Category Archives: Teaching Literature

Assessment, Teaching Literature

Socratic Seminar

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I don’t often apologize for a lack of posting.  Contrary to conventional wisdom, my philosophy of blogging is that one should only do so when one has something to say.  This philosophy is freeing, in that I don’t litter my blog with posts I don’t care about just so I can keep readers.  The year is winding down, which is stressful anyway, but it doesn’t help much when external stress is brought to bear by someone who could control him/herself if he/she wanted to.  Such is the education life, though, no?

With that inviting introduction, we move into what I really wanted to talk about, which is the beauty that is the Socratic Seminar.  You may recall my students participated in a Socratic Seminar earlier this year centered around the question of who was most responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.  You can read about that seminar here, along with my reflections about the amazing job they did here.  Another class of mine recently participated in a Socratic Seminar centered around the question “What’s wrong with Holden?” after reading The Catcher in the Rye.

A Socratic Seminar can be based upon any book.  All you have to do, as the educator, is figure out what larger theme or question you want the students to discuss.  Students do all of the other work, but they need guidelines.  First of all, in my experience, students have never heard of a Socratic Seminar, and even those who have heard of one are not sure what to do.  Just outline it for them.  You can use my handout, changing all the relevant information: Socratic Seminar handout.  I culled some of the information on this handout from Greece Central School District’s website.  I think if students are given a similar handout, they will know what they need to do to prepare.

I try to give students at least some class time to prepare.  If the truth be told, it isn’t strictly necessary, but it allays some of their concerns if they can run questions by me first before the seminar.  It also gives those who are having a hard time with the task a chance to see what other students are doing to prepare.  You may need to do some modeling with middle school students, but I haven’t found this to to be necessary with my college prep and honors ninth graders — of course, your mileage may vary, so keep in mind who your students are and what they will need.

The most beautiful thing about Socratic Seminars is that they enable the teacher to assess a student’s understanding of the book, while at the same time ensuring that the student does all the work him/herself.  It is hard to bluff through this assignment without having read the book.  Students have to mark passages so they can defend their assertions.  Their audience is their toughest one — their peers — and their peers will call them on it if they try to BS.

One thing you may notice, as I did, is that Socratic Seminars will give students a chance to shine — a quiet girl who rarely talked in class until the Socratic Seminar simply came out of her shell and contributed a great deal.  I think the Socratic Seminar helped her realize she has valid and interesting things to say.  Another thing that may impress you is how hard the students will work.  They will look up quotes, read criticism (even if it is just online), jot down notes, and the like.  One student told me that even though he’s read Catcher twice, he basically re-read the book just to prepare for the seminar.

Tips for conducting a successful Socratic Seminar:

  • If you’re like me, it will be hard for you as the teacher to remain quiet while the students talk, but it’s essential.
  • Allow students to use hands if they can’t restrain themselves.
  • Supply post-its if students can’t mark in their books.
  • Make sure students are aware of expectations — that each of them must contribute both as a speaker and a listener.
  • Put chairs in a circle.  My chairs are not connected by desks, but if yours are, put desks in a circle.

You might be surprised with what your students come up with when they are put to the test, and the best thing about it is that they do all the work — you just have to listen.

[tags]Socratic Seminar, literature, education[/tags]

Professional Development, Teaching Literature, Teaching Writing

The Reflective Teacher

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Nope, in this case I’m not talking about my good friend, the very aptly named Reflective Teacher, but myself.  I think teachers that do the same thing year after year without thinking about their practices — and then complaining about kids who don’t cooperate like they did in the good old days — really need to think long and hard about why they are even teaching.  I will be the first to agree that students do have a responsibility, too, and it is difficult for even a motivated teacher to kindle student interest out of nothing.  They do need to bring something to the table.  On the other hand, I think it behooves us as teachers to reflect upon our practices regularly and determine where we are doing well and where we might improve.

