Creating Reading/Writing Workshops

Workshopping Night

           This workshop narrative will provide an outline on how I plan to workshop the canonical text, Night by Elie Wiesel. Using a wide variety of instructional methods that correlate with the workshop approach illustrated by Dr. Styslinger and other scholars. Some of the focus questions for this unit will include How do we as a society come to terms with our past and present patterns of Genocide?, How does the genre of Memoir help society understand the struggle between memory, loss, and survival?, and lastly, Can Genocide or the act of “otherness” be a part of our human nature? These questions will foster a wider and broader conversation that include various cultural perspectives as the students read Night and their book club books.

            To introduce this unit, I want to use a few different strategies, but focusing on reader response and background information. I would do a quick anticipation guide that has questions focused on the multiple themes that they will encounter while reading Night. I would like to read a loud the picture book The Wall, which will also further conversation into the themes we will discuss in the book. Because the Holocaust is something that the students have probably already encountered, I want to know what they already know about it from a historical perspective. I think having a few small informational texts that define or illustrate the major points of WWII and the Holocaust will help students understand the historical significance.

            For the reading workshop students will understand that book clubs will happen every Thursday or every other Thursday. Students will be able to choose between the memoirs that I have provided and select their top three as well as picking one person that they would ideally like to have in their book club. Also on Tuesday and Thursday, the bellringer will always be independent reading in which students will be given 15 minutes to read independently. Ideally this would be their memoirs for book clubs, but if they are on pace with their group or ahead, they can definitely read something else. Book clubs will offer several functions for the class. The students will use have several different reading strategies that they will employ, which will depend upon the week. Before Thursday we will have tried that specific reading strategy as a class during our in class reading of Night. I want the students to use book clubs to look at the journey their character goes through and make connections with Elie’s journey. I want students to think about the significance of all of these stories and their connection to the continuining issue of genocide.

            Since this is a reading and writing workshop class, students will be expected to write about literature as well as creative. Since this is a memoir piece and most of their book clubs fall underneath that genre, students will have to write their own memoir in which they will take this through the whole writing process. Students will be able to use Fridays as our writing workshop day. This also will ideally allow me to have students look at author’s craft and the elements of writing a memoir. Also, this will allow me tackle grammar in an authentic context and focused on grammar mini-lessons that they need help with to elevate writing their memoir. To begin with writing a memoir, I would use either a rambling autobiography or a six-word memoir to get the kids thinking about specific moments in their lives.

            We will not read Night cover to cover and will probably skip a few parts in the middle of the book. As we start reading the book, I would like to read aloud and do some modeling as to what questions arise as I read and show the students my process as a reader. Even though students might not have experience with genocide, I think the emotions that Elie Wiesel presents in book are definitely relatable to some students. Through different strategies, students will constantly be asked or prodded to make personal connections.

            I love socratic seminars and whole group discussion; however, I realize ninth graders will need heavy scaffolding into that process. I want to discuss and show examples of how literature circles work and my expectations for talking about or through literature. In order for students to feel safe and comfortable talking about and through literature, I would employ a strategy called Finding the Poem by Probst. I would use this strategy with several poems that we will look through over the course of this unit. The poems would be cut up into strips of paper in which the students will randomly select from and will be instructed to find a partner who might have the same line in the poem. After students figure out the poems, I would like them to have mini socratic circles for each poem and in that group they will discuss the poem for meaning. This would take multiple days because after the students would combine into a larger socratic circle that compares the poems and what the groups discussed. I would also include some questions for the groups that will scaffold them from personal response to critical synthesis and formal analysis. Somewhere in the middle of the unit, I would like to have students do a formal Socratic seminar in which we will go back to those unit focus questions and start broadening our perspective. Using their books from book club as well as the informational text presented throughout the novel, students will discuss the act of genocide.

