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Holding on to Ariadne’s Thread
in the Labyrinth of Educational
Change:
Connecting the Great Teaching
Already Being Done with the
Common Core
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Goals:
1. Experience one way to scaffold from a text to a
text to several writing topics of each student’s
choice.
2. Think aloud annotations for one Common Core
exemplar
3. Prepare a Socratic Seminar for the connection
of two texts as students would.
4. Participate in a First Word/Last Word strategy
5. Freewrite and reflect to explore annotations
and discussions of a text as students would.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual
evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the
text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text
and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and
ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events,
or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’
ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1a Come to discussions prepared, having
read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that
preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on
the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of
ideas.
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Freewriting
Think-Aloud annotation “Ozymandias”
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Independent annotation of “Gettysburg Address”
Freewriting
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Socratic Seminar Prep
Cornell Notes Discussion/First Word-Last Word
Reflection
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Writing Topics-Audience and Purpose
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Big Idea Questions:
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How is great leadership defined?
How does a person create a legacy that lasts?
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Reading Aloud “Ozymandias”
Freewriting to explore (2 minutes)
"Ozymandias"
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"Gettysburg Address"
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Freewrite (exploring connection between
the two texts and the big questions.
Socratic Seminar Prep 1 question, 1 annotation
from each
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Cornell Notes Discussion 10 minutes
Writing Topics/Things to Explore
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LAD Categories Sheet
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1.Experience one way to scaffold from a text
to several writing topics.
2.Think-aloud annotations for one Common
Core exemplar text
3.Prepare a Socratic Seminar for the
connection of two texts as students would.
4.Freewrite and reflect to explore
annotations and discussions of a text as
students would.
5.Use reading, writing and discussion
produced to gather writing topics.
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Holding on to Ariadne’s Thread in the Labyrinth of Educational
Change: Connecting the Great Teaching Already Being Done with the Common
Core
Melissa Troxell, Willard High School
[email protected]
In this session participants will explore a group of strategies that will lead their students
through a more independent analysis of literature. However, the Common Core not only calls for
more independent readers who question complex texts, but it also asks students to create a variety
of writing. Melissa will offer a scaffold for the textual analysis to springboard into these different
writings.
Rationale:
Often I wonder about Theseus’s reaction to Ariadne giving him the string to get through the
labyrinth. Was he upset that she didn’t trust him or thrilled that she gave him a solution? My
experiences with education have resembled a labyrinth with experiments in the classroom leading
to new passages and dead ends. In this time period the research seems to have combusted in a
nuclear mushroom cloud of evidence about all kinds of learning and new ideas, but how does
anyone have the time to read all or most of it? As Theseus kept the thread to lead him out of the
labyrinth, we must do the same as educators, or we risk losing so much. That thread is that great
teaching is always great teaching. Really passionate teachers want students to be great critical
thinkers, readers and writers who discuss great texts intellectually. There is nothing new in this
statement. Currently technology has “democratized” education; students can blog, tweet, research
and a host of other reading and writing online including choosing the next American Idol or the
newest flavor of Mountain Dew. What Daniel Pink refers to as the Conceptual Age requires a shift
in facilitation of the material we teach because students already have the information at their
fingertips, but they don’t always know how to discern good from bad and to apply what they’ve
learned. Jim Burke said that students need to become creators of information instead of
consumers, and those same great teachers are able to do just that.
Research:
“We need generative, analytical, creative thinkers—the ones who will bring imagination to their
work. We do not need students who are obedient—those who think as they are directed; that way
of thinking will ensure our country’s decline and its intellectual ruin. To prevent such a fate, we
must foster a culture of innovation within our classrooms—one defined by a spirit of inquiry into big
ideas. “ (Burke 46)
“The Frameworks for Postsecondary Success” (authored by NCTE, NWP and WPA) call for students
to have habits of mind such as curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence,
responsibility, flexibility and metacognition.
“In fact, the business world has a lot to learn from educators: what motivates people, how to inspire
people to perform well. But educators can also take a lesson from the commercial world: namely,
teaching the complicated skill of finding problems. In a recent study, Pink said school
superintendents rated problem-solving as the top capability they wanted to instill. Corporate
executives, however, rated problem-solving as seventh on their list of attributes in employees, but
rated problem identification as the single most important skill. That is, the ability to suss out issues
and challenges that aren’t necessarily obvious. And this is where students could benefit from
educators — learning the process of identifying a problem.” (Rose)
“Socratic questioning, then, greatly assits us in this endeavor. The purpose here is to use
questioning to bring forward already held ideas in the students’ minds, then make them more
aware and cognizant of the learning and understanding that has already occurred” (Copeland 7).