It never seems as if I have enough time.  I have a modified block schedule, but if you break it down, I have my students for 200 minutes a week, barring any interruptions in the schedule.  I think I spend too much time doing some things that would be better left outside the class for homework.  We read too much together, for one thing.  While I do think reading together less is something I am improving, I still say I have room for more improvement.  I would need to plot out class discussions in more detail in order to make the best use of that time.  I would also need to feel comfortable raising the bar for my students, which I shouldn’t have a problem with — they’re capable of more, and I know it.  We also have an under-utilized learning center where students can get additional assistance with coursework.

I would also like to be more diligent about working with portfolios.  Organizationally, I find this one hard to maintain.  How better, though, to show a student’s genuine progress or lack thereof in writing?  In that same vein, at least every other essay I would like to provide students with typed feedback.  I only did that once this year.  I can type very fast and give really good feedback, but it is time-consuming.  However, that’s part of my job as an English teacher, isn’t it?

I think students in my class know they have to read the material.  I give frequent quizzes, and students quickly learn that in order to do well, they need to prove to me that they are meeting their reading obligations.  I do see some improvement in the writing of my students, particularly those I’ve had for two years.  I think have some creative ideas, and I am proud of the positive ways in which Web 2.0 have impacted my teaching.

What I would like to do this summer, provided I have time, is to plot out lessons using Jay McTighe’s theories of backward design — looking at the whole unit and what I want to accomplish — rather than pick and choose assignments.  I would like more cohesion in my class.  I would like to be at the beginning of May, next year, and feel better about how much I accomplished in the classroom and out.

Issues, Teaching Literature

The Literary Canon

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A Room of One's OwnI recently read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own for the first time (I know, but I had been meaning to get to it). Woolf argues in this classic essay that the main reason women do not populate the canon of Western literature is simply that they haven’t had time and opportunity (never mind encouragement) to write. She points out, and rightly so, that we do not begin to see major women writers until the nineteenth century (with a few exceptions, of course).

Harold Bloom, that famous champion of the closed canon, once opined,

I began as a scholar of the romantic poets. In the 1950s and early 1960s, it was understood that the great English romantic poets were Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But today they are Felicia Hemans, Charlotte Smith, Mary Tighe, Laetitia Landon, and others who just can’t write. A fourth-rate playwright like Aphra Behn is being taught instead of Shakespeare in many curriculums across the country.

I have never heard of the women he mentions, with the exception of Aphra Behn, and I have no plans to ditch Shakespeare in order to teach her, but Bloom’s argument bothers me on a number of levels. First, I see no mention of Mary Shelley, arguably the most influential of the Romantic writers in that Frankenstein so captured public sensibilities that it continues to be adapted and even remixed up to the present day. He is insinuating women can’t write as well as men, and even if that is not his intention, he mentions later in the article I quoted above that four great living writers include Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, and Philip Roth.

Last weekend, I worked very hard on a list of major works for the British literature curriculum at my school for next year. It’s not finalized yet, but I was very proud of it. I deliberately tried to find good works by women that not even a Harold Bloom could object to opening the canon to (and I don’t think he objects to Jane Austen), but it was difficult, and I was reminded again of how many “Shakespeare’s sisters” we probably lost over the centuries, for we surely did. I chose works by Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Virginia Woolf, A.S. Byatt, and Mary Shelley, among others.

I do not advocate throwing higher caliber works out of the canon in favor of lesser works written by women, but are we not to consider the possibility that a woman is as worthy of a spot in the canon as a man? I don’t think a high school survey course can begin to address the entire canon of American or British or world literature, or whatever the course is, but I do think it is our responsibility to expose students to a variety of representative works. And I don’t think neglecting women writers so one can teach more Shakespeare plays is representative. What is wrong with studying one or two Shakespeare plays at most in a high school class? That would still expose students to the great Shakespeare while allowing room for other authors. Then, when students are studying in college or even reading on their own, they might decide to read more Shakespeare.