            Another text that I would love the whole class to read segments of is Art Speigelman’s MAUS.  I think that this book compliments Night very well and I could do both read alouds as well as have students read sections independently. This is also a great book for group work and group conversations. Starting off with the book, I want students to analyze the way Art Spiegelman artistically represents the Holocaust and the story of his father. I want students to explore the propaganda and the animal stereotype. If approved, I would like to include how Jewish humor and stereotypes still persist in todays society by showing clips from Family Guy and South Park. Students would look at the different animal imagery he uses and further discussion on current stereotypes. Students will think about stereotypes create a sense of otherness and really analyze human nature’s role in creating and perpetuating acts of genocide.

Another way that I would use MAUS would be to help engage students in using their critical synthesis skills and reading strategies that allow them to close read the text, I would have them compare the two texts by looking at how memory pervades throughout the two texts and what they signify to the text. This came from the memory signpost activity and I would have students specifically look at Art’s father and their relationship. Students will analyze this in groups and then have whole group discussion on their findings as well as talk about the way in which memory provides insight to the reader about those characters or situations. Along with this concept of memory and re-telling past, students will read an article that highlights the suicide rate of genocide survivals and the issue of survival’s guilt. The book talks a great deal about memory as well as living with the things we have done or seen.

I love teaching through film and other multi media platforms; however, it is very difficult to show certain films that will potentially have graphic portrayals of the Holocaust or genocide. Even though I believe that students who are reading this kind of material can equally handle seeing it, I will proceed with caution based on school policy and student’s maturity or appropriateness level. One film I would love to use would be clips of Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. If I have to change these due to school restrictions, I would still show the students Oprah’s interview with Elie Wiesel as they go through the concentration camp and talk about writing the book and his amazing journey. I think it is a very powerful documentary to watch especially towards the end of the novel. Correlating with the interview, I would like students to read his statement from when he won the Nobel piece prize. It is very short, yet impactful and sums up despair, hope, and resilience. Surprisingly, there was more music related to genocide than I had thought and I would love for students to listen about how musicians are interpreting and expressing their feelings or opinions on issues of Genocide.

Workshopping this unit and book was more difficult because of the endless possibilities. This book presents so many different aspects to human nature and explores so many deep themes. Even though this is a rough outline, I would monitor and adjust depending on where my students interests lay because they might be more fascinated with issues concerning the bystander, loss, memory rather than genocide as a whole. I do think it is important for them to talk about and consider; however, I want to see what part of his history resonates with them and go from there in terms of coming up with daily focused plans. Workshopping the canon really does allow the teacher and students to experience a text in a more broad context. I don’t want students to compartmentalize the information that they will learn through reading Night and really push their thinking into the world that they are living in.

Organizing Units with Literature

Herz, S. & Gallo, D. From Hinton to Hamlet: building bridges between young adult literature and the classics.
Assorted Authors, Blackboard Readings and Handouts.
Probst, Response and Analysis.


Say:

Well I though the building bridges article was perhaps one of the most useful resources for creating unit lesson plans I've seen. I feel like this whole semester can be culminated into using synergistic texts for a more authentic/transactional relationship with literature. It was concise and gave a great variety with comparing texts. As the teacher, it is important to know the larger goal for the unit and answering the 'so what' question; it is important for students to know and understand that as well. Obviously organizing units around not only a canonical text, but a variety of texts allows for book clubs and literature circles to happen. More importantly, I think it allows for students to see literature within a larger scope and hopefully they are able to see the connections across all genres. The biggest thing I've come to realize when it comes to using YA and classics is that it opens up so many doors into doing things that make my students critical thinkers as well as hitting the standards and going beyond them. The Herz and Gallo article highlights that thematic approaches allow students to talk about archetypes. I feel like students usually compartmentalize information, which doesn't allow them to make connections across different texts and using YA can do it. I do think it is our responsibility to weed through the YA genre and make specific choices for YA texts that are rich and can create those conversations. When looking at these thematic text sets, probst points out that a teacher can create too broad or too narrow of a selection, which can lead to a certain type of inquiry. This was interesting to me because I didn't really think about how my choices in these selections will kind of guide and designate a course of inquiry for my students. I'm realizing how tricky it is to find that perfect balance in selecting a broad enough topic that will allow them to have independent inquiry, yet not all over the place and no connections to the canonical text. Analyzing archetypes can also be shown through film. The Author Paper described in the article reminded me of my English 101 professor, who for the final wrote 3 titles on the white board. He instructed us that we had to write an analytical essay comparing the texts. Throughout the year we had worked on units such as plays, short stories and I remember he made us think about each work in tangent with the others. It really was awesome to see the connections between works and the same could be applied for using the same author. 

