Literature, Life-Writing, and Identity

Strategies

Close Reading

The Common Core Standards ask students to close read texts. This includes having students read and re-read texts for deeper meaning. Part of this includes citing evidence from the text to support one’s idea/thought. One way to accomplish this task with students is to number the paragraphs within a text so that it easy to acknowledge which paragraph is being referred to when citing evidence. It may also help to “chunk” the text into sections so that it does appear to be too overwhelming. Students can also draw lines at various points – e.g. paragraphs 1-4; 5-8; 9-12 to help with this chunking technique. It is also important to instruct students how to underline and circle with a purpose. Using questions with them – so that they need to look for answers within the text – is a good way to begin developing this skill. Directing students to what is important is vital in their success of understanding the text. Annotating the text also enables students to close read. They can use the left margin to summarize the chunks of text and the right margin to ask questions.⁵³  This will also aid students during the Socratic Seminar discussions.

Text Rendering

This process helps students to construct meaning, clarify, and to think more deeply about a text. After reading the text, the strategy takes place in three rounds. In the first round, all students choose and report out on a sentence that they believe is important to the understanding of the text. In the second round, a phrase and the third round, one word. A scribe writes all of these comments in a spot visible to all class members so that everyone can “see” the thoughts of their classmates. Afterwards, questions such as:  “What new insights have you gained about the text by looking at it in this way? and “What do you think this text is essentially about?”⁵⁴ are discussed. Lastly, students reflect on what was spoken about and able to summarize the text. This activity, I believe, will be beneficial for helping to develop active listening skills by providing summarizing opportunities by taking notes while listening and reflecting on what was said.

Socratic Seminar

I have noticed that my students tend to talk before thinking and are more interested in hearing themselves than their fellow classmates. Being able to think critically about a text before discussing it and then listening to others are important skills necessary for academic success and the life-long ability to understand better another person’s viewpoint. The weight of the conversation is left to the participants – in this case the students. They must critically look at and read the texts before coming to class and be prepared with questions and comments they would like to focus on. This is vital to the conversation’s success. I want them to experience what it is to be in college in a small seminar-type atmosphere. Additionally, I believe if they are made responsible for this it will help them to better comprehend the content of the text that they are expected to master. While students are well armed with evidence from the texts that they have read or viewed, it is also important at this point, that they begin to employ the active listening strategies as well.

Deep Viewing

Visual Literacy Strategy Ann Watts Pailliotet's three phases:  Literal Observation, Interpretation, and Evaluation and Application. In the first phase, a student should look at the photograph for a minute or so. Afterwards, they should try and doodle/sketch from memory what they saw. Then, they should answer questions, “What is pictured? What type of language is used? How is space used?”⁵⁵  After students upload their answers into a GoogleDoc, they can focus on their collaborative effort by answering the questions in the second phase. These include:  “What are the most important words?, Which words do you have questions about?, Describe your feelings about the photo., What other images are you reminded of, past or present?, What messages are implicit and explicit?, How did you analyze the photo?, and What do you understand now that you didn't before?”⁵⁶  After answering these, it is helpful for students to summarize their understanding of the entire conversation. In the third and final phase, “Does the implied purpose of the photo convey ideas that are important?, How?, Is the image biased?, and How so?”⁵⁷  Using the National Archives’ Photo Analysis form as a graphic organizer will enable students to notice items within the photograph, determine what type of photo it is, explain the caption, and what the photo includes – people, objects, activities assisting students in explaining the who, what, where, and when of the photo.