Using Han Solo vs. Greedo to Teach Author's Purpose (or HtRLLaP Violence Chapter)

Students often have a hard time understanding a text from the author's perspective, a question type that appears on many standardized reading comprehension checks.  The following lesson works well to teach that concept and it also works well to teach Chapter 11 "More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence" from How to Read Literature Like a Professor (for you AP Lit teachers out there).

First, start with this clip from Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope.  This is part of the first time we meet the character Han Solo.  The only background needed at this time for the non-Star Wars fans is that they are in space at a bar and this guy we just met gets stopped by a bounty hunter (the green guy).  

This scene serves as our introduction to this character.  What does this tell us about Han Solo?  Various answers will be given, but most will center on how calm and collected he was in the face of death and how clever he was kill Greedo without Greedo knowing he was in danger.'

Things were all fine for a while in Star Wars fandom, but then the director, George Lucas, kept toying with the scene - specifically the shooting scene and more specifically with Greedo's role in the shooting.  Now show them all five shooting scenes and ask they why would George Lucas want to change the scene? 

There will be various answers, but help them focus on that Lucas wanted the character of Han Solo to be more heroic.  Having Han not just shoot first, but to be the only one shooting when Greedo had made it clear that he was going to take Han in alive, shows Han to be more of the Byronic hero type.  If Greedo is shooting, then Han is shooting back in self defense.  Changes the character just a bit (and drives old Star Wars fans insane).

This is a rare opportunity for us to see how an author (director) changes things up.  Everything is done on purpose with a specific rationale.  For a reader to move from what the plot means to how the author reveals it is a major step in advancing reading comprehension.

As far as AP Lit goes, this is an excellent way to show how this violent scene reveals character and how small changes in the scene reverberate out into changes to the characters as well.  

Shameless Plug: Annotating the Witches from Macbeth (works for all levels)

 I love teaching Macbeth.  We break out the fog machine every time the witches make an appearance.  It's just a lot of fun.  I created a Google presentation for this that I have found to be great for a day or two lesson plans and can be used as a group project or solo.

(link) 

The presentation presents Act IV scene i where the witches brew the pot and gives students to requirement to look up the ingredients to see what they actually could be or what they symbolize.  How deep you want them to go is up to you and largely based on what your students are capable of.

For my regular level students, I provide them with a list of websites to help them find what I want them to find.  For my AP and honors, I delete the links.

Here's what the second witch's potion looks like:

For my regular classes, it is an exercise in research and introduction to annotating.  For my upper level, I require more information on what the ingredient may symbolize.

If you are interested, you can find it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Annotating-Shakespeares-Witches-7401238

And if you are about to introduce any Shakespeare unit, Macbeth or not, you may find this introduction useful help students grasp iambic pentameter and what it means by using the way the witches talk to show Shakespeare's command of the language: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Introducing-Shakespeare-to-Reluctant-Readers-7397714  It's title "Introducing Shakespeare to Reluctant Readers", but to be honest, it works great with my AP kids too.

Fun Way to Check for Reading - Creative Nonfiction (A.K.A. Lying)

I was sitting around yesterday and musing to myself that I needed to check for reading/review with the students what we read and I didn't want to do yet another reading quiz or Kahoot for it.  Then I had an idea!

I don't get them often, but this one worked out pretty well with the first class I tried it on and I am looking forward to trying it on my next class, which is much bigger.

Here's the idea - I get the students to pair up (I'm going to try triple up in my next class) with someone who they feel has a comparable knowledge of last night's reading (in this case two chapters of Wuthering Heights).  They play rock-paper-scissors and the winner can decide if he/she wants to go first or last.  

Player 1 then tells Player 2 something that happened in last night's reading.  If Player 2 agrees that it did indeed happen, Player 1 gets a point.  Player 2 then tells Player 1 something else that happened in last night's reading.  As before, if Player 1 agrees, then Player 2 gets a point.  

This continues until eventually one player can't remember anything new and decides to make up something.  Let's say Player 1 tells Player 2 that Heathcliff painted a life-size mural of Catherine on the wall of Wuthering Heights.  Player 2 then decides whether or not it actually happened.  Should Player 2 believe it, Player 1 gets the point and play continues.  Should Player 2 not believe it, they call "Creative Nonfiction" and the game stops.  At this point, Player 1 must then prove that what they said happened.  If they can, then Player 1 gets to keep his/her points and Player 2 gets nothing.  If they cannot, then Player 1 loses all of his/her points and Player 2 gets to keep his/her points.  Their game is over and we wait for other groups to finish where we will then ask for students to point out the important parts we want to review and move on to the next lesson of the day.

What you use the points on is your call.  I'm playing the Pyramid of Enlightenment in our class, which is a silly little game, so I use their points for that.  You can use it for anything you'd like to reward your kids with.

Want some more types of reading checks that are not the norm?  Try:

• Snowball Fight
• Spark Notes Quiz

Meme Dump Monday

 I have a Google Slides with memes on it relating to what we are reading in class.  It is fun to have it on the screen when students enter the class and by having on Google Slides, I have easy access to it and can repeat it year after year. The majority are memes I found elsewhere and at this point, I don't remember which ones I made, which ones students created, and which ones I found, so let me just say that probably all of these are ones I found. Here are a few for your reading pleasure!

Hope your Monday is a little brighter!

Freebie - Short Analysis Practice: Spotlight Journal

 This is not my idea, but it is my presentation.  I've always loved short ways for students to practice (thus the short daily reading comprehension questions I use for our state test (The Daily Dose of EOC).

