Strategies
Think-Pair-Share- In my classroom the desks are paired together because it is extremely important for middle school students to work collaboratively. I have my students read, then I give them a few minutes to complete whatever activity accompanied their reading (journaling, cause/effect chart, fact/opinion chart, multiple-choice questions, short answers, etc.). After they finish their work independently they are required to exchange their answers with their partners. This provides students with the opportunity to share their answers with each other before we discuss them as a class. With all the activities I mentioned above (except the journaling), students can check to make sure they have the same answer. If one student has a different answer (especially to a multiple-choice question), they work together to figure out which one is correct by using evidence they find in the text to support their answer.
RAFT Writing- 36 RAFT writing helps students understand their role as a writer, the audience they must address, and provides various forms of writing to assess their knowledge of the content taught in class. The acronym is as follows: R - Role of the writer; A - Audience, to whom are your writing?; F - Format - what form will the writing take?; T - What is the subject of this piece?
I will create a 4-column worksheet (see Appendix I). In the R column I will list 6 names from the Narrative (Frederick Douglass, Aunt Hester, Captain Anthony, Harriet Bailey, Mr. Plummer, Lloyd's Ned - all names are from Chapter I). In the A column, I will list the different audiences for whom the piece may be written (a family member, slave master, overseer, fellow slave, mother to son, son to mother, themselves). The F column will contain the different forms of writing they can produce (complaint, confession, eulogy, journal, letter, pamphlet, photo essay, sermon, speech, wanted poster, poem, wedding vows, Bill of Sale, narrative, song - just to name a few). The fourth column will contain a list of topics students can select (sundering of slave baby and mother, whippings, slave "laws" such as not teaching a slave to read or write, depriving them of knowledge of their age, internal conflicts surrounding rape of slave women, effects of slavery on children, etc.). The great part of this activity is that the students will be able to select one choice from each column. They have to take into consideration what form will best suit the names listed in the first column. The students will then have to complete a writing assignment of their choice. By using this activity, I will be able to assess their understanding of the content as well as begin teaching them about voice.
Double-Journal Entry - For this activity, students will create a "T" chart in their notebooks. In the first column they will write "Quote" and in the second column "Journal Response." In the first column, I will write on the board a quote from the text we are reading that day, or that we read the day before. This could be used as a warm-up activity, or as a formative assessment of their classwork. They will copy the quote down in the first column, and underneath it they re-write the quote in their own words. If they have trouble understanding the language of the quote the activity will be useless. I will walk around the room to make sure all their "translations" are correct so their second task is not done incorrectly. Next, students will write a response to the quote. Sometimes I will write a question on the board to help them begin their journal, but as the unit progresses, they will be capable of coming up with their responses without the guidance of my prompts.
Comments: