Teaching the Text

Your group will be teaching (not presenting) your assigned text for a class period.  A reading schedule is on the other side of this sheet.

 

  1. Make sure that your entire group has read and understood the story.  I’m sure that a discussion will be necessary.
  2. Determine what skills you want to focus on with this story.

 

Skills Covered This Semester

Looking at literature through literary lenses; identifying and applying literary devices; examining an author’s style (consider diction, syntax, and overall structure); imitating author’s techniques in our own writing; noticing punctuation’s effect on a text; developing and supporting thesis statements; discovering an author’s tone, a story’s mood, or the reliability of a story’s narrator; connecting texts to other genres of art; using a critical article written on the story in order to gain new understanding of that story, the art of persuasion and the different appeals, the rhetorical triangle, etc.

Why do we use these skills when looking at a text?

We use these skills in order to gain a deeper understanding of the text.  Don’t forget to ask: What is the impact of the literary devices, of the author’s style, on the text?

 

  1. Develop a lesson plan: one that will help the class understand the story and practice at least one of the skills above.  Really, “and” is not the right conjunction there: by practicing one of the skills above, the class will better understand the story!  Consider doing one of the activities listed below, or develop one of your own.

 

Activities We’ve Done This Semester

Socratic seminar, fishbowl, silent discussion, Quaker reading, questioning, group discussions/presentations, journaling (both creative and analytical), writing paragraphs that imitate authors’ styles, creating games that evoke higher level thinking (no Jeopardy! please), quote analysis, skits, analyzing something in another genre (painting, advertisement, poem, etc).

 

  1. Make sure that you let students know the day before your lesson if they need to do something at home other than just read the text (i.e. prepare for a Socratic or trace a certain literary element).
  2. Assessment: Make sure that you develop a reading quiz (or other written something) that will assess students’ reading.  Also, make sure that you contribute to your group—you will be “sharing the money.”
  3. If you need any handouts copied, I need them the day before the presentations begin.
  4. Being an Audience Member: You need to make sure that you keep up with the reading.  Follow the schedule on the other side of this sheet: if a story is on May 28th, that means that you walk into class on the 28th having read the story.

 

A Little Inspiration…

I know.  Late May. June fatigue. Brain drifting. Summer.  (Note my use of fragments to parallel the fragmented, desperate feeling of the end of the year).  This project is your opportunity to apply what you’ve learned—show me sophisticated literary analysis!  I am excited to see what you do!  (I know, overuse of the exclamation point: I am trying to convey an excited tone).

 

Schedule:

 

May 24th: Choose teaching assignments, finish non-fiction writing, start reading.

May 25th: Comparison essays due. Plan lesson. This is late start, so short period.  You’ll be off to the textbook window to get The Catcher in the Rye so make sure other books are in.

May 26th:  Intro to Catcher.  Plan lesson.

May 27th: “Hostage” (blue book)

May 28th: “Teenage Wasteland” (blue book)

May 31st: No school – Memorial Day.

June 1st: “A&P”

June 2nd: Catcher commentary 1 – in class.

June 3rd: Catcher discussion/activities

June 4th: “Everything Stuck to Him”

June 7th: “The Fish”

June 8th:  In class commentary for second half of Catcher and discussion

June 9th: Catcher Socratic and final discussion.

June 10th: “The Case for Official English” and “Why Fear Spanish?” (nonfiction, blue book)

June 11th: “Harrison Bergeron”

June 14th: Writing your college essay 1

June 15th:  “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”

June 16th: “Why I Live at the P.O.”

June 17th: “The Chrysanthemums” or College essay day 2

June 18th: College essay day 2 or 3 and review for Monday.

June 21st: College essay due (this quarter’s writer’s workshop). Timed writing on surprise short story.

June 22nd: Final block:  portfolio adjustment and reflection (bring all writing), year end review.

Good luck (good skill, really) in English 4 AP and beyond!