Me again. The other things I have done from the book so far are a theme swtich and a setting switch. I did these with "Song of the Trees" as well. I had them think of themes that were opposite the actual themes and then talk about how the story would be different. Their responses were short, usually just a paragraph or so, but I overall I was impressed. They seemed to easily be able to switch themes. I also had them do a setting switch. They did OK, but their answers were not as thoughtful as they were on the theme switch. I attribute this mostly to the fact that we mainly discussed theme with this story, not much about setting.
I am going to continue to do these, though. They did a good job.

Well. I am finally getting around to posting about my experience with the Patterned Partner Read on p. 42. I made guidesheets for each kid telling them where to pause in the reading and what to do when they paused (discuss, sketch, predict. etc.). I had them read aloud in pairs. It took 2-3 class days since we did it with "Song of the Trees," which is long.
I was very pleased with their results. First of all, practically everyone turned it in (some of the usual suspects did not, of course) ! I think reading with a partner held them more accountable. I also think they were more engaged during reading since they had to pause every so often and do something with the reading. Their answers were good and well thought out for the most part. Their scores on this assignment were higher than some of the other comprehension type exercises I have had them do individually. I would definitely do this again. Next time, I may stick to one type of activity to do as they read. Maybe all "read, pause, discuss" or "read, pause, sketch" or whatever. It was a good assignment, and they loved reading in partners, of course.

Our Next Reading

In our PLC meeting today, it was agreed that we would endeavor to read chapters five and six by Monday, April 6th.

Read on.

Blog on.

I will learn to resize pictures so they are not obnoxiously large.

Soon.

Getting my Feet Wet

I started teaching critical literacy (in its official form) this week. (Obvs we've all been doing it in some form when we talk about point of view or when we regularly discuss the story and deepen comprehension, but yano...)

I used The Giving Tree to start. Interestingly, students didn't make the connection that the tree symbolized the mother, and I had to further nudge them to infer that having the mother and son as the only characters might have been because the author was trying to show that in some cases the mother's whole world is her kid/s (nudge as in I led them there, they still didn't make the leap, so I told them). I figure this is kind of their first exposure, so by me directly telling them is a way of doing a Think Aloud, or mental modeling. I'm expecting that with more and more examples, I will have to nudge less.

Today I showed them the movie trailers (Beth made one cd, so I've got it & you are welcome to it). The students LOVED that and it visually represented to them the concepts that I was talking about. I highly recommend doing this.

After the movie trailers I started reading The Wretched Stone. Before I even started reading, students picked up that the word "wretched" was preparing us for something bad. Also, there is a picture of a sailor on the front cover who looks like he is on the verge of falling off the boat. They picked up on that as also carrying a negative meaning.

I think it's going along great so far! I've got some more things planned, including using some other media as well as more texts. I'll comment more about how that goes later.

Also, I think that it is fortunate this critical literacy discussion is happening prior to the unit on persuasion. We're studying how authors subtley position the reader in our discussions on critical literacy and then students will use some of those characteristics as they think about swaying a specific audience.

Thoughts on "Challenging the Text"

One of the first things that struck me about this chapter was how critical literacy is completely tied to inquiry. This could be a great interdisciplinary link for our students, since inquiry is such a hot topic in science. I can see how infusing critical literacy into our English and reading classes may reach some of the students who haven't really latched on to reading, but like subjects more often linked with discovery.

The problem-posing questions on pages 64 and 65 will be a huge help as I start weaving critical literacy into my teaching. With my particular group of students, I think using a familiar text and starting with one or two questions will help them begin to make sense of what it means to challenge a text. Questions one and four would be most familiar for my students. Then, of course, questions two and three logically follow question one if I really want students to think critically. I'll likely tie these questions back to point of view. We all see the world through our own eyes and experiences. Authors do too. Helping students make that connection may empower them to challenge the text.

There were two activities in particular from this chapter that I'd like to incorporate into my classes. The first is on page 74, where Perez had her students make "posters of things that the Rainbow Fish could have said to the other fish when they asked him to share his scales" and then asked them to dramatize "an alternative to Rainbow Fish's encounter with other fish." The reason I latched onto this activity is because it's great for language learners. It not only incorporates reading, writing, and speaking; it also lends itself well to having students practice specific language structures (the conditional and responding to various types of questions). The other activity I really liked was the mind portrait Homeyer used with Number the Stars.

Planning Stages

Well, I think I'm going to jump head first into critical literacy. I'm going to start teaching it to my Reading singleton and see how it goes. I think for my first venture I'm pretty much going to try using the resources they suggested. I'll start with The Giving Tree, then go a little bit more in depth with the problem posing questions (there is a chart somewhere in the book that has specific points beneath each question asked), probably use the Harry Potter example (although that will require 30 pages of students being read to), and then ask students to try the strategy with a partner/small group using The Wretched Stone (by the way--Canto, can I borrow your copy?). Because I don't have our lit book in front of me, I'm not sure where it goes from there, but I think that might be a good start to a conversation that will hopefully last throughout the rest of the year.

Anecdote Time

All this talk of critical literacy and who or what is missing from a text reminds of a book discussion group I was in back in college. Our assigned text was "The Scarlet Letter", and the demographics of our group were four women and one man. 

We all got together one afternoon to have deep, edifying discussion about the book but soon found ourselves at loggerheads about the simplest of questions: Who is the protagonist? The women in the group all rolled our eyes and let out a collective, "Duh, Hester Prynne." 

"No, she's not," the lone man in our group opined. "It's Dimmesdale. He's the main character. The book's all about him."

We went back and forth for a good hour or so, both sides arguing how its character was so OBVIOUSLY the protagonist, and neither side willing to budge an inch. We called him a misogynist. He told us we were simplistic. It was one of the most frustrating conversations I've ever been in. 

Looking at it now, I see that, though I still INSIST that book's about Hester, taking a moment to consider his arguments for Dimmesdale as protagonist could have added to my understanding of the book. 

I had always looked at the Rev. Dimmesdale as a plot device - just someone needed to get Hester pregnant and set the story in motion. I hadn't really looked at the arc of his story or considered his motivations and the effects the events of the novel had on him. His is a compelling story, as is Hester's; making room to consider BOTH of them would broaden, not diminish, my understanding of the text. 

I guess the thing to remember is that, just as the author writes the text as him or herself, we read as ourselves. Our prejudices and perspectives influence where we chose to focus our attention. We benefit from another set of eyes to challenge us to look in the nooks and crannies of the text that we may tend to skim over.

Well, look who's on the cover ...