Thursday, October 18, 2012

Skim, Scan, Note, and Render

Today we reviewed issues of reliablility with sources. Students argued answers to the quiz from yesterday trying to decipher which sources would be the most reliable and why. We came to the conclusion that all sources have some issues of unreliablity because of bias or point of view.

Next, we talked about strategies for determining the value of a source to our research and then how to go about taking effective notes. Skimming is the first step to determining if the source is useful: read the title, the headings, the first paragraph, and the last paragraph, and then look at pictures and captions. If the information seems helpful, then prepare to take notes. Scan for topic-specific terms that you may need to look up. Write some of those terms in the left column and add definitions Then read more closely for the 5Ws. You may be focusing more on what or why depending on your research topic. When you find a sentence that is really important, write down the entire sentence with quotation marks and the page number.

I gave students a short article from Smithsonian Magazine: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Digs-Paper-Trail.html. Students highlighted what they would skim in one color and then highlight the 5Ws in another color. Next, students completed a research log -- topic-specific vocabulary, what and why, and then the summary.

Because the research logs are in preparation for the multigenre research project, I asked students to use the information from their research log and write a poem (a haiku or a couplet). I wanted students to see how the information can be rendered differently to show it in a new way. Next, I read the poem I wrote:

A Human Rights Breakthrough in Guatemala

1980

Bodies.

The burns on by body are not enough?

The scars from the rape are not enough?

Exhumed bodies are not enough?

2005

Archives.

Boxes of evidence?

Pieces of paper?

Assassinations, disappearances, “special cases”?

Is that what you need to investigate --

To bring them to justice?

I have paper for you.

Here is a picture of my family --

Dead because they are Mayan.

Justice

for

the bodies.

One students said, "You are not Mayan, Mrs. Donovan. What is this?" Right, so I was so glad someone said this so that I could talk about rendering a text to show something new -- a new point of view and sentiment out of the spaces from another. I talked to students how I used more than one source for this poem and how the "topic-specific" words were central to the poem's mood and tone. One source was Tree Girl as I spoke from the point of view of an imagined rape victim from chapter nine. I also appropriated part of Discovering Dominga as I am thinking of the memorial museum in Rabinal, and then I am using the words and facts from the Smithsonian article.

Next, I introduced students to Google Books. Not all books are available on Google Books, but many are (or at least portions are available). Google Books scans the books for you and highlights search terms. Books are reliable sources because they are published, but we still have to be aware of the copyright, the author and bias.

Finally, we went to the computer lab to do another research log with a Google Books source.

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Re-imagining the English Classroom

This unit is an example of what English teachers can do to explore global issues of social justice through reading and writing. This is specifically designed using eighth grade Common Core Standards, but the units are appropriate for middle through high school students. The essential question that began this blog is this: How have the Maya responded to signs of change, and what can the Maya teach us about tradition, cooperation, and democracy? However, it expanded to other units that also seek to find the lessons of modernity -- or the belief that knowledge, the economy, technology and even our selves are capable of never-ending improvement. That said, our work is to uncover the darker side of such progress, which is also complex and shows how we are implicated in the lives of people all over the world. The format of these units is mostly inquiry-based, but we hold onto the core of our discipline, which is narrative. History is a narrative just as stories are, so we need to see any story as having gaps that prompt questions and further inquiry.

For the Maya unit, students will learn about cooperation through inquiry by beginning with a central text, developing comprehension and literary analysis skills while reading the central text, and then filling in the narrative gaps with additional inquiry researching a variety of genres. The summative assessment will enact this principle by presenting their research through multiple genres and then sharing their findings in a oral presentation and gallery walk. I try variations of this with each unit.

1. Thus, the first learning goal is to understand that knowledge is constructed by and through multiple sources. For this reason, we will do fishbowl and socratic seminars throughout the 3 weeks . The summative writing and speaking assessment is a multigenre project (see Romano’s Blending Genre, Altering Style or many websites) that synthesizes various sources to answer our essential question using multiple genres. Students are free to select from a variety of topics.

2. The second goal is to consider what different genres do to help us understand Maya experiences; thus, students will be able to examine the structure, authorial language, and authenticity of historical fiction and testimonio and to analyze what impact each has on the reader’s experience.In reading various texts, students will practice comprehension skills, identify and analyze literary devices, and trace the theme of cooperation. The summative reading assessment is a written assessment about figurative language, vocabulary in context, dialogue, and genre.

3.The third goal is to enact inclusivity, participation and critical engagement -- pillars of thick democracy. The texts in this unit captures the resilience of people and the value of cooperation. By focusing on Maya genocide of the early 1980s and exploring their culture, American students can learn the true meaning of cooperation and gain a greater sense of democratic living while also celebrating the resilience of a people. We will see how the Maya maintain their cultural foundation while making modern adaptation.

The novel, Tree Girl, is the central text, so the study guide here follows this book chapter by chapter indicating places for additional inquiry. Students will do inquiry during workshop time and keep notes in their research journals. The testimonio of I, Rigoberta Menchu, and numerous documentary and other media resources capture the social structures that created oppression in Guatemala and the mechanisms people used to resist and maintain traditions such as coops for farming and weaving and integrating Catholicism with indigenous religion. The two books are also a source of comparison as we think about how we learn about history.

As we see in Grandin's book, "Repression severed alliances between reforming elites and popular classes, disaggregated powerful collective movements into individual survival strategies, extracted leaders from their communities, and redefined the relationship between human beings and society" (196). However, individuals, especially activists like Rigoberta Menchu, while extracted did not remain isolated. Out of such manifestations grew a new way of thinking that resisted oppression –granito de arena. This metaphor for cooperation is a powerful message for any democratic society and is particularly relevant for developing classroom ethos. Guatemala advanced democracy not through autonomy or isolated freedom but rather a "collective action laid bare the social foundations of self" (181). This, I think, is what is worth knowing and teaching in our schools; this notion of democracy is worth contemplating, and so this unit attempts to explore these notions by using stories as points of access for these young thinkers.

Ganito de arena – a humble phrase that says “ I alone can’t change things. But I can HELP to change things." It’s a collective concept of change! It signifies a process that change can take many forms. It comes through struggle that unites collective rights and individual rights. What I give is only a tiny contribution (as with all the people we will meet in this unit). There are no heroes, but when the hand of destiny touches you, you have to act – you don’t have a choice.

English Confronting Modernity: Becoming Citizens of the World

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Skim, Scan, Note, and Render

A Human Rights Breakthrough in Guatemala

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