Scaffolding Paragraph Construction

If there's one thing I was never explicitly taught as an English student back in the 1990s, it was how to write an essay. Even in my time as a senior student, I don't remember ever being conscious of how to write one... I wrote them, of course, and I got good enough marks to justify my later life choices, but essay and paragraph structure weren't ever focused on in my days as a student. 

This presented me with a challenge when I became a teacher. The day I became an English teacher was the day when I first had to start thinking about how essays were written. I observed my fellow teachers and backwards-engineered A range student responses, learned about PEEL paragraphs for the first time and, a bit later, ALARM. I've since come across a range of acronyms that help to formularise and quantify the process of paragraph writing in English... PEAL, TEAL, PEEEL, ICAV, CLACEL, OREO. 

I don't begrudge any of these. Whatever works, right? I just don't have the experience of learning these as a student, and I think it's important for teachers to have such experiences to call upon. Being inside the learning process as student is very different to constructing it as teacher.

I've since tried my hand at writing in the aforementioned formulae for this precise reason, sometimes under fake student names so that I can get an honest appraisal from my teaching peers (a daunting process, let me tell you!). Thankfully, my essays have received appropriately high marks when I've done the 'fake student' thing, but I have to admit that I don't think I do my best writing in the context of using paragraph formulae and scaffolds. When I meet students who have an instinct for writing I encourage them to avoid squeezing themselves into the acronyms, at least as much as our system allows.

That's enough reflection for now. Below is a task that I wrote a couple of years ago while I was thinking about paragraph writing. I've since used it with Stage 5 classes (both Year 9 and Year 10) and it works pretty well. 

It relates to the documentary Blackfish and aims to familiarise students with the idea of supporting a concept statement with relevant examples and analysis. The task does not require students to come up with said examples and analysis as I wanted to explicitly and specifically hone in on the actual construction of the paragraph. As I've explained before on this blog, I think we sometimes get too open-ended as teachers and become afraid to show students exactly how things are done because we don't want to be seen as doing the work for them. Unfortunately, this approach can leave students completely in the dark and they can become unwilling to attempt tasks that they perceive as just too complex.

Here is my thinking:

• Academic paragraph writing is complex. It requires the synthesis of multiple skills - conceptualising, judicious selection of evidence, the ability to write sentences in a variety of structures, use of appropriate vocabulary in a high modality, use of a wide and subject-specific vocabulary (IE. Metalanguage), the use of a paragraph structure that makes internal sense whilst also operating within the wider context of an essay, and memorisation of detailed content that can be recalled in essay-writing contexts that may not allow for notes to be on hand.  
• In order to get students to even start doing the above, I need to remove some of those skills from the playing field. I need to zoom-in on just one or two things and make sure students are confident with these first, and I need to do it in a way where students have the ability and confidence to complete the task whilst also still learning new things (that zone of proximal development we're all familiar with from our university pedagogy days).
• In this particular task below, students are being taught TWO things - the ordering of information within a paragraph, and how to generate a concept based on two different examples from a text. 

The task:

1. Students are given this worksheet.
2. Students pick two pieces of evidence from the worksheet that they think are similar, or that they like the look of. Higher ability students can fill in details about the point being made by each piece of evidence.
3. Students think of something they could say that brings these two pieces of evidence together. What common idea is within them? How are they similar? What argument do they both support? This is then written onto the top of the sheet.
4. Students then write a paragraph that starts with the concept statement they have created and copy the two examples in after it. This is done under timed conditions (9 or 10 minutes for Year 9, 8 minutes for Year 10).

There are three things to watch for when students construct the paragraph. These are things we may take for granted, or things that have not been explicitly taught to students before.

• Make sure the students are putting their sentences one after the other in the paragraph. Some students will start a new line for every sentence which makes the paragraph look like three small separate paragraphs. It can mean a couple of things when students do this, the most worrying of which is that they may not think of all these separate sentences as being part of something cohesive that belongs together. Some students won't learn this through being told ahead of the task, they will need to physically write it wrong first and then have the teacher correct it in front of them in person. 
• The two examples will need some adjusted wording or a connective clause of some sort between them. EG. Additionally, In addition to this, A further example of this is, Moreover, etc. Not all students will instinctively know this, especially if they haven't done a lot of (or any) academic reading. 
• For students who have no trouble assembling the paragraph quickly and understanding all of the above, this could be the time where you introduce the idea of a linking sentence at the bottom that consolidates the concept of the overall paragraph and ties things back to a bigger idea (the thesis). Stronger English students will be able to do this quite well in Stage 5.  

Happy paragraphing!

Disclaimer: The above resource was created specifically for this blog in my own spare time. 

Mise En Scene - The Sapphires

When teaching film there are a range of things that are considered essential in terms of metalanguage and key skills and understandings. The base understandings seem to be:

• Camera Angles
• Shot Sizes

And that's where it ends in terms of consistency. Each teacher, faculty, school tends to deviate from this point with their own idea of how and what should be taught in relation to film. You get things like the following, but it's by no means a prescriptive or universal list:

• Costuming
• Set design
• Editing
• Camera Movement
• Lighting
• Sound Design

Anyway, I'm not seeking to codify Film Studies for NSW schools in this blog post, I just think it's interesting that the approach can vary so much. Another major element in addition to the above list is, of course, mise en scene, and this is something that many teachers do indeed touch upon when teaching film. 

Here's a breakdown of how we could approach mise en scene in the classroom:

Mise en Scene

This is a word used to describe what a director decides to put into a shot. It includes everything - where characters are placed in a scene, what objects feature, how much of the environment can be seen, etc.

Mise en scene can determine power relationships between characters. By placing a character in the centre of the foreground it suggests that they are confident and in power, that they are in charge of the scene, or are important. In contrast, by placing a character in the margins of a scene, or in the background, it suggests that they are not important or without power over their own situation.

Most directors place great importance on mise en scene as it is an essential part of a film's visual language.

(The above summary can be found here as a worksheet with a rudimentary graphic to demonstrate the components - Mise en Scene notes.)

