m going to walk into a finished room. 4. Set a Goal for Yourself and Keep Learning Every school year, I try to do something new in my teaching and for myself. This will make you a better teacher. By trying new things in your curriculum you're keeping your content fresh and your classroom current. By learning new things you are reminded of the feeling our students have in our rooms everyday. Last year I taught a unit on sentence patterns. I had never done this before, but I felt that it would give my AP Lang students stronger analysis skills. I had to work hard to familiarize myself with the content and the lessons since it was all relatively new to me and as a result, it was one of the best units of the year. The students got so much out of it, and I got to step out of my comfort zone which made me more aware of every aspect of the lessons. I also signed up to play the violin in a "Teacher Orchestra." I also have ZERO experience with playing a string instrument. I had to learn everything: how to hold it, how to read music, how to not sound like a dying cat. It was hard and wonderful. And it gave me a powerful lesson on perspective. I looked at my struggling English students differently knowing how powerless I felt with my new violin in my hand. These experiences made me a better teacher and person. 5. Remember Why They Need You Over the years, I’ve kept all the notes, thank cards, drawings, and funny little gifts my students have given me. When back-to-school blues hit, I sometimes pull out some of the more special ones and give them another read. And when I read those notes and cards, I remember why this job is so important. This year, there’s going to be a kid that is waiting for YOU. There’s a kid out there that wants to be inspired, that wants you to connect with her. There’s a kid out there waiting for you to share that one special book with him. There’s a kid out there, maybe this year that will write that one special paper for only you. There’s a kid out there that will read the comment you write on his journal and cry because nobody has ever praised his work. There’s a girl out there who has never seen herself in literature until you assign that novel. Remember why they need you. YOU are a change maker. As we return to our classrooms this week and next, I wish you all a happy, productive, and inspired school year! (And in case you need one more bit of inspiration for getting back into your classroom, here is the 1995 Chicago Bulls warm-up. You are the Micheal Jordan of your classroom. Go change some lives!) Happy school year everybody! WVCTE is wondering… What strategies do you use to prepare to head back to school and leave summer behind? How do you beat back-to-school blues? What do you use as inspiration to return to your classroom for a new year? Leave us a comment, find us on Facebook, or tweet us @WVCTE.
Jessica Salfia teaches AP English, English 11, Mythology, and Creative Writing at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, WV. Jessica has been teaching in Berkeley County, WV for 12 years, and also serves as an adjunct professor at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. Before she became a teacher, she was mediocre white-water rafting guide on the Cheat River, and feels that these exploits best prepared her for the adventure of being a classroom teacher. Her most recent venture has been to work with her best pal, Karla Hilliard, to rebuild the West Virginia affiliate of NCTE, WVCTE. Jessica is an accomplished writer of both fiction and poetry, and has been a finalist in the WV Fiction Competition in 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013. Her work has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers Volumes III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. When she’s not writing or teaching, you can find Jessica in her garden or chasing her three lovely children or sitting at a ball field watching her husband coach the Spring Mills Cardinals baseball team. You can check out what Jessica is doing in her classroom by visiting www.salfiaenglishclass.weebly.com, or by following her on Twitter, @jessica_salfia. By Tina M. Rantanen At the end of each unit I like to explore what the students learned by letting them to use their artistic sides. This gives them another way to express what they have learned in addition to the discussing and writing we have done throughout the unit. I realize that some students are like myself and can’t draw very well, so I try to give them alternative ways to be creative and expressive. Over the years I have used two of the following examples. Figurative Language Illustration I love teaching Night every year with my freshmen. The book is poignant and short. Most of the students find it interesting and very different from Anne Frank that many were exposed to during eighth grade. When we have finished reading, we go back through the book and find examples of figures of speech. We specifically look for hyperbole, irony, metaphors, metonymy, paradox, personification, and similes. Then I ask them to pick one to illustrate on a large sheet of paper or poster board. I tell them the more creative they are the better! Over the years I have received some amazing projects. If possible, I take pictures of the projects and then post them to the school’s website. Students are then able to share their projects with family and friends. I have used this with other books like The Things They Carried. The projects turned out just as creative and interesting. Not Your Typical Character Sketch Of Mice and Men is another favorite of mine and the students usually enjoy it as well. After we have finished