Re: Marjoryt responds: divide the work into units
Posted by marjoryt, how has been in your shoes on 9/02/08
Some of my remarks are specifically for "alternative school".
1) For alternative school students, who may be entering and leaving your
classes daily, it's really important to be collecting grades and firmly
establishing their path on "The Road to Success".
2) If you are having textbook issues, then you work within the situation
at hand.
3) I still think a unit shouldn't last more than 2 weeks, with 1 week (5
days) be the optimum.
So, here are my suggestions for proceeding:
Divide the text up into whatever you think the students can adequately
cover in 1 week. If they can handle 3 chapters, then your unit covers 3
chapters. Set up the objectives for that. In the next unit, you'll
cover the next 3 chapters, and you can have the same OR DIFFERENT
objectives. Each unit will have evaluations (I like having 2 per
unit). You simply move through the novel, taking the time it requires.
Let me give you an example, using Huckleberry Finn
Unit 1 (Chapters 1-3) Objective focus: Setting, characterization,
conflicts. Evaluations: Popquiz on Wednesday (setting and characters),
essay on Friday (Huck's Conflict).
Unit 2 (Chapters 4-5) Objective focus: Language to establish character,
racism, rising and falling action within a chapter. Evaluations:
Popquiz on Wednesday (plot elements), essay on Friday (racism portrayals
OR elements of humor in the novel's first 5 chapters)
Please notice - almost ALL the time is spent within the work itself, not
on secondary materials. We are not focusing on Mark Twain's life, or on
the historical context. This is a very "formalist" treatment and
doesn't veer into psychological or cultural analysis.
You or your students may be upset with moving so slowly. However, they
are practicing critical reading and thinking, and you are reviewing all
those elements with them. They are also collecting grades and
practising their compositions skills.
There are MANY works available as "e-text" versions. You might consider
printing one out and printing a class "check out" set. These could be
stapled or comb bound, and the students can have a copy to take home.
If a student loses it, you simply give out another or let them read in
class. If a student wants to keep it, then you handwrite a note giving
the "book" to the student. When I did this with my alternative school
students, about 1/2 of them wanted to keep their own "book" of poems.
Posts on this thread, including this one
- MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by Robert F.
- Re: MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by city teacher.
- Re: MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by Robert F.
- Re: MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by city teacher.
- Re: MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by Robert F.
- Re: MarjoryT or others: Length of Units, 9/01/08, by Robert F.
- Re: Marjoryt responds: divide the work into units, 9/02/08, by marjoryt, how has been in your shoes.
- Re: Wow! Thanks so much, Marjory NFM, 9/02/08, by Robert F.
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