10-02-12

If you haven’t started a reading log yet, please do so…

Understanding Your Students as Readers

ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Different Mental Processes; Different Kinds of Readers

(based on Carl Jung’s personality theory)

Sensing perception

Intuitive perception

Attends primarily to sensory data; collects data

systematically; relies on rules and

experience for collecting data

Attends more to patterns &

impressions than to “facts”; data

collection method may seem

haphazard; follows hunches

Different Mental Processes; Different Kinds of Readers

(based on Carl Jung’s personality theory)

Thinking judgment Feeling judgment

Bases decisions on “objective” criteria

Bases decisions on personal

values

Mental File Systems (Sensing/Thinking)

Model-Makers (Intuitive/Thinking)

Relying on Experience (Sensing/Feeling)

Oceanic Minds (Intuitive/Feeling)

The mind works as a computer with an elaborate filing system. They want clean data, retrieved exactly as it was filed. They work best with unambiguous facts that fit into neat categories, and might sometimes oversimplify data to force it into neat categories.

They approach things globally and objectively, using mental models or blueprints to organize ideas and stay oriented in daily life. Experiencing life before conceptualizing it might seem awkward to them.

Everything is validated in personal, practical, daily life experience. They develop rules based on their experiences, then are guided by those rules—rules they know work, because they have been proven to work.

They view everything as connected to everything else. The mind is like an ocean, with important data swimming near the surface; when no longer needed, they swim away. Recall works through association, sometimes retrieving the desired thing, but sometimes retrieving something else that works about as well.adapted from Gordon Lawrence, People Types

& Tiger Stripes (CAPT, 1993)

For Sensing Students: For Intuitive Students:

For Thinking Students: For Feeling Students:

• Hands-on materials• Careful, thorough coverage, with

no skipping• Knowing exactly what is expected• Immediately using their skills• Using memory for details

• Starting with the big picture• Options to choose & to jump around

according to insights/associations• Tackling new skills• Using language skills to learn

• Logical materials & activities• Logically organized classrooms• Interesting problems to analyze• Freedom from emotional distractions

• Subject matter to care about• Appreciation for the person, not

just for the work produced• Friendly classroom

adapted from Gordon Lawrence, People Types & Tiger Stripes (CAPT, 1993)

Test it on your own pulses…

Describe—in writing—the way you read a book. (Do you read the same way for work as for pleasure? Difficult material and easy material?) Be prepared to read your description aloud.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction / Problem Novel

Character: “regular” people, often lower class

Setting: difficult living situation

Language: colloquial (often with profanity & bad grammar)

Content: problems/challenges faced by teens

Attitude: goal is to allow vicarious experience (rather than, say, to provide instruction in manners and morals)

What place to these novels have in the classroom?

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction / Problem Novel

•counterbalance to realism (happy endings)

•generally involves a quest/leaving home

•protagonist undergoes trials, but prevails

•extreme sufferings (nightmare quality)

•unlikely successes (happy daydream quality)

Genre: Romanticism

What is our responsibility

with respect to what students read

from the class or school library?

How to we choose

which books to TEACH

to the whole class or to small groups?

Reality check: works you might be told to use…

FDHS, 9th grade

- Card: Ender’s Game- Dickens: Great Expectations- Dramer: Romiette and Julio- Finn: Breaking Point- Gibson: The Miracle Worker- Grimes: Bronx Masquerade- Hamilton: Mythology- Hickam: October Sky- Homer: The Odyssey- Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird- Lipsyte: The Contender- Philbrick Last Book in the Universe- Shakespear Romeo and Juliet- Spinelli: Stargirl- Steinbeck The Pearl- Townsend: Secret Diary of Adrian Mole

FDHS, 10th grade

- Anaya: Bless Me Ultima - Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 - DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk - Frank: Alas Babylon - Gaines: Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Guy: Friends - Hesse: Out of the Dust - Knowles: A Separate Peace - Lowry: The Giver - Myers: Monster - Potok: The Chosen - Rand: Anthem - Remarque: All Quiet on the western Front - Rose: Twelve Angry Men - Salinger: Catcher in the Rye - Shakespeare: Julius Caesar - Weisel: Night

Reality check: works you might be told to use…

FDHS, 11th grade

- Conroy: The Water is wide- Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby- Gaines: A Gathering of Old Men- Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun- Hawthrone: The Scarlet Letter- Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea- Lawrence/Lee: Inherit the Wind- Miller: The Crucible- Myers: Fallen Angels- Steinbeck Of Mice and Men- Twain: The Adventures- Cather: My Antonia- Crane: The Red Badge Of Courage- O’ Brien: The Things They Carried- Wharton: Ethan Frome- Williams: The Glass Menagerie

FDHS, 12th grade

- Benitez: A Place Where the Sea Remembers- Bronte: Wuthering Heights- Christie: And The There Were None- Doyle: The Hounds of the Baskerviles- Golding: Lord of the Flies- Orwell: 1984- Shakespeare: Macbeth- Shelley: Frankenstein- Swift: Gulliver’s Travels- Uchida: The Picture Bride- Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Reality check: works you might be told to use…

WAHS, 9th gradeAnimal FarmCold Sassy TreeCry, the Beloved Country Everyman (Honors Eng. I)Fahrenheit 451The Good Earth (Honors Eng. I)Great ExpectationsHard TimesThe HobbitHouse on Mango StreetHunger of Memory (excerpts)I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsThe Illiad (Honors Eng. I)Much Ado About NothingNarrative of Frederick Douglass Old Man and the SeaThe Power and the GloryPygmalionRomeo and JulietSiddhartha (Honors Eng. I)The Tempest (Honors Eng. I)Utopia (Honors Eng. I)The VirginianThe Water is Wide

