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1-30-14 (moved to 2-6 due to ice delay)
Our main topic today is “readicide”: killing the
joy of reading. Write a brief description of a time …
… a teacher “killed” a book you were reading, or
… you “killed” a book someone else was reading.
Be ready to read your description
aloud later in class.
But first, we’ll discuss
The Fault in Our Stars
& ways to use it in class.
Identify a passage in TFIOS that elicits an emotional response
(i.e., laughter, anger, sadness) from you. Be ready to share the
passage and your response in class.
What do YOU think about John Green’s idea of “a contract
between author and reader”? Is such a contract “in force”
for assigned readings, or only for self-selected readings?
“Given the entertainment bacchanalia at the disposal of young
men and women of your generation, I am grateful to anyone
anywhere who sets aside the hours necessary to read my little book.
But I am particularly indebted to you, sir, both for your kind words
about An Imperial Affliction and for taking the time to tell me that the
book, and here I quote you directly, “meant a great deal” to you.
“This comment, however, leads me to wonder, What do you
mean by meant? Given the final futility of our struggle, is the fleeting
joke of meaning that art gives us valuable? Or is the only value in
passing the time as comfortably as possible? What should a story
seek to emulate, Augustus? A ringing alarm? A call to arms? A
morphine drip? Of course, like all interrogation of the universe, this
line of inquiry inevitably reduces us to asking what it means to be
human and whether – to borrow a phrase from the anger-encumbered
sixteen-year-olds you no doubt revile – there is a point to it all.
p 68 (excerpt from Peter Van Houten’s letter to Augustus)
from p 141: Rather than be searched by hand, I chose to walk
through the metal detector without my cart of my tank or even the
plastic nubbins in my nose. Walking through the X-ray machine
marked the first time I’d taken a step without exygen in some
months, and it felt pretty amazing to walk unencumbered like that,
stepping across the Rubicon, the machine’s silence acknowledging
that I was, however briefly, a nonmetallicized creature.
What is the allusion in “stepping across the Rubicon”?
How does knowledge of the historical event enhance your
reading of the novel?
(Hint: When you read widely, you “get” more allusions….)
Identify the following allusions:
from p 217: While the mass of men went on leading thoroughly
unexamined lives of monstrous consumption, Augustus Waters
examined the collection of the Rijksmuseum from afar.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
from p 218: “There is no try,” I said. “There is only do.”
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” Yoda, in “Return of the Jedi”
from p 220:
“Ignorance is bliss,” I said.”
Yet ah! why should they know their fate? / Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies. / Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss, / 'Tis folly to be wise.
Closing lines of Thomas Gray’s “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”
How does knowing these allusions enrich your reading of the text?
What other allusions can you identify in TFIOS?
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.
Identify some themes in TFIOS and explain how Green develops those themes.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the
content and style of a text.
Explain how a first-person narrator affects the content and style of TFIOS.
Choose a specific scene and write it from a different character’s point of view.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific
claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and
sufficiency of the evidence.
Explain and evaluate Van Houten’s argument about the value of art.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar
themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the
authors take.
Compare Hazel and/or Augustus’ response to terminal illness in TFIOS to that
of Ben Wolf in Chris Crutcher’s Deadline.
English Language Arts Standards » Speaking & Listening
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.6 Adapt speech to a variety of
contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Read aloud a favorite (or particularly important) passage from TFIOS.
(This is an exercise in oral interpretation: use your voice – pitch, tone,
inflection, rate, and volume – to interpret the text as you read it aloud.)
Perform a scene from TFIOS for an audio-only program.
What are some potential “takeaways” from TFIOS?
What are some reasonable,
realistic ways to achieve them?
Do a dramatic reading
Argue a position
Other comments or questions related to TFIOS?
BREAK
Be ready to share your comments
about Readicide after the break.
