Novel Bookmark Idea

I’m starting a new novel with my students on Monday, and I like to give out a reading schedule for each book. Instead of a typical placeholder, I like to do two things with the bookmark.

First, I print out a daily schedule of readings with the date and the pages to be read for that day. This means the students enter class having read those pages, and I have scheduled activities for the period.

Also, on the back of the bookmark, I will have the major themes listed down the paper slip (or the students list them). When the students identify an example of the theme in the novel, they can jot down the page number next to the theme. This is a quick and easy way to allow students to set a (minor) purpose for reading and to help students make a list in preparation for in-class writings. Plus, this doesn’t really interfere with the students’ reading process (which is a major complaint I hear regarding “during reading” study guides).

Any quick and easy ideas you use?

The ABCs of Learning

Every high school student knows his ABCs, and that’s a good thing since those very ABCs are a good tool in allowing kids to learn in fun ways. A number of assignments I use require the basics of the English language, and here are a few I’ve used recently.

1) I had one of my classes choose a Greek/Roman myth to read outside of class while we read a play in class. Once the students choose their myth, they must retell the story using 26 sentences. The first sentence starts with a word beginning with an A, the second sentence starts with a word beginning with a B, and so on through the alphabet. I also require that the students include a citation for their source material, and the 26 sentences must be free of any errors. Not one grammar, spelling, punctuation, or content error is allowed.

They have 26 days to get the assignment completed perfectly for 100 points. Any error reduces the score to 50 points. One correct sentence a day doesn’t seem like too much to ask. Plus, the kids can turn it in to me for correcting as often as they wish. I put a check mark at the end of a line if I find an error, and the students’ job is to find and correct the error. I stop marking errors after I find a third one. It’s rare that a student does not get it done perfectly in that time.

2) I put students into groups of four and have the students write their ABCs down the left side of a page as if numbering the page. Then I give the students a word such as “said” or “good” or “bad” or “sad” or some other overused and simplistic word; they write this word at the top of the page, and I give the students 15 minutes to write down as many synonyms as possible for the given word. I sometimes make this a competition with candy bars to the top group, but I always collect the students’ lists and have my TA compile their lists into one master list which gets hung on the wall. They then have a master list of better words than the given simplistic starter word.

3) I have the students in their groups of four letter their page (as in #2 above) at the conclusion of a novel of study. Then the students are to write down any characters, traits, themes, locations, or other terms related to the novel that they can (all of which is written by the letter which begins the word). For example, after reading Julius Caesar, the students may have a partial list started like this:

• A: ambition, alliteration, attack, Antony, allusion, antagonist, avarice, Artemidorus, allegiance, apostrophe
• B: Brutus, beloved, betrayal, blood, body, bias
• C: Cassius, Casca, Cinna, Crassus, conspiracy, coronet, commoners, Calphurnia, compromise, chaos, Cicero, connotation, constancy, climax

Again, the students turn in their lists, my TA compiles them, and the students have a massive study guide, one they generated without needing me to create it for them.

Films in the Classroom

I’m not a huge fan of showing movies in class; most films do not meet my expectations for a good use of class time. I tend to ask myself:

• Will a clip suffice?
• Will a series of short clips from a film suffice?
• What is the purpose of using the film in class?
• Is this the best way to teach my stated goal/objective?

However, just like the English language, rules can be broken for effect. I do use one film in its entirety each year when I teach Transcendentalism; that film is Dead Poet’s Society.

Usually, I have students pair up with one student responsible for listing as many instances of conformity and groupthink as possible while the other student creates a list of examples of individuality. More than anything, this is a kick start for thinking–almost like a brainstorming session.

I show the film in four segments of approximately 30 minutes. Before each section of the film I set (or reset) the purpose for the day’s viewing, and prior to the final three segments I have the students do a quick exercise to remind themselves of what was seen the previous day. One student summarizes the previous day’s segment in one minute, and the partner then adds any missing details within 30 seconds. Lastly, I have each student note what his/her favorite part was from the previous segment.

The kids are thinking, recalling, expressing themselves aloud, and finishing this quick exercise with a positive statement. This last portion is critical to create a positive, forward-leaning mindset. Why not start a lesson with a positive?

Once the 30 minute segment concludes I have the students share their findings with their partners (the aforementioned lists) for one minute each. At this point I may conduct a truncated version of the fish bowl activity my students enjoy or I may conduct a full-class discussion about what the students viewed, what they think about the ideas or events, and how the students react to the characters. Sometimes I finish with an exit ticket to be turned in as students leave the room, or I have the students finish the day with a quick notation in their binders answering this simple question: “What is one thing you learned today?”

At the end of the film I provide the class a series of quotations from Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walden by Henry David Thoreau (and from each we have read excerpts) in a two-columned chart with the quotations down the left side. On the right I have the students identify scenes, ideas, and characters matching the ideas of the left column.