reading, I put them into random groups. I like groups of four the best, but 3 or 5 work also. I have each group pick a card that has the name of one of the characters on it. I use 8 characters, but I take out some of them for smaller classes. Each student receives a piece of copy paper where they have to draw what they think their character looks like. Next, as a group they pick who draws the best features to put on the final copy. They also choose a quote that they think embodies their character the best. Then, they are given a large sheet of paper. Each person in the group must draw some aspect of the character. They have to color it, and include the quote. Finally, as a group they share their project with the class explaining what each person contributed, and why they chose the quote. These are displayed in the classroom for all to enjoy. Whose Phone Is This? I have tried several final projects with Romeo and Juliet. My current favorite is one that I tried for the first time last year. A colleague shared it with me. It is called “Whose Phone Is This?” Each student is given a sheet with the opening screen of a cell phone on it. They are asked to sketch the wallpaper of the character that they chose and color it. They have to explain why the image would appeal to their character. Next, they have to write two emails that the character would have received from other characters in the story. Finally, they have to write three song titles with artists’ names that would likely be on the character’s song list. They also have to explain why they choose those particular songs. (I admit that I only knew about half of the songs.) However, if the explanations were sufficient, I didn’t have to be familiar with the song. The reasons that the students used were the best part of the assignment. In most cases it really showed their upper level thinking skills. I will use this activity again, and it can be used with many different stories. So WVCTE is wondering…
What types of final projects do you use in your classroom? And how can you use and adapt this lesson for your own classroom? Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Tina M. Rantanen teaches English 9H, 12H and English 12 at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, WV. This is her twentieth year of teaching and she loves the difference between her freshmen and seniors each year. She is a member of the newly formed WVCTE and is the English Department Chair at Spring Mills High School. by Dr. Renee Peterson Teaching is a very difficult profession. I have heard some teachers warn their students away from teaching. “Don’t do it!” they say. When you are considering a major for college and a profession for your life, it can be discouraging for those in the profession to attempt to deflate the passion that you have for education. Why would current teachers discourage their own students from pursuing their profession? It’s a very difficult way to make a living. When I am approached by a student who has the desire to become a teacher, I give the expected “Are you really sure you want to do this?” speech, but then I couple it with a statement about passion: “You must have enough passion for kids, for learning, and for teaching that you can endure the CRAP.” By CRAP I mean, Criticism, Regulations, Accountability, and Problems (yes, sometimes the P stands for parents). Fellow veteran teachers, I just heard you chuckle…because you know exactly what I mean. There are many reasons that the school year still runs from August to May (or June with snow days), but I think the most important reason is to allow the teachers to find their passion again. I’ve seen many memes and videos on social media this summer describing the emotional roller coaster that is the school year; it can wear you out. Excellent teachers are expected to be passionate about their students and their role in the lives of those students every single day, but the CRAP can take its toll. Having a summer respite allows us the breathing space to find our creativity, our passion, and our desire to go back for another year. The summer, while allowing us that space for creativity, can be overwhelming. There are so many things that you want to accomplish: things you put off during the year because there was just no time, but what you need to do is rest. Rest allows our bodies, minds, and spirits to recharge. We need REST – Reignite an Educator’s Sustaining Passion – to return even better than before. Once you experience REST and your passion returns, so does the creativity. Attending workshops, participating in Webinars and on-line chats, reading books, and relaxing with other teachers just brainstorming ideas can allow those creative juices to get flowing again. The thoughts of fun lessons and educational experiences for your students come flooding back, and the passion that encouraged you to become a teacher in the first place returns like a tidal wave. You actually start to get excited about the new school year! Unfortunately for many, that grand excitement wanes during the preservice meeting, diminishes during the procedural necessities of September, and is squelched by external forces by October. How can we keep it going? How can we take the passion that we reclaimed in the summer into the doldrums of winter? We need FOCUS: Fix (y)Our Commitment Upon Something specific. As your ideas multiply in the summer, choose ONE thing to add or change or create this school year. Trying to adjust too many of your procedures or pedagogy will set you up for failure. You are preparing yourself to be disappointed in your lack of commitment to all of those many things you were going to do better this year, and then you give up. Don’t do that to yourself! Choose one, maybe two, new strategies to try or lessons to add to your already excellent collection and FOCUS. Maintain that new strategy by practicing it often. Prepare that lesson unit well, make notes during delivery, then take the time to reflect when it is completed. How can it be better next time? You know you will be bombarded with fires to put out and external requirements to complete, so do not purposely add to the stress you cannot control. Control the things you can and handle the rest. Fellow passionate educators, life-givers, future-preparers, I wish you a blessed school year full of promise with less CRAP and occasional periods of REST so that you may FOCUS on what’s important: the kids. May someone present you with a bouquet of beautifully sharpened #2 pencils for your first day back in the classroom. WVCTE is wondering... How do you maintain your passion throughout the school year? What do you do to recharge that passion in the summer? Dr. Renee Peterson is the theatre instructor, the International Thespian Society Troupe 8066 director, the Cardinal Players director, and the Drama Club advisor for Spring Mills HS in Martinsburg, WV. Renee spent 21 years as a teacher of English in public and private schools, for grades 7-12, with students of all levels in three states before changing her role to theatre director. She reared two wonderful children to adulthood while earning two master's degrees and a doctorate. Second only to teaching her own students, Renee finds joy in encouraging young teachers because "They are the future of our profession, and our students need them to be awesome teachers!" she says. Renee and her husband Tom enjoy their empty nest that is perched on 50 acres on the top of a ridge in Southern Berkeley County, West Virginia. To read her musings and missives, follow her blog at www.thelearningdoctor.me and her Twitter posts @renpetwv. To keep posted on the shows and activities of The Cardinal Players, follow them on Facebook or Twitter @smhsplayers. Our students live in a world saturated with images. The modern era of television, film, commercials, YouTube, Instagram, and infographics have made it necessary to make visual literacy and visual rhetoric and integral part of our ELA classrooms. And why not? The skills needed to analyze a political cartoon or artwork translate very well language analysis. An artist creates mood with color; a writer creates mood with adjectives. Is there a single figure in the frame? Is there a single idea being expressed in the text? Connecting these skill sets not only prepares our students to enter into a world that will inundate them with visual media, but also makes them stronger readers and writers. In my own classroom, I try to incorporate a visual component into every lesson, but my favorite visual literacy lesson combines poetry, argument, analysis, and two American treasures, Edward Hopper and Joyce Carol Oates. This lesson usually happens well into the school year, after we have laid a foundation for writing and making and supporting claims. I start by asking my students if art “can make an argument.” Student responses here will vary. A lot of students generally say “no”, but a few will say “yes”, and may reference political cartoons, or if they’re really hip, graffiti artists like Banksy. At this point I allow about 10-15 minutes of Socratic style discussion exploring ways that art can be “argument.” I try to lead my students into a conversation that connects author’s purpose to artist’s purpose. Then, I generally provide a few quick examples of photographers or artists who are making a clear claim about something. The iconic "Migrant Mother" photo below is a good example for this early discussion. Most students are familiar with both the photo and its context, and so it’s usually easy to make and then to identify the claims this photographer is making. After this discussion, I display this painting by American painter, Edward Hopper. I set a timer for 5 minutes, and the students are to write down as many observations and/or inferences about the painting as they can. When the timer dings, I then tell them that the name of the painting is Nighthawks and it was painted in 1942. I give them another minute or two here to add to or clarify any of their observations. Students are then put in groups of 3 or 4. They have 15 minutes to share their observations and/or inferences, and decide as a group what claim(s) the artist is making. I usually leave the painting up during this time. When time is up, each group must share what conclusions they came to about the painting’s claim(s), and support this with evidence from the “text” (the painting). This introduction to the lesson usually 1-2 class days. The next day, I pass out copies of the poem “Nighthawks, 1942” by Joyce Carol Oates. Below is the full text of the poem. This poem is rich with imagery and figurative language. We read it together, and after we analyze the language effects, I ask the students if Oates has accurately analyzed the painting. Because essentially that is what her poem is—an analysis of Hopper’s artwork. Now, at this point most of our students have been trained to think about analytical writing as only essays and articles. The idea that analysis of a text or artwork can appear in the form of a poem, that you can make a claim about a work in poem form, appeals to them, especially the creative writers. What comes next is the coolest part. I give them a handout of other Hopper paintings. (See the slideshow below.) I use Hopper, not only because of the pairing of Nighthawks