American Global Power from Empire to Superpower

Teaching Strategies

1. Reading Comprehension – As a whole-class and with the support of the teacher, students will read about the history, harvesting, production, importation, and transportation of bananas to the United States. Because of the difficulty in finding appropriate grade-level texts about the subtopics mentioned above, I will create PowerPoints with images to support the text. We will preview tricky vocabulary prior to and as we read the text to define the words: harvest, production, importation, and transportation. The teacher will read some pages, students may volunteer to read other pages, and some students will be cold called to read the text as well. The teacher will also ask students to “read” the images or illustrations and name any information they gather from them. 
2. Discussion – As students are reading the text and images about the topic(s) presented on PowerPoints, the teacher will have various checks for understanding and ask students to turn and talk to their partner about what the text says, what a word means, or a connection they have made to the text. The teacher will further probe their thinking by asking students: “What makes you say that?” The teacher will walk around the room and listen in to student conversations and share a couple of points students bring up. The teacher will also ask students to volunteer their gleanings from the reading with the rest of the class and allow other students to chime-in on their classmate’s comments. The teacher will encourage the conversation amongst students by asking students, “who agrees, disagrees, or would like to add on to what the prior student said?”
3. Writing – Students will produce an opinion writing piece on how much they think a banana worker should get paid and why. They will share their writing with their tablemates, in small groups. Students’ tablemates will have an opportunity to ask the presenter any looming questions they have about their opinion. For example, a student might ask, “why do you think a banana worker should get paid ‘X’ amount?” Like the discussion mentioned above, the teacher will encourage students to agree, disagree, or say more about the writing presenter’s opinion.