Only
YOU
Can
Prevent
Readicide
Before we discuss books, let’s talk
about something (else) fun:
COOKIES
Consider the parallels between
and a cookie a novel:
•Created by cook/author
•Certain ingredients common to
all cookies/novels, with slight
variations in each cookie/novel
•Created to be consumed and
enjoyed (and maybe shared)
Let’s study cookies! So take out some paper…
List the ingredients
common to cookies
Explain the purpose of
each ingredient
Research your assigned
ingredient for an oral
report to the class
List examples of how
each ingredient can be
used in other foods
Take a quiz!
If you didn’t pass the
quiz, get remediated…
Are you excited about this cookie yet?
Major Causes of Readicide:
•Schools value development of test-takers more
than they value the development of readers
•Schools are limiting authentic reading
experiences
•Teachers are overteaching books
•Teachers are underteaching books
Readicide, p. 5
Reality Check:
Tell us about that time a teacher
“killed” a book you were
reading, or you “killed” a book
someone else was reading.
Test preparation: How to do well on the test.
Practice test-taking strategies such as
when & how to guess.
Remember: knowledge is useful only
as it helps get a higher test score.
Life preparation: How to do well in life.
Practice test-taking strategies only
briefly, right before the test.
Remember: knowledge is useful
because it can be applied beyond
the classroom.
Option: Discuss CCSS articles?
Student summary:
The senior lecturer … explores the
significance and the problems that
would occur with a triple fuel
economy. … There is an understood
reality in this article that for the
triple fuel economy to reach its full
potential there has to be a
combination of the three
prospective fuels. As well as the fact
that this culmination of the three
fuels will take a long steady flow of
improvements verses a complete
instantaneous change.
Skill needed?
Close (and accurate) reading.
How to develop this skill?
A. Use drill-and-kill worksheets and practice tests.
(Note: worksheets have little or no transfer to other settings.)
B. Respond to novels:
After reading Divergent, draw on specific evidence from the text
to create a map of the city, showing the location of each faction.
After reading The Fault in Our Stars, write detailed physical
descriptions of Hazel and Augustus, citing specific passages
from the novel as evidence.
Besides…
Multiple-choice testing drives shallow teaching & shallow learning.
Hazel joins the support group at what age?
A. 14 B. 15 C. 16 D. 17
Explain Van Houten’s behavior toward
Hazel when she shows up at his door
dressed as Anna. (Why is he so rude?)
Hazel lives in what city?
A. Baltimore
B. Indianapolis
C. Chicago
D. Pittsburgh
Why do Hazel and Gus refer to “Having
Cancer” rather than “having cancer”
(that is, with capital letters)?
Peter Van Houten is the author of…
A. The Fault in Our Stars
B. An Affliction of Youth
C. The Price of Dawn
D. An Imperial Affliction
Explain the title of the novel. How well
does it fit? (Explain your answer.)
Would it be fair to characterize The
Fault in Our Stars as “a novel about
cancer”? Why or why not?
(Gallagher doesn’t oppose multiple-choice testing – just exclusive use of it.)
Reality Check:
What do YOU read, and how/when do you read it?
Who chooses your reading material?
To what extent do you use “study questions”?
To what extent do you study the author and/or historical background?
How do you respond to what you read? (Do you write a paper? take a test?)
Do you ever read (and enjoy) “light reading”? (beach reading? trash reading?)
Why do you read – what do you get from it
If your reading matched most students’ reading, how much would you read?
Schools are limiting authentic reading experiences.
“The reading and writing of our students [is] guided by teachers’ experiences and
interests, not those of the learners.
Exemplary Program: Writing Workshop in High School (Clark and Mueller, 69)
Honors IV English Curriculum
If medieval ballads tell us something about
medieval culture, what do today’s songs say
about our culture?
Anglo-Saxons: Beowulf, “The Seafarer”
Middle Ages: Medieval ballads, Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain, Morte’ D Arthur
Renaissance: Sonnets (Petrarchan, Shakespearian, Spenserian), Macbeth,
Metaphysical Poetry, Cavalier Poets, King James Bible, Tales of Two Cities
Restoration & 18th Century: Swift, Pepys, Defoe, Johnson
Romantics: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats
Victorian Age: Tennyson
Who are today’s Romantic poets?
Who are
today’s knights?
How do their
stories compare
to medieval
tales?
