Teaching History and Literature Together

 Teaching  No Responses »
Jan 042012
 

Teaching History before Literature

Many English teachers, if not paired with a History teacher, like to start a unit by giving some historical context to their students. This can be as simple as explaining the censorship taking place during the Cold War before starting to read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a book about censorship in which books are burnt in order to keep the public from knowing certain things. In this way, the book can be seen as a social commentary within the historical period during which it was written. This also means that events in books, and in the history surrounding those books, can be compared to modern times, giving students a new perspective on events going on around them in the real world.

Teaching Literature before History

Some teachers want students to apply fiction to the real world before teaching them about the reason it was actually written. In the case of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, for example, some teachers want their students to make up their own minds about why the female protagonist seemingly loses her sanity before they tell the students that the story was actually written at a time during which women had almost no rights and were totally controlled by their husbands. When students have certain assumptions about something, it can be very interesting to open their minds by suggesting something about the reason the book was written. This can also work very well if the teacher has access to an interview about the literature the author has given. After the students decide what the piece is about, have them listen to or read what the author thought the piece was about and see if they match up.

Banned Books

Understanding history can also help students understand why certain books have been banned through time. Huckleberry Finn, for example, is currently being challenged because of offensive words in the text. However, an understanding of history can teach students why those words were chosen in the first place, and open up unique discussions about the meanings of words and why we should or shouldn’t use them.

A Combination of Both

No matter what you teach, incorporating other subjects makes the learning experience richer for the student. It helps solidify information and makes them think more about what they’re reading aside from simply identifying characters and plot points. Teaching history and literature in any combination can help all students make connections between our time and times past, and help them learn how to not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors.

 Posted by at 5:24 am  Tagged with:

Teaching Short Stories in the High School English Classroom

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Jan 032012
 

Themes

One way to build interest in short stories is to organize them by theme and explore those common themes in each of the stories you choose to tackle in class. If you spend a lot of time teaching the structure of short stories – plot, setting, mood, tone, characters, dialogs, etc. – this can get boring very quickly. Students grasp these concepts in no time. However, when you entice them to get into a story with a theme they care about and can relate to, you’re more likely to hold their attention. For example, if you read, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, “Desirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, and “Eveline” by James Joyce, and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner etc. You can focus on the common themes in these stories such as women’s roles throughout history, the function of families, love and loss, the function of communities, and the idea of home. Students will have personal connections to all of these themes, and will therefore be able to connect with the stories and synthesize their personal experiences with the text at hand.

Anticipation Builders

Before you’re reading a short story, especially if you are focusing on a particular theme, it is a good idea to get students thinking about their personal ideas. This creates anticipation for the story. If the students think they can connect to the work of literature, they will be more likely to enjoy reading it, and the information will be more likely to stick with them. A quick anticipation builder is having the students write journal entries that ask the students to reflect on something that relates to some aspect of the story. Be sure to have students share their journals in class if they feel comfortable. It’s good for other students to hear what the journals are all about.

Stop and Write

If you have to read an entire story in class rather than sending it home to be read for homework, ‘Stop and Write’ is a great idea for an activity to be sure students are on track. ‘Stop and Write’ is exactly what it sounds like: you read the story aloud with the students, and at certain points in the text, you stop and ask them a question. Instead of discussing the answer, though, they have to write their answers down. This is also a great way to be sure even the shy students are participating and understanding what is going on in the text. Even if a student doesn’t want to share his or her answer aloud, they can write it down for you to read later. This also works really well to keep students on track while reading.

Rewrites

Students love to write creatively. It is easier for them than writing an analytical paper. If you have students rewrite stories while changing a specific piece such as the point of view, setting, or one plot point, this can not only bring out their creative side, but also help them understand and analyze the importance of these elements as they are being changed. If you allow your students to be creative, they will connect with the story on a deeper level.

 Posted by at 5:21 am  Tagged with:

What are Jigsaw Activities?

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Jan 022012
 

What are Jigsaw Activities?

Jigsaw activities are exactly what they sound like. You break students into groups and have each group read a specific article or piece of text, and they are responsible for teaching the rest of the class their segment. This can also be done without groups, if you have enough pieces of the text for students to tackle a segment individually. Hopefully, when you’re finished, the whole class then has the complete picture of what you wanted them to learn without having to read the entire text or all the articles in the unit.

How to Make it Work in the Classroom

If you grew up in the 90’s, you remember watching Uncle Jesse and Joey try to do this same thing with a book they were reading, only to have it fail miserably because each didn’t understand the half the other was supposed to report back on. The lesson here is that trying to cheat by doing only part of the work will always result in failure. However, when you are facilitating a jigsaw activity in your classroom, you can make it successful by requiring each group to complete specific activities relating to their segment of the text. This can be a worksheet, answering several questions, completing a video project – the possibilities are endless and these are just a few. When the groups have completed their tasks, they must present their findings to the class. At this point, it is critical to have the students take notes. Since they did not read their own section of the text, they need to have something to reference in their notes.

End of Unit Activities

After all the groups have presented, it’s a good idea to have an end of the unit activity ready to go to check the students’ understanding of the topic. You can create a quiz based on the students’ presentations and have the entire class take the quiz. You can also have students create their own quiz questions to test the students who have been listening to their presentation. It’s also possible to have students complete a project that has one or more elements from each group’s presentation. Again, the possibilities are endless, but it is a good idea to follow through with an end of the unit activity just to be sure the students were paying attention to all the presentations.

What does it Teach?

Jigsaw activities not only cover the required material of the classroom, but also teach much more than just reading comprehension and writing. Jigsaw activities require students to present information in such a way that the other students can understand what they are saying. This is much different than just giving a presentation or speech, because the students are not required to just talk at an audience, but rather teach the audience something and be sure they understand what has been taught. This is an important life skill, especially when you consider most jobs in the world require someone to teach something at some point in the workday.

 Posted by at 5:17 am  Tagged with:
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