A Special Note for Bentonville
Thank you so much for working with me. I had a great time talking and working with you, and I look forward to coming back. We have lots more connections to make between literature and writing...and I have a great way of teaching grammar in a meaningful context to ensure that students really learn it. I'd like to talk at length about rubrics and the fact that reading and writing are inextricably linked.

Reading = Writing = Thinking.

This next bit contains a LOT of text, but I wanted to make sure I covered clearly the same things for both groups. The bold text should help you determine which parts you'd like to read more carefully...so skim through this and make sure that you heard these seven things.

  1. As we worked together, we often referred to one literary term by several different names. This is something we are used to doing, but you should always make sure you are not confusing your students. Make sure that you all agree as a vertical team which terms you want to use. You can also decide, as a whole team, which grade level is ready for which terms. You probably don't want to dump all of the different names for resolution on a 5th grader, but maybe you will decide to start with falling action, adding resolution in 7th grade, and denouement in 8th grade. It doesn't matter much HOW you do it, just that you decide as a team and then stick to that.
  2. Pages 13-20 of your handout are a sort of "transcript" of our movie discussion. You might have figured that out already. It's not meant to be completely accurate, and I don't really use it as a script. I just thought you would probably like to have some written record of all that we talked about while the movie was playing. I hope to talk more about the movie clip, by the way, show you a little more of it when we have more time. Also, I have a great parody that I'd like to share, so we can talk about what makes parody powerful.
  3. Pages 21-22 of your handout have the ready-made, blank Freytag's Pyramids drawn out. I'm sorry that through all of that discussion in class about the pyramid, I failed to refer you to these pages in your packet. I use drawings like these to have students record the climax, rising action, falling action, etc. I like to put it on a uniform handout like this one because otherwise, I will get all kinds of different renditions of the pyramid, and assessment becomes a real nightmare.
  4. After the long period of time I spend on "Sea Devil" passages (2-3 weeks at the very beginning of school), I like to assess students' understanding by giving them one of the same passages we just studied but this time with a different, more specific guiding question. You could give them one of the guiding questions on page 31, for example, if you like those...or write your own. Or give them a new passage and write a new guiding question. After we spend all of that time using the introductory and broad "What literary terms are operating in this passage?" as our guiding question, it will be time for them to show what they can do on their own. I would always offer them a few to choose from, however. Give them three options, and ask them to write one.
  5. I have posted another document, called "Sal's Dreams." This is an example of work that 8th graders did for the novel Walk Two Moons after they had been trained all year in this kind of analysis and discussion. Students working in a group at the end of the year were able to discuss a motif in the novel and turn it into a theme statement. Then they found the very best passage to exemplify that theme and wrote a guiding question for that passage. The most beautiful part of this process was stepping back and watching as my students led a discussion and annotation of the passage. Take a look at "Sal's Dreams," and remember that students put all of that together.
  6. I talked a lot about CLAIM, EVIDENCE, COMMENTARY. There is more to that scheme, and I hope to return and walk you through some other activities. It has been very exciting to me in the last few years as I've figured out how many different ways I can use that one frame of reference. It works for literature. It works for writing. It gives shape and purpose to many things that I ask my students to do.
  7. If I come back, make sure you ask me to show you the Two-Question Theme Generator. For those who didn't get to hear me talk about it, I will try to post an explanation in the next couple of days.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for improvement. The email link is on the home page of this site.

I am still collecting a few non-fiction titles, and when I post that, I plan to offer a novel list as well...just for those that are interested.

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