Gallagher, K. (n.d.). Article of the Week. Retrieved December 2, 2015, from

http://www.kellygallagher.org/article-of-the-week/

Styslinger, M. (n.d.). Workshopping The Canon.

Workshopping The Crucible

For my unit and resource collection I have chosen to work with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. This workshop unit is designed for Honors English III classes, but can be modified to fit others. First and foremost, as I explain how I would choose to workshop The Crucible, it’s important to realize the motives behind my teachings and why I’m choosing a workshop structure. “In a workshop, students take responsibility for making sense of texts. Teachers support the processes of individual readers and are concerned with how readers make meaning from their experiences with text” (Systlinger 7). I believe meaning making of text to be crucial. A successful (workshop) classroom should be a learner-centric environment where direct instruction is only a supplemental tools to enable the students’ drive.

Like each day of class, let’s go ahead and knock out (how we’re going to teach) grammar. For the first 3-10 minutes of each class each day, students will work on a mentor sentence from which they will learn from a sentence from either their class texts or a popular, real-world example. On Monday students will analyze the author’s craft in order to determine what makes this week’s sentence unique. On the following days students will rearrange, add, and subtract from the sentence, focusing on the specific grammar tool or idea. This gives students a chance to play and work with language in context instead of just having to memorize and cold apply learned rules to their writing without having worked with them before; it builds confidence and scaffolds understanding of different language conventions (whether it be colon usage, point of view, etc.).

Before getting to the actual reading of any texts, I would conduct of discussion where the class would visually write and record anything they (think they) know about Salem, the Witch Trials, or the surrounding events or culture. As with everything, having this projected or displayed is important. This process can be slightly modified depending on classroom personalities, though I find a tame Question & Answer forum works well enough to determine the class’s background knowledge about the subject. Whatever modified KWL chart you choose to adapt can be saved and referenced later, either (virtually) by you, or the students. Every activity should build upon the previous one, so activating any background knowledge before introducing new material is important for receiving the most critical responses.

This would be a great time to break out The Ol’ Youtube and show some of the hundred of book reviews for the next portion of the workshop: Bookclubs! The titles I recommend having available are any of the following: Conversion, The Physick book of Deliverance Dane, The Loud Silence of Francine Greene, The Fever, The Heretic’s Daughter, Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, or Witches' Children. Showing video reviews before giving complete choice will help spur motivation for reading, which is important as these texts will be read outside of class. Seeing as how valuable it is that students have the best book club experience, it’s important to spend adequate time on the choice and start of the book club process (this more than likely resembles an entire class period).

So ideally, the students should choose their books and be assigned to their respective clubs within the span of a class period or two (as this will more than likely require explanations and video modeling of what a successful book club look like). As the teacher, you may have to make some executive choices regarding struggling readers or volatile personalities. The schedule for book clubs can be flexible, but I would shoot to have the students meet in-between Acts of The Crucible (this can be sped up or extended depending on the flow of the unit. SSR time is a non-negotiable time for CP classes and majority struggling reading classes in my opinion. If you implement this with a class other than Honors students, I would recommend time in-class to spend on their book club novels.

Starting anything is the hardest part. So I plan to make it as easy for the students and teacher as it can be--with picture books! Jane Yolden and Heidi Stemple’s The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History is an easy 32 page read that I would recommend for this. Other acceptable titles for this portion I recommend are Alice Ray and the Salem Witch Trials, and Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. The picture book portion can take 1-3 class periods depending on time and variables. The most important thing about the picture-book lessons should be the fact that they are read aloud, this is done to model proficient reading for you students (They may want to read along and assist you, but assure them they will have plenty of time for other reading). The read-aloud process can be done a variety a ways. I have personally done it to success with the aid of a document camera being projected on a SmartBoard. In addition to this, there will be a book pass preceding the videos, and students will get a chance to handle and peruse the choices.