Examples

After students are familiarised or refreshed with the above, you can then look at some examples from The Sapphires (I think this would be a useful film to use with Year 10 for a range of reasons). First, I would look at a modelled response to a screenshot, and then I would ask students to write their own analysis of other shots. Ideally, this would then be linked to some of the themes the class would have looked at in an overall unit on Aboriginal-focused texts (things like cultural identity, experiences of racism, kinship, new experiences, etc.) and used to construct analytical paragraphs. 

Here's the first screenshot I would look at:

Here's the modelled analysis, in which the goal is to get students thinking about the steps towards analysis as much as the analysis itself, as this is something that higher order thinkers can sometimes fail to articulate (IE. Show your working!):

Observations:

1. Gail is placed in background against curtain, a little to the left.
2. She is partially obscured by out of focus figures in the audience, and Cynthia is blocked out completely.
3. The camera has been placed in a way so that the white pub audience is between the viewer and the protagonist.

Analysis: This suggests that Gail is not in a position of power. The out of focus audience makes the shot feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic, and symbolises the restrictions put on Indigenous people trying to perform in this era. Gail is also placed towards the back and to the left, suggesting that she is not of important to this environment (a pub filled with white people).

Here's the screenshots students would then analyse independently:

Here's some notes I made for the above screenshots that could be used to support teachers and students after they'd finished with the analysis section:

Observations:

1. Julie, Kay and Gail are all placed to the right side of the shot, sharing equal space with the environment.
2. All three figures are placed in the back of the shot with the camera at a slight low angle.
3. Julie's shadow is cast to her left as a fourth figure.

Analysis: The slight low angle places the three characters into a position of power (albeit a small one), and the fact that they are standing up against the door represents that they are in the process of being kicked out of the pub. They have been deliberately placed into the boundary of the shot to symbolise their exclusion from the establishment. The shadow could represent the dark, ugly nature of the situation, or even foreshadows the fourth member of the group still yet to appear.

Observations:

1. Kay and Gail enter into a room, the backs of their heads are placed in the foreground of the shot in close-up.
2. The rest of the room is filled with bodies moving about - some in the background, and one on either side of the frame (both are only partially visible).
3. Not all of the environment can be clearly seen.

Analysis: The lack of a close-up on the girls' faces means that the viewer's attention is focused elsewhere, and the number of people all engaged in various activities means that the viewer's focus is split numerous ways - representing the excitement of the party. The partially obscured figures on either side of the frame create a cramped feeling, giving the impression that the party is full of people. 

Observations:

1. The band is placed in the background of the shot but are brightly lit and spread across the entire frame.
2. The backs of heads are seen in the bottom foreground of the shot, in silhouette/shadow.
3. There are no walls on either side of the frame.

Analysis: The crowd is placed low enough in the frame for the viewer to still focus on the band in the background, and the lighting helps direct the viewer's attention in this way as well. The lack of walls/barriers on either side of the frame makes the environment seem more open / pleasant. The heads in the foreground give the impression of a large, engaged audience (compare/contrast to the audience in the modelled shot at the start of this exercise).

Observations:

1. The car is placed in the centre and foreground of the shot.
2. The camera is at a slight high angle and far enough away from the car for the car to only take up the lower half of the frame, meaning the environment is easily seen.
3. The building can be seen on all sides of the car, people have been placed on either side, and the vegetation is almost symmetrical.

Analysis: The viewer is encouraged to put themselves in the place of the car. It's placement in the shot suggests for the viewer to take on the perspective of the girls as they enter the hotel for the first time. The arrangement of the building and vegetation on all sides (and above) the car makes the character seem small in comparison to the environment, suggesting feels of awe and luxury that may connect to the hotel's immense size.

Observations:

1. Gail and Dave are placed in the centre and foreground, so close to the camera that they are slightly out of focus.
2. The camera is at a slight low angle, looking upwards at Gail's parents from between Gail and Dave.
3. Gail's parents are placed almost in the centre of the background looking down towards Gail and Dave, and are in focus. Gail's dad leans up against the post on his verandah. 

Analysis: The audience is put in Gail and Dave's shoes as they face Gail's parents as a couple for the first time. Gail's parents are placed in a position of power, standing higher up in the frame and looking down on Gail and Dave, symbolising the discomfort of the situation and the upper hand they hold in deciding whether they'll accept Dave into their family or not. The verandah takes up the entire background, suggesting its importance in this scene, and Gail's dad leans against the post - which represents that he is connected to this environment, that this is his land and his place. The camera is also focused on Gail's parents because it is their reaction that the viewer is waiting for. 

Here's the above as a worksheet that could be used: Mise en Scene Analysis.

Disclaimer: All the above resources have been created specifically for this blog in my own spare time.

The English Book Room

Along with my wonderful colleague Dette Therese, I run a Facebook group for NSW English teachers that focuses on sharing resources and building a culture of open collegiality and practical support. Term 3, 2021, has been quite a challenging time to be a teacher in NSW, so to keep our teachers' Facebook group focussed on something positive I started sharing a few examples of books we usually tend to find in the high school English book room so people could discuss them.  

It's been absolutely amazing to hear from teachers all over the state and beyond, with a range of experience, as we shared our impressions and ideas regarding individual books. It pepped me up a little each day to see so many passionate teachers willing to share their thoughts on class-set novels. The goal was to prompt a few thoughts with generic questions:

• Anyone taught this one before?
• If so, which year groups?
• Is it a winner?
• Who's seen it in their bookroom?
• Would you / do you still teach it?

...and anything else a teacher might want to add. 

Anyway, I've collected the information into the following excel spreadsheet:

The English Book Room (Version 1, Sept. 2021)

I've kept it in a spreadsheet so the information can be sorted by the reader - you might be looking for the most popular options, and can therefore sort by the 'recommended' column, or you might prefer to browse through alphabetically by author. 

