Possible Sentences is a great way of having students predict and check their predictions for informational texts. In Kylene Beers and Robert Probst's Reading Nonfiction, the strategy is described with examples. It isn't just a great strategy in the ELA classroom! It could be used very well in history and science readings as well. I encourage you to read the section of Reading Nonfiction, but in a nutshell:
Students are supplied with 10-15 key words for the nonfiction text they will be reading
Students create 5 possible sentences that will be in the text
Students read, clarifying their understanding and then revise their sentences for accuracy.
It got me thinking about Newsela (pronounced like news ella). I love how Newsela has leveled
versions of the same article as well as text sets novels, core content areas, and hot topics. In a Pre-AP classroom, I have students who have a reading level putting them around a senior reading level and other students who are actually below reading level. I think it is important for students to have choice and have reading that is at a level that challenges them a bit and Newsela can give me all that! Wouldn't it be neat to let students pick the non-fiction article to pair with their self-selected novel?
So it got me thinking, how to use possible sentences for self-selected nonfiction. Then it occurred to me: http://www.wordcounter.com! Students select their article (level, topic, or both), copy and past the article in the box, and then write their possible. Then students take the top 10-15 words and create the possible sentences.
Vary with Tagxedo or Wordle for visual component.
STEP 1: Find an awesome essay!
STEP 2: Paste article in wordcounter.com
STEP 3: Get most common words.
STEP 4: follow possible sentences strategy
as usual!
I select movies*, like any text, very purposefully. When it
comes to something like the Hero’s Journey, I don’t want to endlessly lecture
on it. Likewise, I want the students to find the tasks and trials from their
novel, and not just give them the answers. So I need a quick example that all
students can quickly use to see the stages in one text and apply them over to
the written text of their novel. Enter Big
Hero 6. No matter the nomenclature of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, Big Hero 6 has every stage! Plus there
are a few way to bump up the rigor of discussion!
All my students get a little
handout that looks like a chart. One column has each stage and the definition,
another column is for Big Hero 6 examples, and the third will be for the novel
Introduce the concept of
archetypes by breaking down the word into parts and getting students to infer
what it means. Arche means “mold” and
type means “a type of, a kind of”
Start off watching the TED-Ed talk
“What Makes a Hero?”
Break down Monomyth as a term. I
like to also make a little timeline, starting with Gilgamesh, to Hercules, to Beowulf,
to present day Big Hero 6. The idea
that once you have these patterns in your head to can apply them to everything
from Narnia to Harry Potter to Jesus.
We watch Big Hero 6 until the
point where Hiro and Baymax are sitting on the techno dirigibles right before
he scans and finds the island. I let them work in groups to fill out what has
happened thus far. I check for understanding and then we watch to the end and
the groups finish. (There is a part right before the big boss part where Hiro
says, “Is this what Abigail would have wanted?” and Callahan responds that she
is dead. This perfectly mirrors an earlier conversation between Baymax and Hiro
in terms of Tadashi. This is when I introduce the literary term foil and we analyze
what the real difference is between Hiro and Callahan: Baymax and friends. We
then have a conversation about what that creators may be trying to convey about
friendship and loneliness and what Baymax may therefore symbolize. (Seriously,
you can analyze this movie so deeply! Even kids who have watched it a million
times will start to uncover layers of understanding. This is so good for them!*)
When we have finished and the
students confirm that Baymax is the elixir and Abigail is the resurrection,
inevitably a kid asks why isn’t Baymax the resurrection. That’s when I like to
have a challenge questions: What if this isn’t just Hiro’s Hero’s Journey? What
is this is ALSO Baymax’s? The kids will discuss how that makes Hiro the mentor
and the other variations. This is a higher-level, nerdy question that blows their
minds!
I also take this opportunity to
explore Christ Figure. Baymax is such perfect one and the kids see Christ
imagery all the time – Katniss is obvious in the movies with her arms stretched
out at the end of the second! I go through a list of potential Christ Figure Traits
and students record which apply to Baymax.
Then my students apply the Hero’s
Journey to the whole class novel.
* I know sometimes we can face push-back from admin and
parents about movies. However, I think there is a very big difference between
pressing play and having the kids do an assignment in silence versus having a
rich discussion about the movie. I feel strongly that when we have these sort
of conversations analyzing a movie instead of just reacting to a movie, we are modeling
a better way to view movies. Many of our students go to the movies with their
families and have very little discussion. I know I enjoy rich post-viewing
discussion with friends or my hubby. I had an extensive conversation about Utilitarianism
vs. Kantianism ideals in Resident Evil
after a friend and I watched it in college! I truly believe in explicitly
teaching students to view movies as another text. I also know brain research
supports that analyzing helps build analysis skills and that analyzing one
thing (like playing chess) and improve analysis elsewhere (reading). This, of
course, doesn’t mean we don’t have to have the kids read, but many students
watch movies and television shows. What if, instead of just being a passive
audience, they were analyzing? What if they had no idea looking for plot holes,
thinking about symbols, and examining character motivation is not supposed to
be limited to the written word? I’m
married to an English teacher. Post-movie, we are usually having an hour long
discussion breaking down plot, character, style, and choices the director made.
Imagine if our students did the same after watching a movie? How much deeper
would their analysis skills grow?
versions of the same article as well as text sets novels, core content areas, and hot topics. In a Pre-AP classroom, I have students who have a reading level putting them around a senior reading level and other students who are actually below reading level. I think it is important for students to have choice and have reading that is at a level that challenges them a bit and Newsela can give me all that! Wouldn't it be neat to let students pick the non-fiction article to pair with their self-selected novel?
