Return to Unit One:MWF

Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 7

• Students' responses to each others Literacy Essays based on the issues raised in the last class session.

Goals:

• To discuss the Literacy Essays
• To use that discussion to set up the central ideas for the outside readings for the summary/response.

Assignment:

• Reread Keller (PHG pp. 110-112) and read Baker (PHG: 22-23) and Brush (LM 312-313). For each essay, write about them in terms of the themes we discussed in class today. How would each of these authors respond to the same issues?

Setup Needs:

• Daily on overhead or "Y" drive.

Sequence:

• Start out with the following Daily writing prompt: (5-10 min.)

Now that you've read and responded to several other Literacy Essays       

individually, spend some time thinking and writing about what they tell   

you as a set.  In general, what are the most important issues these       

essays raise about language and literacy? What do they suggest as a set   

about the themes we generated in the last class?                          

• Start a class discussion based on this prompt. You can begin by putting the key relationships you discussed in the last class back on the board (the five areas you started with plus any additional areas generated by your students). Then, take some responses from the class about the general ideas for each category that arose from the Literacy Essays. Let this take some time, allowing your students to freely discuss the issues they discovered. Also make sure you students write down the list of themes you generate (20-25 min).
• Once you've got these responses on the board, take one of the categories and ask your students for individual examples from the Literacy Essays they read that might serve to support the general statement (essentially, a synthesis of authors on that single point). Explain to your students that this is what they'll be working toward for the next few weeks--an essay which takes the outside authors and groups them around a central theme, giving examples of how each author addresses the theme. But first, the Summary/Response will allow them to find the approaches of several authors to the class' central themes one at a time, and allow them to build their critical reading and analytical skills in the process.
• Hand out the Summary/Response assignment sheet, have your students read it aloud, paraphrase the purpose of the assignment, and ask any initial questions. (5-10 min).
• Explain the assignment for next time.