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Knowing When to Shut Up: Suggestions for Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment

by Marsha Arons c 2014

When my department chair and assistant principal came to observe my honors sophomore

English class perform a scene from Othello, we all got a surprise: These honors students failed!

The assignment did not require them to memorize lines, but only to understand them and use

proper inflection. It also required that they show understanding of text and subtext through

blocking, gesture, props, and ambient sound. We had spent several class periods discussing

possibilities for each category and practicing “tossing” lines. The students had asked good

questions about how characters’ placement on stage vis-a-vis one another conveyed height,

power, fall, and other dramatic elements. They had talked about using props to convey literal as

well as figurative meaning. (School rules had necessitated that I dissuade them from using real

fire as a prop for Othello’s “Put out the light and put out the light” line. They agreed on a

flashlight and pillow, instead.) So we teachers were shocked when the group of four students

stumbled over lines, didn’t move, didn’t use their props and generally bored their classmates.

But everyone was shocked when I didn’t jump up to intercede or stop the performance. I said

nothing. I simply let them fail.

But I wasn’t worried.

Sure enough, that evening, I received nine emails from members of this class. Three of them

were from the students who had failed, admitting they had been poorly prepared and asking for

another chance. But the other six were from classmates offering suggestions as to how the group

could improve their performance.

I began class the next day asking first for comments from the observers, who quickly said they

had been bored. But they knew that by saying this, they would be asked to help their classmates

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improve. It was as much their obligation to find ways to be engaged as it was the performers’

obligation to engage them. After brainstorming for one class period, they came up with a

method they called, “Everyone Get into the Act!”

The following day, each member of the class brought in an item that could be used as a prop. As

the scene was being acted out, a student in the audience could yell, “Freeze!” Then he ran into

the center of the room, picked up the prop or costume piece and placed it on or near one of the

actors. While doing this, the student had to explain what the item added to the interpretation of

the lines being delivered. The actors could choose to accept or reject the item but they had to

explain their responses, again using close textual reading to support their opinion.

In this way, not only did the original group give a performance that conveyed real

comprehension, but the audience insured that they were a part of the process! Everyone--quite

literally--got into the act! (The students did receive a grade for their original performance as

well as for the second one.)

My reluctance to intervene wouldn’t have worked with every class I teach. Nor would it have

worked with this class if I had taught Othello at the beginning of the school year instead of mid-

semester. But before we had reached this point, this honors class had established what I call a

“collaborative learning environment.”

If this sounds a lot like “active learning,” an idea first set forth back in the 80’s and popularized

in the 1990’s report to the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) (Bonwell and

Eison, 5), it is. But while “active learning” focuses the responsibility for an individual’s

learning on himself. of learning on the learners, it primarily makes the individual responsible for

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himself. A collaborative learning environment makes each individual responsible for the learning

of others as well. How does this environment evolve?

Getting StartedClass Discussion: Engagement, Creating a Safety Zone, and Knowing

When to Shut Up

At the beginning of the school year, I set only one ground rule: Class participation is a

component of the grade; everyone is required to contribute to discussion. “Contribution” is not

only answering questions, but asking them. All cThe only stipulation I make is tomments must

be supported by textual evidence. This rule also keeps students honest about keeping up with

homework assignments. They must read the text in order to have questions about it.

What happens when, despite these “rules,” some students—for myriad reasons--just won’t speak

up?

How do we create a safe place where everyone can express opinions and consider new ones?

Wher students listen and connect with the literature and with each other?

This environment must be cultivated by active student involvement in the process. It doesn’t

happen just because I, the teacher, say it must. Nor does it happen when I validate every

comment made in class. (Even my freshmen see through false praise). And it most certainly

won’t happen if I am leading every discussion. Often it happens when I just shut up.

But before I can do that, I have to know my students.

Getting to Know Them—Writing Memoir

One way I get to know them is through memoir writing, which takes place every Friday.