In the spreadsheet you will find:

> Book Title 

> Author 

> Year of Publication 

> Country of Publication 

> Key Words indicating themes and genre 

> What kind of class it suits

> How many teachers recommended teaching it 

> How many teachers recommended not teaching it 

> Content Warning = things that could prompt potential issues in the classroom when teaching it

and

> A separate tab at the bottom that contains comments/reviews from teachers on each title.

Some Notes

• This is a living document. It will change and get updated periodically to reflect the ongoing accumulation of further information, and additional permissions granted by teachers to have their contributions included. Some elements may appear a bit rough at the moment but I'll continue to enhance the spreadsheet as more is added.
• More than 200 teachers contributed to this so I want to say a massive THANK YOU to each and every one of them. It's a great testament to how social media can be used in a positive fashion for collaboration.
• Each of the teachers featured in the document gave their permission to be quoted. I am only uploading the spreadsheet here and in the Facebook group. Downloading your own copy is fine so long as it's non-monetary and for your own use. 

Books Featured So Far:

• Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• 10 Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
• The Divine Wind by Garry Disher
• Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French
• Macbeth and Son by Jackie French
• Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson
• Once by Morris Gleitzman
• Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman
• Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• Journey to Eureka by Kerry Greenwood
• Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne
• That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton
• I Am David by Anne Holm
• Taronga by Victor Kelleher
• Onion Tears by Diana Kidd
• Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
• Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
• So Much to Tell You by John Marsden
• Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
• Boys of Blood and Bone by David Metzenthen
• Raw by Scott Monk
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• The Loblolly Boy by James Norcliffe
• Z For Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
• Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park
• The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
• My Sister Sif by Ruth Park
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• The Wave by Morton Rhue
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Blueback by Tim Winton
• The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn

Thank You:

Acknowledgement to the English teachers who contributed and graciously gave permission to be included here:

Alan Lane, Amanda Elizabeth, Amanda Fournaris, Amanda Hannah, Amelia Drinkwater, Amelia Kerr, Amy Greatrix, Angelina Catherine, Angell Harris, April Flavell-Adams, Ashleigh Ftynogiannis, Bec Atkins, Bec Jane, Belinda Diddly-Doodly, Belinda Ryan, Belinda Sinclair, Bernadette Gurr, Bernadette Virwani, Bernhard Huber, Beth Kermode, Brunella Pagano, Carla Beattie, Caroline Brosnan-Kennedy, Catherine Byrne, Catherine McCrae, Cathy Greaves, Celeste Fernandes, Cherie Clark Obrien, Chris Hardy, Claire Low, Clairie Ormiston, Cosette Sheridan, Crab Apple, Cristie Reid-Heuser, Danielle Asquith, Danielle Cleary, Darcy Moore, David Searle, Debbie de Graaf, Denise McKinna, Detter Therese, Deyel Bokor-Charlier, Dhara Des Fours, Dia Zois, Edwina Adelaide, Edwina McCarron, Eleanor King, Elif Tirzik, Elizabeth Ford, Emily Beach, Emily Bosco, Emma Jane Hope, Erika Monk, Erin Graham, Erin Stewart, Ez Fong, Fadia Abousaleh, Faye Cazouris, Fergus Gardiner, Fez Chepe, Fiona Lugnan, Francesca De Leon, Gavin Raymond Brown, Genine Howard, Georgia L'Bank, Georgina Lindsay, Georgina Philpott, Grant Sciberras, Hannah Gierhart, Hannah Rappell, Hannah Thompson Geraghty, Hayley Chisholm, Hayley Sharkey Crowshaw, Hellon Wheels, Imelda Judge, Isabelle Marzano, James Clarke, Jamie Barnes, Jane Drabble, Janelle Stenner, Jarita Banerjee, Jay Goocher, Jeannie Baker, Jeffrey Campbell, Jemma Messer, Jennifer Purssell, Jennifer Waljae, Jenny Holmes, Jess Laxton, Jessica Ansell, Jessica Campbell, Jessica Mann, Jo Bickford Sturgiss, Jo Gresham, Joanna Jennings, Joerg Gruenfeld, Josephine Camilleri, Judith Ridge, Julie Renee, Julz Jewels, Juvena Baldry, Karyn Mooney, Kate Bradley, Kate O'Sea, Katelyn Parrott, Kathleen Emma, Kelly Mack, Kelsey Rae, Kerri Yates Green, Kerrie Guest, Kimberley, Kirilly Farrell, KJ Burke, Kristi Ryan, Kristin Smith, Kristin Vlasto, Lara Hancock, Laura Gabrielle, Letitia McCubbin, Lexi Hunter, Linda Grats, Linda Holloway, Linda Officer LisaPisa Pot, Loren Yaslana, Lorena Najarro, Lorrine Eggleston, Louise O'Reilly, Lu Mac, Lyn Tiernan, Maddie Lee, Mandy Jane, Mark Cochran, Mark McDonald, Markus Joseph, Marney Meredith, Meg Clarke, Megan Gilbert, Mel Marin, Melanie Bailey, Melanie O'Nions, Melinda Giveen, Melinda Lee, Melinda Taylor, Melissa Anne, Melissa Anthony, Meredith Healey, Merrilee Lennon, Michelle Johnson, Michelle Nooroa Katuke, Michelle Patricia, Michelle Renshaw, Michelle Sloan, MJ Logan, Narece Thapa, Natalie Bluhdorn, Natalie Jones, Natalie Quimby, Natasha Audrey Joseph, Nicole Taylor, PamPam Potter, Patricia Fay, Paul Cullen, Paula Madigan, Pauline Griffiths, Peta Clark, Phoebe Black, Rachele Haigh, Rebecca Lea Grant, Rebecca Millhouse, Rebecca Ormand, Rebecca Rowlings, Rhys Hernan, Rob Lockett, Robert Klein, Roberta Wolsey, Rony May, Samantha Jackson, Samantha McFayden, Samantha Miller, Samantha Woolnough, Sandra Lee, Sarah Lee, Sarah Marie, Sarah Wellington, Semir Kuljanin, Sharon Rae, Simon James, Sofia Carmensita Whitehouse, Sophie Kenna, Stacey Treloar, Steve Upsall, Steven Call, Stewart McGowan, Sue Atkins, Sue Harper, Suzana Curcuruto, Suzanne Smith, Tamara Jill, Tammy Borthwick-Mathurin, Tate Williams, Tennielle Willis, Teresa Rodd, Tim Creighton, Tracey Adamson, Ursula Jones, Vicki Denton, Victoria Keech, Wayne Crich, Yosheda Tracey-Lee

* Apologies to anyone I've accidently left off, accidentally left in, or misspelt the name of. Let me know if this is you and I'll fix it up straight away!

