Literature Promotes Critical
Thinking and Sentence
Development
Kerri Rizzotto
Kristi A. Bergman
NJTESOL
May 2013
Targeted Literature Options
for Intermediate and Advanced ESL
• Novels/Short Stories
• Written/Oral Speeches
Critical Thinking through Literature
• Students develop not only their reading skills
as they progress through novels but they also
have the opportunity to develop critical
thinking skills as they connect with the
literature. This development can be expressed
through writing, discussion, and projects.
Connecting through Writing
Developing Critical Thinking through
Writing
• Connecting
– Text-to-self
– Text-to-world
– Text-to-text
• Compare & Contrast
• Opinion with Evidence
• Character Identification
Types of Writing
• Free Writing
• Journals
– Reaction
– Double Entry
– Dialogue
• Essays
- Response Essays
- Opinion Essays
Free Writing
Timed
Private/Shared
Allows creativity and flow of thoughts
Non-intrusive form of writing where student is
less inhibited
• Develops writing competency over time
• Provide students with an opportunity for topic
ideas
• Create ambiance based on Suggestopedia
•
•
•
•
Reaction Journals
Text-to-text, Text-to-world, Text-to-text
• Students are required to write a reaction
journal from our novel/short story for
homework each day that the course meets.
• A connection must be made with the
literature.
• As the semester progresses, the depth and
development of their writing do as well
Connecting with Text
Double Entry Journals:
Divide paper in half vertically
On the left copy one paragraph from the book
-I assign the range of pages to choose from
-Explain the importance of quotation marks and citations
On the right side of the paper write I think…….
-Do you agree or disagree?
-Can you relate to the paragraph in some way ?
(personal experience)
-Is there a deeper hidden message or meaning?
-How does this paragraph make you feel?
Double Entry Journal
• “He still had some doubts
about the decision he had
made. But he was able to
understand one thing; making
a decision was only the
beginning of things. When
someone makes a decision, he
is really diving into a strong
current that will carry him to
places he had never dreamed
of when he first made the
decision.”
Coelho, The Alchemist, p. 68
I think…..
I understand exactly what
Santiago talking about. When I
had to make a decision about
where to go to college I felt so
confused. I didn’t realize then that
my decision predicted who my
new friends would be, where I
would meet my husband, raise
my children, find a job that I love.
We can never been sure what our
decisions will bring, we just have
to have faith that it is what is
supposed to be.
Dialogue Journal
• Private written
exchange of ideas that
develops over time –
promotes the role of
language as social
interaction (Vygotsky)
• Allows the student to
initiate conversation
• Higher level thinking
• Time consuming
Connecting with Literature
through Essays
Stairway to Critical Thinking
• What does critical thinking mean to you?
• Stairway has eight components that lead you to
develop critical thinking – help the students climb
the steps from basic to further analysis
• Climb the steps through active participation in
classroom practice – interpretation to application
• In terms of classroom practice the stairway model is
useful for any information-rich text
• Raise awareness of language through dialogue and
texts
Compare and Contrast
Text-to-self
Referring back to The Knight in Rusty Armor,
compare a lesson that the knight learned with
a lesson that you have learned in life. How are
your experiences similar and different?
Connecting with Text
Text-to-text
Over the past six weeks, we have read about
two main characters: Santiago from The
Alchemist and Eddie from The Five People You
Meet in Heaven. Each of these men was on a
journey. Do you believe the men were similar
or different? Support your response with 2-3
examples.
Compare and Contrast
Text-to-world
• Using the traditional Garcia family from How
the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents as your
model, write how you think any one specific
character in the novel would feel about
becoming a member of a modern, blended, or
single parent family. Support your position
with examples.
Response Essay
• Use images and graphics to reach different
learner styles
• Role of social media literacy
• Hurricane Sandy – awareness of local areas
affected and students’ reaction
• Philanthropic interests
Predicting an Alternate Ending
Letter Writing
• Students read The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.
• The story ends with Mathilde, the main character,
learning the truth.
• Each student writes a letter from Mathilde to either
her husband or Mme. Forestier in which she
expresses how she feels having learned a lesson.
• Some students ask for repayment. Others suggest
she should tell her husband and move on.
Essay Requirements
• You must include the following:
_____ compound sentence
_____ complex sentence
_____ compound-complex sentence
_____ 3 modals
_____ 5 transition words
_____ paired conjunction
_____ personification
_____ metaphor
_____ simile
Literacy Assessment
• Opinion-based questions tied to the literature
– e.g. From The Alchemist each student had to decide
whom they would have befriended on the caravan
trip—the caravan leader or the Englishman and share
why.