I've heard a lot of secondary teachers express frustration about the level of their student's reading abilities and it hard when you realize the wide variety of levels your students can be on. You have to tackle motivation and purpose. Many students lack the motivation to read in general so it doesn't make sense to hand them Shakespeare without getting them to see the purpose or motivation in reading Shakespeare. Getting them to look through the a feminist lens could and other books could motivate them. Scaffolding students with children's books and YA novels give students a new interaction with literature and boost their confidence so they can see themselves as readers. If a teacher centers themselves around a theme, then literature circles and book clubs are clear ways to best utilize and maximize time. If I sift through all the different theme sets that the chapter present as well as include the other resources, they seem to all be very similar; looking at themes of war, utopian/dystopian, loss of innocence, the hero/journey. All of these patterns are super important for fostering critical thinkers. Noticing the patterns in literature and possibly having conversation about the larger human experience is really the great part about reading. Even more importantly, we are trying to establish a group of readers who can talk about literature and the world around them. 



Do:   

Looking through all of these resources definitely helped me think about my resource collection. I love having all this material; however, it is a little daunting because I found that there were so many different possibilities I could do depending on my thematic focus. 

Night by Elie Wiesel

Themes: Identity, Memory, Dehumanization, Loss, Survival

Essential questions:

1.     How do we as a society come to terms with our past and present patterns of Genocide?

2.     How does the genre of Memoir help society understand the struggle between memory, loss, and survival?

3. Can Genocide or the act of ‘otherness’ be a part of our human nature?  

Young Adult Novels:

Lois, L. (1989). Number the Stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Frank, A. (1958). Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Hosseini, K. (2003). The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books.

Boyne, J. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. London: David Fickling Books.

Yousafzai, M. (2013) I Am Malala. London: Orion Publishing Group.  

Mankell, H (2003). Secrets in the Fire. Toronto: Annick Press.

Mikaelsen, B. (2004). Tree Girl. New York: Harper Tempest.

Music:

R.E.M (1986). “The Flowers of Gautemala” Lifes Rich Pageant. I.R.S.

Bob Marley(1977) “Exodus.” Exodus. Island Records.

Indigo Girls (1994) “The Train Revised.” Swamp Ophelia. Hollywood Records.

System of a Down (1998) “P.L.U.C.K.” System of a Down. Sony Music Entertainment.

Sinead O’Connor (1994).“Famine”. Universal Mother. Ensign Records.

Informational / Explanatory and Argument Text:

Documentary: Elie Wiesel: First Person Singular       https://www.schooltube.com/video/7d5afe2a261101d87e45/.

Wiesel, E. (1986). “Hope, Despair, Memory”. Nobel Lecture. Retrieved from

www.nobelprize.org.  

Ruth, J. “The Sense of Guilt within Holocaust Survivors”(1970). The Sense of Guilt

within Holocaust Survivors. Jewish Social Studies, 32(4), 307–314. Retrieved from            http://www.jstor.org/stable/4466613.

Möller, F.. (2010). Rwanda Revisualized: Genocide, Photography, and the Era of the

Witness. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 35(2), 113–136. Retrieved from      http://www.jstor.org/stable/40645290.

Timeline of Genocide 20^th-21^st century. Retrieved from

 http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/98018/Genocides-within-The-20th-21st

Century/#vars!date=2017-02-16_18:52:57!

Mamdani, M. (2007). “The Politics of Naming.” Retrieved from

            http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n05/mahmood-mamdani/the-politics-of-naming-genocide-civil-war-insurgency.

Movies:

Herman, M. (Director). (2009). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Miramax Home Entertainment.  

Spielberg, S. (Director). (2004). Schindler’s List. Universal.  

Jewison, N. (Director). (1971). Fiddler on the Roof. MGM.