The students’ explanations are generally excellent, and their insights impress me each year. Plus, they often come up with ideas I had not previously considered. I love learning something new, but I’m also an admitted nerd.

Allusions and Cultural Literacy

I continually hear from my fellow department members that kids today are not as intelligent as kids 10 years ago, and I admit that I have seen a distinct difference between the general students of today and a decade ago; however, I also see a marked contrast between the top 10% of my school’s students today and 10 years ago.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I don’t think the change is intelligence. If anything, in math, students today are a year ahead of the high school students of the early 2000s. Still, my Language Arts students are not as proficient as they once were.

My thinking now is that the students of today lack the cultural literacy of yesteryear. Kids struggle to catch allusions to historical events, biblical figures, and current events. Even in my non-honors classes of the late 90s and early 2000s, kids could explain who King Solomon was when reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This year I have four classes of American Literature of different levels and only two students could identify King Solomon. No one this year knew the Dauphin (a bit more understandable), only a quarter of my juniors knew Hamlet was a Shakespearean play, and (maybe) 10 students knew what decade the Civil War occurred much less that Reconstruction followed it.

I just don’t think today’s kids, on the whole, read as much or are exposed to as much of what is typically defined as “culture.”

Anyway, after seeing this lack of cultural literacy while reading Twain’s novel, I decided to test the kids’ cultural literacy. I have a book about cultural literacy by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., and I had six kids shout out a page number. I wrote these on the board, and I then opened to those pages, wrote down the first item I saw, and had the kids try to identify each item. The ones I chose the first time were:

• The Battle of Hastings
• coup d’tat
• Robert Oppenheimer
• Babe Ruth
• Canterbury Tales
• gulags

After the pseudo-quiz I polled the students to see how they did, and the high score was a single student with four correct answers, two students got three correct, and the rest of the students correctly identified 2 or fewer items.

It would be easy to complain and shrug my shoulders and move one, but I decided to try and help increase the students’ knowledge base. I talked with my students, and they liked the cultural literacy quiz so we’re going to try it once a week throughout the second semester.

Also, I started projecting a political cartoon, a comic, or a short music video with allusions. Each day I project the item onto the front screen, give the kids a minute to think about what is seen, and then I ask someone to explain the joke and/or allusions. They love it!

Does anyone do anything similar?

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Here is the comic I provided on Thursday with two obvious references to Snooki and Kim Kardashian as well as an allusion to Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” quote (and I had to explain what a timeshare is):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday I shared this comic which uses Angry Birds and The Three Little Pigs:

The Entry Task

Teachers and administrators at my school often ask how I keep my students on task for an entire period despite having quite a diverse set of classes to teach. I have previously mentioned my frequent switching of activities in a period, but the key to my success is rather simple and not very exciting: the entry task.

To begin each period I have an entry task posted on the screen, and as the students walk in they know to begin the activity. Sometimes it’s for individual students, partners, or small groups, but it always involves a quick review or a simple new skill.

The reason I credit the entry task with my successes is because the entry task sets the tone for the classroom. It shows students that we work as soon as we enter the room, that the students can be social quite often, and that there are times for silent individual work time. Plus, we will regularly focus on learning new content and improving skills each day.

Below are some examples, each of which can lead into a larger lesson.

For an individual: Using one complex and one compound sentence, explain how Mark Twain reveals Jim’s intelligence (even though Jim is not educated) in the chapter entitled “Was Solomon Wise?” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You have seven minutes to be ready to share your sentences with someone in the class or turn them into me. —> Reviews two sentence types, forces students to review a chapter, and allows students to analyze a character. This entry task can easily be followed with a quick conversation with another student, a fast editing session with a partner, a small group discussion, etc.

For a partnership: Choose an “elbow partner” [this is a partner sitting immediately around a student, which contrasts with a "cross-town buddy, a partner from across the room] and sketch a picture that illustrates the definition of one of this week’s vocabulary words. Then, compose a question about last night’s reading that correctly uses a form of the vocabulary word (and please label the vocabulary word form). You have three minutes to be ready to share your work with the class. —> Reviews the previous night’s reading while also providing a start to a discussion or Q & A session, links a visual to a vocabulary word, and forces the students to know which grammatical form is used. Sometimes the partnerships exchange their questions and then answer the one received, or the class uses the questions to explore the reading through a full class discussion.

For a small group: In a group of 3-4 students seated near you, create a quick dialogue of no more than 90 seconds in length that incorporates three transition words or phrases and reveals how Brutus and Antony’s funeral speeches contrast. Be prepared to perform read your dialogue aloud with each group member having a part. You have eight minutes to be ready. —> Reviews the literature, allows for comparing and contrasting, reviews transitions, and provides a quick oral presentation to the class.

These are just a few examples, but they demonstrate how an entry task can set a tone or become a lead-in to another part of a lesson.

If you really want more bang for your buck, connect the previous day’s exit slip to the entry task.