“Memoir” is not simply a student’s recounting of an event in his life. That is a memory. A

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memory becomes a memoir when the student isolates a moment in time and focuses on the

details of the moment; then, guided by a series of questions, the student explores how his

memories of that event and his reactions define who he was then and who he is iin the present.

Often, when students are asked to write about themselves, their response is, “But nothing

interesting ever happens to me!” Memoir writing allows students to look at simple events

truthfully and honestly, finding the “interesting” element through the process.

Memoir writing helps students define their own identities, gets them to appreciate that excellent

writing is a process, and helps them overcome their fears about getting started and finding topics.

A goal can also be publication of students’ work.

Here is my method and some suggestions for required reading for this curriculum:

“Stories don’t just appear out of nowhere. They need a ball that starts to roll.” From

Looking Back by Lois Lowry

Students examine a series of professionally and non-professionally written memoirs in essays,

short and longer non-fiction and fiction, plays, and poetry. In class discussion or in small

groups, students identify the subject prompts from the professional piece. They identify key

words and phrases and identify literary devices covered in class. Students are told not to think of

their own “story” per se, but about an event or incident in their own lives that the piece brings to

mind. The discussion of the piece is crucial since students give each other perspectives on what

the piece is really about.

For example, Maya Angelou’s “Can You Cook Creole?” inspired memories of cooking

experiences for some students; but further discussion of the piece revealed it to be about taking

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responsibility, having a job, lying, using vernacular, etc. Each student found some aspect of the

essay that resonated with him.

Once a student has an idea for an essay, he follows the following format for a first draft just to

get the details down on paper. I ask a series of questions to which students respond in writing.

No one is writing an essay at this point, I tell them. They are simply establishing the building

blocks. , I tell them Knowing that they aren’t required to write a story, but simply to answer

questions lessens anxiety, I have found. Here are my instructions:

1. Take a mental snapshot of the moment in time when this event happened. Write one

sentence that answers the questions: “Where are you? How old are you?” Often this

specific direction is the most important because it helps a student just get started. I tell

them not to worry about making a good story yet. We are just interested in the details of

the moment.

2. Next, I ask, “Imagine you are in that moment. What do you see, hear, smell, and taste?

Can’t remember? Say so! Don’t make it up!” For most students, this is hard because

they just want to tell the circumstance and I have to repeat, “Not yet. Don’t’ tell me your

story. Just put down physical details that you remember.” They must write at least five

sentences. Some students need very specific parameters. (I tell them this is a draft—they

may choose to omit details in the final version but unless they put them down on paper,

they won’t be able to tell what is important to the final version. As good writers know,

the strength of an essay is always in the details.)

3. Now they are ready to tell me how they got to that moment in time. “What is the

backstory? How did you get here? What were you doing immediately before?”

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4. Reflection is next: “What was most significant about this moment to you in that

moment?” Prompts: “How did you feel about the action, the person, yourself?” “How

would you describe yourself in that moment? Prompts: “What adjectives would you use

to describe yourself then? What did you like to do, eat, read?”

5. Then I ask, “Who are you today compared to who you just wrote you were then? How

do you think you have been affected today as a result of this moment in time? What did

the experience do for you in terms of how you think about yourself?” This step is hardest

for students because they really have to reflect. But I tell them they don’t have to find

something deep and life changing, just real. It could be a statement as simple as “I loved

cooking with my mother then and I still do.” But in writing that statement, often a

student will question himself and ask why—what does it mean for their relationship etc.

6. Now they are ready to find an ending. I ask: “What have you forgotten about this

moment that you wish you could remember?” And immediately following…

7. Starting with “I remember. . .” Write one sentence that tells what the most memorable

detail is about this event.

Another good memoir prompt is Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Here is a Picture of Me.”

