tips for dealing with the logistics of the log

Tips for Dealing with the Logistics of the Log

How to begin?

Have your program approved by your regional English inspector.

If you have chosen to teach the texts on the Bagrut

exam , you also need to notify your English inspector of that.

Teach those pieces that you like best. This way you’ll give the best of yourself.

Get acquainted with all the materials on the pieces you want to teach.

Calculate how many lessons you will need to cover each unit.

Work as a team or very closely with a colleague to share the workload.

Adjust your program to suit your students’ level, needs and interests.

Plan the program and schedule for teaching the texts and genres either as a team or individually, as best fits your school.

Plan ahead:

Once you start teaching:

Remind your students that they MUST write the work for the Logs in their OWN handwriting. Encourage them to write as neatly as possible.

Decide on the rules about making up work and/or improving their work, within a time frame.

Be Organized

Have the students use a two–ring binder to keep all of their work together.

Assess each piece of work as it is completed; do NOT let units of work get backlogged. Remember: you need to grade only the Summative Assessment and one additional component.

Keep an organized record of literary texts that the student has studied, completed and that you have marked.

This is VERY important especially in case there is change of teacher or the student moves classes or schools! Since you NEVER know when that can happen, be prepared!

Piece:

StudentPre-reading

Basic understanding

Analysis Bridging

Post readingReflectionTestParticipation

Unit Grade

Log pts

Pts so far

The Components of a Unit

Suggestions

Common misunderstandings

Pre-reading

Examples: Brainstorm, a song, a video clip, a drama activity, discussion about a picture, answering a thought-provoking question and then sharing the answers, etc.

It is NOT – teaching vocabulary, teaching grammar, or reading the piece (!).

It is generally not appropriate for this component to be the graded task.

Basic Understanding Reading the piece, teaching vocabulary, asking

questions to make sure the students understand the basic plot. (Who, what, where, when? Not “why?” if it involves drawing a conclusion)

If the piece is long, teach it in chunks – teach vocabulary and ask questions after each chunk, rather than after the entire story.

If you are using a textbook, you can choose the questions vocabulary exercises that you think are useful for your students.

Basic Understanding (cont.)

Let them make up questions for each other, or check each other’s answers.

If you see that they have a good understanding of the story, move on. It is not necessary to beat the piece to death!

If you want to use this component as a graded task, ask your students to tell the story briefly, or describe one of the characters. Don’t give a vocabulary quiz.

Analysis and Interpretation

Choose one of the HOTS which is actually useful in analyzing the particular piece you are teaching.

First, present this HOTS explicitly – not in connection with the text. This activity should be quick, experiential, and memorable. – a joke, a video clip, a picture, etc.

Analysis and Interpretation (cont.)

Next, use the HOTS to get to a deeper understanding of the piece. *Examine the motivation of one or more of the characters for their action * Compare and contrast two characters

* Notice a pattern of behavior of a character so as to predict his/her next move * infer meaning from certain lines of dialogue to understand a character’s thoughts, etc.


This is the component to teach a literary term or two. Even if many literary terms are appropriate, choose only one or two new terms to teach, so they will be remembered.

Ask other questions which require HOTS to answer, only naming the HOTS if it has been taught previously.


You can use a thought provoking question in this component for the graded task

You can incorporate drama activities to illustrate the HOTS in analyzing the story

The graded task should not be a list of questions to answer.

Bridging Text and Context

Making the connection between factual background information or a quote by the author and the piece.

Watch Bari’s presentation to understand how to do this!

Relating information to the text can be the graded task. Do not give a quiz on the background information.

Post Reading

This is a personal, creative task which shows you that the student has thoroughly understood the piece.

Examples:

* Write a page in the diary of one of the characters

Post Reading

* Write what you would do if you were in the situation of one of the characters

* Tell the story ( or a scene from the story) from a different point of view from which it is told ( a different character narrates, or an objective narrator if the story is told in the first person .

Post Reading (cont.)

*A dramatic enactment of one of the scenes * an artistic representation of one of the scenes with a written or oral

explanation

*Make a PowerPoint presentation or video clip representing the story or poem.

Rubric for grading post reading task

Activity clearly shows connections with the text.

Activity integrates information from different parts of the text.

All information is relevant and accurate. Content is well organized. Message is clear.

Important points about grading the post reading task:

Note that there are NO points added or subtracted for artistic or dramatic excellence. All content points should be given according to the elements in the rubric.

If the activity is artistic or dramatic, there must be a written element or individual oral explanation if you want this to be the graded task.

Doing the written task in class assures that the student is giving you his own work.

Summative Assessment

5 points: 20 points – LOTS questions – can include vocabulary50 points – HOTS questions plus

literary terms. 30 points – Bridging Text and Context question – this must include the bridging information or quote

Pure grammar questions are not appropriate!

Summative Assessment- 4 points :

36 points – LOTS questions – can include vocabulary

40 points – HOTS questions plus literary terms.

24 points – Bridging question – this must include the bridging information or quote

Pure grammar questions are not appropriate

Reflection 3 or 4 questions about the learning process: 1-2 personal question(s) –

*Did you enjoy reading the piece? Why or why not?*Do you identify with/ agree with the message of the piece? Why? Why not?

* Copy a line or sentence from the piece to which you had a strong reaction. Explain

why.

Reflection (cont.) 1 question about the usefulness of using the HOTS

to analyze the piece or the bridging information to understand the influences on the author when writing the piece.

Example: *How does using the skill X help the

reader understand the story/poem on a deeper level?

*How does knowing about X help us understand what may have inspired the writer to write this piece?

Reflection (cont.)

1 question about the usefulness of the HOTS in life in general or other subjects in school, or about knowing background information, in general, or in other subjects in school.

Important!! In this component, we do NOT test the students on anything they have learned in the unit. We also do NOT grade this component. We do write a comment after reading the reflection.

General tips

Your students should use dividers to separate the work done on the units, and the units should appear in the order they were taught. This way you can see their improvement as the module progresses.

The first page of each unit should be the unit chart/checklist which indicates (very) briefly what was done for each component, what grades were received, and the final grade for the unit.

Description of taskIn Log?

grade

Pre-reading Activity

Basic Understanding

Analysis and Interpretation

Bridging Text and Context

Post-reading Activity

Reflection

Test

Participation

Unit Grade

Points for Log

Points so far

You do not have to check every item in the log, but there should be some indication that you have seen the page – a checkmark in the corner, a comment about one mistake, etc.

There should be a rubric on each graded task:

5 points- 4 points-

content 80-_______ 90-_______

accuracy 20 - ______ 10- ______

Reality check

If you feel overwhelmed and drowning, you are probably doing much too much grading, and/or giving your students too much work!

If you are spending more than 8 lessons on a poem, even with a weak class, something is wrong. ( Too many questions, too many tasks, too much analyzing, etc)

Reality check

If you are spending more than 12 lessons on a story ( unless it is a really long story), you have chosen a story that is too difficult for your class, or you are demanding too much work.

Both you and your students should be enjoying this module! The most important thing is the literature itself.

Questions?

Thanks for listening!

tips for dealing with the logistics of the log

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