Unit Description and Teacher Commentary
LESSON 4 Reading Workshops (4–5 blocks) Concepts: Culture, Values, Traditions, Heritage, Change
GEN1–2, GEN4; SD1–3, SD6, SD9, SD10–11
L E S S O N S E Q U E N C E A N D D E S C R I P T I O N T E A C H E R C O M M E N T A R Y
Reading and literature circle meetings differentiated by interest.Students work both individually and collaboratively in groups to comprehend, analyze, and react to their novels while also considering the work and responsibilities of a writer of historical fiction.
Because students are reading different novels and are meeting on different schedules, flexibility is the key word during this portion of the unit.
The day-to-day flow should look something like this:
• Students arrive in class and immediately begin reading, preparing for a literature circle, working on one of their reader response choices (see page 35), or meeting in a literature circle.
• The teacher monitors students’ performance by sitting in on literature circles and checking in to see that they have entered the dates of their literature circle meetings and their reading assignments in their reflective journals and to support and challenge students based on how they’re performing.
Some students find the freedom of this kind of classroom environment empowering; others find it over- whelming. Some are appropriately challenged by the opportunity to work and think independently. Others need scaffolding. I maintain a file folder containing 10 copies of various materials (graphic organizers, back- ground information, sample journal responses, etc.) to distribute to stu- dents if they need additional support.
Students must know what role they will fulfill in each of their literature circle meetings (as roles will be rotated each time) and must prepare for each role appropriately.
The way students prepare for litera- ture circle meetings may be differenti- ated. Some students benefit from having and completing the Literature Circle Role Sheets (see Sample 1.3) prior to their literature circle meet- ings. Students who don’t need as much scaffolding may only need to place sticky notes in their texts to mark the key ideas and passages they want to discuss.
The literature circle roles of Conversation Captain and Con- cept Connector (see Sample 1.3) are particularly important in helping students to explore this unit’s concepts of culture, val- ues, traditions, heritage, and change, as well as some of the key principles and generalizations.
Based on what I know about students’ readiness in regard to the material they are reading and the role itself, I may set aside time to ensure that each group’s Conversation Captain and Concept Connector are prepared.
Ask students to tape-record or videotape their literature circle meetings. Tell them that they will be able to review the meet- ings when they are creating products, and that they can include the tapes in their portfolios.
These tapes also serve as a perma- nent artifact that I can look to as a source for feedback and evaluation.
Individual or small-group coaching sessions based on readiness needs.Hold small-group mini-lessons or individual conferences with students who need additional support or challenge.
Struggling Readers
Possible lesson or conference topics include think-alouds (see Glossary, page 357), making connections, determining vocab- ulary meanings in context, and drawing inferences.
Advanced Readers
Possible lesson or conference topics include the subtleties of irony, extended metaphor, and other sophisticated literary devices, and the evaluation of a piece from a literary perspective.
Students should record notes from these mini-lessons on the left-hand pages of their reflective journals and react or respond on the right-hand pages. Remind them to comment on connections they are making between their reading and writing and the unit concepts and generalizations.
One of the most beneficial aspects of the reading workshop is that it gives a teacher time to address student skill needs directly.
Reader response options and sharing differentiated by learning profile and interest.Throughout this phase of the unit, students must complete threeDifferentiated Reader Response Options(see Sample 1.7, p. 58), tasks coordinated to Sternberg’s triarchic intelligences: creative intelligence, ana- lytical intelligence, and practical intelligence (see Glossary,
“intelligence preference,” page 353). Each category of tasks includes some options that reflect the unit concepts and gen- eralizations.
Require students to complete at least two tasks that incorpo- rate the unit concepts and generalizations and then allow them choose whatever else appeals to them. Distribute copies of theReader Response Options Rubric(see Sample 1.8, page 59) to help guide students’ development of high-quality work.
These tasks are an opportunity for students to show me what they are thinking in ways that honor their learning profiles. As a creative thinker myself, it has always been easier for me to plan creative tasks rather than analytical or practical ones. By stretching my own thinking, I have come to see how students can become excited to show me what they’re thinking about their novels based on learning profile.
Expand the assignment, if desired, by allowing students to select options that they’ve designed themselves.
For example, students commonly ask to write and perform a song or create a piece of artwork.
Once students get started on these tasks, ask them to meet in small, same-novel groups to share their ideas. At the end of the unit, ask students to choose their best work and submit it for evaluation. Use the Reader Response Options Rubric as the basis for evaluation.
This is a time when students’
understandings of the unit concepts and generalizations will come sharply into focus. I sometimes ask them to write in their reflective jour- nals about how their classmates’
understandings of the concepts are the same as or different from their own understandings.