Streep, M. (Director). (1999). Sophie’s Choice. Live Entertainment.  

Art:

Komski, J. “Ecce Homo.” Retrieved from remember.org/komski/komski-paintings1-004

Nath V. (1980) “Classroom Turned Prison.” Retrieved from

www.museumsyndicate.comitem.php?item=24744.

Pablo, P. (1937). “Echoes of Guernica.” Retrieved from

www.legacy-project.org/index.php?exhibID=4&page=exhib_intro. 

Poetry:

Martin Niemoller, (1950)“First They Came For the Jews”. Retrieved from

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/poems_paintings.asp

Primo Levi,(1976) “Shema”. Retrieved from  http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/poems_paintings.asp

Paul Celan, (N.D) “Psalm” Retrieved from

            http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/poems_paintings.asp

Short Stories:

Mansfield, K. (1922) “The Fly”. The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield.  

O’Connor, F. (1955). “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. New York: Harcourt.

O’Brien, T. (N.D). “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy.” Retrieved from:

http://www.campbellhs.org/attachments/article/735/American%20Bag%203.pdf

Play or Graphic Novel:

Emmanuel, G. Lefevre, D. Frederic, L. (2003). The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders. New York: First Second.

Satrapi, M. (2000). Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books.

Speigelman, A. (1980). MAUS: A Survivors Tale. New York: Pantheon Books.

Picture Book:  

Bunting, E (1990). The Wall. New York: Clarion Books.

Reading and Writing Multiple Genre

Romano, T. (2000). Blending genre, altering style: writing multigenre papers. Portsmouth, NJ: Heinmann.

Allen, C. A. (2001). Create flow: Pulling in all together. In The multigenre research

            paper: Voice, passion, and discovery in grades 4-6 (pp. 96-99). Portsmouth, NH:

            Heinemann.

Styslinger, Multigenre-Multigendered Research Papers.

Blitz, Sara Teaching Literature through the Multigenre Paper: An Alternative to the Analytical Paper. 

Say:

Before this class, I had never heard of a multigenre paper. I've seen projects that touch on different areas/modes of expressing the students knowledge, but never really in this format. I loved the way the Romano article explained the beginnings of how multigenre papers came to be. I've never read Billy the Kid, but it definitely was interesting. The seperateness of each genre as a way to show seperate snapshots. The examples that the article showed was really helpful for me to get a grasp as to what this really looks like as an assignment. The premise of a multigenre paper really fits into a lot of different things we have discussed. Through narrative writings, the students are using experiences and other modes to express knowledge or comprehension. It definitely creates a more transactional experience with texts. This allows more creative thinking. Book clubs can be adaptable to this because each group could do a multigenre paper and divide and conquer (seems less threatening); also the article mentioned YA literature that served as a good example so book clubs could have a multigenre kind of theme to it. This also combines with writing/reading workshops with students having time to go through the writing process; however, this is stoical. Hearing from the variety of methods and adaptations that teachers used were really helpful to see how I can switch or modify for my personal use. 

The Allen article is a nice edition because since we are trying to do so many different genres, students need to be taught how to consider the reader and the flow of their paper. Also, multi genre papers allow students to think about the presentation and audience way more than the typical analytical paper. The article gives a lot of great ideas on how to have the kids consider tying in their paper and this made me think about author's craft. I feel like teachers could use this as a way to intertwine author's craft, but they are actually doing it! 

I thought Sara Blitz's breakdown of how she plans the multigenre paper for her students was very helpful. Seeing her goals and objects along with the detailed plans were really great! The only thing I didn't like or at least made me question was the topic that she gave for the research paper. In Styslinger's article, she narrowed the research paper down to focus on gender roles, which I loved, but Blitz was more broad, allowing students to do research on an author. I don't know why I had issues with that, but it made me wonder as to whether or not I would have to have a broad topic, like just researching an author, or can they have a more narrowed focus. I know she suggest individual multigenre pieces in the works of literature she presented that actually analyze the text, but I felt like researching an author is a little too mundane for a senior class. I just didn't really see the research part incorporated as much. I also felt like Styslinger's research paper allowed students to create a more real world experience in which students looked at a text and brought it into their personal space. Since research papers are informational, I think that it is important to keep in mind the problem/solving kind of method, where research papers are multigenre, but also incorporating ways students can create solutions with their research. 

