Chapter Reviews Adapted Ideas

Chapter / Page #

Chapter 3, page 28

Gallagher's idea:

Connect curriculum directly to students' past experiences. Gallagher uses an example for John Knowles' book A Separate Peace, explaining how to do the ground work to "link" any story to the actual experiences of the students. Engage them in a conversation about friendship, about the dangers of competition, about the ways people can be (or not be) at peace with themselves.

Adaptation:

Similar to the anticipation guide strategy, teachers can always look for that "hook" conversation that will set the stage for preparing students to do an upcoming reading assignment: // Catch-22: Have you ever been caught between a "hard place and a rock"? "Damned if you do and damned if you don't?" When is it time to "tell" on your friends for their own safety's sake? Growing up requires a good deal of problem-solving and coming to terms with the "adult world." // To Kill A Mockingbird: Can you remember a time in your childhood when you realized that the adults around you were using the "do as I say, not as I do" theory? Do you remember being disappointed when you "saw through" the world of adults because you realized that they "bent" the rules and that their lives were not quite so "noble" as you thought they were? // Of Mice and Men: Do you personally know anyone with severe mental handicaps? Physical handicaps? What have you observed in watching other people react to the handicapped people you know? How do you handle it when you encounter a handicapped person in your daily life? Do you find yourself curious? Do you find yourself impatient? Do you find yourself behaving differently? Do you willingly interact, or do you withdraw and avert your eyes? // Make a list of "lead-in" questions before making a reading assignment. Always set aside time to have that "anticipation" discussion with students before they begin reading. Go back to that conversation at intervals throughout the study (of the literature,) and revisit the discussion at the end as well. Poll students to see if they have changed their minds about anything "before and after" reading (the literature.)

Chapter 3, page 40

Gallagher's idea:

Inspire students to anticipate themes in a text with an "Anticipation Guide." The one he includes is for Romeo and Juliet and asks students to identify the degree to which they agree to statements such as "Violence can solve problems" and "Teenage love is real love." There is a "Before reading" column and an "After reading" column, so students can track how their opinions change.

Adaptation:

Once a teacher creates the template for such a guide, he or she could easily make one for each text. Additionally, however, a teacher might consider asking students to create their own anticipation guide after reading a text. Doing so would allow students to consider for themselves what the enduring themes and potentially controversial issues are in a text. Explaining to them that their anticipation guides will be used by next year's students would create an authentic audience for the assignment.

Chapter 4, page 58

Gallagher's idea:

Have students generate 20 questions after reading the first chapter of a book, to help the reader focus on the development of plot and conflict and give the reader focus.

Adaptation:

Continue this strategy into later reading, and have students generate any number of questions (5?) BEFORE reading an assigned chapter or for a given length of time. This will help them focus on some specific predictions for shorter sections of reading, so that they continue to be engaged in the reading. After the reading time or assignment, students can answer their questions (if they found the answer in the reading), write new questions based on their new knowledge, and/ or reflect on what they think about how the questions were or were not answered.

Chapter 5, page 83-86

Gallagher's idea:

Use charts of statistics (one example in the books was stats about the number of deaths from influenza) and have students analyze information to practice a second reading. It helps students see what information is given, what isn't, and what that means.

Adaptation:

Use the same skills, other unique texts, such as a box score for baseball, a bowling score sheet, a graph, a golf card, a calendar, a medical chart, a football playbook, a crossstitch pattern, a bus schedule, a music score, a stock market listing, etc. Have students practice the skills of rereading in order to analyze, interpret and find meaning. Students could bring in these unique tests and have a discussion about what it means and what it takes to "read" them.

Chapter 5, page 99

Gallagher's idea: Students would make a positive negative chart of a character's experiences as a book or story progresses.

Adaptation: Add some "meat" to the assignment and require supporting quotations at each stopping point. Use different colored pencils to plot more than one character on a chart, to illustrate how characters' lives and experiences intertwine. Include options for drawings to accompany the story elements.

Chapter 7

Gallagher's idea: use a variety of graphic organizers to help students visualize and create metaphors to demonstrate their understanding.

Adapted idea:

Let students create a visual final exam for a book or story. They might create a gameboard or a brainstorming web or a illustration of characters which represents a full understanding of the novel. A map of Maycomb and all of its characters and happenings allowed a test-anxious student to create an exceptional "story" on just one sheet of paper for her test. Another drew baseball cards for the characters of All Quiet on the Western Front as baseball players with stats and positions to correspond with the story. It was an artistic stretch, but he loved doing it!

Chapter 9

Gallagher's idea: Help students recognize how misleading ads (of all kinds) can be.

Adapted idea: In scrapbooks, in wiki pages, or in power-point presentations, ask students to gather magazine/newspaper ads. Have students create "comparision" charts which show "what the words state" with "what the visual message implies." This is a stretch, but it's a way to help students start looking at "visual propaganda." // Also, Gallagher talks about misleading statistics. Consider this: Look at media articles about Katrina. Look at the pictures and the choice of words in the captions. Who is in those pictures and why? Are those pictures statistically accurate and ethically fair?