I suppose I’m just thinking out loud about curriculum choices. Well, I shouldn’t be surprised at the reticence to welcome women writers, even in this day and age. Even as far back as the 1850’s, Harold Bloom had a compatriot in Nathaniel Hawthorne:

America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash — and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed. What is the mystery of these inumberable editions of The Lamplighter (by Maria Susanna Cummins), and other books neither better nor worse? Worse they could not be, and better they need not be, when they sell by the hundred thousand. (Letter to William D. Ticknor, 1855)

[tags]literary canon, scribbling women, women writers, teaching, literature, education[/tags]

Teaching Literature

British Literature

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I have been given a tentative teaching schedule for next year. While this schedule has not been confirmed, I wanted to start thinking about what major works I want to teach in case the schedule becomes a reality.

  • 9th Grammar, Composition, and Literature
  • 10th American Literature and Composition
  • 10th Writing Seminar
  • 11th British Literature and Composition
  • 12th Drama and Composition/Short Story and Composition

I have taught all of these classes before with the exception of British Literature, and that is a class I have been itching to teach for years. A love for British Literature influenced me to become an English teacher in the first place. You may not know it, but I wrote a teachers’ guide for Beowulf for Penguin-Putnam. I am an Arthurian legend freak. I am a fiend for the Romantic poets.

These are some of the works I’m considering:

  • Beowulf: This is a given. What I haven’t decided is whether to go with the textbook’s excerpt or a copy of the Seamus Heaney translation.
  • The Canterbury Tales: My sophomore-level Brit. Lit. course professor required to read this in Middle English, but I have no plans to do this with my own students. I think a study of the original language of Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales might be interesting from the perspective of language development, and I may do some lessons on that subject. I think it would be fun to ask that students read selected blog posts from Geoffrey Chaucer’s blog.
  • Hamlet and Macbeth: I should pick one or the other, but I’m not sure I can, as I think both are important. Something to think about.
  • Pride and Prejudice: The ninth grade Honors students read this for summer reading, but the class I’m teaching is College Prep, so there might not be a conflict; however, I am of the opinion that the novel is more appropriately placed in the 11th grade British literature curriculum.
  • Frankenstein: Students have heard so much about this book in our culture; they might enjoy actually reading it and comparing it to the popular vision of the Frankenstein monster.
  • Wuthering Heights: I read this one in British Lit. in high school, and I liked it.
  • Jane Eyre: This would be an either/or prospect. If students read Wuthering Heights, we wouldn’t do Jane Eyre.
  • The Importance of Being Earnest: I think I would opt for this over The Picture of Dorian Gray simply because it’s a play and I’d like a balance of drama and novel.
  • The Lord of the Flies: The other Brit. Lit. teacher has made this one a staple of the curriculum. I wouldn’t have to teach it, but I have to admit I would like to. It’s a great book. I think a lot of schools do it in 9th or 10th grade rather than in Brit. Lit.

Despite the fact that I am a huge Arthur nut, I have decided not to do Sir Gawain and the Green Knight mainly because I don’t want to overkill with the Middle English literature in a high school course. I also don’t want to do Le Morte D’Arthur, mainly because while I enjoyed the hell out of it, I’m not sure the students would appreciate it. And since I don’t think any other Arthurian material approaches Malory with the exception of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, which was written by an American, I will probably content myself with a unit on the Matter of Britain starring some of the shorter works by both medieval writers and nineteenth century writers like Tennyson.

If you have taught British literature, which of the above books have you had success with? What would you teach? Obviously, I’m not choosing all of it; I just mocked up a list to start from.

[tags]British literature, education, literature selection[/tags]

Teaching Literature

Shakespeare with the Lost Boys

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The Lost Boys (MySpace) are a popular attraction at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Billing themselves as Renaissance rockers, they often record traditional music and filks about Renaissance subject matter.

The Lost Boys

I never miss the Georgia Renaissance Festival, and when I go, I have to see the Lost Boys at least once.

The Lost Boys have recorded two songs written by the Bard (a third attributed to Shakespeare in their liner notes has also been attributed to Richard Barnfield, and because the authorship is uncertain, I decided not to include it here).

Download link

“Who is Sylvia” appears in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV, Scene 2. If you decide to teach this play, your students might enjoy hearing what the musician might actually have sounded like.

