Organizing Units with
Literature
Probst—Response and Analysis
Calkins,
Ehrenworth, and Lehman—Pathways to the
Common Core
Herz
and Gallo—“Building Bridges: Getting Students from Wherever They are to Where The Curriculum Says They Should Be”
and What Else? Other Approaches”
Richinson
and Carter—“Theme Sets for Secondary Students: How to Scaffold Core Literature”
Say:
Today’s
readings have been very helpful when it comes to understanding and organizing a
specific unit on a piece of literature.
There are so many different components that need to be implemented when
organizing a unit and doing that can be somewhat overwhelming. Similarly, today’s readings also engulf the array
of different themes can work over the course of a literary text. It is also important
to consider incorporating other literary text with the primary text. By incorporating supplemental texts that
discus the major theme, students will engage in higher level thinking. Each article gives helpful insight on what to
include and discuss in a major unit plan with literature.
Along with developing a major theme for an
entire unit, the Response and Reading
chapter, “The Text and Other Texts,” Probst discusses how a teacher can
implement some texts with the larger text that is being studied in a unit. The
two texts can work together to discuss the major theme of the unit. As Probst argues that we create units to
focus on major “conceptions, beliefs, and attitudes,” he also explains that
other texts can further compliment the theme of a major work of literature (101-102). Pairing texts can complement major ideas, and
it can show students how a major theme or idea can be looked at in many
different ways. Probst states, “…choosing
works that fit together, either because they deal with similar situations or
because they reveal similar or contrasting attitudes, is likely to predispose
the teacher toward a certain line of inquiry” (104). In another words, the secondary text can be
used to teach complimenting or contrasting information that correlates with the
primary work of literature. I like how
Probst also gives examples of how two works can complement each other or contrast
each other to show two completely different vantage points. Altogether, this Response and Analysis chapter explains why teachers should consider
involving secondary text in with literary units to help further the development
of the belief, conception, or attitude from the primary literary source.
Herz and Gallo’s article, “Building
Bridges: Getting Students from Wherever They are to Where the Curriculum Says
They Should Be” and What Else? Other Approaches” also gives a great deal of
insight about how to use units of literature to harbor major ideas as students
learn what they are supposed to be learning in the curriculum. The themes should be used to make connections. Like Probst suggested, this can be done through
pairing texts (29). Herz and Gallo recommend pairing canonical text with Young
Adult Literature. For example, they
suggest reading River Rats (YA book) and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (canonical)
together because of the similar topics and themes. Herz and Gallo also give numerous other
examples that I will review again in the future when I have my own
classroom. Altogether, using a paired
text can help when organizing a unit with literature to show students the major
theme in different ways.
Richinson’s Theme Sets for Secondary Students: How to Scaffold Core Literature
discusses how to choose a theme from a text. Richinson states, “Theme-sets, as
we use them, are meant to work in heterogeneously grouped classrooms, as either
an organizational methodology for using literature that may be beyond the
reading ability or interest of many of the students in our classes” (12). Essentially, themes can be used as
organizational tools when deciding how to go about teaching a literary
text. These units may also be studied
through literature circles. More than anything, the theme should allow for
high level and critical thinking (15). Some
of the theme-sets Richinson discusses are: migrant families, growing up ethnic
in America—the African-American experience, literature of war, the bullying mentality,
utopian/dystopian societies. With these
theme-sets, specific information is being studied with an array of different literary
texts.
Again, each of these readings are
complimented by Pathways to the Common
Core. Incorporating key pieces of
knowledge and ideas through literature can be done through a unit work. Similarly, Pathways to the Common Core discusses how a piece of literature can
actually be used to teach an array of different concepts and ideas. The common core actually requires teachers to
“integrate knowledge and ideas” through literature, and this is usually done
best through longer time frames set aside through units. Similarly to some of the articles, Pathways to Common Core also implies
that studying other texts with a primary literary work can help enhance a
specific theme. This can be done through
informational and narrative texts.
Each reading has really helped me
see how to organize unit plans involving a major piece of literature. It is important to follow the common core
standards while involving major literature themes and ideas through the major
work of literature. Also, it is helpful
to pair text that can compare or contrast the major concepts or ideas that are
being discussed through the unit theme. Altogether,
each article from today has aided in my understanding of how to organize units with
literature.
Do:
Here is the link to a comprehensive unit plan I have created on a Unit of Literature. In this unit plan, there are multiple examples of me involving supplemental text with the major work of literature:
No comments:
Post a Comment