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

Since I plan to teach high school special education, I wanted to find a lesson that was not too difficult for my students but also enjoyable. I wanted to find text that they were hopefully already familiar with, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. These are two of my favorite authors; I was obsessed with Dr. Seuss books and fell in love with poetry through Shel Silverstein. The lesson plan I chose is called Seuss and Silverstein: Posing Questions, Presenting Points, http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/seuss-silverstein-posing-questions-283.html. The lesson is made up of four, 45 minutes session for grades 9-12. The purpose of the lesson is for older struggling readers to be put into small groups and read selected Seuss and Silverstein text and discuss the social situations and other issue that are presented within the text. Chosen text to use in lesson can be found here: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson283/booklist.pdf. The objectives of the lesson include preparing and identifying the differences between critical thinking questions and literal questions, while leading group discussions on text. Students will also look at the stories within the books and focus on the situations, conflicts, and events that take place related to their own lives. Through this lesson plan, students will have a chance to work with Literary Elements Maps (http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/literary-elements-30011.html), which I believe will help a struggling reader when asked formal questions from a text and help aid them in more open ended questions. An overview of all four sessions will include students discussing stubbornness and flexibility as well as being introduced to the topic of Seuss and Silverstein literature. The teacher will put students in groups and assign them a piece of Seuss or Silverstein literature to read. Critical thinking questions verses literal questions will be discussed and related back to assigned text. Within their groups, students will also make a Conflict Map based on their chosen work. Groups will facilitate small discussions based off of these questions: What is the main idea of the story? Has anything like this ever happened to you? What conflicts arise in this story? How do the characters resolve their conflicts? Do the characters resolve their conflicts in a peaceful manner? What is the author's message to his readers? How can you apply this message to your life? Students will use these questions to make a presentation to the class based on their story. Students can present presentation in multiple formats (posters, puppets, movie, a play, PowerPoint, etc). Students will also be required within their groups to write critical thinking questions based off the story. I really like the way that the grading rubric is set for this lesson plan. While the teacher does the grading, students are handed the rubric previously to presenting their stories, so they know what is expected out of them, but the group also fills out a section of the grading rubric (http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson283/rubric.pdf). I think putting some of the grading responsibility on students makes them feel respected and work harder for the grade they want and deserve. Overall, I can see myself using this lesson plan in the classroom. I think it is a great way for students to look at literature and see that they are not alone. Seuss and Silverstein wrote about individuals that are misfits, and struggling to find their place and purpose, just as the students we all will teach will fill like at some point in their lives.

I like this approach and your take on it. Both of these authors, while being an easy read, work in many realistic and important themes, often, as you pointed out, individualized. I can imagine that this would be very helpful to self doubting readers and people who can see and discuss others with problems like their, i.e., as you said, a misfit in some way. I like how this lesson introduces the reading of literature in such a personalized and meaningful way by asking students to identify together what conflicts afflict the characters, how they resolve it, and then asking them to apply that to their own lives. It introduces them to what they can gain by reading texts.

I'm not sure if I agree with the presentation part, however. While I know it is important to teach students how to present their information to others, I think this would garner unneeded and unhelpful anxiety. Perhaps if they were to present only to their small groups that they have been working with? Although this may just be my own neurotically nervous self speaking here.

Response to Anticipation Guide

I have done an activity like this one in high school, in a humanities class, and enjoyed it then. I found it beneficial then, as well as this time around using the anticipation guide for the Washington Post article. I think this is a great way to introduce a topic and have your students start thinking about the points addressed in the text even before they start reading, it gets the mind working. I do not think any of my opinions changed after reading the article, but the reasoning behind my opinions did change somewhat, and had the support of examples from the article. It was a relatively easy assignment (thank you), and an interesting article to read. I can see myself using this activity when I start teaching.