Teaching Advertising with Nathan For You

I'm currently in the midst of teaching a unit of work to Year 10 that's centred on advertising and advocacy, which I love because it gives me a chance to look at the role of rhetoric with my students. Before getting to the point where the students tie advertising to a social issue that they wish to advocate for (their assessment task), the time is spent looking at persuasive techniques and helping students work backwards from a final product to examine the purpose of these sort of texts. 

Last year I shared an activity on the three major persuasive modes (ethos, logos, pathos) in conjunction with the brilliant Reality TV satire Nathan For You. 

In today's blog I'll look at another way that Nathan For You can be used to teach some of the finer aspects of advertising but, before I do, I'll just reiterate the persuasive modes. In prior years I've focused on logos, pathos, and ethos. This year I've decided to bring in more explicit discussion of a fourth persuasive mode; kairos - something that is touched on when dealing with target audiences but could always be dealt with in a little more detail.

(Note: There's a fifth persuasive concept called topos but I'll leave that for another day!)

• Ethos: The use of authority or credibility to get someone to trust an opinion.
  
• Kairos: The use of an opportune time and place to achieve maximum persuasiveness with a target audience.
  
• Logos: The use of reason or logic to convince someone of something.
  
• Pathos: The use of emotion to persuade.

The clip above comes with an associated activity focusing on Nathan's wacky idea for rebranding a real estate company. The concept of 'rebranding' is primarily a marketing strategy but it can also be utilised here for English purposes when talking about audience and purpose. The effectiveness of re-positioning a product to suit a hitherto un-targeted audience (as Nathan does in the clip) is dependent on how well an advertiser or company understands kairos. For instance, if you are going to target a particular audience then you need to at least have an awareness of how and when this could best be achieved. The success (or lack thereof) of Nathan's ploy could be seen as indicative of both an understanding of kairos or a lack of understanding of kairos.

For anyone who is familiar with Nathan For You and its humour - fear not, I've edited the clip to avoid any elements which may be inappropriate for the classroom.

Here is the activity sheet that accompanies the video: Nathan For You - Rebranding.

This sheet includes the following questions (I have included possible answers here for ease of delivery but feel free to expand or adapt in whatever fashion you like).

Question 1: "In an oversaturated market it can be hard to stand out in the crowd". What does Nathan mean by this, and what language technique is he using?

• Nathan is referring to the abundance of real estate companies and how difficult it can be to find a point of difference for just one such company.
• Metaphor - "standing out in a crowd"
• Jargon - "oversaturated market" (also a metaphor)

Question 2: What is the benefit in finding an 'unrepresented' audience? What does this mean?

• An 'unrepresented' audience refers to a group of people (or demographic) that hasn't been catered for before. In this case Nathan is referring to people who believe in ghosts - an identifying characteristic that, as far as he knows, has never been the basis for marketing a real estate company before.

Question 3: Annotate the advertisement below; label the kind of persuasion used and point out any symbolism that reinforces Sue's rebranding as 'the Ghost Realtor'.

• The stretching of Sue Stanford's body into a ghost-like shape symbolises her affinity with the spirit world.
• The cross is a well-known symbol of Christianity, and this is also a religious allusion.
• Quote on billboard: "My homes are 100% ghost and demon free" - this is an example of logos.
• The colour palette leans heavily on shadows and the colour blue, which gives the advertisement a sombre, haunted feeling. Note also the shadowy faceless figures that are representative of unidentified beings from 'the other side'.
• The line of Sue Standford's ghostly tail and the underlining of her name both work as vectors that lead the reader's eye from her body to the quote.
• Gaze - Sue Standford's eyes are looking directly into the camera, which builds a connection with the audience. Note also her confident, positive facial expression.

Question 4: What does the psychic add to Sue's new branding?

• The presence of the psychic adds a sense of credibility to her new angle on real estate salesmanship. As an authority on this particular subject he is a perfect example of using ethos to strengthen one's business.

Question 5: What problems are there with the example of re-positioning?

• Students may have a whole range of responses to this question! Chief among the potential problems is the fact that some people just don't believe in ghosts, which essentially means that Nathan's scheme will never appeal to a sizeable portion of the market. 
• Students should have a range of ideas in relation to this question, especially considering how intentionally ridiculous Nathan's idea is.

Socratic Circles in the Classroom

Socratic Circle configuration

Back in 2009, when Susan Boyle had the biggest selling album in the world and Australia was 4 Prime Ministers younger, I was undertaking my Master of Teaching and learning about all the ways I could engage students in their learning. A lot of this stuff was particular to my English method but one thing that transcended the subject area was Socratic Seminars.

The Socratic Seminar is a social method of teaching in which discussion and listening are used to prompt students in their critical engagement with a text or issue. Back at university I didn't really want to sit in on this activity and argue with a bunch of strangers, but it actually turned out to be a really useful way to articulate ideas and had just the right amount of structure to keep things civilised and relevant.

I filed this lesson away and didn't really think about it for a few years. I learned how to teach and had a great journey in discovering my vocation as an educator (that's a whole other story) but during those beginning years I always remembered the circles used in the Socratic Seminar. I remembered how different it was to structure a discussion in this way, but I wasn't game to try it in a classroom. As any teacher knows, those first few years of teaching are mostly about behaviour management. I tried plenty of new ideas (technically, everything was new to me at that point) but I held off on some of the more experimental things whilst I built up my organisation and administration skills.

