Using Reading Productively

Q. Describe something you do (or might do) in your classes to use assigned reading productively.

A. Tomorrow, my students are going to start reading "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. I'm going to start with early 20th c. idea "The sun never set on the British Empire" and ask what they think that meant. Then I'll show them a map showing the British Empire in 1897 and explain that by 1909 the British Empire encompassed 20% of the land area of the Earth and 23% of its population. Then I"ll write "empire" on the board and see what connected words or phrases come to mind:  I'm kind of hoping for emperor/empress, imperialism, imperialist, but I'll be OK with "the Empire Strikes Back" too. I can talk Star Wars a bit if need be... 

Then I'll introduce them to Orwell, a Brit who grew up in India and who was serving as a low-level British police officer in Burma in the time of the essay. Then the students will open their books, and we'll all look at the first sentence together:  "In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people - the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me." I want them to think about power/authority and being hated and why those might go together. Then they'll read page or two in class and stop for "tellbacks" in partners. They'll finish reading it for HW.

Later, on a Blackboard Discussion Board they'll take apart one of the following 3 quotes (maybe more), to be followed with class discussion: 

Analyze the following quotes. What does each mean in the context of the essay? Can you apply it to other contexts? Come up with some examples.

"I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys." (280)

"[The white man turned tyrant] wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it." (280)

"A sahib [master] has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things." (280)

I'm still thinking about which way to go in tying this to international politics and/or theories (Cristina's class).

All feedback appreciated!

--Tenn 

I have the advantage of working with students in composition and reading classes, and the course outlines require that students apply the reading to their compositions.

I always assign "inquiry topics" to students--topics that require students to look at data/information in order to form answers to questions or solutions to problems.  The information they look at is primarily in the reading I've assigned.  So, for example, one pre-1A comp. assignment I might make is:  After several families sued their Texas public high school for sponsoring a prayer prior to football games, the majority of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that offering a prayer in a public school at a school-sponsored event  violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.  Review the establishment clause, look at what the historians say about its inclusion in the Constitution, read about the high school's efforts to make prayer allowabler, read the lower courts' and the Supreme Court minority's opinions on the Texas case and argue whether the majority's opinion is solid or not.

The inquiry is whether or not the establishment clause indeed forbids prayer in the context described in the Texas case.  Before the students begin their reading, which I'm thinking involves an investigation on their part, I do various pre-reading activities, including some exercises to bring up background knowledge, to get their as yet uninformed opinions, and to bring out some specific questions they might want to try to answer as they read.  When they read, they need to annotate (which I've demonstrated beforehand), noting sections that relate to the inquiry they are conducting as well as sections of the reading they aren't understanding.  We discuss the reading in class; I use various formats for discussion:  small group to large group; debate teams.  The discussion is always focused on what they need to be thinking about in order to write the paper and their texts are always open when they discuss the topic because I'm always asking, "Where do you see that in the text?"  I usually have them or me taking notes and drawing pictures on overhead transparencies as we discuss, so I can put the overheads on the screen and we can make connections and, eventually, figure out how their responses to the inquiry might be organized.

- Hicks

All:

A response to the quickwrite (perfect, because I have exactly 3 min. before my next class):

Last week I wanted to assign a set of chapters in Harold Bloom's The Lucifer Principle.  The chapters that the students have read so far argue that humans are genetically predisposed to violence.  The chapters that the students area about to read introduce Wheeler's "superorganism," which demonstrates that humans are shaped by their groupings, that they act like cells in a larger organism.  I want students to be prepared to appreciate the possible contradictions in these two sections of the text.  So, I assign this: "Read the assignment I am giving you in order to answer these two question when I see you again:  

1.  Do you see anything in this new section of Bloom's book that contradicts anything he has been arguing so far?

2.  Is "social instinct" an oxymoron?

Unless I mess up, during the next lesson, students will know why I asked those questions, and if they read their assignment with those questions in mind, they will feel well prepared for the day.  Of course, I could mess up the lesson, which has happened.

- Chownhill

Hi All,

I'm just coming out of a couple of classes in which I assigned specific readings to small groups.  (Borrowing Cindy's suggestion . . .thank you!) Each student was required to write in their own words 2-3 of the main points of the reading that his/her group was assigned.  The members of each group then began to share their main points to arrive at group main points that they wrote on an overhead.  Two groups were then brought together to write an essay question based on the main points that each group discussed.  (A group that had textbook readings was paired with a group that had read a primary document related to that reading.)  These essay questions were also written on overheads.  (Get all that?)  I went over all of these overheads in class.  Needless to say, I was pretty pressed for time.  The purpose of the exercise was to prepare students for the writing assignment that I passed out today and to get them involved in the writing of the midterm.  I told them that they were writing midterm questions.  

Besides not having enough time, I think it went pretty well in both classes.  The main ideas they came up with were generally good.  The questions they came up with were surprisingly broad, some being really insightful.  Maybe the best thing to happen, (which I didn't expect) was that a few students came up to me while they were doing the initial group reading or in conversation with group members to ask me what a particular passage meant.  They were actually seeking out help with the reading.  Certainly there were some students who were a little tuned out, but I'd say that the participation rate was very high.

The idea for all of this came from Cindy's reply to my initial "journal-y" post, the conversation we had on Tuesday, and a brief conversation I had with Cristina after the meeting.  

Thanks to all,

- Thompson

Hello fellow FIG members,

I assign a primary document to my U. S. Women's History students known by its abbreviated title as "The Declaration of Sentiments" (1848) by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  The document is a tough read because many of the words are dated, so I give them a "cheat sheet"  that defines the most obscure words for them.  They take the document home, and when we reconvene we do a fill-in exercise in class where they see how many of the sentiments (issues) they recall from the reading.  Then we discuss each of the fifteen sentiments in class and I have students write in the margins what each is really about.  We tally the sentiments, and find that voting rights and marriage reform dominate the list.  This leads to a discussion about the success of some of Stanton's agenda, and what issues are still issues today.  From there we can build a relevant 21st century agenda that conncects to the original- a thread.  We spend close to one hour on this document, and students seem to connect with it.  

Looking forward to reading everyone's responses,

- Wolford