I really liked the "Three Key Questions" that Gallagher discusses on pages 86-91. It really allows students to futher examine the reading and get them thinking. On page 87, Gallagher uses Lord of the Flies as an example. Since all I could think about for 2 wks was Lord of the Flies ( I did my I-Search on this) I could relate to the example that he gave. By rereading the text, the student's discover certain things like "fair" used 9 times in the first 2 pages which all describe Ralph. It's amazing what you discover when you read for detail. Why the author does this has the students asking 2 of the three key questions- What does it say and what does it mean?
I also liked how Gallagher uses "What does it matter?" to talk about why we read. When he asked why were still reading To Kill a Mockingbird so many years after it has been published, it really made me think. I think that it shows students that it does relate to the real world and the issues that were going on during that time period. It always seems like Gallagher somehow relates whatever he is talking about to the real world, and thats what I like so much about this book.
I found the first part of the colloboration chapter (6) very interesting. It caught my eye because we just talked about some of the same issues in my ENG 520 class. Under the "No Hitchhiking" section on page 106, Gallagher talks about group work. I've discussed how many students you should place in groups in some of my other classes before, but I've wondered if a group of 2 or 3 will really work best. What he was saying though, made sense. There is always one person that is the leader of the group that is doing all the work, and most of the others are just talking and not contributing. I found the tips on seperating the groups by size, gender/ethnicity very interesting and I am ready to try them out in my classroom.
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I also liked how he talked about grup work and the fact that he presented ways of making sure that each student is engaged when in groups. I love the idea of emphazing that the teacher will randomly choose a student to present what their group has discussed - it makes each student feel like they have to be responsible for their group's work for the possibility of being called on by their teacher. I'm keeping this in mind!
Kitty- great points about To Kill a Mockingbird. Actually, i had to deal with a similar problem in my field experience with this book. While many students were interested in starting the book, i had one African American girl refuse to read it because of the use of the n-word. My teacher gave her the movie to watch over a weekend and she came back after speaking with her granmda and was more interested in the book. She no longer refused to read it because her grandma said that it was very similar to the things she experienced as a child. This got my student interested in the book and she is a lot more open to the book now. Even this many years after the book was published and it is still relevant...who would have thought!
I'm really glad you mentioned group sizes in your post! Today I taught in my practicum class and I had the students number off 1 through 4 and get in their groups. I wish my practicum teacher had told me about her "group size policy" before I did this! She said she never allows groups, she only allows partners or individual work. I can understand why I guess (fewer distractions), but then you miss out on important social interactions and the chance to hear a lot of different ideas/perspectives/etc. The groups worked really well together and there were no problems. I can understand limiting group sizes so that you don't have gigantic groups, but I do think group work is important for a lot of reasons.
Groups of two? I have a really inappropriate joke for this, but I'll keep it to myself.
I also liked Gallagher's use of the movie Sixth Sense. And it's funny, cause I did the same thing. I watched and then watched it again.
I think with any good book, that is considered worthwhile and deep, it merits revisiting.
~Stan
The key question: What does it matter? I can safely say through our discussions in class that we agree that students will not be interested in a text if there is no relevance to it for them. Having them know why a book matters is definitly key.
Another take on the same thing is What Gallagher askes about why we are still reading to Kill A Mockingbird make me think of why we study history, Personally I think History is very interesting, but the main reason why we study that information is that we as a culture do not make the same mistakes now and in the future as our ancestors did in the past. This concept can be applied to literature. Burling states in his ENG 340 class that litereature can only be fully understand by those who were living through the time period that it was written in. Instead of fully understanding what the work say we should take away it's lesson. This is why Burling spends fo much time on the historical context behind the works that we read. Authors use literature to write about thier thoughts and concerns about events that are happening around them and in their time. We can read what they write and learn what went wrong so as to not repeat history, so to say.
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