Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

I found the anticipation guide to be a little confusing. As I was reading through the questions, I felt that most of them were really bold claims. With that, I didn't quite know how to respond in my explications. Even while reading the article I found myself questioning these claims. Sure, I frequent a certain social-network (facebook), but most of my guy friends have more than one social-network that they use--blogging, twitter... I rarely get on facebook for more than 2 minutes. Most of my time spent on the internet is reading fashion articles. I really didn't find the guide helpful or extremely thought provoking.

I chose to review a RWT lesson entitled: An Exploration of Romanticism Through Art and Poetry. In this lesson, authored by Junius Wright, students are able to broaden and redefine the concept of what literature is. Wright allows the students to learn the characteristics of the Romantic period, introducing common themes and attitudes, and then allows them to take this knowledge and compare it to different genres and periods. In doing this, Wright encourages the students to think about literature and earlier influences on later work. By comparing the Romantic period against different period, allows the learner to become confident and comfortable with the arguments and themes of the Romantic period. One of the things that I enjoyed most about this lesson was that Wright would introduce medias other than the written word into the English class. This helps the students broaden their concepts of literature. Wright asks the student to see similar Romantic images in the paintings that they would also be able to find in a poem. This allows the students to think critically and still be engaged simply by switching formats.