Fast-forward to 2015, and by this point I'm making it a thing to always try something completely new with each class every term. For my Year 10 English class in Term 2 I decided it was time to introduce the Socratic Circles. I will note at this point that my current Year 10 class is impeccably behaved (thus why I was game to give the circles a try with this particular class).

I picked last period on a Thursday, when I knew the kids would be tired and not all that enthused about writing, and had them walk into a reconfigured room where all the chairs were arranged into two concentric circles. Here's how the lesson ran:

1. Half of the class are instructed to sit in the middle circle, whilst the other half sit in the outer circle.

2. I introduce a question, in this case it was: To what extent was Lady Macbeth to blame for the events in Shakespeare's Macbeth?

3. The inner circle are told to give each other their views. The outer circle's job is to listen only; they are forbidden to speak or interact.

4. After some time has passed, the circles are swapped and the discussion is allowed to continue. Only the inner circle may speak.

5. This process is repeated as many times as the arguments allow for, and new questions can be introduced by the teacher at any point.

The teacher's job is to moderate the circles and judge when a question has run out of steam. I was lucky with the Macbeth question because my students really ran with it and spent a whole 40 minutes passionately arguing about it. It helped that the question itself is something that scholars have argued over for hundreds of years, and the newness of the activity probably had something to do with the enthusiasm of the students but, suffice to say, it was a hit with my kids.

Since then, I've had Socratic Circle lessons with this class about twice a term. I think it works really well for a number of reason:

• Not all students do their best work in the form of writing. By giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in alternative ways, it empowers those with speaking skills.
• Also, as any English teacher knows, the mode of Listening is one of the key areas that we have to assess on from Grades 7-12. Aside from asking students to answer comprehension questions about audio texts, or having students interview each other, there are precious few other ways to involve listening as a primary skill in an activity without it feeling tokenistic. The role of the outer circle in Socratic Seminars is therefore quite a useful way for students to practice the skill of gathering information through active listening.
• Even the best students get tired of reading or writing all the time. The use of a Socratic Seminar as a way to build critical engagement is often something that many students will gladly get on board on with.
• Probably most important of all is the fact that all students need to speak in this activity. I've observed many of my shyest students passionately defend a viewpoint in the inner circle, feeling more comfortable about speaking in this half-class environment than a regular whole class setup. 
• I think it also helps if the teacher is not involved in the discussion beyond the odd interjected question, as it forces the students to take control and move their own thoughts to centrestage.

During Term 3, I used the Socratic Seminar to have Year 10 grapple with several questions related to the text Jasper Jones, especially in regards to the roles of sport and intellectualism in Australian culture. Some of the ideas the students discussed were incredibly sophisticated and insightful, and I have no doubt in my mind that this assisted them with their essay responses later in the term.

More recently I also opened the circles up to a range of current affairs to help broaden the argumentation and elaboration skills of the students. Some of the questions I threw into the circle were:

- Is Australia's policy to 'stop the boats' fair?

- What makes someone Australian?

- Has technology changed society for better or worse?

- Why are movies better than books?

And here are some choice snippets I quickly jotted down from the discussions that ensued.

"Don't you think that everyone in the world should get access to better health before we get a new iPhone?" - Rory

"Movies aren't better than books because they're a group activity; you don't get to have your imagination of what is happening" - Elleece

"We're the last generation of sanity" - Mel (on iPhones becoming too invasive)

"Using computers to research things dumbs down our ability to use books for the same purpose" - Kodee

"You don't have a certificate to say you're human or a person, so why should you have one to say you're Australian?" - Elleece

Next year, if I get the chance to continue using the circles, I plan to have the outer circle start making notes to help them focus on the inner circle's discussion a bit more. This can hopefully be built into lessons as a way to generate ideas and continue fostering a healthy atmosphere of open discussion that's focused on curriculum.

The Rise of China: Lesson 7

Well, here we are, at the end of a metaphorical silk road with the final lesson in my unit on 20th century China. At the beginning of the unit we looked at China circa 1900 in order to get a baseline before looking at how Mao impacted on the country between the 1950s and 1976. Over the last few lessons the students had a selected tour of the Cultural Revolution to get an idea of how Chinese society changed under the Chairman's influence, so now it makes sense to look at what came afterwards and how China reacted to Mao's passing. This final lesson looks at his successor, Deng Xiaoping, and how he assessed Mao's time and instigated various reforms.

The focus question here is Who is Deng Xiaoping and What Did He Do for China?

Step 1

Students are given a prediction activity on a slip of paper (Resource 7-1) that features a list of modal statements suggesting possible evaluations of China. On this paper they are asked to tick the things that they agree with. It should help them focus on the lesson at hand; they're required to think about what they're going to read and what they've already read. And once the students have read the text (featured in the next step) they then go back and tick which of the statements the author of the text agreed with.

Step 2

Students read Resource 7-2, an information sheet about Deng Xiaoping, which asks them to unpack (or decode) some of the trickier noun groups. It's another kind of vocabulary / comprehension activity that will help students achieve confidence when reading. It also gets them to think about what they're reading a little more - building up their concept of connotation and how noun groups can construct specific meanings that supersede the meanings of the individual words. 

Afterwards, there's some more traditional questions about source reliability that should hopefully be a bit easier for the students now that they've worked through the grammar of the text in a bit of detail. 

Step 3

If there's time left over at the end, ask the students to identify text chains in the text. They should already be able to do this from the earlier lesson on text chains, but it could also be done as a whole class activity with teacher modelling of examples on the board. This is always a useful activity because it explicitly shows students how to create a 'whole text' level of meaning rather than just word or sentence-level meaning.

Links to resources:
Resource 7-1: Prediction
Resource 7-2: Deng Xiaoping

And that brings us to the end of the unit. 

You'll note the absence of an assessment task from this program. I have one, it's a source analysis examination with an extended question on Mao's impact, but I'm not going to put it up on the blog because... well, that's probably just asking for trouble. Imagine if students found this blog and downloaded the assessment task before they had to sit it? I mean, it would show initiative and great organisational skills, but those aren't the things I want to assess.

