ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

READ ALOUND REMINISCENCE

Planning Points

Approximate Time Needed: 1 day
Correlation to English I SCS 1.01, 1.02, 4.02, 5.01, 6.01
Correlation to NC High School Exit Exam Competencies: C2, C3, C4, C5, C7, PI9, PI13, PS16

Lesson Objectives:

Students will hear, read, and analyze a sample reminiscence (example, "By Any Other Name") as a model before writing their own. Students will also increase understanding of reading strategies through teacher "Think Aloud" modeling of reading sample.

Materials Needed:

Reading/Thinking Strategies overhead transparency (Master included)

Description:

• Have students turn to the selection. Ask them what they see, what they would notice as they start reading. Discuss the importance of reading the background/preview about the author's biography, etc. Ask students to form at least one prediction based on the background information. List these on the board or overhead to assess later. (ex. Story will involve conflict between Indian and colonial government.)
• Share the Reading / Thinking Strategies overhead transparency and discuss the processes with students. Explain that they have already started by predicting based on the background information. Also explain that as you read, you will be stopping to express your thinking, so you can make it visible and share the process with them.
• Read the title, pausing to ask if students have any response
  • "By Any Other Name," -- that title sounds familiar. Oh, yeah, it's from Romeo and Juliet. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I wonder what that connection means? What could Romeo and Juliet have to do with this story? Is it a love story? A feud? In the play, the line refers to a name, and that no matter what someone's name or stereotype is, he or she is still a real person underneath. That sounds like it might work with what we've read already. [compare/contrast, wonder, speculate, evaluate]
  • Why would an Indian woman use a quotation from Shakespeare for a title? I thought the British were the oppressors and that lots of tension existed there. Maybe she doesn't think that, maybe she is using the title to show respect for the British." [speculating]
• Begin reading the text, stopping frequently to express thoughts. Some possible areas for pausing to think include
  • At footnotes -- make sure students know not to spend too long trying to pronounce names and also that they remember to read footnotes for clarification
  • "they changed our names" -- OK, so it is really close to the "by any other name" thing, because they really had their names changed. I guess that is what the title is about.
  • Their school seems very different. They have a "headmistress" and she doesn't seem to see the girls for who they are. I don't know if I would like that. Things must be hard when you are different and not accepted for who you are -- so much so that they will even change your name to something more "pretty" and "jolly" and not too "hard." That's like when immigrants had their names changed at Staten Island, too.
  • "That first day at school is still, when I think about it, a remarkable one." That sounds like she's not a kid anymore but is remembering how the day went many years later. I guess that's how she's showing us that "her voice" is more objective and distant, since the event was long ago. I guess that's what the idea of "moving effectively between past and present" (SCS 1.01) means. I suppose it works, because I think it must have been very odd for her to remember the day for so many years. I wonder what she means by "remarkable." So far, it doesn't seem like it's going to be a good one.
• After several paragraphs of reading and stopping to discuss, let students work in pairs, reading and discussing as they progress. Have each pair make a point of trying at least 3 different strategies, noting in writing the point in the story where they paused to think aloud and capturing their thoughts on paper.
• Share out loud pairs' responses, asking students to volunteer some of their thoughts during the reading. Discuss which methods worked and why. Be sure to ask if students had any other strategies to add to the list. (You many need to reassure students that this process is natural for good readers, and that today's activity is trying to make them aware of the strategies they can use to comprehend what they read.)
• Discuss the whole piece as well, re-evaluating the predictions made earlier.
• Be sure to also discuss the establishment of setting in terms of time and place (how does Rau suggest the tensions of the time? What details illustrate the setting?)
• Discuss the importance of moving to objectivity in reminiscence and how Rau ends with the final reflection that shows greater understanding than she had at the time of the event. (This step is important to help students work toward that objectivity in their own reminiscences.)

Assessment:

Assess student performance informally through discussion contributions and on-task behavior.

Additional Notes:

This activity can be used with any type of text and may be repeated several times during the year to encourage students to "own" these strategies.

For additional resources for English II, 1.01, see the LearnNC DPI Assessment Item Bank, http://www.learnnc.org/

Teacher's Notes:

Reading/Thinking Strategies

What do we do when we read?

Predict/Speculate

• I think that ... is going to ....

Observe

• I think that this would be like....
• This is like/different from...because ....
• I see that ... is ....

Guess

• I'm not sure, but I think that ... is ....

Wonder

• I wonder if ... is significant because....
• I wonder how people felt about ....

Argue

• I don't agree that ... because....

Philosophize

• I think that maybe ... might mean ....
• Things seem ... when ...

Re-evaluate

• Ok, it did (did not) work out that way because....
• That's not what I thought would ....

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