Preface
In a time when "inclusion" is on the tip of education's tongue and "differentiated instruction" is the topic of professional development, teachers need new tools for helping students. In a time when students and parents cannot read, yet everyone is held to the same standard of education, we now need strategies and solutions for the future of the public school classroom. We are creeping into a new era of public education when students of all abilities and learning styles are working together on the same subject matter and in the same classroom framework. We are now living in a "standards" world where teachers and students are held accountable by high-stakes test scores and categorized according to these assessments, not before they learn, but thereafter. Teachers are challenged by a classroom of learners with a broad range of abilities. With this in mind, it is time to differentiate our approach and supplement lessons with innovation.
This unit is not a novel approach to Literary Elements, but takes into consideration the range of student abilities as they enter a new year's work in their English class. There are no assumptions as to what students know or have learned prior to entering the classroom. In fact, the idea behind this unit is to assume that no student is prepared for the grade-appropriate reading and writing they will be assigned. In starting at a lower level and then moving toward the actual standard curriculum, students will either take a deeper look at simple text (as in the case of the advanced student) or study at an uncomplicated level to work toward the higher-level curriculum standards (as in the case of the low-level student). In both scenarios, the learners will undergo somewhat of an equalization strategy prior to learning their age-appropriate material. Suitable steps will be taken to ensure that the more advanced students see the value of going back to basics, and don't condescend toward the material. Consequently, in this approach, there is an individual progression considering each learner's needs, and instruction is differentiated for every special requirement per student and their level of achievement. Also, as in Wiggin's Understanding By Design, this unit unveils and explains the end product expectation prior to beginning the lesson. Thus students are not held to some invisible standard and teachers are not leading their sheep into oblivion.
The goal is to set unambiguous objectives, which are clearly explained, drive varied student abilities onto the same plane, and push students farther than the normal expectation. This can happen because the instructor has made no assumption that they are all at the same level while using standard texts to teach the given curriculum. This unit does teach the curriculum and can certainly be adapted for every grade-level, but moves through a progression of understanding and level of ability prior to getting to the grade-appropriate text. Nonetheless, reading is the primary concern, as well it might be: frequently reading abilities have translated into improved math test scores because of the complex nature of the math questions. My belief is that once students can read at their grade-level, whatever level that may be, they will have a higher success rate in math, science, social studies, and any other pertinent content areas.
All of this is done by using literature from infancy to age-appropriate and passing through different levels of reading expectation on the way. As students gain skills in reading at their level or below, they will transfer those skills to what has been deemed suitable for their grade and year. The particular skill to develop, which is important for readers and writers, is an acute understanding of the Elements of Literature. In this approach, students will grasp the content of a story for comprehension and use prior knowledge of each element to read at every new level and write a story incorporating the elements.
The Student
This unit is targeted at students in middle or high school; but this is not to say that the unit cannot work at any other grade-level. Because somewhere along the educational path, students are not learning at the same rate, by high school each student is on a different reading level. My students are vocational students and with this come several quandaries and tribulations. Vocational students are not tracked into ability level classrooms, as would happen in most comprehensive high schools, which have not adapted the "inclusion" theories. Thus, a diverse learner population is in the same room. Another difficulty is that vocational schools, as in this case, gather their student enrollment from surrounding districts; hence have a populace of students who have learned from many different teaching methods (as districts often have different initiatives and programs). The final supposition concerning the vocational student is that they have moved toward their chosen vocation because of a lack of interest in standard school subjects. This, of course, is not always the case, but may be true for a large number of students. In addition, one must keep in mind that if a student has chosen to go to a vocational school because of this assumed lack of interest in academics, it could be that they are suffering from a learning disorder or special need. These circumstances are often pre-scanned and uncovered, but may not be identified in every student. And so, in the case of the vocational student, we can sometimes assume a learner who is uninterested in academics, with a learning obstacle of some sort, and who has come from and is mixed into a very diverse classroom in terms of prior knowledge and level of ability. I like to use some equalization strategy to gain a beginning point where the lowest level student is comfortable and an ending point at which the most advanced students are challenged. Therefore, this unit can be used in any classroom, but especially those with an inclusive environment and a breadth of students to teach.
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