Teaching Strategies
Denotation/Connotation
Over the years I have found that students understand many analytical skills, as they apply to conversations with their friends and families. Oftentimes, they lack the academic language to describe that skill. For this reason, I often use concrete examples from their everyday lives to illustrate each concept. When teaching about denotation and connotation, I begin the lesson with the check-in question “What weather are you today?” I may chart the differences and then ask students to explain what each type of weather tells us about their mood or state of being. This opens the conversation to a clear distinction between the denotation of “sunny” and “cloudy” to the connotations of “happy and energetic,” versus “tired and sad.” Next, I try to give students ways in which to help remember each word. Denotation begins with a D to remind them it’s the dictionary definition. Connotation sounds closer to connections. What I would do next is take specific lines from Hughes’ poetry. Every single line is written on one sheet of paper and given to students in groups. Their task is to find as many connotations as they can for the loaded words in each phrase. By limiting the text given, it allows students to focus on expanding their connections and by choosing a Hughes line, they are previewing an upcoming poem.
At the end of this lesson, we often debrief and talk about when and why our connotations might differ, and how we see connotations and denotations play out in our everyday conversations (like when your mom isn’t “mad” just “disappointed”).
Fishbowl Group Analysis
In a fishbowl activity, there is a group of students positioned in the center of the room. They carry out their task, in this case, a discussion on their annotations of Hughes’ short story, while the rest of the class sits around them as spectators. This is a useful strategy when teaching a new concept like close reading or historical inquiry. It allows students to practice the techniques and receive feedback on what they are doing well, provides an example for the entire class, and allows for opportunities to correct misunderstandings. I tend to use fishbowls earlier on in the year as a way to teach what academic discussion should look like so that all students are clear on the procedures and best practices.
Literature Circles
In a literature circle, a small group of students discusses a shared reading in-depth. Oftentimes each student has a particular discussion role or analysis focus. In a literature circle, students might discuss plot and characters, author's craft and purpose, point of view, decipher vocabulary, make inferences, and draw connections to their own lives.
Literature circles give students the independent practice in annotating and analyzing a text with the safety and reassurance of working through their ideas with their peers, allowing them to also learn from one another. This strategy is also useful to differentiate texts for groups of students and group them in ways to allow you to provide targeted direct instruction.
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