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The Teen Brain




This week my English 7 Honors classes finished analyzing ¨Nothing Gold Can Stay.¨  This poem appears in The Outsiders.  Before beginning our analysis, I asked students to think about the big question:  Why  do you think S.E. Hinton chose this poem to include in her book?  What connections can you make between the poem and the characters and situations in the novel?  Then we read the poem and students annotated the text with their initial thoughts, observations, and questions.  Next, I showed them a video of the poem  with images in the back
ground and set to music .  They did a bit more annotating after that.  After that, we used a strategy called SIFT.  Much like a sifter used in gold mining, this strategy yields similar results!  Students isolate the golden nuggets of the poem.  Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little, but the students liked the comparison.  They looked at possible symbolism, imagery, figurative language, and theme/tone.  Afterwards, we had an incredible discussion.  Students then posted the answer to the big question on a digital bulletin board called Padlet.

Using SIFT
SIFTING THE POEM
A students article-He isn't sure what happened
Charting Verbs
Later in the week,  my honors classes read an article and watched a short video about the teen brain.  My college prep students will be doing the same shortly.  What a fascinating topic! 

  As you may know, the new Common Core Standards require that students read more expository texts, learn to trace and evaluate the arguments and claims in a text, and even evaluate whether not the evidence is relevant and sufficient.  I have students engage in a variety of critical reading strategies in order to both understand and analyze what they read.  

 We are currently reading The Outsiders.  Reading articles about the teenage brain helps students understand why some of the characters act  as they do, as well as helps them understand their own behavior!  

 Students were also asked to bring in an article related to a social issue in the book.  They marked the text before coming to class and got into groups to share their articles.  They went around and rolled the die to determine what question they would answer about their article.  Students chose some fascinating, relevant articles.  Eventually, they will choose a topic to do more research on and write an informational essay about it. 
Questions Students Answered about their Chosen Article

Charting the Text






Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:03 AM

    What a nice green shirt Ethan. I hope you don't become a Ethan Couch.

    Logan Acosta

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:05 AM

    I loved doing grudgeball game. I loved how it got everyone engaged in the game. IT WAS SO FUN! Also, I loved doing the word mix and mengle a while back. It was a great oppertunity to learn some vocab words in a very fun way!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for all that you for us. And thank you for keeping the homework load light!

    Best wishes,

    Dania Eddington

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:07 AM

    I really loved the debait

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:09 AM

    When we did the debate, it gave me a chance to talk and I had a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:09 AM

    I liked the socratic seminar.I thought that i would have the courage to talk but i did not.i think what can make it better is if you have everyone speak their points.then people would be able to write comment without having a blank space.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    Grudgeball was an amazing game. I loved how if you made a basket you get to erase off the other teams points.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:13 AM

    I really enjoyed the articles on Sharon Budd, Afluenza, and Ethan Couch. The articles taught me a lot about how to make good decisions, and how teens don't know what will happen when they are getting themselves into a bad situation. I think I learned a lot from these articles and can't wait to read more like these.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2015 at 12:11 PM

    I had fun doing this trail. I thought it was cool how we got to make up the details for why the criminals did what they did. I thought that it would have been better if we made up the cases though that way both the defense and prosecution have a good chance at winning

    Aidan Lynch

    ReplyDelete

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