The Rise of China: Lesson 6

This is the second last lesson in The Rise of China sequence and, as such, it starts off with an overview of some key points that can assist students for the upcoming assessment task. The rest of the lesson focuses A) Deepening student knowledge of the points covered in the overview, and B) Building up monitoring and decoding skills for use in source analysis. 

Anyway, here's the lesson itself...

Step 1

Project Resource 6-1 onto the white board and have students copy the mind map into their books so that they have some background knowledge on Chinese society (1958-1976) that they can use as study notes. 

Step 2

Following on from Step 1, students are to work on deepening their knowledge of Chinese society further by selecting a text from a wide reading set (Resources 6-3 and 6-4). I know two texts isn't really that 'wide', but in the class room I also include two other extracts gleamed from the excellent comic Little White Duck. I don't want to flagrantly break copyright law by scanning it and putting it up for download so I'll instead recommend that you purchase this comic for yourself as a class set.

Step 3

Students use Resource 6-2, a schema sheet that scaffolds deconstruction of sources, to analyse their selected text. This sheet asks a series of questions that assist the student in identifying tricky vocabulary and making sense of it, and then directs the student to drill down into the content of the source by categorising the words and evaluating their usage. 

This activity pulls in various elements from throughout the unit in order to combine the array of previously-taught skills into a literacy-based approach to source analysis. The hope would be that (as this is the penultimate lesson) students would complete this unit with a new understanding of how to decode sources and comprehend increasingly difficult text.

Links to resources
Resource 6-1: Chinese Society
Resource 6-2: Using Sources
Resource 6-3: Text #1 'Mao the Unknown Story'
Resource 6-4: Text #2 'Prisoner of Mao'

The Rise of China: Lesson 5

As this unit focuses on China's modernisation during the 20th Century, it makes sense for the Cultural Revolution to be viewed as the linchpin of this era. It therefore felt worthwhile to spend another lesson on this time period, one that was partially reliant on the previous lesson's content.

The main purpose of this lesson was that I wanted to try my hand at a 'floorstorm' activity, something that I picked up from Joanne Rossbridge and the Grammar and Teaching Course she conducts with Kathy Rushton. At first glance, a floorstorm is a slightly complicated-looking series of steps that students undertake with an array of resources. On the plus side though, it should roughly take an entire 1 hour lesson, and works as a scaffold to assist students in constructing their own paragraphs about a subject they are currently immersed in.

Step 1

Verbally prime the students for the lesson by asking them what they can tell you about the Cultural Revolution from the previous lesson. Ask them how they know this. This could be done as a discussion or a mind map.

Step 2

Use Resource 5-1 (or copies of the pictures at the bottom of this blog) to create several 7-picture photo sets. Students are to work in groups of 3-5 with a set of photos for each group, and come up with a list of words that could be associated with the pictures. Give each group some post-it notes to write these words on.

Step 3

Groups classify words into a table using Resource 5-2. They choose/create the categories they want to use to classify the words. It's important that the students come up with these categories themselves as taxonomy-building is an important literacy skill that links with student grammar development. It forces the students to think about the purpose of the words they've just come up with - whether they separate them by function (verbs, nouns, adjectives), or by content (people, places, events) or some other way of their own making.    

Step 4

Reveal the title of the photo set to the students as 'Public Struggle Sessions'. Using this clue, students are to then tick the words that they think will be in an unseen text about these photos. This incorporation of a prediction activity fits in with the Super 6 Comprehension Strategies and also directs the students in further building a lexicon to work with in regards to the subject of 20th Century China.

Make a list on the board from the class' suggestions (this may help students who have been struggling up until this point - it's important to have these checkpoints where these students can 'opt in' to the lesson so that you avoid a full hour's worth of disengagement)

Step 5

Teacher reads Resource 5-3 to students (they are not given a copy). Students are to listen and highlight/circle the words from their list that show up. After this, read the sheet again and have students make notes using the scaffold found in Resource 5-4.

Step 6 

Hand students Resource 5-5. This is an annotated version of Resource 5-3 that asks a variety of grammar-related questions surrounding the text. Teacher also projects this version onto the board to facilitate discussion and instruction as students work through the sheet.

Step 7

Almost there! Students now use Resource 5-6 to pull the text apart into some pre-set categories. Specifically, students identify clauses / sentence noun groups (the teacher can help here, after all - that's what we do!) and examine them for modality and emotive language. Using this scaffolding they can then draw some conclusions from the source. 

Step 8

And now that your students have done all of this, get them to use any and all of the information to construct their own paragraph with the heading 'Public Struggle Sessions'.

I know it's a lot of steps so you will need to work at a brisk pace, moving around the room from group to group to keep students on task. A big visible timer might be helpful too! The important thing is that the students collect together all these new terms while engaging with a text and are then able to write about it.

Links to resources
Resource 5-1: Photo Set
Resource 5-2: Table
Resource 5-3: Struggle Sessions
Resource 5-4: Note Taking
Resource 5-5: Struggle Sessions Annotated
Resource 5-6: Graphic Organiser

For printing purposes, here are the pictures from the photo sets as .jpgs

 

 

Obviously I don't have copyright for these pictures but they should be okay for educational usage. If anyone thinks otherwise please let know and I'll take them down.

The Rise of China: Lesson 4

By this point in the sequence the students should (hopefully!) have some background knowledge about 20th century China and Chairman Mao, so it's time to drill down into one of the big grey areas of history - the Cultural Revolution.

Euphemistically-named, the Cultural Revolution is one of the great largely-unacknowledged tragedies of the 20th century. Many historians have plainly said that they still don't fully understand what happened during this time; that the motivation for an entire society to systematically and brutally destroy its own culture is beyond understanding. With that in mind, how should we approach teaching it to 15 year olds?

In short; we avoid taking a comprehensive approach.

