One way to have students begin thinking about the issues
and historical events addressed in the book is to print out opinion statements
and tape them to manila envelopes. Post the envelopes at different locations
around the room. Put a stack of scrap paper or post-it pad by each envelope.
Let students go around, read each statement, write a 1-2 sentence response, and
drop their opinion in the envelope. You can vary this activity in a number of
ways (including timing within the unit, tone or content of statements, and use
of responses students create).
I have students write their comments anonymously. This
lets them be honest about what they know, don’t know, or feel, and it gives me
a clearer picture about where we are beginning as a class (both in knowledge
and attitude, which can be equally important). I am the one who takes the
statements out, reads and organizes them, so I can edited out any inappropriate
comments, or those I believe might be too difficult to deal with at that time. Having
students respond in this way helps them to begin thinking about the ideas and
events we’ll be reading about and it also gives the class somewhere to begin
our conversation.
To begin discussing the issues raised:
Type out responses for one (or all) of the ideas you had
students write about or just take out all the responses they’ve written and
tape them to a poster board under the statement they addressed. Have students look
over the rest of the classes’ ideas. Give them a few minutes to compose a
written response where they lay out their arguments and examples to disprove statements
they disagree with. If there are none they disagree with, have them go more
in-depth with those they agree with and explain why, giving examples. After
students have had a few minutes to compose their thoughts, have them begin
sharing to start discussion.
You can do this in a general way at the start of the book,
drawing a bit from each of the statements, or you could repeat the process a
few different times throughout the book, each time focusing on one specific
idea when that idea arises in the text. As students look again at their
statements and write about them again—this time more in-depth, you can tie their
experiences and ideas to what is happening in the text.
You can also just use this at the end of the unit to go
back and have the class reflect on how their knowledge or perceptions have
changed. Students can go back to the initial list of statements and pick one –
or a few—that they would respond differently to now and explain why. Or, have
them find a statement that they still believe, possibly more strongly, and give
examples from what they learned that shows why.
At any point these activities could range from discussion starters, to informal reflections, to a formal literary analysis or research paper.