Growing Students through Writing and Literature
_ Word power translates to writing power in Book Thief project
(Project Scenario)
Student reactions to and participation with our reading of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak have been quite successful in my tenth grade English class. By including several best practices along with our reading, students have come to embrace their own writing.
Before reading
According to “Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools,” it is vital to read other versions of a text “to prime the pump” (Arthur Hyde, et al. 79). Before we delve into the first page of The Book Thief, we read excerpts from Hitler Youth, a non-fiction picture book written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This is to show how pictures play a role in not only describing texts but further supplementing them, as seen in The Book Thief, and will give the students an example of how to use the power of illustration to convey ideas, which ties into one of the options with their final project.
For another pre-reading assignment, students are asked, “What would you do if you had all the power in the world?” Then students are directed to write a letter of decree to their “minions.” This exercise is to get the students interested and to give students experience and confidence in their ability to express their opinion in writing, which is one of the options in the final project. Best practice from “Today’s Standards for Teaching” says that extensive pre-writing experience gives students “plenty of content and models for writing” (Hyde, et al. 82). Writing practice such as these letters is proven to boost the quality of the final project
Also to get students engaged with The Book Thief, we discuss their individual childhood memories of literacy. Students share books they read as a child, the first books they remember reading or their favorite childhood books. After sharing their fond memories, the teacher describes the first book of the protagonist in The Book Thief, which is a manual on how to dig graves. This is to portray not only the novel’s desperate setting, it also segues into the novel’s unique choice of narrator, death.
During reading
Susan and Stephen Tchudi note in The English Language Arts Handbook that“frequently, when students say they don’t have anything to write about… they lack belief in the value of their own experience” (144). In order to draw on students’ own encounters, I asked them to write a letter to me, create an illustrated story, or write a poem about a time when they felt like the “other” or an outsider to drive home the plight of the Jews in The Book Thief.
Another connection we make in this unit is to have students bring in a song that they find a correlation with in the story. They write a couple of paragraphs as to why it relates to The Book Thief. The student will then use lines from their selected song to write their own “borrowed poem” about The Book Thief. This exercise connects to the final project option of writing of a poem and will give students, who would otherwise not select the genre of poetry, confidence and experience with this genre. One of the students, Jon, notes, “I was really surprised how easy it was to write a poem. I liked that I could build my own ideas off of lyrics to a song that I like without getting in trouble for copying them. It made it fun to write.” In fact, the connections that students make to the text are often very creative and insightful.
Other fun activities during reading include a sampling of pea soup (the main staple for the protagonist and her family) and perhaps a viewing of the spewing of pea soup scene from The Exorcist to get the taste buds going.
After reading
For the final project, as a group students are directed to think of issues that really bug them, for instance, like their curfew or the fact that they would like more English electives offered at their school. Then, students are asked to name or describe someone that they really appreciate. After all these have been written down for all the students to see, students are instructed to pick one from the list, or create a new one for their final project. This collaboration allows students to borrow ideas from one another or gets them inspired to come up with their own.
The purpose of the final project is to convey a theme from The Book Thief of the power of language, both to persuade and to communicate feelings.
The students who opt to persuade write a Letter to the Editor, School Board (or other governing entity), or parent about an issue that concerns the student. This letter will be sent.
Students who wish to communicate feelings through their writing create an illustrated story or a poem to someone they love or appreciate. This will be given to the person it is about.
The Tchudis stress how important it is for students to write for real audiences and with real purposes in mind: “Our experience has been that students write with more energy, commitment, and interest when they are writing for real purposes to reach real audiences, whether large or small, close or distant” (145). With the letter option, students write real letters to real people about real issues. Through the illustrated story or poem, students also have the opportunity to express their feelings for a real person, to whom they will actually give their piece.
By incorporating several best practices in writing throughout the unit, students will be able to not only appreciate the power of language in The Book Thief, they will also be able to empower their own words through their own writing.
Hyde, Arthur, et al. “Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools.” Best Practice. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005. Print.