Tovani states, “When teachers take time to demonstrate how they annotate their discipline’s text,
they not only give readers the words they need to engage their thinking as they read, but also
show students how to read strategically. When students know how to annotate, it gives their
teachers a record of their thinking that informs the next day’s instruction” (78).
“We—teachers, students, writers all—must be willing and able to put down words boldly with
the sole purpose of getting at thinking, at personal truth. Fluency in writing sets the state for
surprises. That’s truth. That’s why it is crucial for students to believe their written words are for
more than mere correcting. And that’s why we must make a priority of helping students develop
confidence in putting words on paper.” (Romano 18)
“Scaffolded text-based discussions offer students the information they need in order to have a
free-flowing conversation that meanders to and from the information shared in the text” (Fisher,
Frey and Lapp 19).
Works Cited:
Burke, Jim. What's the Big Idea? : Question-Driven Units to Motivate Reading, Writing, and
Thinking. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2010. Print.
Copeland, Matt. Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High
School. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005. Print.
Fisher, Doughlas, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp. Teaching Students to Read Like Detectives:
Comprehending, Analyzing, and Discussing Text. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press,
2012. Print.
Romano, Tom. Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers. Portsmouth: Heinemann,
1987. Print.
Rose, Jennie. "Dan Pink: How Teachers Can Sell Love of Learning to Students." Mind Shift:
How We Will Learn. Ed. Tina Barseghian. KQED and NPR, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 June
2013. <http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/01/dan-pink-how-teachers-can-sell-love-oflearning-to-students/>.
The Council of Writing Program Administrators, The National Council of Teachers of English,
and The National Writing Project. "Framework for Success in Postsecondary
Writing." Council of Writing Program Administration. Council of Writing Program
Administrators, Jan. 2011. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://wpacouncil.org/framework>.
Tovani, Cris. So What Do They Really Know? : Assessment That Informs Teaching and
Learning. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2011. Print.
Process:
1.
Introduce students to the big questions that will drive this unit.
2. Listen to/follow along “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Freewrite reaction to the
poem. Share with small group. Respond with only “Thank you for sharing.”
3. Teacher models a think-aloud with the poem, posting the annotations on Google Docs.
4. Share a paper copy of “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln with students who
will then annotate the speech independently.
5. Students freewrite about connections between the two texts and the big questions.
6. Students take the time to prepare the Socratic Seminar sheet for the next discussion.
7. Students participate in a Cornell Notes discussion using the First Word/Last Word
strategy.
8. Reflection on the discussion. Write something great that someone else said, something
you wish you would’ve said, a question or thought that still lingers.
9. Scan through freewrites, annotations and reflection for writing topics to explore. Look
over LAD categories considering audience and purpose.
Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15691
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
The Gettysburg Address
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.ht
m
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863
On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented on what is now
considered the most famous speech by President Abraham Lincoln. In
his eulogy on the slain president, he called it a "monumental act." He
said Lincoln was mistaken that "the world will little note, nor long
remember what we say here." Rather, the Bostonian remarked, "The
world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it.
The battle itself was less important than the speech."
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have
come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate
-- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather
for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that
we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.
Socratic Seminar Prep
This is a freewrite, so don’t worry about grammar or spelling or making it pretty. Instead concentrate on your
personal connections to anything in these pieces. If you can’t think of anything to say, then write that statement
until something comes to mind, and something always comes to mind. This is NOT about right answers; it’s about
what you are thinking as you read.
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Freewirte 2 Write about the connections between these texts and the big questions.
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Socratic Seminar Prep
Please write 3 discussion questions from your reading. Discussion questions should be open-ended, related to our
larger questions and larger than questions that can be answered directly from the text.
1.
2.
3.
Please write the page numbers and three quotes/passages/annotations that you feel are powerful and related to
your experiences, our current world/culture or another text that you have encountered.
1.
2.
3.
Adapted from Cornell Notes, Cornell University
Cue words,
phrases, things to
help you
remember your
notes and the
discussion/book
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Notes on Discussion (Great things others say, what you are thinking about what they say,
observations you’ve made, annotations (yours and others), questions, comments
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Reflections (Something great that someone else said, something you wish you would’ve said, questions or thoughts
that still linger
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