Literature and Information

Teaching Strategies

K/W/L

Many of these topics will be new for students. So, a K/W/L chart will be an excellent opportunity for them to gather their ideas and keep them together throughout the unit. K/W/Ls are nothing new in the teaching world³⁸, but I will suggest what I find useful in my classroom.

Before beginning each chapter, provide a list of vocabulary words (essentially the subtopics) that students will learn about. Students will write what they (K)now about the topic. When they write what they (W)ant to know about a topic, you can anticipate what topics they will be more interested in and begin preparing supplementary resources for these topics. Furthermore, as they express what they (L)earned, the students will be completing and providing for you a formative (and potentially summative) assessment of each subtopic.

Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share is designed to give students time to read and think about a topic. Once they are finished reading, they write their ideas down and then share ideas with a partner. This meets several speaking and listening standards in the CCSS.

This is particularly effective for English Language Learners because it promotes conversation between all the students in a no-pressure atmosphere. Students get to share their ideas, which will help them refine their thought process. They will also listen to their partners and gain new ideas through conversation.³⁹

Socratic Seminars

I won’t go into detail about how a Socratic Seminar works. There are excellent sources explaining the process online.⁴⁰ I do, however, find this to be an excellent follow up activity following immediately or the day after a think-pair-share activity. Since students must prepare their thoughts and discuss them in a think-pair-share, they will be prepared for such an inquiry based activity.

I’ve found that posing a question and then stepping out of the conversation completely is the best way to conduct Socratic Seminars. The only time I interfere is when discussion rules aren’t being followed, collegiality is declining, or if there is a very prolonged lapse in conversation.

Bookmark Chart / Idea Map

A bookmark helps you reference something you once thought important. As you move through the unit, write on a large sheet of paper or a whiteboard the subtopics students were interested in throughout their readings. Since these are likely to be the topics discussed in Socratic Seminars, write down the main ideas discussed during the seminar. At the end of the unit, this chart will serve as a bookmark for their ideas so they can go back, reflect upon them, and decide if they want to explore a topic further in their expository essay.

This chart will also allow you to see how each of your classes are thinking and what their interests are. This will help you anticipate what they might like in future sections of the book and what supplementary resources they might want to read. Furthermore, this chart is a means to promote activism. What on the chart is interesting to the students? How can they take these ideas further and actually make a difference or change in their community or life? This activity meets CCSS W7.2A.