(I patched this together from literacy circles and a book club presentation I attended at the EARCOS Teachers Conference.)

The Process So Far

We began by building background knowledge, interacting with photos, videos, and articles. At this point, we focused on identifying and summarizing important information.

When we began to read our novels, we began marking the text to identify important information and then summarized the text in bullet points at the start of each chapter. I modeled this, then the class worked in pairs, and then moved to individually going through this process. Compared to double-entry journals, this is a speedy process of recording personal response.

We then used our chapter summaries to begin generating group discussion. Because the students have read the text and identified the important information, they suddenly find that they have something to say about the books they’re reading.

The discussions have gotten better over the course of this week, especially after we worked on verbal and non-verbal strategies for creating an effective conversation. We also spent time thinking about what we thought made effective discussion of literature.

We’ve spent two weeks on this process, as recorded here. It has taken us through the exposition and much of the rising action. It has allowed us to build comprehension and identify conflicts. We’ll explore them in more detail next week.

Review

Though it’s May, my class is full of energy. Better yet, that energy is focused on the text we’re critically reading. Very few students are falling behind in their reading.

For many of my students, this is the first time that they have had something to say about a book beyond “it’s good” or “it’s nice.”

Changing the Lesson Plans:

To begin, our department records lesson plans (from top to bottom like a graphic organizer) like this:

• Topic
• Objective
• Activities
• Assessment
• Resources
• Reflection

I’ve switched my daily lesson plans to this format:

• Objective
• Assessment
• Activities

My resources are now listed in parentheses in the activities. They can be found on Rubicon (our curriculum database) and Moodle. I have decided to move towards more unit reflection in my records.

Reflection:

I’ve felt quite pleased with this year’s lesson planning. However, this process has helped me to realize that some of my lessons are not as direct as I had thought. Though it may seem like a trivial change, moving the asssessment task above the lesson activities really makes it obvious when my formative assessment could have more effectively connected my summative assessment and my lesson activities.

How do you record and review your instruction?

There is at least one judge / debate. Ideally there are six students per team and every student has a role (state your team’s argument, rebut the other team’s argument, conclude the case for your team). Each speaker is given two minutes.

The class starts with a resolution, such as “Romeo and Juliet could have prevented their deaths.” From there, the teams are given time to prepare their case and I use this time to train the judges and help them prepare for moderating a debate (ex/ make sure that you know what the person has said. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification or to guide the student through introducing their points, citing evidence, and concluding. Be fair, polite, and confident).

The debate ends with a reflection period (What skills are necessary to do well in this activity? How do you feel about your performance in this activity?), which the debaters will reflect upon and share with the group. While this is happening, the judges prepare their comments (one note of achievement and one area for improvement).

Finally, everyone journals something they’ve learned during the activity. This activity tends to produce quality journal entries.

Much depends upon the character and social skills of the judge. The grade the judge has in your class is far less important.