While the verbal aspect of this lesson is crucial, allowing students to respond is just as important. In order to motivate participation and help students pay attention, a handout chart with Reader Response questions should be given to the students. This can be graded for completion. I would recommend having multiple places for response to the story as it progresses both in standard writing and perhaps with images. As you read the story aloud, make sure that you follow standard read-aloud procedure and stop at appropriate time for students to collect their thoughts and record them.

Now that one of the fun frontloading lessons is done, you can jump right into The Crucible. The majority of classroom time for this unit will be spent reading and performing reading.There are four acts to the play, and each act will look much differently within the class. For the first act, I think it’s important to perform a read-aloud, much like that of the picture book. This will be done by the teacher with enthusiasm. Depending on class time, this may take multiple days.

In order to keep students from complete boredom, and to help with holding their attention, roughly every other day should include a small portion of class time for students to work on their Article of the Week. Article of the Week is an idea from Kelly Gallagher that is assigned every Monday and collected every Friday; it is ideally the only homework I would like to assign. Article of the Week recognizes that “part of the reason his students struggle with reading is because they lack prior knowledge and background. They can decode the words, but the words remain meaningless without a foundation of knowledge” (Gallagher). This assignment allows students to learn about current events in the world outside of the content area and allows students to get weekly practice writing something more than one paragraph in length. For students to learn writing, they must write. This is the major way that informational texts will be introduced and integrated. Additionally, the informational articles and essays on the related resource list is a great way to make this assignment even more relevant.

For the second act of The Crucible, readers in the class will be assigned roles for the different characters in the play and we will read it aloud as a class. Students will have their texts in advance and be recommended to look over their parts. This is not expected to go spectacularly, or be a broadway status reading, but it will scaffold some reading aloud in front of classmates and help progress through the plot.

As students continue through The Crucible, I’m a fan of short, formative, reading assessments like reading quizzes, but unlike traditional reading quizzes. Quizzes like, “Tell me 5 Important things from the reading” are the types of assessment that help and highlight reading for meaning. Regardless of your assessment-giving philosophies, you should be consistent. The Article of the Week and Mentor Sentence add to this stability. Having a predictable schedule in your unit and classroom are important community aspects, and will make student’s products stronger.

I can’t tell you exactly where to fit certain mini-lessons, perhaps as the connected issues arise from the story, or maybe you would prefer to use all of them as frontloading tools, but they need to go somewhere. Explaining and working through different ideas of  “what is a text” and alternative mediums are very beneficial to student’s ability to understand the meaning and necessary information of the core text. Additionally, to be able to apply and identify these themes outside of the classroom. Some songs that I recommend are We Didn’t Start the Fire, The Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues. Poetry is just as important as the canonical text or the songs. Poetry mini lessons should be dispersed throughout the unit as well. Perhaps this means simply reading a poem to them in between assignments with a quick discussion. This can also mean taking a day to assign and analyze “Half-Hanged Mary”. The resource list mentions a few poems

Now that it’s been at least a week or so, you’ve been building grammar skills using sentences from The Crucible occasionally, interweaving informational texts with the Article of the week, and performing proficient reading while giving students a platform to practice and build their reading confidence, it’s time to fast forward. Act 3 will be done in official Reader’s Theatre style. The students can have 4 minutes to choose their own groups so long as no single person in the class in unaccounted for. Each group will be assigned a certain number of pages and will have the rest of the class to practice and determine who is who. A list of rules regarding what Reader’s Theatre is and is not should be discussed. It should be noted that the group performances should be vocal performances and that what was done for Act 2 is in no way Reader’s Theatre, nor (more than likely) acceptable enough enthusiasm or delivery effort.

For the final Act, I like to have the same groups (given nothing went awry) be assigned to create short videos (at least 2 minutes) of a set of scenes from Act 4--the twist is that they have to put a creative modern spin on it. The dialogue doesn’t have to match the source text, but it must be able to be understood by the teacher and classmates. They are given in-class time to read Act 4; they may choose how they split up the reading within their group in order to have understanding. The 4th Act assignment will require each group to storyboard their shots and assign (more than likely multiple) roles to each group member with an explanation for why.