Download link

“The Horn” appears in As You Like It Act IV, Scene 2. Again, students might appreciate hearing the song.

If you like these traditional versions of Shakespearean songs, you might also like Songs and Dances from Shakespeare.

What I find more fun, however, are the Lost Boys’ filks based on Shakespeare’s plays. If your students are reading Hamlet, they might enjoy “Hamlet Blues.”

Download link

Students will probably recognize a few bars of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” and Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “I Used to Love Her, But I Had to Kill Her.”

My personal favorite, however, is “Desdemona,” set to the music of “My Sharona” by the Knack.

Download link

O you dirty ho, Iago, he done told me
you doin’ Cassio, but not no mo’
O why did you have to lie,
Desdemona!

I think the songs are fun, and perhaps your students will enjoy them. I will enclose one last song that has nothing whatsoever to do with Shakespeare, but is a great favorite of mine:

Download link

If you would like to purchase CD’s, the Lost Boys are selling their wares at their website.

[tags]Lost Boys, Georgia Renaissance Festival, filk, Shakespeare, education[/tags]

Teaching Literature, Technology

Great Gatsby Scavenger Hunt

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This morning when I arrived at school, our receptionist, who is currently getting her degree in English Education, told me that her class had to do presentations on teaching one of two novels. I can’t remember the title of one, but the other was The Great Gatsby. She dug in her bag and pulled out a handout that her classmates who presented Gatsby had distributed. It had the URL to my Gatsby Scavenger Hunt, noting the activity was a really good introduction to the novel. I have to say that it is, and I can say that without being too boastful because I didn’t create it. Valerie Arbizu did. I have encountered problems with her site, namely that some of the links she created were dead. She thanked me for pointing out the dead links, but I think that she has decided not to update the page any longer. I recreated it, giving her credit of course, with all the links fixed.

Our receptionist’s reminder (I haven’t got to Gatsby yet this year) prompted me to check the page for dead links, and lo and behold, all the links to Valerie’s pages no longer work, so I had to recreate all of those, and the 1920’s slang page and one other site were all dead. One page was a little too complicated to recreate, so I simply linked to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine cache of the site, which my husband assured me would probably work unless the site’s author wrote to Internet Archive and asked that the site be removed. If you are unfamiliar with that site, you should really check it out. It is extremely useful when websites go down or are taken offline. So now my Gatsby Scavenger Hunt is in working order. Please check it out if you teach that novel. I’ve had great success with the activity. And thanks to Valerie for sharing it with us in the first place!

Update: Well, I got all excited and created all those pages for nothing; Valerie’s page seems to be working fine. Tell her how great her Scavenger Hunt is if you get a chance.

[tags]Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, teaching, education, webquest, scavenger hunt[/tags]

Teaching Literature

So What Do YOU Do About That, Um, Scene?

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Censored Romeo and JulietMy students finished watching Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet today.

My personal decision regarding what to do about the infamous nude scene? I show it. Way back when I was in seventh grade, I had this great language arts teacher named Mr. Schmeisser. We read Romeo and Juliet and watched Zeffirelli’s film. I will never forget one of my peers noting that Romeo was a “hunk” (how dated does that sound now? I believe in today’s parlance, he’d be a “hottie”). In retrospect, despite my admiration and respect for Mr. Schmeisser, I have to say I don’t agree with his decision to teach us Romeo and Juliet in seventh grade. At the risk of drawing the ire of my middle school teacher friends, I have to say I don’t think middle schoolers are ready for it. My students who read it invariably say they didn’t understand it when they read it in middle school, and I don’t remember understanding it much either.

OK, before I went on that tangent, I was discussing the nude scene. Before the scene, Mr. Schmeisser gave us a talk. He said that we would be seeing a nude scene. Likely, it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before, and he trusted us to be mature; however, if his trust was proven to be misplaced and we giggled, we would not watch the rest of the film, and we would be doing grammar exercises instead. None of us even breathed during the infamous scene.

