Hi guys! So I was looking for a site and trying to figure out which site looks like it has the best ideas for teaching and assessing, and I must say I was really excited when I chanced upon this site that's run by the NYTimes.
It's actually a brilliant blog that has lots of learning resources for many different subjects, but here's the page that's specifically for Literature, and it lists 10 Ways to Use the New York Times for teaching Literature.
There are lots of resources and suggestions on how to make Literature more relevant in the classroom, and I feel it's especially helpful because it gives you direct links to the required information. Some of the great suggestions (with complete links to lesson plans and worksheets) include getting students to create their own graphic novels, pairing YA novels with the Classics and drawing links between them, etc..
I think the idea that works the most for me, especially in terms of accessing students' understanding of a novel is the idea of asking students to continue the story. Specific material, warm-up activities and suggested ways of allowing students to continue the story can be found here.
This activity will allow students to expand their creativity because of the various ways they can choose to tackle the assignment, such as creating their own comic, choosing to write a new chapter in prose form, continuing the story by writing letters from the characters' point-of-view, writing a journal from the characters' point-of-view, or even act out their story and how they believe it would continue after the book ends.
But more importantly, asking students to continue the story means that they must first have a proper and accurate understanding of the entire plot and the characters of the novel. Furthermore, it also allows the teacher to discuss the stereotypes of certain genres of novels, such as the typical scenarios in Sci-Fi as compared to that in Romance or Victorian Novels, so that students will know how best to continue the story. It will also bring to the fore many characteristics of the book they are reading, such as the author's choice of diction and stylistic features.
In this way, I feel that it allows the teacher to discuss important elements of the book and access the students' understanding of key features, while being interesting and creative all at the same time.
An alternative of this would be asking students to rewrite a part of the story in a different genre while keeping salient features - something like the parody, Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies. Once again, key understanding of what is characteristic and important in Pride and Prejudice and how Zombie movies and books usually pan out is necessary for students to accurately complete this task.
The gallery walk that is also suggested on the site definitely sounds like a very interesting way to end this activity, as students will be interested to see the different products their classmates (in groups, possibly) have come up with and will be an exciting way to round up this entire activity.
Hi Gayle! I love The Learning Network on NYT site. It's my go-to for ideas on GP - but it's odd that I never considered it for literature too. The idea of them continuing stories or writing parodies is an interesting one. I remember during my contract period I asked my students to write an additional scene in Romeo and Juliet that reveals more about a side-character, e.g. Benvolio or Mercutio. What I discovered from the activity is how much the students understand about Shakespeare's style (whether it was superficial), whether they understood the cultural context and setting and how much insight or potential they saw in characters.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on this website too Gayle! But I found more of stuff for Eng, so thanks for sharing the lit section! I think asking students to continue the story is a really more fun and engaging way of assessing whether the students are familiar with the characters in the story, instead of just making them complete worksheets! Seeing their completed story might also get them more involved and have more pride in their work! Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas Gayle, and this is certainly one useful website. I especially like the students continuing the story using different genres. It's a good way to talk about genres and writing styles. Even a short line like "It was a dark and stormy night" would be good enough to get students' creative juices going.
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