Tchudi, Susan and Stephen. The English Language Arts Handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999. Print.
(Project Scenario)
Student reactions to and participation with our reading of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak have been quite successful in my tenth grade English class. By including several best practices along with our reading, students have come to embrace their own writing.
Before reading
According to “Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools,” it is vital to read other versions of a text “to prime the pump” (Arthur Hyde, et al. 79). Before we delve into the first page of The Book Thief, we read excerpts from Hitler Youth, a non-fiction picture book written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This is to show how pictures play a role in not only describing texts but further supplementing them, as seen in The Book Thief, and will give the students an example of how to use the power of illustration to convey ideas, which ties into one of the options with their final project.
For another pre-reading assignment, students are asked, “What would you do if you had all the power in the world?” Then students are directed to write a letter of decree to their “minions.” This exercise is to get the students interested and to give students experience and confidence in their ability to express their opinion in writing, which is one of the options in the final project. Best practice from “Today’s Standards for Teaching” says that extensive pre-writing experience gives students “plenty of content and models for writing” (Hyde, et al. 82). Writing practice such as these letters is proven to boost the quality of the final project
Also to get students engaged with The Book Thief, we discuss their individual childhood memories of literacy. Students share books they read as a child, the first books they remember reading or their favorite childhood books. After sharing their fond memories, the teacher describes the first book of the protagonist in The Book Thief, which is a manual on how to dig graves. This is to portray not only the novel’s desperate setting, it also segues into the novel’s unique choice of narrator, death.
During reading
Susan and Stephen Tchudi note in The English Language Arts Handbook that“frequently, when students say they don’t have anything to write about… they lack belief in the value of their own experience” (144). In order to draw on students’ own encounters, I asked them to write a letter to me, create an illustrated story, or write a poem about a time when they felt like the “other” or an outsider to drive home the plight of the Jews in The Book Thief.
Another connection we make in this unit is to have students bring in a song that they find a correlation with in the story. They write a couple of paragraphs as to why it relates to The Book Thief. The student will then use lines from their selected song to write their own “borrowed poem” about The Book Thief. This exercise connects to the final project option of writing of a poem and will give students, who would otherwise not select the genre of poetry, confidence and experience with this genre. One of the students, Jon, notes, “I was really surprised how easy it was to write a poem. I liked that I could build my own ideas off of lyrics to a song that I like without getting in trouble for copying them. It made it fun to write.” In fact, the connections that students make to the text are often very creative and insightful.
Other fun activities during reading include a sampling of pea soup (the main staple for the protagonist and her family) and perhaps a viewing of the spewing of pea soup scene from The Exorcist to get the taste buds going.
After reading
For the final project, as a group students are directed to think of issues that really bug them, for instance, like their curfew or the fact that they would like more English electives offered at their school. Then, students are asked to name or describe someone that they really appreciate. After all these have been written down for all the students to see, students are instructed to pick one from the list, or create a new one for their final project. This collaboration allows students to borrow ideas from one another or gets them inspired to come up with their own.
The purpose of the final project is to convey a theme from The Book Thief of the power of language, both to persuade and to communicate feelings.
The students who opt to persuade write a Letter to the Editor, School Board (or other governing entity), or parent about an issue that concerns the student. This letter will be sent.
Students who wish to communicate feelings through their writing create an illustrated story or a poem to someone they love or appreciate. This will be given to the person it is about.
The Tchudis stress how important it is for students to write for real audiences and with real purposes in mind: “Our experience has been that students write with more energy, commitment, and interest when they are writing for real purposes to reach real audiences, whether large or small, close or distant” (145). With the letter option, students write real letters to real people about real issues. Through the illustrated story or poem, students also have the opportunity to express their feelings for a real person, to whom they will actually give their piece.
By incorporating several best practices in writing throughout the unit, students will be able to not only appreciate the power of language in The Book Thief, they will also be able to empower their own words through their own writing.
Hyde, Arthur, et al. “Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools.” Best Practice. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005. Print.
Tchudi, Susan and Stephen. The English Language Arts Handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999. Print.
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