Before the traditional summative test you may choose to have, the option to watch the film Easy A is recommended. A film guide would make the most sense, but you could add an option to write about the the very original movie vs. the play argument if you were to give a multi-genre option instead of a test.

Probst, R. (2004). Response & analysis: Teaching literature in secondary school (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. pg. 71-100Styslinger, M., & Pollock, 

Herz, S. & Gallo, D. (2005). From Hinton to Hamlet: building bridges between young adult literature and the classics, Building bridges: getting students from 

wherever they are to where the curriculum says they should be. (pp. 27-92). CT: Greenwood Press.

Herz, S. & Gallo, D. (2005). What else? Other approaches (pp. 93-130). CT: Greenwood Press.

Richison, J. Hernandez, A., & Carter, M. (2006). Theme sets for secondary students: How to scaffold core literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Organizing Units With Literature

Say: 
     "You need not stop with a single pairing. Pairing on YA novel with one classic is just one way to accomplish...higher goals. A short story, a poem, a scene from a play, an article form a magazine or a newspaper, or a page from a Web site--or, better yet, several of these" (What Else 93). Some boys may prefer to read nonfiction when discussing themes around wartime. Some artistic-minded students may not have a unit click until seeing poetry of the time. A few visual learners may need a video accompaniment to be able to fully visualize the work because it's so far removed from their reality. A reader is a person who makes intertexual connections, who questions and talks about the text. One of the ways this can be achieved is by simply giving students more time to read, even if it's across genre and style. Students wont do this "if they are not provided with materials they can and want to read," it shouldn't come as a shocker (Richison 3). We've been hammering this home: students need time to read, and choice in how and what to read.
     A problem in classroom is that even strong readers, readers that can effectively guess the teacher's meaning, and make enough of their own to suffice, often doesn't get pleasure or want to read. Like we've mentioned and practiced this semester, text selection (in medium and title) is so important. "readers need to have books that understand them as they are and help them to consider and perhaps outgrow their current points of view. Then they will have the desire to deepen and expand their experience" (Richison 4). This can be done by organizing lessons and units around more than just one canonical text. This allows not just choice and engagement but vicarious experiences and human connections. Even better, units with pairing variety shines ever so brightly next to all the standards that they meet.
     "I see the reader not as submissive, bending to the authors wrill, but as creative, making meaning rather than finding it. Thus the text is not the only text that matters" (Probst 102). Yet another reminder about the strength and importance of Reader Response and what the students are internally bringing to the classroom. Culturally established norms of assuming there is only one important text and one important interpretation breeds complacency when the complete understanding is reached, and a detrimental, laborious drive to dismiss personal responses in order to find the correct vision. Understand the reader response will happen (in some fashion), and that it is valuable and important when planning units around literature. A teacher needs to attempt to consider possible text responses so that text-pairing choices are effective and applicable. These responses should connect to larger essential questions and inquiry standards.
     "We might first make the point that not all poetry is philosophical or ethical in it's intent, and we need  not to assume that the poem has a message." (121). This can be explained by showing emotional photographs, songs, or bad poetry that just really don't mean anything, and help the students come to that conclusion. When students are able to find satisfaction apart from attempting to find the intended author's purpose perhaps, "they may then return to poetry with pleasure and perhaps with sharper perceptions" (123). Students should allow themselves to be led, but not follow blindly; there needs to be a balance between passivity and activity. 
     I like that in From Hinton to Hamlet the author mentions not having to convince students to go to movie theatres--they already know that they are interesting. If teachers pair students up with the right text, then they will hopefully have that same responses that they've had to video entertainment--to novels and other texts as well. They shouldn't have an aversion to a book; students should know that texts can be enjoyable and exciting. That being said, sometimes print isn't the only (or first) medium to recommend. There are other forms of art that share themes and elicit similar responses. Herz and Gallo recommend starting certain units with YA novels and treating them with academic respect: analyzing them appropriately, so when the unit is switched over to something more contemporary, students won't stumble too much and can simply transfer the same skills and tools they've been working with across the different unit texts already. 
     If we accept the value of helping students through self-selected goals and group work, and students have demonstrated their ability to adequately hang in through the YA novel, "then those same students should be able to use the same skills to examine the classic in the same manner. Thus they will decide which are the most important issues to discuss and explore...Remember, out goal is to help students find pleasure in reading and to make them lifelong readers" (From Hinton 29). Using YA novels is a way to do just this--the most simple way seems to be by focusing on themes, and taking a note from Informational texts by using compare and contrast activities. We're teachers of literature, reading, and writing--but we're also teachers of process. If we give students to process by which to proper respond, analyze, and question one text, why shouldn't they be able to apply it everywhere?

