How the Backwards Bicycle is a Must See for Students and Teachers

Videos are a wonderful prompt for writing and class discussion. "The Backwards Brain Bicycle" by Smarter Every Day is my favorite video to begin a PD as well as totally accessible for my middle school students. The connections to be made are deep and rich. Watch it and see how many connections you can make to your own classroom!

The best rule of thumb for getting the discussion to be its best is for all individuals to write for 7-10 minutes after, making connections and expressing their thoughts. As Tom Ramano says in Clearing the Way, “During class discussions, I prefer to avoid the domino effect - the phenomenon that occurs when one student states an opinion emphatically and all the opinions after that one fall right in behind, unremarkably similar.” And so he always asks to his students to write prior to class discussion.

Great for the beginning of a faculty meeting or as a way of encouraging kids to not give up when faced with challenging learning.

The Only Way You Will Need to Teach Symbolism

I finally got around to making and posting this video!

Teaching Symbolism the Metacognitive Way

Again, this is breaking it down into cognitive steps. The example below is from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, but I have used this full activity for The Outsiders, Full Tilt, a variety of picture books dealing with prejudice in small groups for a pre-reading activity before we begin our Holocaust Literature Circles, and it is the same thought process I go through for smaller texts. 

1. Read text all the way through
2. Have students draw objects from the story (they will naturally gravitate toward symbols). 6-10 for a full length novel, 1-5 for short works. And label them.
3. Review definition of symbol - an object/color/action that represents an idea. AKA something that you can see representing something you can't see.
4. Model with one of the images from the text. I model on board and have students write on the back. Say, for example, the pearl-handed pistol from ROTHMC. Students reenter the text and find 3 places where the object is mentioned. We write three sentences about how the characters feel, react, or think about the object based on the three page numbers. EX:
TJ wants the pistol.
RW and Melvin give him the pistol.
The pistol becomes the source of TJ's downfall. 
5.  I use a white erase board to create blanks for where the object is: 
TJ wants ____________.
RW and Melvin give him __________.
___________ becomes the source of TJ's downfall.
Whatever the object symbolizes should be able to be replaced in at least 2 of the 3 sentences. We create a list really quickly of all the things the pistol can symbolize (inevitable, someone says violence.) I start with one I know if wrong, like violence, to show the students it doesn't work. TJ does not want violence. Usually a kid will offer something like "power" or "status", which is what it does symbolize. I like to show students that both of those words would count as correct answers.
TJ wants power.
RW and Melvin give him power.
Power becomes the source of TJ's downfall.
6. Where they have written the object, they also write down the correct answer on the front.
7. After I model one, I always let the kids work in pairs to work for the remainder of the class period. I request the images be colored and look nice, that there be three page numbers, three sentences for each on the back where they show their work, and have what the object is and what it symbolizes on the front. Here are 4 examples:

Teaching Theme the Metacognitive Way

Broken down into the cognitive steps, students can determine theme with the support of modelling and collaboration. This video shows the strategy for introducing the concept (quick soapbox moment: even though kids in 8th grade were exposed WHAT theme is in prior years, I never assume they were taught HOW to figure it out. There are definitely kids in high school who were never taught how to figure it out. In fact, there are a lot of students who have been given the themes by teachers. If we are to prepare our students for STAAR or whatever standardized test is looming over you, they need to be able to determine theme on their own. If we want to foster analytic skills and inferencing skills, we need to ask them to use those skills by forcing them to do the thinking.). After doing this strategy with passing the paper and creating multiple themes, it is simply a matter of reminding students throughout the school year that in order to determine theme you just need to follow these basic steps. 

See what else you can do with the theme created by using research and technology by clicking here!