Introduction
I came to explore the wreck. The words are purposes. The words are maps. —Adrienne Rich, "Diving Into the Wreck"(5)
Adrienne Rich's "Diving Into the Wreck" is a poem, on the literal level, about exploration. It has always resonated with me on a metaphorical level—especially the above lines—because it seems to correlate with the way one explores a poem. First, we begin with a curiosity: perhaps we have heard about the poem before; it is, like the Titanic, famous—something we simply must explore. Then, we start to dive in. It might be unclear at times when the water is murky, but we are still invested in the act of interpreting. Eventually, we arrive at a truth about the poem, the world, or about ourselves.
Just as the diver cannot explore the wreck alone on his or her first experience in the deep sea, it is not reasonable to expect a student to jump into interpreting any sort of text alone his or her first time in the "deep sea" of literature. The interpretative process needs to be scaffolded appropriately so students can build confidence in their responses to literature. This unit is designed to offer a jumping off point for students to immerse themselves in the act of interpretation on several levels. First, students will learn to critically consume and interpret texts. Then, they will write their own texts, which will be—in a sense—interpretations of the world around them.
My students live in Chicago—a place full of diverse neighborhoods and rich history. And yet, I am unsure if they can define what it means to live in any city, let alone their city. Throughout this unit, I want students to question what it means to live in a city and to decide whether there is a unifying urban experience. Are their lives different, for example, from Richard Wright's when he lived in Paris—or from T.S. Eliot's London life? Or—are they more similar than they might have expected? Can urban experiences transcend lines of race, class, gender, or history? I want my students to consider these and many more questions as they engage in a collective and comparative interpretation of the urban landscape that envelops them.
This unit explores the intersection between interpretation and creation. Postmodern critics would have us believe that texts are open to a continual interpretation (and reinterpretation); similarly, semioticians see all things as text (from cereal boxes to novels) full of signs worthy of interpreting. This curriculum unit will not focus on getting students to explicitly adopt any sort of theoretical paradigm; instead, this curriculum unit will focus on getting students to see general interpretative possibilities that can unlock new meaning and new ways of seeing the world. But, before I can explain how I will do that with my students, I must first introduce you to my students.
About Chicago Academy High School
Chicago Academy High School (CAHS), one of 106 public high schools in Chicago, is located on the city's Northwest side. Though there are similarities between many urban public schools, there a few things worth noting about Chicago Academy. As with the rest of their Chicago Public Schools counterparts, my students are largely low income: 83.3% of our students have been identified as such,(6) compared with 86.6% of students district-wide. Furthermore, keeping in line with other schools in the district, a significant portion of my students (15.1%)(7) has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). All of my ninth grade classes next year have been designated as inclusion classes; for this reason, I will be working with a co-teacher 75% of the time to collaborate, plan, and instruct our students. We have no support for our substantial English Language Learner (ELL) population—primarily because, though my own internal classroom data show that more than 50% of my students are bilingual, only 3.6% are designated as Limited English Proficient according to district data. At home, my students and their families speak Arabic, English, French, Polish, Serbian, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Ukrainian. As one might imagine, my students' diverse linguistic backgrounds can present both wonderful teachable moments and instructional challenges.
At CAHS, I teach English and reading to ninth grade students who have been identified as struggling readers (according to a variety of data points). My students need explicit comprehension instruction, because—on average—they read three to five years below their grade-level peers. The English and reading class is designed as an intervention: It is for struggling readers in their first year of high school to ensure that they may be at or above grade level by the time they graduate. This growth is measured almost exclusively by the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress exam (commonly referred to as the NWEA MAP); however, students' progress is also measured by their fall-to-spring growth on the reading section of the EXPLORE exam (the first in a series of American College Testing—or ACT— college readiness exams). Even after a year of intervention, many of my students will still be at least slightly below grade level; this is due to the huge deficits with which many enter.
Much of what I do in my classroom relies on student and parent buy-in. My ninth grade struggling readers grapple with different kinds of text levels: independent-level texts, instructional-level texts, and— at times— frustration-level texts. As a teacher, I want my students to know how to handle any sort of text thrown at them—from recipe books and manuals to James Joyce's Ulysses. Accomplishing this requires students to practice daily, using comprehension strategies to unlock the texts we set forth for them. It also requires students to have a real sense of themselves as readers and people.
That self-awareness has been crucial, as I have worked to create within students the confidence to authentically respond to and struggle openly with texts. In the past, my students became adept at selecting novels and short stories for independent reading, but still struggled with instructional-level texts that required them to rely on knowledge of broader literary genres and forms beyond those covered in the narrow scope of young adult literature most were comfortable reading. Some had difficulty because, in addition to lacking exposure to a variety of genres and forms of literature, they also lacked necessary background knowledge. (In the case of The Odyssey, for example, my students have had little to no prior knowledge of Greek mythology, which has complicated their initial readings.) I still want to work students up to texts that are, instructionally, challenges; I just want to better structure the learning experience for my students so that they can be successful in interpreting challenging poems, stories, and novels.
The Building Blocks: Routines and Materials
This unit is tied together by daily routine, but can work in a classroom where students do not necessarily meet daily (as in a block-schedule classroom). I have the luxury of meeting with my students for 86 minutes each day, but I believe these methods are adaptable for any classroom. There are some materials essential to making this work, listed in the appendix on suggested materials. Additionally, students must have copies of poems to annotate and interact with if at all possible. If this is not possible (because of copying restrictions at your school), select shorter poems from the recommended text list—like Richard Wright's urban haiku— that students might be able to write out on their own paper.
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