Do:

Resource Collection

The Crucible

Hysteria and Intolerance:

Reputations of Morality

Core Text:  

Miller, A. (1953). The Crucible: A play in four acts. New York: Viking Press.

Young Adult Novels:

1. Abbott, M. (n.d.). The fever: A novel.

2. Aronson, M. (2003). Witch-hunt: Mysteries of the Salem witch trials. New York: Atheneum

Books for Young Readers.

3. Cushman, K. (2006). The loud silence of Francine Green. New York: Clarion Books.

4. Howe, K. (n.d.). Conversion.

5. Howe, K. (2009). The Physick book of Deliverance Dane: A novel. New York: Hyperion.

6. Kent, K. (2008). The Heretic's daughter: A novel. New York: Little, Brown and.

Song Lyrics:

1. Dylan, B. (1963). The Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob

Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall. Columbia.

6. Donovan. (1966). Season of the Witch. On Sunshine Superman. Epic.

4. Joel, B. (1989). We Didn’t Start The Fire. On Storm Front. Columbia.

5. Rush. (1981). Witch Hunt. On Moving Pictures. Atlantic

2. Springsteen, B. (2005). Devils and Dust. On Devils and Dust. Columbia.

3. Warren, D. (1995). I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth)[Recorded by Meat Loaf]. On Welcome to the Neighborhood. Virgin.

Informational Texts (Articles):

1. Blow, C.  (2011, January 14). The Tucson Witch Hunt. Retrieved November 9, 2015, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/opinion/15blow.html

2. King, N. (n.d.). What is communism? Retrieved November 9, 2015, from

http://thecasualtruth.com/story/what-communism

3. Lawson, D. (n.d.). The Salem Witch Trials, 1692. Retrieved November 27, 2015, from

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/salem.htm

4. Petitions relating to the trial of Rebecca Nurse for witchcraft. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9,

2015, from http://law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_TITX.HTM

5. Young, C. (2015, October 20). Campus Sexual Assault and a Modern "Crucible”.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/10/22/campus_sexual_assault_and_a_modern_crucible_128508.html

Informational Texts (Essays):

1. Barack Obama and the Psychology of the ‘Birther’ Myth. (2011, April 21). Retrieved

November 9, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/04/21/barack-obama-and-the-psychology-of-the-birther-myth

2. Blumenthal, R. (2009, June 15). When Suspicion of Teachers Ran Unchecked. Retrieved

November 9, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/nyregion/16teachers.html

3. Miller, A. (2000, June 17). Are You Now Or Were You Ever? Retrieved November 8, 2015, from http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/miller-mccarthyism.html

4. Miller, A. (1996). “Why I Wrote The Crucible: An Artist’s Answer to Politics” In The New

Yorker (p. 158). NY: New York City.

Movies:

1. Clooney, G. (Director). (2006). Good Night, and Good Luck [Motion picture]. Warner Home

Video.

2. Cowling, T. (Director). (2003). Salem witch trials [Motion picture]. Discovery

Communications ;.

3. Devine, Z. (Director). (2010). Easy A [Motion picture]. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

4. Picker, D. (Director). (1997). The Crucible [Motion picture]. FoxVideo.

5. S3 Ep29: "4 O'Clock" [Television series episode]. (1962, January 1). In The Twilight Zone.

Art:

1. "Examination of a Witch" Thompkins H. Matteson, 1853.