When given such a limited amount of time (my school's Year 10 History classes are spread out as 4 lessons a fortnight) it's nigh impossible to examine this event in enough detail. This is doubly relevant when we consider that most historians find it impossible to do it across an entire career, so it would have been foolish for me to even try (not that I'm always above such folly!)

Therefore, the main purpose of this lesson is to examine Mao's role in the Cultural Revolution, which should focus our attention somewhat.

Step 1

Teacher hands out sheet (Resource 4-1), which contains a five paragraph summary of the Cultural Revolution. Read through as a class (teacher either reads while class reads along, or you can have students take turns reading aloud). Students then have a go at answering the question at the end of the sheet, which asks them to begin making judgments about Mao's role in the way China's society changed in the 20th century. It also implicitly introduces the idea of a 'Cult of Personality' - something which will become more relevant and significant should students choose to do Modern History (especially if they study Russia and Stalin).

Step 2

Here's the grammar bit. Project Resource 4-2 onto your board and ask your students to examine the word bank to the side. Note the use of the phrase "some of these words". Tell the students that this is a hidden text and that they have to guess which words from the word bank would fit in a description of the Cultural Revolution. They should be able to do since they've just come hot off of Resource 4-1. As they tell you words, pick a few random but workable spots for these to go. The trick is that there is no actual hidden text, you are actually getting your students to engage in a joint text construction exercise. Once you have a few big content words up on the board tell the students to fill in the rest of the blanks to turn it into a paragraph. 

This open-ended variation on the tried-and-true cloze passage activity is a good way to build student confidence in composing paragraphs. By telling them that it is a 'hidden' text, and by doing it as a class activity, you take the risk factor out of the equation for the students. They don't have to risk looking like they don't know how to write a paragraph as this exercise scaffolds them in both a practical and a psychological way. 

Afterwards, if the majority do it successfully, you're welcome to tell them that there was no original text and that they all just wrote their own paragraph about the Cultural Revolution.

Step 3

No study of 1960s/70s China would be complete without a look at Chairman Mao's infamous book of quotations, the Little Red Book. Students should be familiar with this text from Step 1 of this lesson (it's mentioned in Resource 4-1) . Get students to work in groups examining the text, I've abbreviated it somewhat as Resource 4-3. 

Students are to choose 3-5 quotes from the Little Red Book and explain their meaning in their books. The teacher should pick a quote first and put it up on the board, demonstrating some methods to decode the meaning. This may include using text chains (which students should remember from Lesson 1), or the teacher modelling other techniques for inferring the meaning of previously unknown words (EG. Getting the gist by looking at the sentence around the word, swapping the word for other words that might fit, looking up the definition, etc). 

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Students aren't expected to read the whole text but it's important that they're given the booklet to look at rather than just one page-long extract as this places a larger degree of choice into their hands. This harks back to the Focus on Reading stuff I mentioned in the Lesson 3 breakdown - students are more likely to engage with reading if they are given some choice in the matter. With that in mind, several sections of the Little Red Book have been presented so students can pick an area that may be of more interest to them than others.

Step 4

If you have time, or have students that you want to extend, pose the discussion question, "Is The Little Red Book good or bad?" This would work well as a class evaluation and can be done on the board as a table if you have enough opinionated students. Critical engagement with historical sources like this can lead to some interesting debates within the class room.

Links to resources:
Resource 4-1: Recap of the Cultural Revolution
Resource 4-2: Cultural Revolution 
Resource 4-3: Little Red Book

The Rise of China: Lesson 3

Hello there! Now that the students have been introduced to a few historical terms and gathered some background information about 20th century China it's time for them to start learning about the colossal keystone of modern Chinese history: Mao Tse-Tung. Lesson 3 of this Rise of China unit asks the question 'Who is Chairman Mao?'

I think, predominantly, it's helpful to remember that today's student knows little to nothing about Chairman Mao. You might think that this should go without saying but, heck, I said it because when I was a student (in the 1990s) the spectre of Chairman Mao still hung over pop culture in a big way. I remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre being all over the TV, and I grew up knowing that Mao was one of the 'big guys' in terms of recent history and current world events.

One of the biggest challenges for teachers today is increasing the contextual knowledge held by students. With so many cat videos and songified news stories demanding our attention on Youtube, today's kid isn't as au fait with the 'canon' of world events that were common knowledge to previous Australian generations. Newspapers aren't a thing anymore, and the aspects of history that once permeated our curriculum have become decentered due to the continuing influence of postmodernism. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So - whereas we once considered certain Western historical narratives (EG. Britain's colonisation of Australia, the sinking of the Titanic, the assassination of JFK) to be of the highest significance (the aforementioned 'canon' of world events) - our view of history is now a lot more cosmopolitan and egalitarian. This is great in terms of addressing Anglo-Saxon bias, but it's also a challenge because the sheer dearth of information makes it next to impossible for today's generation to know which historical facts are worth remembering.

This means that it's necessary to get the context stuff in before we expect students to start analysing sources and perspectives.

The purpose of this lesson is for students to gather some biographical information on Chairman Mao before reading an appropriate source and unpacking information from it in order to further build their contextual knowledge. It might take two lessons rather than one.

Step 1

Teacher shows students PowerPoint presentation (Resource 3-1) about Chairman Mao while students collect information onto sheets (Resources 3-2, 3-2A, 3-2E). 

These sheets have been differentiated to cater for varied levels of student ability within the classroom. The core/standard group (the majority of the class) are given a range of comprehension questions to read through (3-2) that will facilitate engagement with the text in the PPT. For the lower ability students, a separate version of the sheet (3-2A) has been adjusted to allow for more direct gathering of information - students fill in cloze passage answers and are not required to decode questions before transferring information from the PPT onto the sheet. Meanwhile, higher ability students are given a sheet (3-2E) that asks more open-ended questions that require students to formulate their own opinions - incorporating higher order skills such as assessing the impact of Mao's leadership and independent summarising of information.

Step 2

The second part of the lesson involves students engaging with a wide reading text set (this idea is lifted from the research contained in the Focus on Reading 2 modules). 