A Picture of MeBy Judith Ortiz Cofer

Balancing myself, hands on hips,feet lined one after the otheron a cement wall between city buildings,in the background the fire escapeI used as a swing, as a trapeze.I am skinny and brash, thirteen or fourteenaware of my bones, of the angles and curvesreforming my skin. I am challenging gravityin my tight checked Capri pantsand the man's shirt tied at the waist, pulled taut

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over the one-eight of an inch padded pointswaiting to fulfill their promiseWhat was I thinking while I posedfor my neighbor's new Polaroid camera?My parents are outside the frame, waitingto see if the present moment can reallybe captured on film. In seconds,my mother will exclaim Oye!and Mira! As I emerge from a milky bluish seaspilling into the black square she holdsopen-palmed, taller and olderthan she remembers me only sixty seconds ago.Father will look away as if he has suddenly heardsomething in the distance,perhaps a fire alarm.

We identify any words or phrases that are unfamiliar. (I translate the obvious Spanish words

Mira and Oye!) Most often, I have to explain what the Poloroid camera reference means to

digital age students. I ask what they know about the narrator. (When I teach poetry, I make a

point to differentiate between the narrator’s voice and the author’s voice. I tell students that they

may be the same but they don’t have to be. In the case of Ortiz Cofer’s poem, the two voices are

one: She is Puerto Rican and her poetry often expresses the conflict she felt growing up Latina

in the United States. My students at an Orthodox Jewish day school identify with her dilemma:

How to recognize and value tradition in the face of modernity?)

We go through the poem, setting up the structure of key words and situations that will appear in

their memoirs:

1. Balancing: I ask students what they are “balancing”? I usually get a variety of emotional

and physical stresses; e.g. homework and social life, parents’ expectations and personal

ones.

2. Position: The author describes herself posed in a way that shows her personality.

Students must choose a position that shows their personalities . I ask what is a typical

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position for them: slouching in a chair, lying on your stomach reading, watching tv,

sitting upright at a computer etc. Students must tell where their hands and feet are.

[3.] Location: Describing a pose leads students to consider a location where they find

themselves most often. (see Appendix, student sampleexample—Ezra Kapetanksy). The

location must include descriptions of what is behind the student and all around him.

3.[4.] Next, the student chooses two adjectives: I am…… and his age at the time he is

describing.

4.[5.] Aware: I ask students to write what they are aware of at this moment. What concerns

them?

5.[6.] Challenging: Some form of this word must appear in their finished poem. What are

they challenging? What challenges them?

6.[7.] Clothes: What are they wearing? Why?

7.[8.] What are they thinking in the moment? (this is often the hardest part of the poem

process and I let students come back to this at the end)

8.[9.] Where is your mother? Students must write one sentence that tells something not just

about their mother’s interests or occupation but something that shows their relationship to

her.

9.[10.] Where is your father? They must do the same for their father.

Both methods result in all the pieces for an essay. The first lends itself more to prose and the

second to a poetry format. In both cases, as students use literary models, they see how their own

use of language becomes more evocative and powerful. They take their essays home tond edit

and polish and see that excellent essays are constructed, not merely written. I give a due date

several days later.

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It is crucial that students understand that they must read out loud at least a portion of what they

have written. No one must read an entire essay or poem if he doesn’t want to, but students must

know that reading out loud is part of this process. No one comments, but students may jot down

questions or suggestions for their classmates and give them privately.

When essays are due, I ask students to indicate if they would like to read their own works or if

they would like me to read aloud. I do not use names when I read. Sometimes, at the beginning

of the year, a student will ask that I not read her work aloud at all. I agree, because experience

has shown me that is, without exception, when I begin to read others’ works, these reluctant

students change their minds. They hear similar experiences and similar voices among their

classmates and hearing these words—not merely reading them—makes students feel their

power!

As the year progresses, the read around structure changes from simply sharing stories to offering

and receiving constructive criticism: “Tell one thing you enjoyed and one way for the writer to

improve.” When we reach this point, we are on our way to having a collaborative learning

environment.

Note: I always collect and read essays before we have read arounds. In this way, I am not

surprised by content. Here is an important thing I have learned about student content: No

student ever put into writing anything he did not want a teacher to react to. Over the course of

fifteen years of teaching, I have identified three troubled teens: two who were encountering

abuse in one form or another and one who was angry and owned a gun.