WAHS, 10th gradeAll Quiet on the Western FrontCandide (Honors Eng. II)Cyrano De BergiacEthan FromeFast Food Nation (excerpts)The Glass Menagerie Julius CaesarLong Walk to FreedomLord of the Flies (Honors Eng. I)Midsummer Night’s Dream1984 (Honors Eng. II)NightOf Mice and MenPortrait of a LadyPride and Prejudice (Honors Eng. II)

Return of the NativeA Separate PeaceSilas MarnerThe Stranger (Honors Eng. II)A Tale of Two CitiesThings Fall Apart12 Angry Men

Reality check: works you might be told to use…

WAHS, 11th grade)Absalom, Absalom!The Adventures of Huck FinnThe CrucibleDeath of a Salesman (AP Lit. also)For Whom the Bell TollsThe FountainheadThe Great GatsbyThe House of MirthO'Neill PlaysA Raisin in the SunThe Red Badge of CourageThe Scarlet LetterSketchbookA Streetcar Named DesireThe Sun Also RisesTheir Eyes are Watching GodThree Plays - WilderTrifles in A Book of Plays

WAHS, 12th gradeBeowulfCanterbury TalesDon QuixoteDr. FaustusDr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeEpic of Gilgamesh (Honors Eng. I)Frankenstein (Honors Eng. II)HamletHeart of Darkness (Honors Eng. II)Hedda GablerIbsen Plays (Honors Eng. II)The Importance of Being EarnestJane Eyre (Honors Eng. II)King LearLes MiserablesMacbethMoll FlandersMurder in the CathedralOliver TwistOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Dystopian Novels

Dystopian Novels

Spisak’s four necessary elements:

“a setting so vividly and clearly described that it becomes almost a character in itself”

“individuals or forces in charge who have a legitimate reason for being as they are”

“protagonists who are shaped by their environment and situations”

“a conclusion that reflects the almost always dire circumstances”

(These characteristics could be useful measures by which to evaluate the quality of a work.)

Why do we teach “classic” dystopian novels?What standards do we meet?What goals do we have?

How do we teach those novels?What activities do we do?What paper topics do we assign?

How might YA novels compare, in terms of accomplishing the same goals or eliciting the same kinds of thinking and writing?

Dystopian Novels

Teaching Unit(due Nov 27)

Could be for……whole-class novel…book club novel…individual novel

“Unit” simply refers to a coherent collection of lesson plans, generally over several days (or sometimes even weeks).

Last time, I asked, “Why do we teach literatureto middle-school and high-school students?”

Here’s what you said:

to educate young minds about a variety of subjects

to entertain them

to help them understand life lessons

to teach them about themselves

to expose them to different cultures

so they’ll know how to read

to improve vocabulary

to give them problem-solving skills because we find truth

through fiction

to foster a love of readingto help them become better writers

to teach them how to analyze and comprehend

to give them experiences beyond their own community

Unit Goals(What do I want

students to “get”?)

Unit Assessments(How can I tell how well students “get”

the goals?)

Unit Strategies/Activities(What activities will help students reach the goals?)

Goals: 1-to appreciate the beauty of Shakespeare’s language2-to understand how literature can hold a mirror to life’s big

issues3-to evaluate current teenage decision-making processes

Assessments: 1-translate passages from R&J into current language; write a conversation in iambic pentameter2-identify various points of conflict in R&J; identify parallel conflicts in current times3-identify, explain & analyze decision-making processes

of various characters (R, J, Mercutio, Tybalt);

evaluate those processes (in light of their outcomes); identify processes available to today’s teens

Strategies: watch clips from various film/stage productionspractice “translating” (& maybe paraphrasing) linesexplain meter in general & iambic pentameter in particularstoryboard the plot; two-minute R&J (for YouTube)lecture on decision-making processes; do some role playingand lots more…

1. Uses knowledge of students' language acquisition and development as a basis for designing appropriate learning activities that promote student learning

2. Uses knowledge of English grammar in teaching students both oral and written forms of the language

3. Engages students in activities that provide opportunities for demonstrating their skills in writing, speaking, and creating visual images for a variety of audiences and purposes

4. Engages students in meaningful discussions for the purposes of interpreting and evaluating ideas present through oral, written, and/or visual forms

5. Uses a wide variety of strategies to teach students to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts

6. Integrates interdisciplinary teaching strategies and materials into instruction of ELA content to further student learning

7. Uses a variety of approaches for teaching students how to construct meaning from texts and integrates learning opportunities into classroom experiences that promote composing and responding to such texts

8. Incorporates technology and print/non-print media into his or her own work and instruction

9. Engages students in critical analysis of different media and communication technologies

10. Uses major sources of research and theory related to English language arts to support his or her teaching decisions

11. Engages students in learning experiences that consistently emphasize varied uses and purposes for language in communication

12. Makes meaningful and creative connections between the ELA curriculum and developments in culture, society, and education

13. Designs, implements, and assesses instruction that engages all students in reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and thinking as interrelated dimensions of the learning experience in ELA

14. Engages students in activities that demonstrate the role of arts and humanities in learning

Looking Back:

Reasons to teach litReasons to include YA litStrategies for teaching lit (including YA lit)Book talks to become familiar with breadth of YA lit

Looking Ahead:

Book reviews for books 1-4 due next weekBegin work on teaching unit w/lesson planContinue book talks and book reviewsContinue strategies for teaching lit