Strategies
Close Reading
Close reading is defined as a careful and purposeful reading of a text. When incorporating this strategy, it is said you follow the rule of three. This means that students will read the same text three different times. The first encounter is reading the text in its entirety; the second could be single words or sentences that help the student reflect on individual word meaning; the third could be smaller portions of the text to help focus on one major aspect or comparison to another version/interpretation of the same text to help students focus on a particular section or aspect you want your students to see about the text. I plan on using this strategy in reading both of the plays using the various graphic novel interpretations as well as reading the original text excerpts that were selected from the plays.
Graphic Novels
Educators agree that graphic novels are useful for teaching new vocabulary, visual literacy, and reading skills. The images scaffold word/sentence comprehension and a deeper interpretation of the words and story. This is essential for understanding the language of Shakespeare. For my sixth graders to get exposure to the plays and learn the plot, we will read Romeo & Juliet as retold by Martin Powell and Illustrated by Eva Cabrera as well as the plain text version Romeo and Juliet written by Ian McNeilly; we will read Macbeth as retold by Martin Powell and illustrated by F. Daniel.
Think Pair Share
Think-Pair-Share is a specific type of responding to questions strategy. It allows for collaborative learning in that students think and generate their own conclusions about a prompt or question. They then pair up with their assigned partner (or a peer of their choice) and share the conclusions they each came up with. The Think-Pair- Share strategy will be implemented to allow the students to collaborate and share their ideas on the author’s intentions and use of persuasive techniques.
Collaborative Groups
Working together with peers is a life skill that students need to practice and accomplish. With collaborative learning, it allows students to learn to work together towards a common goal. Each member of the group is accountable to each other and required to participate in order to achieve the final outcome. Students need to learn how to work respectfully with others and learn how to consider each other’s points of views and opinions. Collaboration also benefits students in that by listening to their peers the can develop better understanding of the task or content; it also extends their thinking by hearing other perspectives that they may not have considered or thought of. Individual and group evaluations are essential to monitor the group’s work and their progress working as a team.
Socratic Seminar/Fish Bowl
A Socratic Seminar is a scholarly discussion of an essential question in which student opinions are shared, proven, refuted, and refined through dialogue with other students. In classes of more than fifteen students, the fishbowl format for Socratic seminars should be used. In employing the fish bowl, the students are working in partners developing their points they want to share out in the discussion. During the Socratic Seminar, one of the partners will participate in the first round of discussion while the other sits on the outside and observes/ takes notes. We will use this approach after reading Macbeth to discuss character choices and who is to blame for their actions.
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