DO: 
When I read through the material this week, I couldn't help but think about Vic's class. All of these writing assignments that are multigenre could also be writing invitations that are a part of literature circles, book clubs, or just daily writing assignments. I like scaffolding a multigenre paper by with writing assignments they've already done. This DO is kind of hard to imagine, but before I introduce the paper, I would have specific writing assignments during their reading and then they could choice these pieces for their multigenre paper. They do not have to use these for their final paper if they don't want to! 
Here are some of the writing assignments I would do to scaffold the kids into a multigenre paper. I have put these writing assignments with Night by Elie Weisel. 

1. Students can write a memoir piece, focusing on a small amount of time (similar to the time frame in the book). 
2. Recipe on how to survive in the camps. 
3. Students will pick a character, map out their progression through novel by writing a bill of sale/report of their number (similar to the way they kept 'bookings') 
4. Propoganda poster (it can be about Nazi or reflect on another genocide) 
5. (after reading MAUS) students can write comic strips on a scene/memory from the book. 
6. Diary entry of a character or a person who would be going through the camps.  

Reading and Writing Informational Texts

Get It Done! Writing and analyzing informational texts to make things happen Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Michael W. Smith, James E. Fredricksen 


Say:

For my internship, I opened the unit for informational texts and I definitely learned a lot about teaching informational texts. Wilhelm and Smith outline the different kind of explanatory and informational text structure, which was similar to what I taught my students. The book also notes that each of these structures shows a specific way of thinking. I think this is important for informational texts because even though structure isn't the most engaging thing to talk about with students, we need to show them the connection between how the writer crafted the text and what that means for us as readers. When I began the unit, I asked students their opinions/first thoughts on informational texts, they said it is boring and it is articles that just describe, tell you about something. I then kind of talked about all the informational texts they are given every day, not including school work, and that understanding those texts are super important for us as critical readers and consumers of information. The hierarchy of informational and exploratory text structure was interesting and I think I learned a different way of thinking about it because I strictly came from the typical informational, read articles way rather than exploratory texts. 

I liked the way the book set up each chapter and made it very practical and adaptable for various situations. I appreciate the lesson plans that they show because it helped me visualize how I could take these into my classroom. I felt like the summary chapter was key because with both my 8th/9th classes, they've sometimes struggle to find the main idea and perhaps this boils down to whether or not they know how to summarize something, which will help concisely pick out those big/main ideas. Describing is also brings in critical thinking because there are so many different possibilities as to how we can incorporate this, especially across multiple disciplines. The book notes a focus on process description, which reminded me of how we have talked about students thinking about their thinking. I thought the describe process was very similarly aligned with metacognition and thinking through different processes. I also thought the defining section was really nice because even though we always bring in abstract ideas that have multiple definitions, we don't really take the time to teach them how defining can be used in their writing as well as reading strategies. Compare and contrasts are used a lot and in different context, but they definitely take critical thinking skills. You can compare and contrast different perspectives on the same event or how different informational texts are composed. I never really thought about classification because it always sounded like it belonged in science; however, I definitely can see students benefiting from classifying different types of genres, styles, motifs, or characters. Cause and effect is probably my favorite especially to do with literature because I love looking at the characters from a psychological perspective; looking at their actions and thinking about what truly caused them to do a particular action is great! I think most students think cause and effect can be boring when talking about information text, but teaching them to craft their own cause and effect essays/writing assignment could be really engaging. Some have mentioned that teachers are doing problem-solving activities in their classroom and I wish I could really see it. I haven't had that much experience with problem solving and creating meaningful experiences for kids to create their own problem-solving writing project. 

