kyle mc lpa 2
TRANSCRIPT
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Midnight's Children Day 6: Goodreads Review Activity (Computer Lab)
Time
50 minutes
Setting
This course is a Senior elective entitled "Literature from Around the World." It consists of 25
students, 10 male and 15 female. 10 students are white while 8 are African America. 6 are
Latino/a, and one student is Asian. Five of the Latino students are bilingual Spanish speakers, but
they are not classified as ELL. One student has ADHD. All students are of varied ability.
Theory into Practice/BackgroundNow that students have completed their historical context jigsaw projects, it is important for
them to reflect back on Walsh's text and evaluate its effectiveness in developing a cursory
understanding of the history of India. One of the resources that students will use in this lesson is
a video clip of Salman Rushdie appearing on the Colbert Reportto discuss the importance of
literary criticism. As Rushdie points out, with the huge volume of texts that are being released
every year, it is almost impossible to find the really good work in all of the others. While
Rushdie's comments are mostly related to the work of professional literary critics, I thought that
this problem, the crisis of a lack of substantive literary criticism could be something that students
could work to alleviate. This lesson has students read and compose goodreads.com reviews for
Judith Walsh'sA Brief History of India as a way of not only interacting with the sphere of
literary discourse in an authentic way but also to see that there exists an available and appropriate
public forum where their thoughts and ideas about what they read can be valued.
One of the prevailing themes in the theory that we have studied within this course is the
idea that students must be given a voice to negotiate meaning and to formulate powerful
connections to a larger community. As Burke puts it, students need to have "the ability to
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navigate a variety of settings with people with similar or dissimilar views; being able to
communicate in a variety of ways to achieve positive outcomes" (17) Faltis and Coulter describe
this same process by nothing that "Wider community contexts are tied into and built upon, as
English learners become participants in questioning and redesigning local contexts and beyond"
(40) While they are speaking about ESL students, their sentiments can be appropriately
extrapolated to apply to all students and the need to give students the opportunity to use their
knowledge make an impact on the larger community. While it is true that students often use
other social media outlets to connect with this community, this lesson allows them to dovetail
their mastery of those communal spheres with a more substantive academic purpose. One of the
advantages to using goodreads.com as opposed to using Amazon or another site is that it is
constituted by a community of readers first and foremost. This is a space in which, as English
instructors, we should encourage students to feel comfortable engaging. Another benefit to this
lesson is that if it is repeated throughout the day with multiple class periods and even used from
year to year, students will have the opportunity to speak directly to the comments of their peers
and even look across time to gain perspectives from previous students.
Objectives
Students will become familiar with where to find the historical information for the unit. They
will also be able to synthesize information from online reviews and compose their own reviews
of texts. They will also become acquainted with the goodreads.com site, a tremendous resource
for anyone who loves books.
Materials
This class will take place in the computer lab so that each student may have access to an internet
connected computer.
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Preparation
The teacher should have the Historical Context Packets completely arranged and ready to
distribute. The web browser should feature tabs of the course website where the presentations are
available, the link to the Colbert Reportinterview with Salman Rushdie
(http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/86627/may-09-2007/salman-rushdie),
and the goodreads.com page for Judith Walsh'sA Brief History of India.
Procedure
The teacher begins by distributing the Historical Context Packets that were formulated from the
student presentations from the previous week. The teacher takes a few minutes to go over the
organization of the packets and demonstrate how information in the packet can be cross checked
with information out of the book by choosing an event, looking it up inA Brief History of India,
and reading the passage aloud. The teacher must then press upon students the importance of
keeping this packet in a very safe place where it can be accessed quickly for in-class purposes
and for the purposes of writing the weekly journal assignments. Next, the teacher shows the
students the course website where the presentations and audio recordings are located and also
directs them to a link where a replacement copy of the Historical Context Packet can be
downloaded. 10 minutes.