Finally, as an added incentive to memoir writing, my students are encouraged to publish their

work in our school literary magazine. Selection is highly competitive and we do not accept

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anonymous submissions. I also keep a list of publishing contests, many of which have monetary

rewards attached.

Memoir writing helps students trust each other and share stories. It creates that safe atmosphere

so students can give and receive real constructive criticism. The process also gives them formats

to follow to get started. Not all students will produce an excellent piece in response to every

work we cover. But by the end of the year, everyone has at least two or three pieces to be proud

of. In many cases, these memoirs become the basis for college essays in the senior year. As

students use literary models, they see how their own use of language becomes more evocative

and powerful

I like to read aloud my students’ work, but by the third quarter of the year, they really want to do

it themselves. So I do what I do best: I shut up.

Team Building: The Trial of Victor Frankenstein

Once we have all gotten to know each other through our “stories,” the class is ready for some

“team building” opportunities. These exercises accomplish several goals: They get students to

rely on each other, allow individual students to demonstrate strengths, and afford groups several

ways to demonstrate knowledge; most important, they make it clear that each student has to help

others succeed in order for the group to be successful as a whole.

The collective groan from some students when I announce a group project is usually the result of

an experience where one or a few students have “done all the work” and others have coasted but

everyone gets the same grade. “Unfair!” the students cry. And they are right!

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But my method eliminates the possibility of slackers and holds each member of the team

accountable. Plus it gets students to read text carefully and closely.

In one class I taught, students tended to be “literal learners.” They relied on plot details to

answer questions. Thus, when I asked whether Victor Frankenstein was responsible for the

deaths of William, Justine, Henri, and Elizabeth in the novel, the first response was no, the

creature admits to all of the murders and to framing Justine so that she is hanged for William’s

death. Victor, they said, was wrong to abandon the creature, but he didn’t commit the crimes.

This answer wasn’t wrong; it was just based on plot, not close textual reading. In general, these

students were not interested in asking their own questions, but only in responding to mine and

seeing if they got the answer “right.” This was a class discussion, but not a collaborative learning

environment. How to engage these surface readers?

We put Victor Frankenstein on trial for the capital murder of William. Here’s what we did!

(Materials: Frankenstein, Worksheets 1,2, 3)

Method:

After a brief discussion of plot details (The facts were not in dispute—the creature describes how

he kills William), we considered ways that Victor’s interaction with the creature might have

played a role in the murder.

To set up the trial, we first called in some outside experts. I love doing this for several reasons:

I am not the one doing all the talking or teaching.

The students learn information they wouldn’t ordinarily learn in a literature class.

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This method affords the opportunity to bring parents or other members of the community

into the classroom and offer expertise. In this way, students see we are all partners in the

learning process.

Students are surprised by—and remember—learning moments that vary from the

ordinary lecture, discussion (however lively!) format.

I contacted a criminal court judge (retired). He came with his robe and gavel and talked

about criminal court proceedings. (Gun violence in school settings has been such a tragic

topic recently—we were careful with our approach to a local historical case, but it was

relevant to how the students were going to view Victor Frankenstein’s “parental”

responsibility for the creature’s behavior.) The judge discussed the case of Laurie Dann, who

in 1987, walked into a local elementary school and shot a child, before killing herself. The

judge focused on the fact that Dann’s parents had been sued in civil court by the parents of

the murdered child. The civil court had found that because they had supplied their daughter

with the gun, Dann’s parents were complicit in the murder.

My students improved their vocabulary and discussed whether Victor had “supplied” the

creature with the murder “weapon.”

We asked the school psychologist to come. He discussed ways that events in childhood can

predict outcomes of adult behavior. This expert talked about how an individual’s sense of

morality and justice is formed. (The students looked closely at the language both Victor and

the creature use to describe what occurs immediately after the creature is animated: Victor

runs away, but the creature--the students saw--reached out to him much the same way as a

baby reaches for its mother. From the creature’s recitation of what came next, students saw

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that he did have a strong sense of morality when he left Victor: The creature helps the

Delaceys and rescues a drowning child despite being rejected by humanity)

We invited one of our school’s rabbis who offered the Halachic perspective on murder and

witnessing. The students were surprised that Jewish law was not clear-cut and the ensuing

discussion was continued in a Judaic studies class where students explored meforshim and

deepened their understanding of the issues.

