My Summer Reading

In an effort to actually READ some of the books I purchase, I'm trying to make myself more accountable for my own summer reading!  If you want to read any of these with me and have a conversation, let me know!

Materials from MRA #2: Dear Confused Letter

Hello, all.  I'm continuing to post materials from my MRA presentation on close reading.  This activity is called the "Dear Confused Letter," and I heard about it many years ago.  If you Google "Dear Confused Letter," you'll find many variations.  Below is a template, sample, and FCAs (Focus Correction Areas--a type of analytic rubric) for the writing assignment. 

Dear Confused Letter—Hamlet

Dear Confused:

            Paragraph #1:  I know this passage may seem perplexing, but it’s not that difficult to understand.

            Paragraph #2:  Summary—Who, what, when, where, why.  What is being said?  Paraphrase and explain.

            Paragraph #3:  Analysis—Why is this passage important to the play as a whole?  What language does Shakespeare use to make this passage especially meaningful?  What came before and after it that makes it important?  Use at least three quotes interwoven in your analysis.  (300 to 500 words for these two paragraphs)

            Paragraph #4:  I hope my explanation has illuminated your understanding!

                                                                                                            Sincerely,

                                                                                                            (sign here)

                                                                                                            Talented and Insightful Reader

Act I, Scene 2 , lines 87 to 117

A Brief Model

Dear Confused:

            I know this passage may seem perplexing, but it’s not that difficult to understand.

            This is a speech by Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and now stepfather.  He says he admires how much sadness and true emotion Hamlet is showing about his father’s death but chides him for mourning too much for too long.  A father’s death is a fact of life.  He says it’s almost sinful for Hamlet to continue his grief this way—it’s inappropriate.  He asks him to stay in Denmark (not return to school) and let him and his new wife take care of Hamlet.

            This passage is important in crafting the character of Claudius.  It’s one of the first exposures we as the audience have of him.  Since the reader eventually knows he killed King Hamlet to take his throne and his wife, this passage can be read in retrospect as completely disingenuous and even quite insulting.  He seemingly mocks Hamlet for his “obstinate condolement” and suggests he is using “impious stubbornness.”  A normal person would comfort Hamlet, not rebuke him.  Claudius even questions Hamlet’s masculinity, saying he is exhibiting “unmanly grief.”  He is calling Hamlet immature, “simple and unschooled.”  The young man just lost his father!  An unknowledgeable reader could think Claudius is sincere, but we know better.  Though he claims he imparts a “nobility of love,” he is actually jealous of and suspicious of Hamlet and wants him nearby so he can control him.  As the play continues, we see how twisted and demented Claudius truly is.   237

            I hope my explanation has illuminated your understanding!

                                                                                                            Sincerely,

                                                                                               

                                                                                                            Talented and Insightful Reader

FCAS

Followed format of the letter and content of the letter                 /30

Level of analysis that demonstrates knowledge of

this section and whole play, analysis of language                          /40

Accountable errors: agreement, comma rules,

run-ons, fragments, apostrophes, quote usage                                 /30

How Teachers Use Twitter

Hi, all.  First day of vacation, and I'm at the airport.  I love my students more than anything in the world, but it's great to get away!

I wanted to use a post to extol the virtues of Twitter.  Twitter is a forum for 140 character messages.  Once you understand the conventions of how Twitter works, it's pretty addictive.

Every day, hundreds of educators use hashtags (#) to have conversations.  For example, if I have a link or an idea to share with English teachers, I'd use #engchat or #nctechat.  Everyone else who uses that hashtag will see my tweets and can connect with me (@abbeydick).  Even if you miss a chat, you can type in the hashtag and read about it later.

I also used Twitter with my students this past month as part of their independent reading projects.  They tweeted advertisements for their books using #t3reading.  It worked so well.  Teens seem to be off Facebook now and on Twitter (and Instagram and Snapchat).

Check out these cool pictures, courtesy of Sean Junkins (@sjunkins).

Sunday chats:

Monday chats:

Tuesday chats:

Wednesday chats:

Thursday chats:

If you haven't been on Twitter, you need to give it a try.  It's a great way to make friends and learn something new!

Materials from MRA #1

Hi, all.  I had a great time at the Massachusetts Reading Association conference this week.  Great to see friends and learn more about reading instruction.  I was thrilled to see Twitter playing such a big role.  See #mrac2014 for notes from the event. 

I will paste some materials from my presentation here.  Here's one segment of of thoughts on Close Reading:

I am a good reader, so as I read, I note little details that lead me to a conclusion.  The same is true backwards: you can tell me an idea, and I can find the quotes that led to that idea.

Students need help with BOTH these skills. 

The following activities require students to think with the text in mind.  They are "text-dependent questions" in the sense that they depend on the text.  Students have to reread not only to find the answers but to make a connection between those quotes. 

These activities could be change to accommodate any text or subject. 

1.  Idea:  Young Elie is very religious.  Provide three quotes that support that idea.

Page Number	Quote that Supports Assertion

2.  Idea: Elie’s family and community are complacent (laid back, unaware, naive, thinking they will be fine) and are not worried about the future/don’t believe anything bad could happen to them. Provide three quotes that support that idea.

Page Number	Quote that Supports Assertion

3.  Idea:  Once Elie and his family realize what is happening to them, they are filled with confusion and fear about the future. Provide three quotes that support that idea.

