Teaching a novel always has a bit of a gray area. That gray area is are the studetns reading it? I think if it is a class requirement, they should be held accountable for the words within the novel's pages. At times, this can be a hinderance in the teaching of the novel but I do have daily readings expected. It is 20-30 pages a night for Lord of the Flies. I then have daily quizes to check for understanding and to hopefully reward those students who are reading. I use studetn generated quizes. I call the student who is in charge of the quiz the "quiz master" I have the studetn create a quiz that I double check of course. The studetn is then incharge of asking the questions and doing everything a teacher would do in that situation. I reward that studetn with bonus points and the feeling of knowing the chpaters assigned quite well.
Our discussions are daily and focus first on general understanding. As I know this is being achieves we speak of symbols and themes. As the symbol is discussed, we apply that symbol to modern society. We try to identify where the conch is in our current society. This takes the novle and relates it more to them. We all cannot be stuck on an island but those ideas are easily placed. These ideas create a variety of answers and discussions.
After chapeter 5 we look up names of characters. This helps with foreshadowing and applicatin of methods of characterization of each character. We then take those name meanings and predict what will hapen as the novel progresses.
As we near the end of the novel, we spend more time with aplication of themes. This year I am planning on adding a few projects where the studetns can explore themselves on on this island. I plan on using a wiki to help with studeent collaboration. I will then give them options about the content of their project. Their method of presentatin of their project will hopefully be varied. I will encourage the use of wikis and even films. Studetns enjoy making films and evem more so watching them. My goal in using Lord of the FRies (joke) is to get the studetns to undersatnd novels on a higher level. LOF is a novel that has easily identified societal themes that students can easily appy to whaere they are currently in a society. Golding claims that a society cannot survive without consequenses. Students need to apply this to where our society currently is. Hopeully my completed project idea will allow studetns to explore the application of themes.
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3 comments:
I like the idea of the "quiz master". Does that student know they will be the quiz master prior to class starting? Do they volunteer or picked randomly?
Sounds like you've got it all covered. There's a saying --the brain that does the work is the brain that learns. By your students being quiz master and others knowing they will have a daily quiz and discussion, most of them should read teh pages.
We identify the quiz master the day before the quiz. The student will create 10 questions with correct answers and I go over them with the studetn and pick 5 usable ones. Before we begin the process we speak of cheating. If there is any cheating or sharing of quiz master answers, I eliminate the quiz master optin and I then create the questions. Each quiz master recieves the 5 points fr the quiz plus 5 bonus points for giving the quiz. It usually works quite well
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