2. “The witch no. 1” Joseph E. Baker, 1892.

3. “Witch Hill” or “The Salem Martyr” Thomas Slatterwhite, 1869.

4. “Arresting a Witch” Howard Pyle, 1883

Poems:  

1. Atwood, M. “Half Hanged Mary.” Diane Carter’s Site. Emery County School District. Web.

2. McKay, C. “If We Must Die.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web.

3. Maurice Ogden- “The Hanging Tree.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web.

Short Stories:

1. Eldridge, T. (2010, November 28). The Crucible:Epilogue. Retrieved from

http://www.booksie.com/other/short_story/tk_eldridge/the-crucible:epilogue

2. Bailey, C. (n.d.). A Puritan School-Day. Retrieved from

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/5996/

3. Hawthorne, N., & Hawthorne, N. (1996). Young Goodman Brown. Charlottesville, Va.:

University of Virginia Library.

Picture Books:

1. Knudsen, S., & Palmer, R. (2011). Alice Ray and the Salem witch trials. Minneapolis, MN:

Millbrook Press.

2. Schanzer, R. (2011). Witches!: The absolutely true tale of disaster in Salem. Washington,

D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Play/Graphic Novel:  

1. Dunn, J. (2001). Salem Witch Trials: A Graphic Novel. ABDO Publishing Company.

Other:

1. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/teaching-the-crucible-with-the-new-york-times/

2. https://kckliteracycurriculum.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Crucible.pdf

3. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/generic.html

Tom Romano - Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers 

Camille Allen - The Multi-genre Research Paper: Voice, Passion, and Discovery in Grades 4-6

Mary Styslinger - "Multigenre-Multigendered Research Papers"
Sara Biltz = "Teaching Literature Through the Multigenre Paper: An Alternative to the Analytical Essay" 

Reading and Writing Multiple Genre: The Menu 

APPETIZER (Getting students away from their safety net of analysis: A Poem)

Sometimes the best lessons for students

are models of the product.

Show them one of the many beautiful blackboard examples

or get personal like

Susan Stires from the Romano Paper. 

Keeping some routine is important for community. 

But breaking routine is important too.

SALAD (Why Multi-genre?)

Testimonials: 

1. "'The primary reason that I use the multigenre format is selfish--the quality of writing that I get to read is often so much truer in it's feel'. - Sirpa Grierson, BYU" (Ramano 5).

2. "'I'm always thrilled with the results of the multigenre paper, because students get excited about hte assignment, try lots of new writing forms, read and respond to each other's work, revise their drafts, and turn in their best writing of the year. They often do more than required because they have so much to say' - Georgia Swing, The Marshal School" (5). 

3."'I look forward to reading multigenre papers. I hated to read traditional research papers because I had to sit in an uncomfortable chair and literally pinch myself at times to stay focused. Such papers, when well done, revealed the blending of many sources--except for the most important one--the student's voice. I began to resent spending my precious life reading this lackluster writing.' -Sue Amendt, Indiana Area High School" (6).

Entree (What to include in Multigenre projects/papers: An Ad) 

HELP WANTED:

Teacher to Assign a Multi-Genre Paper/Project

Would prefer graduate of USC's MT program. MT Candidate will do. Must have love for helping students become literate and involved with texts of all different kinds. Must be a lifelong learner. Must understand and articulate personal teaching pedagogy. Possible pieces of project may include but are not limited to: narrative essays, poems, journal entries, letters, lists, videos, brochures, websites, kinesthetic component, puzzle, photos, hand-drawn illustrations, news story, obituary, protest signs, posters, recipes, dialogue, comic-strip, timeline, etc.

Beverages (Accessing Different Voices and Giving students a choice) 

"The multigenre research paper allows students equal access to voices, and its flexible structure permits them to utilize those genres most comfortable and suitable for representing independent ideas" (Styslinger 55). 