These issues were thought-provoking and a little “heavy.” So we lightened up a bit by having

one class devoted to drawing. A local artist instructed the students in creating facial self-

portraits. I grouped the students into 2’s and 3’s for this project. ( I made sure to group

students who were not necessarily best friends. As they gazed at each other, intent on getting

features “right,” their close proximity in small groups created an opportunity for more

relaxed interaction. I had students switch groups several times to draw as many classmates as

time permitted. As a “fly on the wall,” I heard students ask questions and learn about each

other—information I used later when I created the teams.) Surprisingly, this lesson turned out

to include math and proportion and even students who complained, “I can’t draw!” were

surprised with the life-like results. They drew each other in class and then went home,

looked in a mirror and drew themselves. We displayed these drawings across the back of the

room (thus, we now had our watchful “jury”!) and had fun trying to identify one another!

The students took notes on the experts’ comments, asked questions, built their vocabulary lists,

and recorded their own reactions to the process at each step. Because I had not yet divided the

class into Team Defense and Team Prosecution while the experts were presenting, the students

were thinking about both sides of the issue of Victor’s guilt or innocence.

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As a class, we discussed what we had learned from the “experts.” The class settled on several

strategic areas to focus on during the trial:

motive (the creature’s for the crime and Victor’s for creating the creature)

Victor’s “parental” responsibility for raising the creature and imbuing it with morality,

the creature’s morality and choices,

both Victor’s and the creature’s states of mind, and

Victor’s own background and character.

Next, I created Team Defense and Team Offense. I grouped students somewhat randomly, but

taking into consideration what I had observed about their interaction during the drawing class.

Thus each group had some “talkers” and some “reluctants.” Each team was responsible for

asking questions using the strategies selected. (If, during small group discussion, a team came

up with an additional strategy, they had to let the other team know so they could try to prepare a

rebuttal).

Everyone on each team had to ask at least one question. Students had learned what every good

lawyer knows: You don’t ask a question unless you know the answer to it! Thus, as a team,

discussion included not just assigning strategies and categories of questions to each member of

the team, but helping that team member find textual support for the answer to the question that

supported their side. Each student had a chance to be a “lawyer,” posing the question on the

selected topic, and the “witness,” who responded with words from the text.

Now we were ready to go to trial. The students showed up in “lawyer” costumes, which, since

our school has a dress code, meant more formal looks: coats and ties for the boys, suit jackets

and heels for the girls. “Witnesses,” characters from the novel, carried or wore a defining prop.

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When the prosecution wanted to establish that Victor’s abandonment of the creature was not only

a significant factor in the creature’s retaliation, but especially heinous, they called Caroline,

Victor’s mother, to the stand. Caroline “testified” that she had been an abandoned child, rescued

by Alphonse, whom Victor calls “a protecting spirit,” and together they had done the same thing

—rescued an “abandoned” child when they adopted Elizabeth, for whom they all have a

“passionate and almost reverential attachment.” Since Victor begins his narrative to Walton

with this family background—my students for the prosecution said—this shows that Victor

knows what good parenting is. If his own parents could love and nurture a child whom they

didn’t even create, how much worse is Victor’s crime of abandonment of a “child” whom he did

create?

But, countered the students for the defense, abandonment itself isn’t the motive for the creature’s

killing spree. In fact, when the character leaves Victor, his innate morality is intact. His initial

efforts to connect with humans show his “pity and compassion.” He reaches out for Victor, eases

Felix’s workload and even rescues a drowning child. Only after he is repeatedly rejected by

others does the creature “snap” and kill William.

Before the trial, students needed to know how they were being assessed. I gave them a series of

worksheets. Worksheet #1 organized their strategies, helping them write premises for each of

the topics and establishing their point of view (guilt or innocence). Worksheet #2 focused their

textual proof for their chosen premise (the question and response) and guided them through the

steps in writing a paragraph of literary analysis.

