Adolescent Literacy: The Middle School Years
Transcript of Speaker
The Literacy Classroom: Grades 4 – 8
Comprehension Strategies
Novel Studies – Fiction
SUSAN MARK: In my opinion, important comprehension strategies for middle
school students for fiction include definitely increasing vocabulary, being able to identify
the various type of conflict—and we teach that as man versus man, man versus nature.
Students are pretty good at that by the eighth grade.
Another strategy I use is for students to look for key details and descriptions. I
piggyback on their knowledge of adjectives and adverbs. As they read, subconsciously I
want them to think and look for words that answer how many, how much, where, when
did this take place, to help them find details, which is another important aspect of
improving reading comprehension.
Of course, cause and effect, and identifying the main idea is very important. I
have kids predict and summarize; and something that I’ve learned to do – to tap into their
own knowledge and experience and bring that into whatever we’re reading or whatever
we’re doing in class; to have them part of the activity; to share some of the things that
they’ve done that may be similar to a character in a novel or any of the short stories that
we read. When you get the kids interested and can share and have something in common
with the characters in the novel, they become interested readers.
One of the major challenges that middle school teachers have is giving kids the
skills to handle longer, more complex fictional text. In fact, the longer the book, the less
likely they are to want to read. At the middle school age, students’ interests are much
more diversified and, definitely, their opinions are more obvious.
To prepare for the middle school student, a teacher needs to look for materials,
activities and use methods that would keep a student’s interest. Some of the methods
include, but are not limited to, inferencing, predicting skills, definitely character study,
cause and effect; and we still look at the main idea. We’re not limited to those, but that’s
some of the things that we highlight.
We are trying to prepare the middle school student for high school through novel
study. In previous years, we’d take segments of the reading strategies and skills, and we
would highlight or work on inferencing, using only a text that would help us with
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inferencing skills, and we’d go on and study main idea. Using the novel ties everything
together.
Novel studies give me the opportunity to assess all of the reading skills using one
activity or one piece of material, the novel itself. I can look for the student understanding
character study, vocabulary – increasing vocabulary, cause and effect, inferencing skills.
They’re all compacted into this one beautiful thing called the novel.
Today you will see an eighth grade language arts reading class. We are taking
part in an interdisciplinary unit with the social studies department. I have selected Across
Five Aprils by Irene Hunt to be my novel of choice for this interdisciplinary unit. We
have started the first five chapters, actually. The students have looked at the characters
that have been introduced in the first five chapters, given physical characteristics,
character traits and some type of interpersonal relationship with each character.
They’re into the novel, but I want to take them a step further today so that they
will understand that there is a more in-depth study of characters that will help them
follow the plot more closely and comprehend the story.
Can you have a story without characters?
STUDENTS: No.
SUSAN MARK: Do all characters have to be people?
STUDENTS: No.
SUSAN MARK: Well, what can some non-people characters be?
STUDENT: A cheeseburger.
SUSAN MARK: Cheeseburger. Yes.
STUDENT: A tree.
SUSAN MARK: Yes. Anybody.
STUDENT: A muffin.
SUSAN MARK: A muffin. Okay.
Somebody Wanted, But, So
SUSAN MARK: We started out with just reviewing the characters today. I did
that in a form of a Jethro board. Jethro is the main character in Across Five Aprils. I’ve
sort of taken bingo and made a Jethro game out of it. Basically, the students have to list
the characters in any order, and then I read off some of the character traits and some of
the interpersonal relationships. Through matching, it was a game-like activity to help us
review who the characters are in the story.
So far, we’ve been up to 5 chapters, and there have been over 20 characters, and
some of the kids find it very frustrating and quite confusing in trying to keep the
characters separated. I do this also for my ESL students who are finding it difficult, not
only because of the dialect, but because there are so many characters in the story.
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What we’re doing now is we’re working on somebody wanted, but, so. Who can
tell me the process of completing a somebody wanted, but, so activity sheet for the
chapters in Across Five Aprils. Amanda.
AMANDA: First you start with all of the characters.
SUSAN MARK: You start with all of the characters for that particular chapter.
AMANDA: And then you say what the characters wanted, what they wanted to
do, where they wanted to go.
SUSAN MARK: Okay, because all characters want something; right?
STUDENTS: Yes.
SUSAN MARK: Everybody and everything wants something. If not, you’re
nonexistent. What is the next step. I know somebody wants—there’s a problem. What’s
the word we use to show that there’s a problem?
STUDENTS: But.
SUSAN MARK: But. Good. Now, will all characters have problems?
STUDENTS: No.
SUSAN MARK: No. You have your major characters and your minor
characters, and some of the characters do not have problems. They’re just, you know,
hanging out there; just putting a little added color to the novel. What’s the last step in
somebody wanted, but, so?
STUDENT:
What happened.
SUSAN MARK: What happened. Who would like to share somebody wanted,
but, so from chapter one? Give me one. I’m going to help you out today, but I need a
brave person.
STUDENT: Jethro wanted to go to war.
SUSAN MARK: Jethro is the somebody. What did he want?
STUDENTS: Go to war.
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SUSAN MARK: He wanted to go to war. But? He didn’t understand. So?
Somebody give me something else about Jethro. That’s good.
STUDENT: He had to make a decision.
SUSAN MARK: Who’s the he? Who’s the somebody?
STUDENT: Jethro.
SUSAN MARK: Jethro is the somebody. What did Jethro want?
STUDENT: He wanted Lincoln to make a decision about the war.
SUSAN MARK: He wanted Lincoln to make a decision about the war. But?
STUDENT: He didn’t make a decision.
SUSAN MARK: Lincoln didn’t make a decision. He was sitting on the fence.
So what happened? Did they go to war? We’re up to chapter five.
STUDENT: He fantasizes about the war.
