Judith J. Katz
Acknowledgement and Disclaimer
The workflow described in this section has been extrapolated from the teachings of Mary Mackley, Carol Jonaitis, and the Connecticut Writing Project. I have studied with them and been coached by them for six years. They have encouraged me to make their methods my own, to use them creatively, and to change them as student response requires. I have done that, and so I can no longer quote them directly. I gratefully acknowledge their work and ideas which I build upon below.
In all cases I suggest that the teacher use the following workflow when introducing students to each of these lessons: teacher demonstrates the work, teacher gives students guided practice of the work, students do the work independently, students share their work with class, class responds back to the student who shared. This workflow is explained in greater detail below.
The benefit of the proposed workflow is that it gives the students a very clear picture of what is expected of them. It also gives the teacher a very clear assessment of what the students are understanding well and not so well so that s/he can adjust classroom instruction accordingly. The best byproduct of this workflow is that it is student--centered and students are motivated by the idea that what they are thinking and writing, is valued and will be listened to at many points during the process.
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1. Introduce or review the literary elements that are the focus of the unit. Initially you will have to do this but after a short time you will be able to list the elements and have the students define them for the class.
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2. Introduce students to the overall idea of what they are going to do.
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3. Demonstrate what you expect the students to do by actually doing it once in front of them.
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a. Make sure that when you demonstrate, you make each process you use to build your conclusions visible to the student by actually telling them exactly what you are thinking as in - I think this because. . . That means you need to take a minute and think about how you think before you demonstrate. (Example: I think that voice is Elvis Presley because I have heard him sing "You Ain't Nothin But a Houndog" before." I think this is the young Elvis because he sounds very energetic and the tone of his voice is not gravelly the way it got later in his life. Etc.) Emphasize what you think and why you think it.
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b. Note: while your students won't necessarily think like you do. . .seeing the
way
you think can help them understand that there is a process to thinking, that it progressively builds idea on idea, and that they can think and explain their thinking too. It's not a mystery--it just takes practice.
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4. Demonstrate again using Guided Practice (Marzano) in which the students are expected to do the work you just demonstrated. This time you will be acting as an encourager helping them to synthesize the process. You will also be taking notes and reflecting back to them what they did--making their process visible to them.
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5. Reflecting back to the students comes in two flavors: non-judgmental and judgmental. Each has a place in the learning process and neither should be used punitively.
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c. Use the non-judgemental to get student thought and participation flowing--as in we are brainstorming and we will write down whatever comes to mind without placing a value (right or wrong) on it.
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d. Use the judgemental to get students to rethink, refine, and revise thoughts and assumptions they are making that are not correct or applicable--as in "Michael Jackson's voice sounds the same in 'ABC, 123' as it does in 'Thriller. It clearly does not. Further explanation of what evidence supports the student assumption is needed. Often a student's incorrect assumption is related to a kernel of something that may be correct. Finding that kernel, which could be a piece of prior knowledge, can help both teacher and student in their efforts to clarify and correct assumptions as needed.
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6. Have students begin to work in small groups or individually to do the work independently.
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7. Whenever possible have students (or some students-not always the same students) share their work with the class.
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8. Whenever possible have the class respond to the student who shared. (Determine in advance if feedback will be asked for so that students are ready.)
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9. Refer to the prior work when beginning the new work and whenever prior work is applicable or illuminating to a current point or situation.
