This week: our classroom this week is close in age as our protagonists: a ninth grade class at Sharon High School. If you want to get a sense of the school and its students, you can check out the school’s site. You can check out the demographic stats for the school here as well as stuff about MCAS scores and other performance indicators. You can also check out this slideshow (why it’s a slideshow I have no idea) about summer reading. It’s sort of interesting because of the selections included. I think that Aristotle and Dante would not be out of place on this list.
As you respond, consider the following:
- Is there media you might use in support of teaching this text? Is there media students might create?
- Are there other texts you might pair with this text?
- Are there more “canonical” or framework friendly texts you might teach that could be paired with it?
These are questions we’ve been thinking about all semester. But, in the interest of supporting your work in the final assignment, consider how writing would support the teaching of this text:
- What sort of low stakes writing could you employ (writing to know)?
- What sort of writing might you ask of your students as a summative assignment—a more high-stakes writing assignment (writing to show)?
- Is there an opportunity for groupwork?
- Is there an opportunity for student presentation?