The purpose of a wide reading set is to allow students to pick a text to read. Putting the choice of text into the hands of students encourages independent thought and a higher level of engagement, and the range of texts provided here (3-3, 3-4, 3-5) also works as a form of differentiation. Each text is an extract of a larger text about Chairman Mao, and they range in terms of reading difficulty. 

The Focus on Reading 2 modules support the theory that students should be engaging with texts that are 'just right', these being historical sources that are easy enough for the students to read without stopping too frequently (and hence allowing a suitable level of fluency), but also difficult enough to challenge them occasionally in regards to learning new vocabulary.

Step 3

After the students pick and read one of the texts from the wide reading set (the origins of which are cited within the resources), they then use a table (3-7) to sort words into three categories.

These categories are: words that students can understand and use, words that students are familiar with but are not sure they can use, and words that are unfamiliar. This taxonomising of terms is an important part of increasing vocabulary and understanding of context, and through the use of the table students are scaffolded into using this skill on their own. It's never too late for students to learn this!

Take note, if students have not collected enough unfamiliar words from their text then they have chosen a text that is too easy and they should therefore be pushed towards a more difficult text next time.

Step 4

Teacher collects some of the unfamiliar terms that students have identified and puts them up on the board as a glossary. The teacher can then use the teacher notes (Resource 3-8) to define some of these words.

As probably mentioned previously on this blog, students should not copy new word definitions into their books. Whilst it's important for students to be able to work from or learn a glossary,  this kind of old-school 'rote' learning has been proven by research (Focus on Reading 2) to be relatively ineffective for the majority of learners. What is more effective is for students to observe these new words and their definitions on the board (or, preferably, discuss them as a class) and then place the new terms into sentences. In this case, ask the students to pick 5-10 new terms and use them in sentences about Chairman Mao and/or China. By using the terms in a proper context, students are far more likely to learn their purpose and remember them in the future. The key is taking new words and using them appropriately - a student can copy a new word down but they also need to be able to use it. That's the real bit.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I haven't included Resource 3-6. This was an extra text for use in the wide reading set, an extract from the excellent graphic novel Little White Duck. I haven't included it here for two reasons - the first is that I haven't got an electronic version of it, and the second is that I don't want to infringe on copyright too overtly. The other texts I've included are extracts that are out of print and small enough, or sourced from elsewhere on the internet.

Links to resources:
Resource 3-1: Who is Chairman Mao PPT
Resource 3-2: Who is Chairman Mao sheet
Resource 3-2A: Who is Chairman Mao adjusted sheet
Resource 3-2E: Who is Chairman Mao extension sheet
Resource 3-3: Mao Tse-Tung and I Were Beggars text
Resource 3-4: Mao and the Chinese Revolution text
Resource 3-5: Chairman Mao the Deadly Dictator text
Resource 3-7: Mao Texts Vocabulary
Resource 3-8: Vocabulary Teacher Notes 

The Rise of China: Lesson 2

Lesson 2 of this Rise of China unit is designed to get students to start engaging with source work within the context of the historical period. As with the previous lesson there is still an emphasis on literacy and vocabulary usage, and this therefore means that I've taken a 'bottom-up' approach to teaching the requisite Stage 5 source skills - the idea being that students learn to look at sources from a literacy-based standpoint before we even start thinking about higher order History skills like reliability and usefulness.

Step 1

Project Resource 2-1 onto the board. This document contains three photographs of Shanghai - from 1900, 1950, and 2014. The majority of students in the class (your core or standard group in terms of ability) are to approach these images by writing a paragraph that describes the differences between the three time periods.

Meanwhile, lower ability students (the adjusted group) are given Resource 2-1A, a scaffold that helps them differentiate and table-ise their thoughts before assembling a few sentences in a more formal paragraph. Higher ability students (the extension group) can be given Resource 2-1E, a slip of paper with a higher order question that prompts them to argue from a firm and explicit position.

Step 2

Following on from the previous lesson (especially if they didn't get up to the last step of said lesson), the students are to conduct their own lexical density test on the paragraph that they've just written. The teacher should collect student lexical density percentages as a diagnostic score to assist with further identifying (or confirming) streams of ability within the class, and also as a tool for measuring writing ability for purposes of later comparison. 

If you feel, however, like your students are not conducive to the lexical density testing (or you've already had the chance to collect this information) then you can just skip forward to Step 3. It won't be a big deal.

Step 3

Building a bit further on the idea of analysing visual sources, the students are now given Resource 2-2, a written text about early 20th century cultural relations between China and the West that has two accompanying cartoons (one from a Chinese perspective and one from a Western perspective). Students are to read this text whilst collecting information in a 'Making Sense of Visual Representations' table (Resource 2-3, adapted from the Focus on Reading 2 modules).

Students can either pick one cartoon to examine or do a separate sheet for each one. The main goal here is to build an understanding of the relationship between text and image, specifically the way in which both work together to enhance meaning. This is typically a literacy/English-based skill but in History it becomes really useful because it helps to build context - allowing students to decode unfamiliar visual texts and start accessing meaning in a more fluent way that will allow for higher order analysis. 

As much as students find historical cartoons and propaganda quite visually striking, I've found that they still often lack the context to really appreciate what's being said. A lot of Year 11 Modern History students are quite unwilling to draw connections between their own experiences and the commentary contained in early 20th century satirical cartoons, so I think it's important that they learn at this Year 10 level to independently create contextual knowledge in the way demonstrated by Resource 2-3. It'll build confidence and make these sorts of texts a bit less intimidating for them.

Some teacher notes on Step 3 are also included in Resource 2-4.

Links to each of the resources can be found here: 
Resource 2-1: Comparison of Time Periods
Resource 2-1A: Comparison of Time Periods
Resource 2-1E: Comparison of Time Periods
Resource 2-2: Comparing Perspectives
Resource 2-3: Making Sense of Visual Representations
Resource 2-4: Teacher Notes for Visual Representations

Disclaimer: The photography used here is strictly for educational use. If these pictures are yours and you would like credit (or for me to take them down) please just let me know.