Anchor activity: Author research differentiated by interest.
Have students who have completed their reading and discus- sions conduct research on the authors who wrote their novels.
Anchor activities (see Glossary, page 349) are a great strategy in a differen- tiated classroom, as students often complete tasks at different times. It’s important that anchors not be “busy work.” The activities must connect to what students need to know, under- stand, and be able to do.
Ask students to focus their research on how the novels were written, what steps the authors used, and any research meth- ods the author employed.
A school librarian can be a helpful partner during this anchor activity.
Students often think that good writing
“just happens.” Researching the work of real authors helps them see the depth of background work necessary before the writing even begins.
Artifact collection and reflective journal writing.Through- out this lesson, students should be working at home to collect family artifacts: household items, old photos, letters, diaries, birth certificates, marriage licenses, family trees or histories, family stories, and so on. These items will be instrumental during the upcoming brainstorming and research phases of the unit.
If possible, model this “collecting” activity for students by bringing in personal family artifacts to share.
When I first created this unit, I partic- ipated in this activity myself, working to uncover information about my family’s history and sharing artifacts of my own. I have written short pieces of historical fiction based on my own family’s history and have kept a reflective journal of my own. I believe that students benefit from see- ing teachers do these kinds of activi- ties and this kind of thinking.
Prepare a classroom collection of artifacts to be used by students who do not have access to these items from their own family’s history. Resources to explore include the collections section of the Library of Congress’s Web site (memory.loc.gov), the local historical society, or the school librarian.
I know that some students may not be comfortable gathering their own items or may be unable to do so.
Students should use their journals to record the things they are finding, how they found them, and their reactions. Share with students that they will be writing a vignette, short story, or chapter of historical fiction based on an artifact or story from their own family or on photos and letters from the arti- fact box.
LESSON 5 Working for Quality
(1 block)SD10–11
L E S S O N S E Q U E N C E A N D D E S C R I P T I O N T E A C H E R C O M M E N T A R Y
Note:This is an optional lesson to include if students do not have prior experience creating a rubric. An excellent resource for clarification on the procedures for writing a rubric is avail- able from the Intranet of the Chicago Public Schools:
intranet.sps.k12.il.us/Assessment/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Create Rubric_/create_rubric.html.
Because creating a good rubric is vig- orous work, students need to evaluate something fairly concrete before mov- ing on to the more abstract task of creating a rubric for historical fiction.
Rubric development practice.Begin by distributing copies of a blank rubric and some kind of treat. One popular approach is to use several kinds or brands of chocolate chip cookies.
The “Write a Rubric for Chocolate Chip Cookies” exercise is widely used in professional development circles.
An overview of this idea is available at www.teachervision.com.
Break the class into self-selected groups of three. Using the overhead, review the key parts of a rubric: the criteria for evaluation (down the left-hand column), the score or state- ment of quality (across the top), and the descriptors (in the rest of the boxes). Students should record this information on a left-hand page in their journals.
Remember that students are using the left-hand pages of their journals to record procedural information, research notes, drafts, and so on. The right-hand pages are for personal reaction and reflections.
Ask: What criteria would you use to evaluate a chocolate chip cookie?
To get the juices flowing, distribute several different brands of chocolate chip cookies, asking students to take just one bite of each cookie because there is going to be lots of cookie tasting but no more cookies!
Ask students to share their ideas for evaluative criteria: cookie texture, cookie size, the quality of the chocolate, the number of chips per cookie, and so on. Write suggested criteria on the board. Then have everyone agree on which criteria they want to use and ask them to fill in the criteria columns of their blank rubrics.
Next, ask the small groups to discuss which kind of chocolate chip cookie they like the best. Group members should collab- orate to write descriptors about what makes that cookie excel- lent—describe the texture, size, quality of chocolate, number of chips, and so on. (Tasting helps here.) Have them continue on to rubric descriptors for a chocolate chip cookie that’s good but not great and then for one that’s not so good. Share the rubrics and discuss the descriptors.
Distribute one new cookie to all students (use a brand they haven’t yet tasted). Ask them to evaluate it using the rubric and then share their evaluations. If they have very different opinions about the quality of the cookie, discuss why. Is it the differences in the descriptors? Is it that some important crite- ria were omitted from the rubric? Let them know that in the
“real world,” rubrics are usually revised several times.
Anchor activities: Reader response options and sharing, reading in novels, and author research.If there is still time in the class session, give students the opportunity to finish any work (reading or discussion, reader response options) that they still have to complete.