SUSAN MARK: He fantasizes about the war. Very good. I’m going to help you
out today. Look what I did. I’m going to read these for you. Let’s see if we can work
with these, and you can copy these down as you’d like, and then I’m going to ask you in
your groups to come up with the buts and the sos. All of these are from chapter one.
When we get to chapter five, you’re going to see that everything has changed for some
characters. Ellen did not want to lose more children. That’s the wanted. Get these down
very quickly. Jethro wanted to understand why Matt saved Travis. Just because I say
that’s the only thing that Jethro wanted in chapter one; is that the only thing that Jethro
wanted in chapter one? No. You can have many wants for one character.
Then we went into an activity called somebody wanted, but, so this morning.
And you’ll see an extension of that. I started with a common story, The Three Little Pigs,
and I took the kids through this activity. Then they transferred this to chapter one of
Across Five Aprils. We’re trying to recognize and identify the characters and see if there
were any conflicts.
Static, Dynamic, Flat & Round Characters
SUSAN MARK: When you have static cling, what does that mean? What does
that mean?
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things.
STUDENT: It means that you usually can’t decide what to do; they stuck to
SUSAN MARK: Yes. And they don’t really move around; right? How many of
you have ever had static in your hair in the wintertime? And try as you may to get that
hair down, it just won’t change; it stays in the same place.
If something seems to be dynamic, give me an example of something that is
dynamic if I were to use that term. He’s a dynamic football player.
STUDENT: Like use the definition for dynamic?
SUSAN MARK: Yeah. Or give me an example or a definition, or tell me
someone that you know that you think is dynamic. Someone who is really good at
something or someone who would – give me an example of a person you think is really
dynamic other than Mrs. Mark.
STUDENT: Kobe Bryant.
SUSAN MARK: Kobe Bryant. Dynamic – someone who is extraordinary. What
do you think of when I use the word flat on a tire? Get an image in your mind. What
does a flat tire look like?
STUDENT: There’s nothing in it; it’s just there.
SUSAN MARK: Like there’s nothing in it; like’s it’s just there. Does that make
sense? Round, round. If something is round, give me an example of something that is
round.
STUDENT: A ball.
SUSAN MARK: A ball. What are the characteristics of a ball that’s round? It
has to have something inside of it; right? The more air it has, the larger it gets. The more
content, the more activity that’s going inside the ball, the larger it gets.
We are going to talk about static and dynamic characters, flat and round
characters. Our goal is to map each character in the chapter to identify and classify them
as either being static or dynamic, flat or round. And we’re going to do all 12 chapters
and make predictions based on the classification from the previous chapter. Everyone
has a pretty good idea of what static means, so who can give me, you think, a good
definition of a static character. What do you think a static character would be?
STUDENT: A main character.
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SUSAN MARK: No, a main character isn’t going to be static. Think about it.
Tell me what you said about the cling. If it sticks to you – ladies, with your pantyhose –
is it static?
STUDENT: You don’t want to change or anything.
SUSAN MARK: A static character does not change. Very good. Static cling.
However your skirt is stuck on your leg; with that pantyhose, it doesn’t want to change
and fall down in its proper shape. Static. It doesn’t change. Static in the hair – as much
as you try to brush it down, it still goes up; it’s not going to change.
A dynamic character. What would a dynamic character be?
STUDENT: A dynamic character would be someone who excels at what they do.
SUSAN MARK: I think of dynamite; I see explosions. This person has it all.
Dynamic character. A dynamic character can change. Goes through changes. A flat
character, a round character, we’ll talk about those as well too.
What we will be doing later is mapping the characters from chapter to chapter and
seeing the characters evolve, the classification of characters to evolve, and how the
characters’ actions and what they do, what they say, how other people feel about the
characters, impact the plot and the storyline.
If students can master that, if they can understand what the characters are doing, if
they can become active readers and really get into the story and learn to form opinions
and predictions about the story, they will find reading longer, more complex text very
easy.
Bridging the Gap Between Reading & Life Experience
SUSAN MARK: What I like to do, and my goal is to bridge that gap between
learning and the experiences that students have. The older the kids get, sometimes the
larger the gap becomes between reading and what they have experienced.
Today I had a youngster tell me, I hate reading. I have to sit still. I don’t like to
sit still in reading. And, well, if you want to get up and move around, you can get up and
move around.
Some of the things that I’ve done as far as letting kids sit where they’d like to sit,
sit on the floor. Some of the other activities that I’ve done is vocabulary puzzles and
games, character games. I ask students to dramatize either sections from the novel that
we’re reading or sections from a play.
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Some of the other activities that I’ve done that may seem farfetched, kids have
actually cooked. When we were reading the Call of the Wild, we made sourdough
biscuits. When we read The Pearl, I went out and bought oysters, and the kids—the kids
actually went in and starting digging out oysters. The custodians didn’t like that very
well, but that’s what we did.
When I did a drama unit, I actually found out the kids have never seen – many of
my kids have not seen a live play. With approval of the principal, I got a little van and
we took the kids to Lachamadia for a luncheon theater activity.
Just tapping in and trying to bridge the gap within the classroom, experiences that
the kids don’t have at home, and trying to get them all on the same page and excited
about reading.
Service projects are normally piggybacked from the novels that I’m reading. We
did Call of the Wild, so we had a walk for bucks. We’ve read The Diary of Ann Frank,
and I had a major carwash outside, and we donated money to the Ann Frank House. I try
to tap in the reading with service projects because that also increases the activity of the
reader.
I also have students create cartoons, persona journals in which they become a
different character in whatever they’re reading – a novel, a short story, and explain what
life was like for them. I also have them do letter writing to characters in the story. Quick
writes. I’ve experimented with literature circles. Just any way to get the kids reading and
to enjoy it.
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