In all the years I have taught Romeo and Juliet, I have done just what Mr. Schmeisser did. Before we viewed the scene, I always talked frankly with my students about what they would see, why I thought they could handle it, and what I expected. Only once have I had to stop the film. And I stuck to my guns despite the fact that an assistant principal tried to intervene on the students’ behalf and asked that I show the rest of the film. Nothing doing. A deal’s a deal.

I knew we would be watching the scene today. I had heard through the grapevine that this group had watched this scene in middle school and not handled it well. This suspicion was confirmed when during our preliminary discussion, a student noted that her class watched it in middle school, and it was “a disaster.” I told the students they had seen nudity before; furthermore, they had seen nudity in a theater, most likely, and not giggled at all. I shared the interesting fact that though Olivia Hussey was fifteen when she made this film, Zeffirelli had obtained special permission to film her nude, and as a consequence, Hussey was unable to attend the movie’s premiere due to her age — even though the nudity was her own. The A-rating given to the film at the time meant that only people aged 18 and older could see the film.

As I predicted, my students were just fine during the scene.

I have heard stories of teachers lamely trying to hold objects in front of the screen or skipping the scene altogether. I think the need for this kind of behavior could be avoided if you just talk with students and treat them as if you can trust them to be mature. Most of the time, in my experience, they want to keep your trust, and they want to demonstrate their maturity.

[tags]Romeo and Juliet, Olivia Hussey, Franco Zeffirelli, education, teaching[/tags]

Blogging, Teaching Literature

Blogging Huck Finn, Part Three

I have to say that I am very proud of my students’ posts about Huck Finn on their blog. I am enjoying reading what they have to say, watching as they discover this great book for the first time, and participating in their active discussion. If I could ask them to change anything, it might be proofreading their posts and comments more carefully, but this is the first time many of them have used blogging software. I think it’s easy to spell-check entries, but I don’t think they think about with comments so much. That aside, they are writing about some interesting topics, and I haven’t helped them choose what to write at all — they are simply reacting to and interacting with what they read.

They are excited when they receive comments from “strangers,” or as they put it “random people.” If you are so inclined, check out their writing and tell them what you think.

[tags]Huck Finn, Mark Twain, blogging, Huckleberry Finn, education[/tags]

Assessment, Teaching Literature

Who Killed Romeo and Juliet?

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Juliet stabs herself with Romeo’s daggerAs I wrote previously, I planned to conduct a Socratic Seminar focused on this question: Who was most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? We held our discussion today. One student arrived early to help me move the desks to the side. We put the chairs in a big circle. The students came in and took their seats. I gave them the Self-Reflection from Greece Central School District to complete at the end, but told them they could jot down some of their thoughts as we held our discussion.

After I opened the discussion with the question, the students took over. Aside from having to stop and make sure that students who had been waiting to speak had a turn, I didn’t say another word until the end of class when I told the students what a wonderful job they’d done. They did become heated at times. There was a solid camp who asserted it was all the fault of Friar Laurence, whereas others said no one person was to blame — so many factors came into play. Still others insisted Romeo and Juliet really had no one to blame for their deaths but themselves. They argued their points well, frequently turning to the text. Several times I heard students make this argument: “We can’t deal with ‘what ifs’; we have to go based on the text, and Shakespeare clearly says in the Prologue that it was fate — they were destined to die, and nothing could have prevented it.” It was so impressive to listen to, and I was very proud of how much they had learned. They were really getting into the text, and it didn’t feel like work or assessment, yet they truly showed me how much they knew through this exercise — much more so than a multiple choice test (do you hear that, NCLB test-happy bureaucrats?). There were times when students were passionate and had trouble taking turns or making sure everyone got a chance to speak, but by the end of the discussion, all of the students had had a chance to speak (with the exception of one student who had been absent and so wasn’t prepared — more on this in a moment — and another who just wouldn’t be drawn into the discussion). I heard from students who do not normally speak during our class discussions, and it was great to see this side of those students come out. I think everyone felt safe to share their opinions, even if everyone didn’t agree.