• Detail questions drawn from the literature which
lend themselves easily to discussions relevant to
individuals in the classroom.
– e.g. From the Namesake the class had to describe
Gogol’s Rice Ceremony and then share similar customs
from their own culture.
Connecting Through Speeches
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King Jr.
Materials: Video and Speech
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkiha
veadream.htm
Dynamic: Groups of three
Time: 20 minutes a day for three days, plus
presentations on the fourth day
Goal: Develop schema on American Civil Rights while
focusing on listening, speaking, and writing skills
Procedure:
:
• Day 1:
– Provide background on Civil Rights, Slavery in American History, Martin Luther
King Jr.
– Play video of MLK’s August 1963 speech. Replay selected speech portion.
– Provide copies of I Have a Dream speech.
• Day 2:
– Divide students into groups of three.
– Students select their section.
– Students take turns reading their section with passion and feelings.
– Students develop their own I Have a Dream speech.
• Day 3:
– Students continue to practice reading their section with passion and feelings.
– Students develop their own I Have a Dream speech.
• Day 3:
– Students collaboratively present a reading of the speech.
– Students share their individual speech with the class.
Connecting Through Projects
Individual Projects
The Namesake
• So, what is in a name? Let’s find out!!!
Using Google (or any other reliable search engine)
– research your family name,
– research your first name and/or a “pet” name given to you by
your family
– find out the origin of your name(s)
– the popularity or rarity of your name(s)
– the meaning of your name(s)
– the family crest or symbol of your family name (if one exists)
– identify any famous people who share your name
– search in your family’s hometown to see how many people
share your family name in that town/region.
• Create a brief PowerPoint presentation
– Include the information that you found online
– Also, if you were named after someone, explain
why and describe that person.
– If you could change your name, would you? Why
or why not?
• PowerPoint should contain 5-7 slides and can
include images or pictures. Each student will
have time to present their project during class.
Sandy Philanthropic Endorsement
• Builds a sense of community and belonging
• Allows students to become aware/involved
• Students work in groups to research
philanthropic organizations
• What should priorities be for philanthropic
giving?
• Which philanthropic organizations should
individuals donate their time and money
toward?
Sentence Development
Analyzing Sentence Structures
• Using core sentences with clear explanation
students can improve their sentence
development.
• Model the structures through cohesive
paragraphs based on literature.
• Have students mirror the writing.
Heathcliff, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
(Scranton Prep)
In Heathcliff’s dream of seeking vengeance on
Hindley, he is destroying whatever capacity he may
have had for loving anyone in this world. (Core 1:
several introductory prepositional phrases)…Not only
do the machinations of Heathcliff manage to inflict
pain upon most of the other characters, but they also
serve as a reflection of the way in which Heathcliff
has stained his own soul with the sordid hands of an
evil monster. (Core 3: Correlatives)
Assessment
Choose any 5 core sentences. Using the sentences you have selected, write about any
of the short stories we have read EXCEPT Miss Brill.
• 1. In Heathcliff’s dream of seeking vengeance on Hindley, he is destroying
whatever capacity he may have had for loving anyone in this world. (Core 1
several introductory prepositional phrases…use at least 3)
• 2.
The tenacity in his pursuit of Hindley, the cruelty of his marriage to Isabella
Linton, the perversion in his love for Catherine are examples of the blight which
has fastened itself upon the mind and soul of Heathcliff. (Core 4 accumulation of
subjects…use at least 3).
• 3.
Terrified by the cataclysmic vision which he sees in his revelation
and compelled by the love of his fellow man, Gregory XVII decides to write an
encyclical to warn the world and its leaders of the apocalyptic destruction to
come. (Core 11 introductory adjectival phrases, past participles)
• 4.
Like John the Baptist, like Jeremiah, like Isaiah, Pope Gregory must assume
the role of a prophet who must testify that those nations which refuse to help
developing countries and which continue to build more powerful nuclear weapons
are leading mankind toward Armageddon. (Core 12 Three comparisons, allusions,
introduces by the same word)
C is for Collocation/Corpus
•
•
•
•
Opinion Phrases
Exposure to frequently used opinion phrases through
practice with dialogue and text
Repeated meaningful use with authentic materials
increases proficiency and raises language awarenesstarget language discourse
Collocation of words used most frequently together
(COCA)- corpus databases available
Semantic prosody- negative/positive word
associations (ie. “cause” – negative – “to cause a
problem”
Thank you for choosing our session
Kerri Rizzotto
[email protected]
Kristi A. Bergman
[email protected]