Student Artifact of a classroom Emoji (genre) project: 

 Wilhelm, J., & Smith, M. (2012). Get it done!: Writing and analyzing informational texts to make things happen. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Reading and Writing Informational Texts

Say: 

"One of our most challenging moves as teachers is to try to get underneath the stuff we teacher, to understand it deeply, to know it's purpose, structure, and inner workings, so we can fully grasp why it's important and know how to teach it better." (10).

     I appreciate how the the Smith and Wilhelm text scaffold the readers into understanding the larger term, Informational Texts. First there are pages of examples explaining "what is informational writing?"(Wilhelm 2). These then move into pages of examples of "the informative text structures" (5). Smith and Wilhelm acknowledge other disciplines in the first chapter when they explain, "every discipline uses these thought patterns extensively, so if we are going to help students think like real readers, writers, historians, scientists, and mathematicians, we need to teacher these patterns and text structures in the context of our subject mater" (4). So often, people assume of teachers that they understand everything in their content area, and as crazy as it sounds, some teachers don't know everything--and other times they grow complacent with the knowledge that they do have. Get it Done! does in fact, get it done when it comes to hitting all the categories of text structures. These include but are limited to: lists, summaries, descriptions, definitions, comparison-contrast, and more. The point i'm making is that (in a meta sense,) Get it Done! is a great resource collection. As a new teacher, I could not have named all of the taxonomy listed, so it's important to understand the hierarchy, so that students understand what comes before each part of informative texts.  

"As teachers we've come to realize that there are conventional categories for texts that have lost their original power and meaning because we've lost the connection to why that category evolved in the first place and why and how it is used in the world. This phenomenon seems especially true with regard to informative/explanatory texts." (10).

     Narrative writing is my jam. I can analyze it. I can recreate it. I can describe how giddy the best of it makes me feel. I can show podcasts and movies, describing parallels to this, that, and the third. What about arguments? Claim, counterclaim, evidence, warrant? I'm a little shaky from time to time, but I can most definitely help you figure out whatever issue that you may have. We can bring in some theses and discuss with the class if they are strong or weak. Informational texts? I currently have to take these a category at a time. Some examples of the structures broken down starting in Chapter Two include: game instructions, process instructions (The PB&J activity), scientific classification, causation from a non-fictional narrative (these skills are very transferable--especially in argument), and more. When understanding what all makes up informational texts, very quickly I've realized that "the form becomes more important that the purpose of the text and i's creative and contextualized use, particularly in hybridized forms" (16). 

     The point here is that, if we want students to "compose, read, and think in these different types of paradigms--and therefore be able to do the kind of work these paradigms support in the disciplines and in life--we are going to have to teach students very explicitly how to engage in the specific tasks (or operations) required in the context of the particular knowledge structuring that results in that specific text type" (17). Understanding the complexities of informational texts is understanding and teaching a specific list--a specific way of thinking. 

     So how are to we bring this knowledge about informational texts to a practical light? Tools like reader-response are not the most appropriate here. Smith and Wilhelm propose starting in the know: proposing units around inquiry. This begins with a set of solid Essential Questions (46). Then it moves to composing and reading different text-types within the context of the unit. Recently, this looks like combining knowledge from Article of the Weeks, the Canon, YA supplements, and other media (pg 50-52 give some concrete ways to relate these to assessment).

     "The last forty-plus years of cognitive scienve research demonstrates that all deep learning occurs in a context which support--actually, co-produces--that learning and in which all understanding is deepened by being applied in real situations. " (52).

     Without a meaningful context, students can't activate proper schema--they disengage. Teachers shouldn't be thinking about "genre units" (53) anymore, but rather putting everything related to inquiry into the units and being able to read multiple text types in a week. If you set up routine that includes these, it's not too overwhelming. This doesn't mean you have to grade everything either (i'm still getting through the shock of this one). Context can also be present in the projects and work that comes from the canonical texts or pieces of writing. If students just can't connect with Odysseus, maybe when creating a modern video reenactment of a certain book, they will be able to translate it into their own context (then they can take it to the page, so to speak).