Page Number	Quote that Supports Assertion

 An example from another text, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  

NAME ______________________________________________________________________________

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, chapters 10-18

In the left-hand box, bullet some summary of the chapter.  In the right-hand box, cite quotes from the text (with page numbers) that would support an answer.

Chapter 10      Title: __________________________________

Summary	What does Skloot do to create a haunting mood in this chapter?  Why does she do it?

Chapter 11      Title: __________________________________

Summary	How does Skloot show how much Henrietta’s family loved her (and reveal her humanity) in this chapter?

Spring has sprung?

Hello, all.  Horribly rainy this weekend, but a good opportunity to update the blog and TeachPoint and write UbD units and catch up on senior research papers (70 days or so to graduation)!

MRA is coming up next week in Quincy, MA.  Can't wait to see old friends and learn something new.  I am working on my half of a presentation on Secondary Close Reading.  

Last weekend, I went to my first EdCamp event: EdCamp Grafton.  What a cool day!  I'm hooked!  I made new friends, got new resources, and had terrific conversations about trends in education.  I learned about lots of cool Web sites and tools.  Free too!  Next year's will be March 21, 2015.

New to EdCamps?  Check out this link: http://edcamp.org/.  Also, a quick video about "unconferencing:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQyceeXzuPM.

The next nearby EdCamp is EdCamp Boston to which I am hoping to score a ticket: http://edcampboston.org/.

From new friend Jennifer Leung from Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School (@jleung10 and blogging at http://jl8910.wordpress.com/), I got this amazingly simple and smart way of viewing writing for an exam: Why Writing an Open Response Essay is like Delivering a Pizza.  It's a terrific metaphor, and I hope to use it with my kids next year.

I've also been having fun with Twitter chats, especially #nctechat and #engchat.  #Engchat is every Monday night at 7 pm: see http://engchat.org/ for more info.  Even if you can't make it, the archives are good.

First days of Spring!

Hello, all.  This school year is really flying.  I'm gearing up to teach A Tale of Two Cities, Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream before the end of the year.  I've never taught them before, but colleagues have been very helpful with materials.  I generally HATE teaching any book for the first time, but once it's added to my toolkit, I am grateful and ready to improve for the next time!

I've spent a lot of the year trying to build a classroom library.  I haven't checked out these used bookstores yet, but I hope to do that soon because I've heard good things about More Than Words:
http://mtwyouth.org/.

I'm also hoping to get into the Ed Camp movement.  There's two local events coming up--one in Grafton, MA and one in Boston.

I am working on a presentation on secondary close reading skills for MRA in April.  I am still exploring the idea of close reading and defining it for myself.

I've been looking at a couple books on the topic: Falling in Love with Close Reading by Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts and The Art of Slow Reading by Tom Newkirk.  I was able to see Newkirk speak recently at the Rhode Island Writing Project spring conference, and that was a real treat.  Even though many leaders have been critical of the Common Core, it's cool to hear how their ideas have changed and how they're integrating their timeless good ideas with new directions for thinking.

Lehman and Roberts's text is very practical and offers ideas for close reading in all genres.  Their basic premise is three-fold: pick a lens through which to view the text, read through that lens and gather evidence that reveals patterns, use the patterns to construct meaning.  It's super simple, and I think it works.  I tried something like this with Catcher in the Rye, calling the patterns motifs, and it worked well.  Huh, Holden mentions the ducks a lot.  Where does he do it?  What might it mean?

Newkirk's book is more theoretical, but it's very enjoyable for a person who loves to read as much as he does.  I did enjoy the section on "Learning by Heart," as my students do for Poetry Out Loud.

I had a colleague (read her terrific blog) who believed that the structure of the frameworks give us a sense of how to closely read: 1) read for key ideas and details; 2) on the second read, read for craft and structure; 3) on the third read, read for integration of knowledge and ideas.

I'm still getting my ideas together, but it's great to experiment and see what works in my setting.

Off to follow #nctechat tonight!  If you've never tried one of these before on Twitter, check one out.  It's so cool to see people from across the country in one (virtual) place!

February Vacation!

Well, it took a long time for me to get back to blogging, but here I am.

There are a lot of teaching ideas on my mind during this vacation.  While so much of the year is over, there's still a lot of time left for progress.  And only 16 schools days left until MCAS (March 18)!  I teach four classes of tenth grade, so it's always on my mind.  We're going to finish strong with Antigone and The Catcher in the Rye!

Three topics I am thinking of: 1) close reading (since I am presenting at MRA in April), 2) class participation/discussion (one of my SMART goals for ed. eval), and 3) modeling writing.  Let's take the last topic first.

I am always playing with the best way to present writing assignments: rubric, model, pre-write, drafting, revising, real-world relevance, structure, etc.  What do students have to know to get started?  At my current placement, I always provide a model, but that is backfiring on me because my students tend to copy the model word for word.

Seriously.  They copy everything on the model--if I wrote seven paragraphs, they write seven paragraphs.  If I underline ten vocabulary words within my model, they do the same thing (twisting their content to meet the words I picked).  My intro and conclusion sound exactly like theirs.

I am working on what to do about this problem.  Do I stress that their paper does not have to look exactly like mine?  Do I give points on the rubric for writing "outside the box"?  Do I avoid providing a model at all?

So, this is a problem I am working on.  And now I am off to read dozens of papers that sound exactly like mine . . .

I'll get back to the others topics later this week!