Next, the teacher shows the students the Colbert Reportclip featuring Salmon Rushdie
discussing the importance of literary criticism. Students are then asked to summarize what Mr.
Rushdie's feelings on literary criticism are and why he feels that it is so important. 10 minutes
The teacher then directs students to the goodreads.com entry on Judith Walsh'sA Brief History
of India. Students will need to take a few moments to set up an account to view the site fully as
well as to upload their own reviews later on.There they can look at reviews written by users of
Amazon about the book. Students are asked to find two reviews: one positive and one negative
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and compare the two. They will write the answers to the following questions which will be listed
on the board: "What is the average star rating for this book? Do you agree with that rating?
What aspects of the reviews do you agree with? Which do you do not? Pretend that you
had not read Walsh's book. Based on the majority of the reviews on this page, would you
be inclined to read it? Why or why not? Now, consider your own reading from the text.
What aspects did you enjoy? Which did you feel were weak? Now, write your own review
of this text and assign it a star rating. Be sure to rationalize your rating in your review
based on the following criteria: writing style, how informative was the text, was
information confusing or easy to follow, and did you enjoy reading the book." Once
students have completed all aspects of the assignment, they are to email the document with their
answers to the teacher and upload their review on to Amazon for the benefit of future readers. 30
minutes
Discussion Ideas
What are Mr. Rushdie's feelings about literary criticism and why does he feel that way?
How can we contribute to improving the dialogue about literature ?
What aspects of the reviews do you agree with? Which do you do not? Pretend that you had not
read Walsh's book. Based on the majority of the reviews on this page, would you be inclined to
read it? Why or why not? Now, consider your own reading from the text. What aspects did you
enjoy? Which did you feel were weak?
Accommodations
ESL: As was stated in the Theory into Practice section, this lesson falls into the realm of one of
Faltis and Coulter's "Commitments in Practice" by giving students the opportunity to utilize their
knowledge and share their voice with a local community and beyond.
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ADHD: The student is allowed to wear headphones to block out the noise of other students
during individual work time. This student will also need to be monitored closely to make sure
that they are making effective use of class time. The teacher must be extremely vigilant as
computers provide a whole range of additional distracters for the student.
Assessment
The reviews will be evaluated based on a check-plus, check, check-minus system.
Check-plus: Student answered all questions with great care and serious thought. The review
would likely be helpful for someone wanting to know if the book was right for them.
Check: Student attempted to answer the questions, but the review is not thought out enough to be
entirely helpful.
Check-minus: Student did not address all of the questions, and the review is not thought out
enough to be entirely helpful.
Extension Ideas
Once students have completed reading Midnight's Children, we will perform this assignment
again for that text. Students should be encouraged to utilize this practice at every opportunity to
help elevate the dialogue about literature on the internet.
Source of Activity
Jason Peterson was chiefly responsible for the inception of this activity. Liana Cabrera and
Caitlin Stevenson also made very helpful contributions.
Resources and References
Burke, J. The English Teacher's Companion: A complete guide to classroom, curriculum, and
the profession, (3rd ed). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 2007
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The Colbert Report. Perf. Stephen Colbert and Salman Rushdie. Viacom, 2007.
Colbertnation.com. Comedy Central, 9 May 2007. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.
.
Faltis, Christian, and Cathy Coulter. Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in
Secondary Schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.
Walsh, Judith E.A Brief History of India. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Illinois State English Language Arts Goals
1.C.5c Critically evaluate information from multiple sources.
Not only will students be writing reviews in which they evaluate the writings of Judith
Walsh, they will also be critically evaluating the contributions of other users of the site and
synthesizing information from reviews to inform their own response.
3.B.5 Using contemporary technology, produce documents of publication quality for
specific purposes and audiences; exhibit clarity of focus, logic of organization, appropriate
elaboration and support and overall coherence.
This activity requires students to use technology and to engage in an unconventional form
of publication. Students will be responding both as individuals and as representatives of the
class, so providing a positive representation through coherence and clarity will be paramount.