Students within our department are required to read during the summer. My students (seniors) are required to read three texts...one required, two chosen from a list. So far I've had no complaints.
The freshmen read Lord of the Flies, and the juniors read The Giver and The Good Earth. These were chosen by the teachers and were pulled from our curriculum as well as the national curriculum list (although The Giver is quite young (as far as the reading level) for juniors.
So I was approached today by admin to choose new books that were less controversial... that there have been parental complaints this summer. I immediately answered "okay", but less than 2 seconds later I said..."no, not okay."
This is a slippery slope I'm not willing to slide down. Our teachers have valid reasons for choosing the literature they chose and they plan to utilize the themes in these books with discussion and writing within their own classrooms...(at least I'm hoping these teachers chose these books for some valuable educational reason.) If we change books, who's to say someone else won't complain? Can we please everyone? If we do that, will we please no one?
It's a rough way to start the school year and a definite downer for teachers who are excited about the year getting underway. What do you guys think?
Are there alternatives? Can we put a list out there and allow the students to choose from the list? Does that defeat the purpose of having classroom discussion on a specific piece of literature? What are the purposes for reading. The New York Times ran an article last week that promoted summer reading for kids in order to keep their minds engaged with something academic over the break. And Ive found, for the most part, students enjoy having the reading to do over the summer.
Is it truly possible to say "Read whatever you want" and students will be able to understand themes and realize emotional or intellectual development within the book's characters and/or possibly within themselves without discussion with others?
We'll see how this plays out. I've asked to meet with admin and the parents to find out what exactly the problem is with these three texts. I'm open for discussion, but I'm not open to change a classroom plan b/c one parent decides it would be better for her children. Options, or opportunity for options,I'm fine with.
By the way...it's one parent...the same parent of two children...one child is a freshman, the other a junior. And the junior apparently is now coming forward to say how disturbed he was as a 9th grader (two years ago) while reading The Lord of the Flies. We had no idea. (And that book is only for the College Prep class.)
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Zak's Action Plan
Action Plan!
Here is a list of things I’m thinking about doing in my classroom:
Write with students
Found Poem—Have the students all write a phrase that describes something that happened to them between waking up and arriving at school in the morning. Put the lines together on the board. Have the students rearrange and pick a title. I may do this on the first day. You could also put the lines on sticky notes so they could visually arrange them more easily.
Situational Dialogue—Have the students write an action on one half of a piece of paper and an argument topic on the other. Split in half and shuffle. Have every student draw an argument and an action. They must write a dialogue-heavy paragraph that illustrates two characters arguing over the selected topic while doing the selected action.
Alliterative Poem—When teaching alliteration, have the students write a very alliterative poem such as “Peter Piper”.
Copy/Change Poetry—Give students the framework for a poem and an example of a poem created from the framework. Allow them to fill in the blanks, play with the blanks, and rearrange the poem into their own voice.
Shifting POV—Have students write the start of a short story. After they have written the first draft, force them to change the point of view.
Use the phrase “Make it different” instead of “Make it better”
Focus less on errors in papers and more on content
When writing a paper, collect the first draft and make them write the second draft without the first draft. When they write the third draft, allow them to pull from both.
Respond! Sheet—Instead of doing a reading quiz or boring prompt, give the students a list of ways to respond: parody, imitation, commentary, summary, etc.
Remind them that prompts are suggestions only
In the revision process, have the students go back and change all helping verbs and linking verbs to more dynamic ones.
List all the different ways of saying “walk”.
Have the students read their rough drafts aloud to me.
Expression Cards—Hand out small pictures (playing cards) and have the students write details from their picture, giving the listener clues as to what is going on in their picture
“If you wish to be remembered write something worth remembering or do something worth writing about” --Mark Twain—
Read MAD Magazine when discussing parody
Play Pigs and Dogs by Pink Floyd and listen for Animal Farm references
Ask the students to list all the reasons that they aren’t writers.
Cultural Literacy—Have the students list ten people that they think it is essential to know and list the reasons why
Have the students design and script their own level of Hell
Choose Your Own Adventure—Have students write a Choose Your Own Adventure story, where decisions affect the path that the story will take.
Pictures—Bring a picture of something important to you. Write a poem describing what is going on in the picture.
Images from Poetry—Have the students draw in the margins TWO images that stand out from a poem that they read. (This is another way of responding to a peer’s work, other than verbally)
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” Students write their own updated lyrics to the song
Say “What did you notice?” instead of more specific questions
Music and Poetry—Play certain types of music and have the students describe a person they see in the music. Play a different piece and have them describe a place. Then have them writing a story combining those two elements.
Professional
Possibly present at Write-to-Learn conference
Present at the Nixa professional development day
Submitting some of my work to Missouri Teachers Write
Reading List
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin
On Writing by Stephen King
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim
Here is a list of things I’m thinking about doing in my classroom:
Write with students
Found Poem—Have the students all write a phrase that describes something that happened to them between waking up and arriving at school in the morning. Put the lines together on the board. Have the students rearrange and pick a title. I may do this on the first day. You could also put the lines on sticky notes so they could visually arrange them more easily.
Situational Dialogue—Have the students write an action on one half of a piece of paper and an argument topic on the other. Split in half and shuffle. Have every student draw an argument and an action. They must write a dialogue-heavy paragraph that illustrates two characters arguing over the selected topic while doing the selected action.
Alliterative Poem—When teaching alliteration, have the students write a very alliterative poem such as “Peter Piper”.
Copy/Change Poetry—Give students the framework for a poem and an example of a poem created from the framework. Allow them to fill in the blanks, play with the blanks, and rearrange the poem into their own voice.
Shifting POV—Have students write the start of a short story. After they have written the first draft, force them to change the point of view.
Use the phrase “Make it different” instead of “Make it better”
Focus less on errors in papers and more on content
When writing a paper, collect the first draft and make them write the second draft without the first draft. When they write the third draft, allow them to pull from both.
Respond! Sheet—Instead of doing a reading quiz or boring prompt, give the students a list of ways to respond: parody, imitation, commentary, summary, etc.
Remind them that prompts are suggestions only
In the revision process, have the students go back and change all helping verbs and linking verbs to more dynamic ones.
List all the different ways of saying “walk”.
Have the students read their rough drafts aloud to me.
Expression Cards—Hand out small pictures (playing cards) and have the students write details from their picture, giving the listener clues as to what is going on in their picture
“If you wish to be remembered write something worth remembering or do something worth writing about” --Mark Twain—
Read MAD Magazine when discussing parody
Play Pigs and Dogs by Pink Floyd and listen for Animal Farm references
Ask the students to list all the reasons that they aren’t writers.
Cultural Literacy—Have the students list ten people that they think it is essential to know and list the reasons why
Have the students design and script their own level of Hell
Choose Your Own Adventure—Have students write a Choose Your Own Adventure story, where decisions affect the path that the story will take.
Pictures—Bring a picture of something important to you. Write a poem describing what is going on in the picture.
Images from Poetry—Have the students draw in the margins TWO images that stand out from a poem that they read. (This is another way of responding to a peer’s work, other than verbally)
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” Students write their own updated lyrics to the song
Say “What did you notice?” instead of more specific questions
Music and Poetry—Play certain types of music and have the students describe a person they see in the music. Play a different piece and have them describe a place. Then have them writing a story combining those two elements.
Professional
Possibly present at Write-to-Learn conference
Present at the Nixa professional development day
Submitting some of my work to Missouri Teachers Write
Reading List
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin
On Writing by Stephen King
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim
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