How are some of today’s columnists
similar to Swift or maybe Johnson?
Find parallels between some recent
columns and some of Johnson’s essays.
Schools are limiting authentic reading experiences.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex
literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
A “canon-only” curriculum won’t include a complete range of text types.
What were your experiences with high school English?
canon-only curriculum?
heavy emphasis on canonical works?
contemporary literature?
balance of reading and writing?
direct instruction in writing, or were papers merely assigned?
in-class time for self-selected reading?
classroom libraries?
If you could, what changes would you make?
Keep reading materials IN your classroom
“Numerous studies have found the most powerful
motivator that schools can offer to build lifelong readers
is to provide students with time in the school day for free
and voluntary reading” (Gallagher 75).
Readicide Factor: The Overanalysis of Books Creates
Instruction That Values the Trivial at the Expense
of the Meaningful
Readicide Factor: The Overteaching of Academic Texts
Is Spilling Over and Damaging Our Students’ Chances
of Becoming Lifelong Readers
When is the last time you “slogged through to the end” of a book because
the syllabus obligated you to do so?
When you did so, what did you learn?
What “collateral damage” might occur
in such situations?
Teachers are overteaching books.
Too much instruction is not good …
…but too little is also not good.
How much instruction do students need?
What’s the point of our instruction?
Teachers are underteaching books.
The Kill-a-Reader Casserole
Take one large novel. Dice into as many pieces as possible.
Douse with sticky notes.
Remove book from oven every five minutes and insert worksheets.
Add more sticky notes.
Baste until novel is unrecognizable, far beyond well done.
Serve in choppy, bite-size chunks.
Readicide, p. 73
Gallagher’s Three Ingredients to Building a Reader
1. They must have interesting books to read.
2. They must have time to read the books inside of school.
3. They must have a place to read their books.
Readicide, p. 84
1. Explain
2. Demonstrate
3. Hold on
4. Run alongside
5. Watch
6. Go away
Gallagher’s advice:
Teach students to recognize the value that comes
from reading academic texts.
Start with the guided tour; end with the budget tour.
Augment books instead of flogging them.
Gallagher’s really radical advice:
The
approach
Half the reading is academic;
Half the reading is for pleasure.
For next week…
Book Club: Alanna, Lindsey and Sara
Historical Fiction: Fever, 1793
Problem Novel: Hold Fast
Topical Novel (Holocaust): Maus (Alanna), TBD (Lindsey), Milkweed (Sara)
Book Club: Hayley, Jared, Leslie
Historical Fiction: Soldier Boys
Problem Novel: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Topical Novel (Civil Rights movement): Freshwater Road (Hayley)
Read your book-club-selected historical novel and be ready to discuss
it with your group. (How might you use this novel in a class? Generate
some ideas for a unit based on the novel, as well as some ideas for using
the novel as supplemental reading to teach some of the CCSS.)
Read your self-selected historical novel and be ready to give a book
talk on it. (If you don’t like your first choice, choose something else.
Don’t do a book talk on a novel you can’t recommend to us.)
Book Talks
The goal of a book TALK is to generate interest in the book, much the way a movie trailer
is designed to generate interest in the movie. When you give your book talk, imagine that
you are talking to high school or middle school students, trying to entice them to read the
book on their own. You should have a copy of the book to show us; if you can find a good
"teaser" passage to read aloud, go ahead and read it -- then stop, while interest is high. Each
book talk should take no more than 2-3 minutes. Anyone who is particularly interested in
the book can ask you questions or take a look at the book after class or during a break. (If
nobody asks to look at the book, your mission probably failed.)
You should give a book talk on each of your eight "individual" books (for which you will
also write reviews); you are also welcome to give talks on other YA books you read during
the semester or have read recently. You should give no more than two book talks during any
single class.
Grading:
Book talks are worth up to 2 pts each. If you have a hard copy of the book (not an
electronic copy, since we can't flip through your Nook, Kindle, or iPad after class), you set
it up without relying too much on plot summary, you don't talk too long, and I think you
have generated some interest in the book, I will award 2 points. I may deduct points (or
fractions of points) for missing any of those criteria.