If you plan to hold a seminar, it might be helpful to know a few things about the students in my class. They are college-prep ninth graders. I have nineteen students in this class, six of whom are girls. The boys in the class are fond of sports and are masters at figuring out how to write about sports for every essay assignment for which they are given any amount of freedom regarding topics. Our class was a double block, but it was cut short due to Long Tefillah (prayers) — Purim is this Saturday, and some Jewish holidays call for extended prayers. We began class something like 10 or 15 minutes later than normal, but we managed to maintain our discussion for a full hour and 10 minutes. After this, I gave students time to fill out their reflections. One student said it was the quickest class period he’d experienced all year, which I took to mean he was so engaged he didn’t think about the clock. It was a great class.

What should you do if students are absent for any part of this assignment, either for preparation or the seminar itself? I gave students two class periods to prepare, and they used it well. We also had a bargain that they would use it well or I’d put them on the spot and make them talk right then. If students were absent for one class, I didn’t change any expectations; they were still expected to speak up at the seminar. If they missed both, I asked that they set up an appointment to meet with me and discuss their ideas one on one so I could hear what they would have said in the seminar. It’s not ideal, as part of the seminar is the exchange. If students just won’t participate, I offer them the same deal; I understand being a shy kid, for when I was really small I would have rather died than speak up in front of my peers. Students should be aware of how they will be graded prior to the assignment. This assignment is great for teaching students to dig deeply into a text for evidence to back up their assertions, and it is also great for critical thinking skills and speaking/listening skills. It’s also very easy to evaluate. The students do all of the work!

[tags]Socratic Seminar, Romeo and Juliet, discussion, assessment, education[/tags]

Teaching Literature

Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Part Four

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Prehistoric Romeo and JulietWho killed Romeo and Juliet?

The answer isn’t as simple as one might think, and determining who is most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet makes a great writing exercise for students. I can no longer remember where I found this idea, as is so often the case with us educators, I suppose, so if you find it, please let me know so I may give proper credit.

In order to prepare for this assignment, students can write summaries of each act as they read and keep the summaries in their notebook. Depending upon the students’ level, the teacher may decide it is OK to skip this step. Next, the teacher should lead a discussion of each character’s flaws or traits. The way I usually do this is to create a web with the character’s name at the center.

Romeo Character Map

The character map above is just a small example. For the final step, students examine their plot summaries coupled with character maps to determine which character was at fault for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. They write a persuasive essay incorporating examples of actions on the part of that character that led to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. For example, one student of mine two years ago argued that Friar Laurence was most to blame for the deaths. She determined that Friar Laurence did not do enough to make sure the lovers were both in on the plan he made. Many students argue that Romeo, Tybalt, and Capulet are most responsible. Interestingly, students invariably see Juliet as innocent, even though she stabs herself in the end.

This assignment can easily be adapted to fit the standard five-paragraph essay format:

  1. Introduction, including thesis about who is most responsible for deaths.
  2. One reason why the person is responsible (action or words).
  3. Second reason why.
  4. Third reason why.
  5. Conclusion.

As my students have already written two essays for this unit, I have decided to adapt this assignment into a Socratic Seminar. In order to do this, my students will discuss the characters’ traits tomorrow. We will begin planning for the seminar by marking passages that offer evidence of a certain character’s blame with post-it notes. On Wednesday, students will hold the seminar. This would be a great time to do a podcast, but as I explained yesterday, I’m not quite ready for that at this point. If we need to roll into Thursday to finish the discussion, that’s fine. Greece Central School District has some great resources for Socratic Seminars.

Update: Borrowing liberally from Greece Central School District’s information I created a document to explain to my students what a Socratic Seminar is all about (Socratic Seminar handout) and an accompanying rubric (Romeo and Juliet Seminar rubric). My students asked me if they could have two class periods (today and tomorrow) to prepare for the discussion. They were busily marking their books with post-its and asking me about their ideas. One student excited showed me a list of twenty events in the play that contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.  Following the discussion, I will ask them to complete the Self-Evaluation (Word doc) created by Greece Central Schools.

They are so much more engaged in the text through an activity like this than they would be if I just gave them a test.

[tags]Romeo and Juliet, teaching, education, Socratic Seminar[/tags]