When we have a spotlight reading day, the students come in to see this on the screen: 

The idea behind this is that students are given a short passage and then a few minutes to start analyzing it.  This cuts out the long reading process and allows us to get straight to literary analysis.  I'll give my AP Lit class anywhere from 5-7 minutes for them to write this into their Spotlight Reading Journal and then we talk about it.  If I were to use this for honors, I would probably give about the same.  If I wanted to use this for regular level or younger classes, I would probably require two minutes of thinking before I started the writing process.

Most of them have guidance questions to help them if they need a push in their thinking.

The first question is always a "What did you notice first" type question.  I also stress that they do not need to answer the questions nor even read the questions. I am always more interested in their thoughts.  This can be done with art or video as well.

Initially I used these twice a week, but found that it became a chore for the students at that frequency.  Now I do it once every two weeks (the class is a year-long class) and that has been more successful.

If  you want to use mine, please do!  If you create some yourself, I would love to see it.  I am constantly trying to add better ones in to replacement my weaker ones that I started with a few years ago.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hSoUhn8gaW1PkD2HDQMURyhoXW4_Nbk9EMKDMcYenPo/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

Shameless Plug: _The Lord of the Flies_ Interactive Survival Game

 I love this book with a passion!  As far as teaching symbolism, this book really gets reluctant readers to "get it".  The book has great characters, plenty of action, and lots of good, wholesome violence to keep teenagers happy.  The only problem is that it starts so slowly.

Anyone who teaches reluctant readers knows that if you cannot hook them immediately, you've lost them.

So, while sitting in church one day when I should have been listening to the sermon, I had an idea for a game to get my students into the book.  I made it all by hand with maps, cards, the whole nine yards.  As the years went by, I get tired of replacing lost cards or materials that were marked on by various students and started to take it online.  It took a few more years to perfect it, but I think I finally have it down pat.  It has by far been the most popular page on my class web site by other teachers and it is the most mentioned lesson of mine when other teachers contact me.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

I break my students into groups and each group represents 20 island-stranded kids.  The students decide how many rescue fires they will have, where they will be sheltered, who goes hunting, who goes fruit gathering, and if they want to go exploring.  Each round is a 'week' in the game.

First thing we do is have each group draw and Act of God card.  These cards sometimes bring good things to the group, have no effect on the group, or (more likely) bring bad karma to the group.  Then we draw cards to see what happens when they go hunting, fruit gathering, and exploring.  At this point we tally up the morale.  The morale goes up and down depending on many factors like having shelter for everybody, getting food, people dying (there are a lot of people dying), etc. 

If the morale goes below 10, then the group leader has to draw a Revolt card to see what happens.  Sometimes something good happens, but most likely something bad will.  Then it's off to see if you get rescued.  

For the teams that are left, they do it all over again for the next week with the remaining people they have left.

Sometime groups have everything perfect and it is more like a Gilligan's Island episode than a Lord fo the Flies scenario.  Many groups get a good Lord of the Flies type experience, and some have so much bad luck that they make the book seem like a pleasant fairy tale.

Students are encouraged to think outside of the box and try things that are not expected. The teacher is the final say-so for what happens, so when students get creative, roll with it.

Whatever the outcome, the students experience situations that prep them for the action in the book.  Whenever I have used this game, I have found that students are more connected to the reading.

I always like it when teachers send me how their students came up with something new.  Sometimes I adjust the game to match it.  when my students started sabotaging the game to try and make their leader draw a Revolt card, I introduced a new element - Mutiny.  With some groups, that is very popular!

The game comes with the choice to either have it all online (in which case they would move objects on a screen), or to have printables for students to physically manipulate.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

A Different Type of Reading Quiz - Snowball Fight

I decided to invite mass chaos into my room today.  Why?  Mostly I was bored.

I was bored with normal reading quizzes to check/reward my students reading two difficult chapters of Wuthering Heights. I like 6 questions quizzes, but I do those all the time.  I also like the Spark Notes quiz for something extra, but I had already given that one earlier.   I remember reading something called the Snowball Quiz, but I don't remember the details other than it involved throwing paper balls.  So I decided to just invent my own rules as best as possible.

The first thing I did was to have students create six questions (plus an extra credit question) and write them on a sheet of paper with space between each one.  They were not to answer the questions, just create them and know the answer.  Once everyone had six questions, I gave them each one octopus sticker.  Then they were to stand up and ball up their paper.  The first class I tried this on was small, so I broke the class into two teams.  The second class was large, so I made it every students for him/herself.

When I yelled THROW, the students started throwing the "snowballs" at each other.  After a few seconds of that, I yelled STOP! and they grabbed the closest paper ball, unraveled it, and (as long it was not their own) then they were to put their name under Question 1 and answer the question.  Just the first question.  If they did not want to answer that question or they felt the question was not worded well, they could put the octopus sticker down instead to absolve them of that question.

Once answered, they were to ball up the paper and stand up.  Once all were standing, we threw at each other again.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

When we got to the extra credit, I told them to answer the extra credit and then turn the paper face down and draw the person that created the questions.  After some time, they had to return the quizzes to the creator and grade them,  The person who drew the smiley face on the back got three bonus points if the grader felt it was complimentary.

It was lots of fun!  Here are a few take aways:

• Students need to write in pen.  You can see from the picture that pencil does not hold up well.
• This took WAY more time than I expected it to take (about 30-40 minutes)
• Notebook paper vs copy paper - no real difference
• The second class, being bigger, lost one quiz.  I just adapted by saying one person would be given a bye for that round.
• Grading it was easier than I thought it would be.  I printed a roster and and just recorded the wrong answers from each.  

In the end, it was a fun way to review the chapter and something that I think I will do once a year from now on.