Strategies
Anticipation Guide
A strategy I use to start any new unit is an Anticipation Guide. I have had great results using this strategy. Before reading a selection, my students will respond to several statements that challenge or support their preconceived ideas about key concepts in the text. Using this strategy stimulates students' interest in a topic and sets a purpose for reading. I dim the lights, and present the guide on an overhead projector. As each statement is discussed, students must justify their opinions in an unstructured debate format, where students go to one side of the room with the word Agree if they agree with the statement, or go to the other side of the room if they disagree. Students who do not feel comfortable with a definite answer can stand in the middle. If they feel swayed by a student's response, they can move to one of the designated areas. Because student responses are based on thoughts and experiences of their own, they must "think on their feet." They should be able to explain and defend their positions in both whole group and small group discussions and give reasons for their choices. This helps all of my students anticipate the important ideas in the text, arouses student interest, sets purposes for reading, encourages higher order thinking, and provides an initial "hook" to draw them into the reading.
It is important to let the students know that the statements are designed to make them think about topics and to make them think about what they will be learning. In this case, it would be the importance of "seeing," versus "looking," and how looking beyond the surface can enhance my students' writing skills, as well as enhance their vision of the world around them.
Think–Pair–Share
Think–Pair–Share is another cooperative discussion strategy that I use. It gets its name from the three stages of student action, with emphasis on what students are doing at each of those stages. Students learn in part by being able to talk about the content, and accountability is built in because each student must report to a partner, and then partners must report to the class. This is one way to make sure that every student participates in the discussion.
To start this strategy, we will read W.H. Auden's "Muse des Beaux Arts," aloud, switching back and forth between readers, followed by William Carlos Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," before seeing the painting. Students will then share each other's reactions to the poems, responding to the questions: What are you hearing? What words in particular stand out, and why? What is the human position of suffering? What is the difference between innocence and indifference? These are some of the questions that can be used in a class discussion, or in a journal entry as an introductory analysis.
After discussing the poems, we will look at the art that inspired the poets, considering the following questions: Does the piece of literature visually describe the artwork? Do you find the description accurate? Does the literature draw conclusions or make interpretations of the artwork? Could you reconstruct the artwork from the literature without ever seeing it? Does the author focus on some aspects of the artwork but ignore other parts?
Process:
- Think. I will ask the above questions to provoke my students' thoughts about the poems. Students will take a few minutes thinking about the questions, and will write down their thoughts.
- Pair. Using designated partners, students will pair up to talk about the answers each came up with. They compare their written notes and identify the answers they think are best, or most convincing, and share their prior knowledge about the subject with their partner.
- Share. After students talk in pairs for a designated time period, I will then call on the pairs to share their thinking with the rest of the class. I will usually call on each pair and will record their responses on the overhead or board.
Another strategy I will use is The Jigsaw activity, a useful form of cooperative learning that helps my class digest materials that are full of information and that might be challenging to the average student reader. It provides scaffolding for struggling readers and engages all students. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each student's part is essential for the completion and the full understanding of the task. Therefore, each student is essential, and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.
I will be using this strategy when students are introduced to U. A. Fanthorpe's "Not My Best Side," a humorous poem based on a painting of Saint George and the Dragon, by Uccello. The poem consists of three voices that speak in turn: the dragon, the maiden, and St. George. This poem might be challenging for my students because of the length, and content. For better understanding, the poem's three stanzas will be divided among the students into groups of five or six students. All the number one's are assigned to read the first segment of the poem, all of the number two's will be responsible for the second stanza of the poem, and the number threes, the third stanza of the poem.
Students with the same number will get together in their groups to read, compare notes and to become experts on their section of the poem. Each group should determine what is important in their stanza of the poem, identify the main speaker, the main idea, and write a clear summary. Each member of the group is responsible to know the material well enough to go back and teach it to his/her own small group. Eventually each student will come back to her or his jigsaw group and will try to present a well–organized report to the group. The situation is specifically structured so that the only access any member has to the other five assignments is by listening closely to the report of the person reciting. Students will be asked to identify the three speakers, and answer the following questions:
- What lesson can be learned from reading Fanthorpe's reaction to the painting?
- What does this poem reveal about the way people are expected to conform to stereotypes in society?
- How can this relate to the characters in The Great Gatsby, and even of the people today?
- Can you judge a book by its cover?
We will then re–read the poem as a class, followed with a class discussion.
Text Rendering
Another strategy that I will be using is Text Rendering, which is almost the same format I use for a Found Poem. Both of these strategies are a way for students to break down text into its most basic elements while creating a new text (a poem) at the same time. The goal is to expand students' understanding of the text as well as to create a new piece. We will be using Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "We Wear the Mask," written in 1896, for this activity.
Steps:
- We will read the poem aloud, as a class, and students will have their own copies to mark with comments, or to highlight important words.
- Students will volunteer to read the poem aloud.
- As a student reads aloud, listeners will underline, highlight, or record words or phrases that move them, or that create a strong mental picture.
- When students have finished reading the poem, they will break into groups to create an oral group poem out of the words and phrases they have selected.
- One student in the group will begin by reading his/her words or phrases aloud. When there is a pause, another student will add his or her selection of words. All students in the group will share their highlighted words to add to the group poem. Students might find words and phrases that are repeated, but the group might decide to keep them, using some of the devices of poetry, such as repetition and alliteration.
- The discussion will return to the poem. Students will reread the text, noting their new understandings about the piece as a result of their work with the oral poem.
- Students reflect (in small groups and/or in writing) on how pulling out only some words or phrases has helped them to discover the essence of the piece. After the poem is completed, students will craft their own individual poem, deleting, adding, or rearranging words to create a poem, written in the first or third–person point of view, from a character's perspective in The Great Gatsby.
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