     Some says for reference sake:

-->Naming&Listing: Think about strategies used in classroom (thinkPairShare, ETC)--it's important. Think about scienvtific naming and how important things of that nature are. Naming and lists can define and create something. Have students add names to their work; have students do work in lists. Then talk about it (pg 73+ for resource lessons).

-->Summarizing: Students need to learn to get to the point, so that they can reflect on if they actually know what the point is.

-->Description: If students are unclear or vague with their descriptions, it's often times because they lack a clear sense of purpose and context (103). Incredible amounts of Lesson ideas in Chapter 8. The largest Unit titled: How Can We Make the Best Possible School? would be a great start of the year community building unit that could have some classroom rules-creation built in. This Say/Do assignment ;)

-->Definiton: This seems to fit perfectly within essential questions surroudning a larger unit. For example, I'm currently assisting with a unit on The Odyssey and one of our essential questions for inquiry is "What does it mean to be a hero? What makes a hero?" Both of those deal with defining the term "hero". Students can then use their own schema and responses to other informational texts to help define this! 

Do: 

    Summarizing is an essential skill for learning, but too often in school we simply ask students to "guess" what the teacher (or author) thinks is important.An essential part of a summary is that it needs to be expressed to an audience. In life, we purposefully craft summaries for a specific audience (directions for the out-of-towner, computer how-to for the technophobe). In school, the tacit audience for most summaries is the teacher. Imagine how a student feels when asked to summarize a textbook passage for the teacher. In effect they have been asked to summarize one expert's writing for delivery to another expert - the teacher.   "...and remember, be sure to use your own words!"If students are going to learn to summarize they need to be given a chance to genuinely share what they think is important for an audience other than the teacher. Here's a three step process I followed in a second grade classroom using a popular Currier and Ives print, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." (1868)   Link to larger image

Step 1: Start with the concrete "right there" observations. I projected a digital image on the screen and asked student to talk about the people, things and activities they could identify. They replied, a train, native Americans, a village, people digging, steam from the train, houses, trees, a lake, maybe a harbor, a road, dry grass, covered wagons, poles, mountains, a school house, people working, people waiting for the train, a train track, etc Step 2: Give students a chance to tell what they think is important.I managed this aspect by asking each student to draw a picture of what they saw in the projected image. The details they included were what they thought was important. Here's a few samples.

Here are some of their captions: (spelling corrected) 

     

·       Water would come from the mountain and fill the lake. You could get fish and drink water. Water is very important

·       People were moving west. They moved by wagon at first, then but train, which is faster.

·       Life was tough. People had to do everything for themselves.

·       It maybe was lonely because people missed their friends back home.

·       The people were building a town. They could get wood from the trees. It was a small town at first.

·       The Indian see the people coming. They knew things were changing. They got sick from the smoke.

·       The school was different from our school. People had different clothes than us.

·       The train split the old life from the new life

Step 3: Give students a chance to frame their summary into a narrative explanation for another audience. I digitally divided the image into multiple sections and photocopied them (in B &W) into packets of  image details. I gave groups of students the packets and asked them to work in teams to assemble the images into children's "a story book" with a caption under each image.  

While summarizing has been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for building content knowledge, that gain only applies when students are allowed to make their own judgements about what’s important and frame their summaries for an audience. When we ask them to "learn" the teacher's summary - they are reduced to memorizing "another fact."

When we ask our students to create authentic summaries (with audience and purpose) we give students a chance to reflect on their learning. Instead of simply testing them for factual knowledge, students can be asked: 

·       What did I think was important?

·       How did I share that with my audience? 


·       Did my summary match audience and purpose?

·       Is my summary accurate? 

·       Did I use my own words and style?

·       What did I learn from the activity?

  

Pappas, P. (2009, November 9). How to Teach Summarizing. Retrieved November 14, 2015.