with the Oates poem, but because many of Hopper’s paintings are these beautiful, captured moments of time in which Hopper is making a clear claim about humanity, relationships, or the America of the 1940s and 50s. Students then have an exercise in imitation. They have to pick one of the Hopper paintings in the handout, and write a poem that analyzes the painting in the same way Oates analyzes Nighthawks. Their poem of analysis must be of comparable length to Oates’ poem, and they must imitate Joyce Carol Oates’ style, form, and language effects. I generally give them 2-3 “imitation goals” as well. For example in her poem, Oates references the female figure’s “pouty lip-sticked mouth.” We would have identified and discussed the adjectivalization of the word “lip-stick,” and one of their tasks in their own poems would be to make a noun that is not normally an adjective, an adjective. This poetry writing part of the lesson can be done in a day or in several days. I then have students share their poems in a Poetry Coffee House session. We have hot cocoa and cookies, I play music from the 40s and 50s, and as each student shares his or her poem, I project the painting the poem is analyzing on the board behind the student as he or she shares. It is by far one of the students’ favorite lessons of the year. And it’s one of my favorites because I get to show my students the connections between so many important skills: visual literacy, making clear claims, analysis, poetry, and critical thinking. This lesson is also the “kick-off” to their first research essay in which students pick a piece of art housed at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. that they think is presenting an argument, and write their first formal research essay. In their research essays, students must present the argument they think the artist is making in the painting or photograph, then support this “claim about claim” with research and their own analysis. This also provides my students with an opportunity to spend the day in the National Gallery of Art. (And who doesn’t like a field trip, right?) So WVCTE is wondering… What types of visual literacy lessons do you use in your classroom? How do you connect visual literacy and visual rhetoric to writing? And how can you use and adapt this lesson for your own classroom? Jessica Salfia teaches AP English, English 11, Mythology, and Creative Writing at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, WV and also serves as an adjunct professor at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. Jessica is the President of WVCTE, an author, a poet, and was selected as the 2016 Berkeley County Teacher of the Year. When she's not teaching, writing, or rescuing shelter dogs, Jessica is probably with her three lovely children and husband at a baseball game. You can check out what Jessica is doing in her classroom by visiting www.salfiaenglishclass.weebly.com, or by following her on Twitter, @jessica_salfia. by Melissa Elliott Some of my students from the 2016 graduating class will never forgive my daughter. I was on maternity leave when they were in my AP English Language and Composition class and read The Great Gatsby. My long term sub had my lessons and I assured them that it would be the same. They have assured me it was not. So much of what we do as English teachers is share our passion and experience with a book. Years ago, during a discussion about the novel, a student stopped, looked at me and said, “You love him.” She was correct. I have loved Jay Gatsby since I was a junior in high school. I have also hated Daisy. So much so, that I was called into a professor’s office due to his concern over my hate of her and by association, Zelda. As an adult, I understand her more but I am an idealist and a hopeless romantic. Love should conquer all, but sometimes, as the modernist led us to==it doesn’t. I believe that great works of art are mirrors. For the most part, I would classify myself as a New Historian. However, when it comes to The Great Gatsby, for me it was always personal. I share some of my experiences with my students. I share how often I have read The Great Gatsby, starting at 16, 19, again at 27 and every year since. My love of this novel has raised it to mythic status. Parents have sent in Peanuts comic strips with Gatsby allusions, numerous pieces of artwork from students decorate my room, and this year my AP class dressed in 1920’s attire and all signed a copy of the book as my end of the year present. But the Blame Game is about what students think. As a culminating activity for the novel we play The Blame Game. This was adapted from a lesson/idea I found many years ago. Here's how it works: Before class, I set up the activity by hanging character sheets evenly spaced around the room. To create a character sheet, simply write the names of major characters from the novel at the top of blank sheets of paper. I also include a "Someone Else" as a character sheet--you would be surprised how many people want to blame the dog or Pammy. (Sidebar: A teacher asked why the TV was named George.) To begin, I give students these instructions:
Depending on our year and previous discussion, the number of questions will vary from 5-8. As a culminating activity, I am able to assess my students' learning without a test, even though I often explain it as a “review game.” The Questions Below is a sample of my actual question sheet to show its development. What could begin as a Bell Ringer question turns into a whole day's activity. (Please excuse my handwriting and any spelling errors. I verbally give these questions.) The first two are always in order.