The English Department at Dutch Fork Middle is very collaborative so the teachers come up with specific goals for their students. I worked with both CP and English I students so for CP, they were focused on skills such as main idea and finding bias, opinions, and facts within the informational texts. English I was specifically framed to focus on rhetoric and analyzing speeches. It is interesting to compartmentalize this unit because I feel like students fail to see the larger picture. Also, the strategies in the book seem to bridge between reading and writing informational/exploratory texts; however, I haven't really seen a lot of emphasis on writing informational/exploratory texts. I mean I had an amazing time analyzing articles and current events that went under informational text, but I didn't really think about the possibilities of getting them to write their own and create something with the text structures that we have been analyzing.  


DO: 

The one thing that I've done in my internship that involved informational text was using visual images as informational text. I am attatching the lesson plan I used in the class. I was trying to get students involved in analyzing the visual aspect of informational texts. It was definitely a great conversation starter and the students seemed to be engaged! 

Daily Lesson Plan

Instructor And Room #: Grooms 115	Date & Start-Stop Times:  11/2/15 55 min	Subject and Block/Period: 4th period 12:25-1:26		Unit and Topic: Informational Texts Main Idea
Student Objectives: Students will determine the main idea of visual images. Students will infer contextual meaning for visual images. Students will discuss the purpose of visual images as informational texts.			SC Standards/PACT/Common Core RI5: Determine meaning and develop logical interpretations by making predictions, inferring, drawing conclusions, analyzing, synthesizing, providing evidence, and investigating multiple interpretations. RI6: Summarize key details and ideas to support analysis of central ideas.
Items to Display as Agenda:  (Activities) Review Ch: 3 Notes with Kahoot! Visual image analysis (small groups)
Purpose: Opening Statement of Value for Day’s Lesson—the WHY The purpose of this lesson is for students to review and discuss how informational texts work within today’s society. Starting off with this unit, students will understand how informational texts relates to the world around them and the significance of being able to properly analyze the information presented to them. I want students to think about how visual images are considered a informational texts and how these visual images reflect parts of our society.
Lesson Procedures: (Introduction, Development, Conclusion)  Introduction: As students come into the class, they will be directed to open their chromebooks and log into nearpod(online note taker). I will have the slides/notes on nearpod for the informational text unit. I will tell students to reflect/review out loud some of the notes they took Friday. I will quickly go over the slides. Once students have finished reviewing, we will go over a Kahoot review (classwork grade). This is new stuff for them, so I will stop accordingly to what they miss/need more explanation. Development: Once we have gone through Kahoot, I will instruct students to put their chromebooks down, then I will say: “what are some types of visuals that are informational? Why do you think visuals are used to inform? What kind of information do they possible convey?” I will pull up the Kevin Carter photo of the Sudan child. “so this photo carried a lot of weight and one a Pulitzer prize for photography.” “How do we go about analyzing photos?” (I will model with starting with observations and write on SB) Then I want to model questioning, what do we not know, what are we left wondering about the photo? (students will also join in). So once we have gone through the photo, I will give them the background story of the photo. Then I will tell students that they are going to look at their own visuals in groups to analyze the photo for the purpose of finding the main idea/message of images as well as looking at the details into how the artist created that message with visuals. Grouping them into 3s (one group 4), I will direct students to look at their handout folder in google and their will be a picture slide which has each groups picture on it. Once students are placed in the groups, I will pass out the visual analysis handout for the students to write their answers on. I will explain the handout and then let the students work collaborately. I will walk around to each groups and monitor their progress. Conclusion:   Once the groups have completed the handout, I want each group to talk about their picture and what they came up with in terms of the message/main idea and how they derived at that idea. They can remain in their seated groups and the other groups will look at their Google slide so they can see the picture. After each group has presented, I want to close the lesson by referring back to the purpose of analyzing visuals and asking the students how visuals are considered informational texts. I want to end by talking about the visuals that are constantly around them and that they need to understand how to look all information, no matter what format it comes in, and be able to analyze the potential information that outside institutions are telling the population.
Materials: Kahoot Review Nearpod notes (on google drive) Image Slide show (on google drive) Visual Imaging handout
Assessments and Assignment: The visual imaging handouts will be collected and turned into as a classwork grade. The Kahoot review will also be saved and put into a classwork grade.