Nelly Zafeiriadou, ELT School Advisor
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PAT MORA?s poetry session ? TEACHING STRATEGIES / lesson plan
1 .Sustained Silent Reading
Description
Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) gives students a chance to spend time reading independently. Different schools approach SSR in different ways. While some may require language arts students to read quietly for a brief interval once a week, others have instituted programs like DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) in which everyone in the entire school reads for a set period every day. In some classrooms, all students read the same text; in others, individuals choose from a class library or bring outside reading.
When followed up with small literature-circle discussions, journal writing, or a whole-class discussion, SSR can help build a foundation for reader-response methods. It gives students private time to reflect and interact with the text, and to make meaning of what they’re reading, without having to do so at someone else’s pace. Students can then discuss what they’ve read with others in the class, sharing their reactions and ideas. Teachers might find it helpful to pose general questions about students’ readings (e.g., What are the qualities of a hero or heroine? How does the author let you know when something happens?) in order to prompt further discussion and enhance understanding. With continued use, SSR builds the kind of self-motivated reading habits that are necessary for reader response.
Teachers interested in instituting SSR programs should provide a few tools:
- a class library or access to a choice of books
- a set amount of uninterrupted time (20-30 minutes)
- space in the classroom, if possible, where students can read comfortably
- a structured way for students to respond to what they’ve read after SSR (e.g., journal writing, sharing responses with a partner or small peer group, or a whole-class discussion on some topic common to all the books)
Benefits
It has been shown that students who engage in SSR regularly read more, enjoy reading more, and read a greater variety of texts, both in and out of school. Allowing time for reading as part of the daily lesson highlights the importance of silent engagement with texts, and it encourages students to see this as a natural and even pleasurable process. In general, SSR attempts to build the habits of a lifelong learner by modeling reading behavior.
2. Identifying compelling lines from the text
Getting Ready ?Part I for the students (15 minutes)
? Read one of the three Pat Mora poems in the Readings following this session of the guide: ?Immigrants,?
?The Desert Is My Mother,? or ?Teenagers.?
? Choose a favorite line from one of the poems.
? Share your line with the group.
? Explain why you chose the line.
Watch Part I: Pat Mora (approximately 30 minutes)
Going Further? Teacher reflection
Discuss as many questions as time permits. You may want to answer more of the questions in your journals at home and share ideas in class
? What did you think about Part I and the way in which the teacher used a reader-response approach to the literature?
? How might you incorporate or adapt the strategies for use in your classroom?
? How might you work with colleagues in your department/school/district to bring authors to your community?
? How can you provide opportunities for your students to share their work with the Community?
? What are some possible next steps to this lesson?
- End of training session- ISSUES for further discussion
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APPENDIX
–Workshop Session 1 Readings
Pat Mora
Immigrants
Wrap their babies in the American flag
Feed them mashed hotdogs and apple pie,
Name them Bill and Daisy
Buy them blond dolls and blink blue
Eyes or a football and tiny cleats
Before the baby can even walk,
Speak to them in thick English,
Hallo, babee, hallo,
Whisper in Spanish or Polish,
When the babies sleep, whisper
In a dark parent bed, that dark
Parent fear, ? Will they like our boy, our girl,
Our fine American boy, our fine American girl??
Teenagers
One day they disappear into their rooms
Doors and lips shut
And we become strangers
in our own home
I pace the hall, hear whispers
A code I knew but can?t remember
Mouthed by mouths I taught to speak.
Years later the door opens.
I see faces I once held, open as sunflowers in my hand. I see
Familiar skin now stretched on long bodies
That move past me
Glowing
Almost like pearls.