This can throw some students for a loop. I use it, however, to bring up one of my favorite things: specificity in language. Responsibility has more of a legal definition to it and blame is more of our emotional response. In any level class, creating an awareness of language and how it is used to frame a question can be valuable discussion. The remaining questions follow:
Responses & Reflections
After students have answered on the character sheets, I ask the groups to share. This allows for students to see how other students rationalize their choices and engage in whole class discussion. It is recommended that they use their books and those that do are able to provide solid textual evidence as support. This activity usually lasts one full 45-minute class period but could easily be a two-day activity. This is also easily adapted for any grade level or literary work. This is usually one of my students’ favorite activities with the novel. They also enjoy some of the other subtle aspects of this activity. First of all, they are out of their seats and moving. The fluid groups are based on their opinion; they are not “stuck” all period in one group or with the same people. I enjoy seeing their perspectives on my favorite American novel. I have had classes hate Jay and feel he is a “creeper”, and romantic classes who see his adoration and devotion as admirable. I invite all of them to reread Gatsby when they are older and see if they have changed their minds. What text could you use this activity with? What questions would you ask students? Do you have an idea for extending the activity? Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Melissa Elliott currently teaches Shakespeare, AP English Language and Composition, English 12, and 12 Honors at Martinsburg High School. Melissa is originally from Staten Island, NY and taught middle school for two years before relocating to West Virginia. The 2016-2017 school year marks a decade with Martinsburg High School and her husband. She is member of the Executive Committee of WVCTE and an AP English Language Reader. by Dr. Louise McDonald I teach middle school, which means I teach some students who are ready for college and others whose reading got stuck in fourth or fifth grade and who need a good reason to move forward. “Tricks and tips” then, from middle school teachers, have to be taken with a grain of salt—they work some of the time with some of the students. Anticipating what will work without experimenting is an inexact science. Discussions of Common Core have often focused on non-fiction texts, but literary source material is also excellent for teaching many of the skills outlined in the core. Poetry for middle school I taught at a university for many years and used to have a great time teaching poetry, but when I reached middle school I hesitated to do more with poetry than basically treating it like any other complex text to decode. One of the easiest ways for the students to access poetry is through lyrics. They know lyrics, learn lyrics, and value them already. I really like Paul Gallipeau’s lesson as an introduction to rap as poetry. It can be found here: http://www.paulcarl.com/teaching-poetry-through-rap/ . He brings literary language to rap music as tools that can then be carried on to use with more canonical work. His lesson plan can be downloaded from the site above, but before you do, pause in the middle of Paul’s blog or watch below Alkala’s TED talk on rap and Shakespeare; which connects Shakespeare, which students often read as inaccessible, to hip hop, in convincing and joyful ways. Once you convince students to read poetry as well as listen to it, they are ready to take some poems in as friends. I cast about for methods for putting together a whole essay using the literary language, until I found this video from Isabella Wallace somewhere in Australia. The kids have a great time with Ms. Wallace’s accent and her wayward hairdo and they don’t seem to worry too much that her target audience is older than middle school. They are very intimidated by poetry and like a tangible technique. I have them bring in lyrics from their favorite songs to practice the method before we go on to literary canon. Performance is another great way to approach poetry in middle school. I have the students pick among poems that I select in a variety of levels and perform for the class. It is useful to learn some poetry yourself to perform, and there are great poetry slams on youtube. One of my favorite performances is by the Canadian poet Shane Koyczan. It inspired a number of students to perform this poem themselves! This is even more remarkable when you see the poem: it has more than 100 lines! Once the students have analyzed poetry and performed it, I ask them to write some. Of course, they are happier and more successful if they take another work as a model. Maya Angelou has a number of poems that make great models and I guide their writing by asking them to write poems about tangible things at first. The first poem I assign is about someone who is important to them, the second about something they like to do, and the third about the kind of person they want to be. Strangely, these were their favorite assignments of the whole year, when the time came to evaluate at the end. They liked finding out that they “had something to say.” One of the most important aspects of converting skeptical middle school students to poetry is to bring a lot of enthusiasm. They may laugh at your verve, but it gives them permission to feel the electricity of a good poem themselves. If you feel the need for some inspiration, try the Academy of American Poets selection: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/anthology/popular-poems-teach Reading poetry is different than reading prose and I find students are not confident, so it is an unlikely equalizer—which all by itself, is valuable in not only a middle school classroom, but any classroom! WVCTE is wondering... How do you approach poetry with your students? What poems work? What activities make poetry click? Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Louise received a BA in political Science and International Relation from Carleton College and her PhD in Enlish/Composition, Rhetoric and Literacy. She taught at various universities until 2009, when she started teaching ELA at a middle school in Jefferson County. She finds middle school to be the perfect laboratory for learning about literacy and teaches some stuff there too! Louise serves as Secretary and as a member of the Executive Committee of WVCTE. By Dr. Louise McDonald I teach middle school, and like all of us, confront classrooms with students who read (per the STAR test) as well as college students, and others that test at the third grade level. Circumventing the issue of test validity, many of us who teach at this level find that reading is a barrier to the types of lessons on literary analysis and source citation that the curriculum requires. When I started teaching middle school, I came from twenty years of teaching at the university level. I was surprised to hear students tell me that they had learned to read in third grade, didn’t need to do it now, and to stop treating them like babies. I was surprised when they insisted that they had read a passage, but couldn’t tell me what had happened. Were they not paying attention? Couldn’t they read at all? Were they uncooperative? Did they not understand the vocabulary? My internal conversation, I soon found, echoed a conversation that university professors of freshman students have every year. “The papers from 101 are abysmal!” they say to each other “What are they teaching in high school? How come they can’t [fill in the blank]?” Do students really become less prepared every year? Or look younger? Recent research has found that as we get farther away from learning those skills ourselves (dare I say, older?), we forget our own ignorance—we even forget how much last year’s class had to learn before they got as smart as they were when we released them at the end of the year. I don’t remember learning to read at all—certainly not the early levels. Reading was a joy and passion before I knew it. How can I understand what my struggling students feel? Let me explain. Did you take high school Spanish? Try reading this Noble Prize-winning poem by Pablo Neruda. Really read it. Don’t just look at it and stop when you find it is in Spanish and you “don’t read” Spanish: Juventud Un perfume como una ácida espada de ciruelas en un camino, los besos del azúcar en los dientes, las gotas vitales resbalando en los dedos, la dulce pulpa erótica, las eras, los pajares, los incitantes sitios secretos de las casas anchas, los colchones dormidos en el pasado, el agrio valle verde mirado desde arriba, desde el vidrio escondido: toda la adolescencia mojándose y ardiendo como una lámpara derribada en la lluvia. "Juventud" from Canto General, 1950 Published in Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda Edited and translated by Ben Belitt Copyright © Fundación Pablo Neruda, 2009 If, like me, you are not fluent in Spanish, you can make out some of the nouns. Certainly there are cognates and words that we have picked up in English, so “camino” and “perfume” and “erotica” stand out. “Juventude” looks a bit like “juvenile.” You can identify the sequence of clauses. But would you be able to “analyze”? When you read the above carefully, how does it make you feel? Powerful and confident? Like I am silly for asking something like this? Are you ready to go on to the next blog post because this one isn’t any fun? Try the translation: Youth Acid and sword blade: the fragrance of plum in the pathways: tooth's sweetmeat of kisses, power and spilth on the fingers, the yielding erotic of pulps, hayricks and threshing floors, clandestine recesses that tempt through the vastness of houses; bolsters asleep in the past, the bitter green valley, seen from above, from the glasses' concealment; and drenching and flaring by turns, adolescence like a lamp overturned in the rain. "Youth" from General Song, 1950 Published in Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda Edited and translated by Ben Belitt Copyright © Fundación Pablo Neruda, 2009 The literary analysis writer in me gets pretty charged about this poem—wow! Doesn’t it speak to the universal experience of middle school? Look at the great images and the repetition of ideas of discovery and secrecy! OK, so maybe the example is extreme. I don’t read Spanish easily, and Neruda is not “easy” Spanish. But my point is that reading when you do not understand is not fun and the temptation to quit is undeniable. What about English? What about this first paragraph of Hamilton’s Federalist Papers:
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison
Posting Date: December 12, 2011 [EBook #18] Release Date: August, 1991 Last Updated: July 10, 2004 Not fair! you say. This is a blog post to be read on a summer’s afternoon, not a puzzle to be untangled under a fluorescent glare in class. Reading slowly and carefully, paraphrasing in your head as the sentences get longer and longer and the clauses mount – the inward toss of the head as to the futility of soldiering on… this is what some of our students feel when you give them Rick Riordan or J.K. Rowling. It feels like work; like digging a ditch when the blisters start popping. So how to reach them, when they say they “don’t read” and everything you do suggests this to be true? Yeah, that’s the trick. Here are some thoughts: 1. Give them sounds rather than text. OK, you say, but idle hands make mischief. I have lots of luck asking them to illustrate a scene from a book as it is read—either by them or by me—or by Jim Dale. Even if they just “doodle” their concentration improves. 2. Give them choices. Have students read one of, say, four books that are available. Have the students schedule their group’s reading over a certain number of weeks. I find students are less anxious when the bulk of graded work is independent, but make the groups responsible for some kind of responses/presentations together. Reading with friends and not just assigned groups has some difficulties for the teacher, but friendship compensates for the work and gives them something to discuss. 3. Read together. Make time for independent silent reading. And then talk about what you are each reading. Model it by reading a great YA book yourself. I like making a big circle and talking about books and characters periodically. Get excited! 4. Write stories. Yes, I know, standards in the eighth grade do not include writing stories, but students are so out of touch with the creative process that digging into a character they have invented themselves can really inspire them. If you hit a wall with this, sometimes writing fan fiction is a good way to differentiate. It is a great way to teach elements of narrative and work on transitions and sequencing. What makes you want to read a passage like the one from the Federalist Papers above? Well, being interested in history is a help, but if you aren’t? Make a game. For example, have three students paraphrase a difficult passage with “two truths and a lie.” Then have the students individually or in groups choose which one is the lie. The possibilities are endless and teachers do them all the time. Sometimes they “take,” and sometimes not. Often, we are swimming upstream in a torrent of negative internal discourse. I think the “take home” here is that reading can be difficult and therefore vaguely distasteful—sometimes not so “vaguely.” One of the most important gifts we can give our reluctant readers is the experience and then the memory of finding something joyful in reading. WVCTE is wondering...How do you engage reluctant readers? What texts and strategies are reliably effective? Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Sources Kelly Gallagher and Cris Tovani. Louise received a BA in political Science and International Relation from Carleton College and her PhD in Enlish/Composition, Rhetoric and Literacy. She taught at various universities until 2009, when she started teaching ELA at a middle school in Jefferson County. She finds middle school to be the perfect laboratory for learning about literacy and teaches some stuff there too! Louise serves as Secretary and as a member of the Executive Committee of WVCTE. By Jeni Gearhart I like color (and coloring books but that is beside the point). My classroom is covered in color from student projects. On occasion, my teaching wardrobe is too colorful. I say all of this because in the last few years, I have discovered the importance of visual argument in the classroom. Much of this new love of visual has come from AP workshops and creative teacher friends that I follow on Twitter. So, why is this important? If we use visuals well, it can become more than making a project “pretty”. It should be a part of the argument itself. In an increasingly visual society, students should be learning how to use the medium well (and understand how others are using it to influence them). Here are two things that I used this year that worked well. The first is low tech (hello art supplies!). The second is high tech but can be managed with art supplies if computers are inaccessible. Literary Fever Chart I originally read about this strategy in Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher (side note: if you haven’t read this book, find it now. His books are gold mines of great ideas). Essentially, a fever chart is a quote analysis that morphs into an analysis of a large theme in a text. It takes its original concept from medical fever charts documenting an individual’s changes in body temperature. For our purposes, it charts a character’s development. I used this in both my AP Language class and my sophomore class this year. In both cases, the students really got into it. This strategy works best to analyze the development of a theme over the course of a story, specifically in relation to an individual character. In my lesson from The Scarlet Letter, students chose one of the main characters (Hester, Dimmesdale, or Chillingworth) and charted the character’s move toward (or attitude towards) redemption (good) and damnation (evil). Here are the basic instructions:
We did this over the course of a few days at the end of the novel, but I think it would be even better to introduce at the beginning of the novel and carry through. Variations could involve tracking the use of a particular symbol or even a particular kind of word. I’ve also had students chart multiple characters on the same chart. Why I like this:
Infographics Most simply, an infographic is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data. They use text combined with symbols and intentional color/sizing. This has become a pretty prevalent visual medium. Here is an example if you’re not sure what I’m talking about. I first started thinking about ways to use infographics after reading this article a couple of years ago. I experimented with some low tech options and then discovered some great websites that make this project stand out. I wanted the infographics to be more than a poster project. They had to create a visual argument. As such, I have a few very basic requirements when we create infographics:
Read more about my students' infographics after the jump... Summertime and the Learning's Easy: Strategies & Resources to Take Back to Your Classrooms6/23/2016
by Karla Hilliard
Oh sweet summertime. That beloved teacher time-of-year to hit the brakes and relax, to put your toes in the water and your mind on neutral, to sleep in until noon and binge on Netflix until whenever, and of course, to fulfill the English teacher dream of savoring the stockpile of books you’ve been waiting to relish in the sunshine. But we all know that a teacher’s summer is much more than boat drinks and binge watching. Most educators I know are thinking ahead to next year. They are seeking out new professional texts, tweaking their syllabi, attending or presenting at workshops and conferences, collaborating with colleagues, and engaging in online PD. They dedicate plenty of their summer breaks to developing their craft and discovering new ways to engage their students and to become better, stronger, more effective teachers. In the spirit of the crazy-awesome-amazing-inspiring dedication of teachers everywhere, here are some of my favorite activities and resources you can take back to your classrooms next fall
For Close-Reading & Analysis
Do yourself a favor and take 15 minutes and watch 2010 National Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling work her magic in an English 12 class. Her Observe, Find Patterns, Draw Conclusions approach is applicable to any genre of text and any level of student. The kind of thinking this strategy requires is solid, and it nudges students towards identifying the complexity of a work. The best part? The students do the heavy lifting – they develop an intimacy with the text, probe for ideas, and construct meanings. Meanwhile, you use your expertise to coach and guide. Trust me: it’s good. For Mentor Texts & Literary Analysis As an AP Literature teacher, I’m constantly searching for ways to elevate students’ writing, specifically analysis. Literary analysis is a sticky wicket of an essay. It’s so easy for students to slip into that “sounding smart” voice or and crank out five neat and orderly paragraphs and call it a day. Teacher and author Rebekah O’Dell of Writing With Mentors pitches a genius idea utilizing current, engaging mentor texts (think The New Yorker and The Atlantic) modeling analysis. It makes so much sense! See what she has to say HERE. You’ll be glad you did. For Novelty & Creativity I came across a lovely article on Twitter that said when you’re a teacher you learn that, “An idea you had five minutes before class will be such a hit that your kids learn like crazy and talk about it for months afterward.” This happened to me, and I wrote it about it HERE. The long and short of it is this: poetry + a table of craft supplies + theme analysis + a time limit. I called it the Quickfire Challenge a la Top Chef, and it’s been serving up some mean analysis ever since. For Formative Assessment I confess: I’m a sucker for a listicle. But this ain’t no mindless Buzzfeed click-bait. Click HERE to check out the plentiful ideas provided by Todd Finley on Edutopia. (Todd, by the way, has an excellent newsletter called Todd’s Brain. Click here to check it out.) In this article, you’ll find a brief discussion of formative and summative assessments and 53 (fifty-three!) quick and easy ways to assess your students’ understanding. And if you’re feeling wicked, you can have a student choose an activity from the list to assign to the class. Bwahaha! For Shakespeare Brian Sztabnik of Talks With Teachers is a genius. HERE is his Shakespearean Musical Chairs -- a fun, engaging, and adaptable activity that makes for meaningful instruction. Try it out, and make sure to create your own Shakespearean play playlist. I’ll spare you the embarrassing details of my Othello mix, but to give you an idea, it featured Sean “Puffy” Combs AND the theme song from Wizards of Waverly Place. WVCTE is wondering... What are YOUR go-to resources? What activities have you had success with? WVCTE would love to learn from you! Leave us a comment, Tweet us your thoughts @WVCTE, or connect with us on Facebook! Karla Hilliard teaches STEM Academy English and AP Literature and Composition at Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg, WV. She has been a classroom teacher for 11 years. When she isn't teaching, you can find Karla hanging with family, cooking up a good meal, reading up on educational trends, crocheting soft things, or eating spoonfuls of peanut butter. Karla serves as Executive Vice President and Head of of Secondary Affairs for WVCTE. See what's happening in her classroom at www.hilliardsclass.com or connect with her on Twitter @karlahilliard. |
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