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Worksheet #3 helped them see what they would need to include in their after-trial evaluations:

Who had made the more compelling argument using textual support? They would need to

comment on individual questions and answers, citing text.

In order to write these essays, they had to listen critically, annotate their books as evidence was

presented, re-assess their own opinions, and come to their own conclusions about how the author

used language to convey meaning. In addition, students overcame their fear of challenging texts,

worked as a team to help each other find meaning in text, understood that everyone has a

responsibility to contribute to the learning process (team effort), and respectfully and carefully

listen to others’ arguments.

What did I do? Except for acting as a facilitator, I shut up.

All of these classroom practices work synergistically to teach skills and impart knowledge to a

variety of learning styles, enabling differentiated methods of demonstrating knowledge. They

make English class fun, dynamic, and a safe place. They help students see continuity between

Judaic and general studies. But most important, these methods empower students to take risks,

explore challenging texts, and make connections—to the literature, to the process, and to each

other.

. This might be a good paragraph to put in to your conclusion. I would move it to the end. It has

a wow factor and could also lend to the effect.

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Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. "Can You Cook Creole." The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou. New

York: Modern Library, 2004. N. pag. Print.

Bonwell, Charles C., and James A. Eison. Introduction. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the

Classroom. Washington, D.C.: School of Education and Human Development, George

Washington U, 1991. 1-5. Print.

"Introduction." ASHE Home. ASHE, n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2014.

Lowry, Lois. Looking Back: A Book of Memories. N.p.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. Print.

Ortiz Cofer, Judith. "Here Is a Picture of Me” from A Love Story Beginning in Spanish." (n.d.): n. pag.

Rpt. in Poem. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Work Cited:Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) (Bonwell and Eison 1991,

Lois Lowry Looking Back: A Book of MemoriesJudith Ortiz Cofer “Here is a Picture of Me” from A Love Story Beginning in Spanish

Maya Angelou’s “Can You Cook Creole” from The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou

Appendix:

Sample Worksheets 1,2,3,4 (on request)

Student model: Here is a Picture of Me by Ezra Kapetansky (on request)

Additional memoir prompts: Worksheets 1,2,3,4 and suggested resources for memoir prompts, student models (add)

Memoir prompts can include historical events, food, childhood games, clothes, trips, etc. Here are some suggestions:

Identity: “Where I’m From” Photograph—“Here is a Picture of Me” by Judith Ortiz Cofer or “Fifth Grade

Autobiography” by Rita Dove; “The Art of Mending” by Elizabeth Berg Seasons: “Beach Day” by Marsha Arons or “Sledding Exerpt” from Tuesdays With

Morrie

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Collections: The Glass Menagerie; “Hector the Collector” by Shel Silverstein Objects: “The Wedding Ring” by Marsha Arons; excerpt from October Sky by Homer

Hickam; “Gloves” by Dorothy B. Andeson; “I Remember” by Joe Brainard Gifts for Mothers: “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins; Excerpt from I Remember Mama by

Josh van Druten How to: “How to Watch Your Daughter become a Mother” by Marsha Arons Messages or Lessons of the Fathers: “What Shall He Tell that Son” by Carl Sandberg Words: “Sleeping with the Dictionary” by Harryette Mullen Food: “Can You Cook Creole?” by Maya Angelou Expectations of Others: “Wandering” by Zora Neale Hurston Place: Looking Back by Lois Lowry Pets: “A Dog Named Lady” by Marsha Arons; “Love that Dog” by Sharon Creech;

“Mouse” from Looking Back by Lois Lowry; “Where Dogs come from” from Home by Waters

Games: “The Silent Boy” by Lois Lowry; “Blindman” by Marsha Arons Imagination: “I could Tell You Stories” by Patricia Hampl; Loss: “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop Family Traditions: “Heritage” by Linda Hogan Observations: “A Walk to the Jetty” from Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

Student Models (add)