Quarter 2
Congratulations! You’ve survived the first 9 weeks! Now it’s on to the next one (cue SwizzBeatz)…
2nd NINE WEEKS IN GP
OVERVIEW of Learning Targets for this Quarter…
1. Current Events/Global Research: The Independent Reading Project
2. Literature: Animal Farm, by George Orwell (or ANY selection of your choice)
3. The Persuasive Essay
Here we go!
Give GP a Hand…(-ful of ideas!)
CURRENT EVENTS/GLOBAL RESEARCH: The Independent Reading Project
During the first nine weeks, you likely taught your students a thing or two about global events. After all, the AICE essay prompts do cover some pretty sophisticated ground, so it’s important that our writers have a baseline of knowledge regarding a variety of topics.
Previously, I shared several Q1 activities that I use to build information-gathering skills as my students learn about current events; these skills range from note-taking, to analyzing vocabulary, to test prep.
By the end of Q1, students should be able to:
· Carefully read and annotate a news article (circling, underlining, jotting margin notes that summarize, categorizing, drawing conclusions, making connections about content)
· Categorize news articles using the Hand Approach topics, and break these down into more specific “big picture” terms
· Take notes using the Flashcard system
· Answer multiple-choice test questions designed to challenge higher order thinking skills; students should be able to use the “search and destroy” method to deconstruct each question
· Analyze a Yes/No Debate article (featured in the back of all Upfront Mag editions) by identifying the most important points from each perspective and judging the strength of the arguments
· Making connections between current events content and essay prompts; being able to draft an effective essay paragraph using learned information
[NOTE: Links to the activities outlined above can be found in the Quarter 1 post!!]
Once I’ve taught my students these skills and established a routine with them, I like to assess their level of mastery. That way, I know what to repair/re-teach during Q2.
What better way to do this? Why, pull it all together in a PROJECT, of course! The Independent Reading Project I’ve created can actually be used at ANY time during the school year. Please Note: the sample I link for you below lists Upfront Magazine articles from a previous 2010 edition, but obviously, if you plan to use my template, you can just replace the article names with whatever articles are featured in your most current edition! OR, if you don’t prefer all the activities my project covers, you can always use it as a guide/reference and simply create your own IRP! (And if you do, do share!) Below are all the links you need to execute my fab little GP Info-Gathering Skills assessment, aka, ‘The Independent Reading Project.’
· Pavich’s Independent Reading Project (IRP): The Grading Rubric
Grading the IPR’s is actually MUCH easier than it sounds…provided your students know what to expect BEFOREhand! Distribute the rubric well in advance of the deadline in order to communicate requirements and expectations.
· STEPS 1 & 2: Annotating an Article-companion handout
· STEP 3: Debate T-Chart + Analysis-companion handout
· STEP 4: (FCAT) Search & Destroy Test-Taking Strategy
· STEP 5: Picture Notes
· STEP 6: Elements of the Body Paragraph-companion handout
· STEP 7: Presentation Options
PLEASE NOTE: When I used this activity last year, I had taught discursive essay writing first, so the body paragraphing and presentation options kind of reflect that. If you started with Expository writing this year, as I suggested in the Q1 overview, then you might need to sub in your own Sample body paragraph on the Body Paragraph handout (should you choose to use it)…that way, students are seeing an example of a paragraph that matches the style of essay they’ve been working with so far. (Expository writing carries with it a distinctly different tone than argumentative writing!)
LITERATURE UNIT: Animal Farm
Don’t let the global targets of GP fool you…literature is just as important to fit into the term as current events are. First of all, reading a novel with your students is an excellent “break” from the real world, if you will. It gives you some room to play a little by whisking your students away to the fictional world in which the characters live…
Well, at least this is what the students think (cue evil teacher laugh). Little do they know, we strategically select literature that fulfills the GP mission on-the-sly. If you pick your novels just right, you not only cover the traditional elements of plot, but you also tap into history, social issues–and if you’re reading Orwell–definitely politics.
SIDE NOTE I: Aside from dystopian literature (Rand, Orwell, Bradbury, etc.), another novel I love to teach during the school year is Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of Butterflies. It still has that sketchy political leader feel, but this time it’s set in a world of the past as opposed to the future. (It covers the Trujillo regime of 1960s Dominican Republic, but with this we also hit upon Castro’s Cuban Revolution, and all of this could lead us into Chavez’s current political power in oil-rich Venezuela).
SIDE NOTE II: In this portion of the quarter overview, I’ll be sharing materials specific to George Orwell’s Animal Farm. However, you can apply the coverage suggestions in this section to ANY novel of your choice. For example, you might want to cover Fahrenheit 451. Or, if you teach 10th grade (whereas I teach 9th), you might want to cover Orwell’s 1984. But no matter what, there’s some background information to be had, some characters to analyze, some author’s purpose to ponder…oh, and some GP essays to write in light of all of this…so…it should be helpful. I think…
Embrace the Orwellian madness…
Ok, we are all English teachers here, so we’ve all taught novels (hasty gen?), and we likely teach them in similar ways. But I’m just going to rattle off some quick ideas to keep your lesson plans on the GP track as you forge ahead with fiction.
TE’s, Study Guides for Animal Farm:
· Signet Classic Teacher’s Guide: Animal Farm
· Glencoe Literature Library Study Guide: Animal Farm
* * * *
Pre-Reading Coverage:
BASIC TOOLS…
· Study Guide Questions for Animal Farm
· Vocabulary List for Animal Farm
HISTORICAL BACKDROP…
The historical aspects of the novel can be tricky to teach. If you dive straight into the history of the Russian Revolution only to tangle up all the important figures, dates, and events, you may lose your teen audience before you even crack the book. But some understanding of the history behind the allegory is probably necessary before you begin, just so you have an initial point of reference as the Animal Farm characters and their actions unfold.
How to do this…hmmm…I vote for a fun activity here (fun by my standards, but this time I promise I won’t let the students throw paper balls at you!). Here are a few to consider as you get ready to crack open the book and unleash the Orwellian madness:
TO INTRODUCE CHARACTERS & ALLEGORY…
Drum up a list of key figures and events from the Russian Revolution, those that will be represented in the novel (i.e. the pig, Snowball, represents Leon Trotsky while Napoleon represents Stalin’s actions). Assign students to briefly research some of these figures: who they were, what role they played in the revolution, what triumphs/obstacles/consequences they experienced, etc. Then have them “bring their character in a bag” to class and present it.
Brown bag your character?! What does that mean?! Well, I’ve linked the original lesson plan here, but I’m actually going to deviate from it here…
Since this is going to be a pre-reading activity, students obviously can’t present characters from the novel just yet, which is what the original lesson plan suggests. Instead, for our purposes, they’re going to bring in 7-10 household objects to represent real-life Russian Revolution figures (as opposed to novel figures).
So here’s an EXAMPLE of what little Johnny’s assignment would look like as it is executed…
· The teacher (you!) gives a brief, maybe 10-15 minute mini-lecture that previews the story of the Russian Revolution (‘hey kiddies, here’s what basically happened…here’s who was involved, so-and-so was in cahoots with so-and-so, at odds with such-and-such, believed in this-and-that’…you get the picture).
· The teacher (you!) does this to give students a big-picture glimpse of what’s ahead; it will make them more confident in their research because–as you know–a Google search of the Russian Revolution will produce some pretty vast results!
· Ok, moving on, now the teacher (yep…you!) asks the class to research the various figures/concepts/events significant to the Revolution a little deeper. You could put students into groups if you’d like OR just assign them individually. In Johnny’s class, his teacher has divvied assignments individually. Johnny is assigned to Josef Stalin (and there’s one other girl in the class that actually has the same assignment, but that’s ok…they’ll both approach it very differently ).
· Johnny goes home, Googles Stalin, seeks out reputable sources, prints them, reads them, annotates them. Then he creates a single-page “Character Profile” of his assigned person (Stalin). This profile is a reference that he’ll put on the document camera and cover with the class during his presentation. It will be very similar to a FactFinder Flashcard because it tells the basic background of his figure (yep, Stalin…) for the students to see in greater detail…it’s a second exposure to what you’ve already prefaced on Day One in your quick overview. Ask that the students also include a picture of the person as well so we can stimulate our visual memory
· BONUS FUN: once all Character Profiles are submitted from all classes (I teach 5 lovely sections of this stuff), put them into like piles and choose a Student Winner, someone who put together the “best possible” profile for that figure; take those profiles and photocopy them into a packet, which will then be redistributed to ALL classes (equally, har-har) to read and reference as the novel progresses! Johnny did such a good job on Stalin, his profile makes the packet and he gets bonus points in the gradebook…they’ll work really hard for this, trust me
· A WORD TO THE WISE: When doing research for their profiles, students tend to focus on random facts regarding their person (i.e. Stalin’s favorite shampoo was Pantene), so be SURE to give them a few guiding questions to help tailor their research. For example, tell them to focus on the details surrounding his/her eventual role in the revolution:, as a political figure, a hero, a villain. (i.e. Stalin originally went to school to be a priest when he was young, which is ironic because he later went on to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, completely disregarding the Biblical commandment of ‘thou shalt not kill.’)
· For some figures, you may want to tack on a specific concept or event that is central to that figure’s orbit in the Revolution (i.e. if a student is assigned to Karl Marx, you might want them to consider how Socialism played a role in the way he viewed the world around him–since socialist ideals ultimately led to the genesis of Marxist ideals, and this all eventually melded together into Communism!).
· Next, now that Johnny is an expert on Josef Stalin because he strategically read and recorded the research, he will now need to get creative by taking a walk around the house (or the Dollar Store, if he so chooses) in search of tactile objects that visually represent (whoa, Gardner, Multiple Intelligences…) the things he learned about Stalin. He will then need to TALK to the audience about these objects, explaining how each symbolic item relates to his research process. The key word here is “talk” to the audience; Johnny is not allowed to read his profile to the class and merely hold up objects as he goes. There’s no fun or memorable moment in that! He must use the objects to make conversation about what he learned, so perhaps include a grade for that.
· For instance, Johnny might hold up an ear of corn and talk to his audience about Stalin’s efforts to collectivize agriculture.
· (Very Important Precautionary Side Note: Stalin was a rather violent murderer, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent peasants in the Great Purges…remind students that the items they bring into the classroom must align with school policy, i.e. no dangerous weapons as representative of Stalin’s bloody reign!).
· GOAL…the items in Johnny’s “Stalin” Character Bag must be SYMBOLIC. As the original “Character Bag” lesson plan indicates, one cannot bring in a pig figurine to represent a pig, so students cannot bring in a newspaper clipping of Stalin, for example, to represent Stalin!
This activity is an awesome way to get the kids talking about the figures that will eventually appear–in allegorical form–in the book, and it gives them something visual to remember them by. As they read, the hope is that they will recall some of the conversations you had as a class and they will bring back up the props they saw as these conversations took shape. Then you can use this knowledge to annotate the parallels as you come across them in the reading!