Classroom Strategies
Gallery Walk: What do You See? What do You Infer?
This is a strategy that I will implement several times throughout the unit. This strategy is adapted from "The Model for Interpreting Art," developed by Linda Friedlander, Curator of Education at the Yale Center for British Art. 22 This exercise will be dual purpose. My students will learn how to read pictures and develop their visual literacy through this exercise, and they will also deal with their perceptions of culture. This strategy is suited especially to kinesthetic learners because they have to walk around the room. The images I choose will be placed around the room in an art-gallery fashion, so the students can have space to talk about the images without crowding each other. The point of this activity is to get the students talking about their perceptions, their interpretations, and their misconceptions. For the first activity, we will use images from the Islamic Revolution.
Think, Pair, Share
As educators, sometimes we forget that our students need time to think and process information. This purpose of this strategy is to give students to time to develop and prepare ideas and build confidence before sharing those ideas with the class. Because they are given time and space, they are able to construct meaning about a topic or question without pressure. This also allows them to release excited energy by talking with their peers. Not only is this strategy fantastic for idea development, it is also a classroom management strategy. Because students have a directed time to talk with one another, they will be less likely to talk out of turn or get off topic during class. "Think, Pair, Share" is best used in an opening question for class. With a question on the board, the students will think for two minutes about the question, they will their answer down in their notebook, then the students will pair up with a partner and share answers, and lastly students will share their responses with the class. This strategy can also be used in the middle or end of class. It works to help students' process information. Also, this strategy can be used as an informal or formal assessment
Possible "Think, Pair, Share" Questions:
What do you know about the Middle East?
What first comes to mind when you think of the word "veil?"
How can a book with pictures help you understand the text?
What do we know about Marjane's family and how do her parents help her form her identity?
Do you think Marjane is like the other children in the book or is she different?
What is a visual learner? Do you consider yourself a visual learner?
How is your life similar to Marjane's and how is it different?
Free Writing
This is a strategy I have used in the past. Students thoroughly enjoy free writing. I often do "Free Write Fridays" in my class where I give students five minutes to write about whatever is it that they want. Sometimes free writing is extended to the entire period, depending of the topic. Free writing is a brainstorming activity in which students write without pressure of having to turn in or read their writing aloud. The purpose of free writing is to let the writers clear their thoughts and construct new ideas. In my class, I use free writing to give my students space to be creative. Sometimes I give them a topic or question, and sometimes I just let them write about whatever is on their minds.
Independent Reading, Chunking the Text, and Guided Reading
Because of the way the text is written, I find it better for the students to read Persepolis independently. Normally with other texts, I switch up the type of reading style we use (i.e. listen to the audio, read aloud, popcorn style reading, etc.) Independent reading gives them time to look at images/ frames that they may need to study to process. Since most of the reading is handled this way, we must stop class frequently to discuss the content of the story so I can assess the level of comprehension of the students. I have chunked the text into sections and created a reading guide for each section. The reading guides contain questions about what is happening and also contain certain illustrated frames for further analysis. Chunking the text makes the book seem less intimidating and gives time to insert activities into class to increase their comprehension.
Chunking the Text
I recommend chunking the reading in the following way:
Introduction-Page 32; Page 33-46; Page 47-72; Page 73-93; Page 94-110; Page 111-125; Page 126-142; Page 143-153.
Literature Circles
The purpose of the literature circle is to give students time to work collaboratively to analyze a text. This strategy is very student centered as the students are leading the discussion. They will practice speaking and listening skills, as they will have to listen and respond thoughtfully to interpret the text. The day before a literature circle, I will assign students each a role. Each student will have a different role, including: a group leader, a recorder, an illustrator, a vocabulary finder, and a quote finder. We will use this strategy several times throughout the unit, and I will change up the roles so that students get variety in their tasks. The roles will be broken down in the following ways:
- The group leader is responsible for keeping all students on task. The group leader is also responsible for making sure that every student has a voice in the discussion. Also, the leader is responsible for creating ten questions the night before the literature circle. These questions will be asked during the discussion.
- The recorder is responsible for taking notes on the discussion.
- The night before the literature circle, the illustrator/ picture finder will draw a scene from the reading and will write an explanation on the back of the paper.
- The vocabulary finder will find five words from the text that are difficult to decipher. The student will define these words and also give an explanation of their meaning within the context of the text.
- The quote finders will five meaningful quotes from the text and will explain their meanings.
- The article finder will bring in a non-fiction article related to the text.
During the literature circle, the students will each share their work with the class and the leader will make sure everything is working smoothly. The students will assess their own work in the form of a written reflection.
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