How Does Memorizing And/or Creatively Engaging With Literature Change How It Is Experienced

10 Sep

Finding artistic means to introduce a unit isn't just fluff; research suggests that it's essentially one of the about of import aspects of lesson planning. In the article, "Piqued: The case for curiosity" the author reports that scientists are discovering that curious learners from depression-income households perform as well every bit flush students and that all learners are much improve at learning information that they are curious most. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the Academy of Southern California, found that "curiosity can predict not only how much teens will remember nigh a story they've read, but too how thoughtfully they reverberate on the story'southward characters."

Therefore, tapping into students' curiosity as you lot begin a unit will make the learning attribute of your unit easier and more enjoyable for students and teachers alike. If you can claw students at the offset of a unit, so your job will be a lot easier for the duration of the written report and students will exist naturally more engaged with the content.

10 Creative Ways to Introduce a Literature Unit:

Some of these ELA unit plan introduction ideas will take virtually no prep at all while others will take a little more work. It is my hope that I provide you with a variety of ideas so that you can use the simple ones when you lot are crunched for time or the more than elaborate ones when y'all want to tap into your ain inventiveness!

Project ambient media equally a hook

I will begin with i of the simplest still most effective marvel-sparking tools in my toolkit. If you have ii minutes to search YouTube while sipping your morning java, then you lot have time to prep a creative lesson plan hook.

My husband introduced me to my FAVORITE ambient station of all time, and it's been a gift that keeps on giving (kind of like the antithesis of that manual air mattress pump he got me for Christmas ane year 😂😶). Since finding this special station, I've since thought to wait for other thematic ambient sound stations to play when I introduce a new topic. Here are but a few to give you some ideas, so let your imagination run wild!

Getting ready to introduce a story with a woods setting or forest symbolism? At that place are hundreds of ambient forest productions on YouTube, and here is i. Yous can have your favorite selection playing as students walk in and and then have them discuss with a partner why forests are often portrayed in a polarizing manner in literature. Sometimes they are magical and sometimes they are terrifying: why is this?

Getting set to read something chilling? Play this and accept students brainstorm why your classroom felt a little creepy when they walked in. What elements did the creator use to produce this mood? Then, lead into your unit or story past request a curiosity-inducing question related to the content.

Getting ready to starting time Beowulf? There's an ambient sound for that as well! Mead Hall Ambience, who knew!? Equally I know from experience, simply having something novel projected on your board tin create such a buzz around a new unit! Students volition walk in and immediately commencement asking questions virtually what you are going to be doing in class. This is what you want. This is that magic spark of curiosity we all should be striving for!

While on the ambient audio train (if you lot clicked that link and giggled, nosotros can exist friends), I would like to directly yous to a free vii-minute training video I have that volition assist yous apply ambience sounds to spark wonder, create routines, and ignite imagination in the classroom!  Click here to get the short video sent to your inbox. This is role of a free series of four instructional videos that assistance you lot keep the wonder in your classroom.Update: I'm thrilled to report that we have since been published! If you savor this weblog post, then you will LOVE our bestselling book Keeping the Wonder: An Educator'south Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning

Play "What's in the the Suitcase?" to pique interest

Equally my co-author Staci Lamb, once said in a presentation, "Kids are similar cats. If you add something new to a room, they will investigate it." Everyone laughed when she said this because information technology's so true! If you lot don't believe this, simply add something random to your desk this week and see how many students come up to casually touch it or inquire most it. You can use this natural inclination for marvel to your advantage.

A fun and like shooting fish in a barrel mode to capture this inquisitiveness is to try i of Staci'south well-nigh pop strategies, What'south in the suitcase?! Hither's a summary of how it works:

In brusque, you introduce any novel or story past placing a bunch of random nonetheless meaningful items into a suitcase (or some other vessel) and let it sit there in apprehension until it's time to pull each item out and let students predict or infer what the item could symbolize. The best part? Y'all can reuse the suitcase over and over again equally you encounter the symbols throughout the unit!

A spin off to this introduction strategy is to but simply place weird and random things around your classroom leading up to starting a new ELA unit.

* Introduce Creature Farm by posting the commandments on the classroom door and on the classroom walls earlier showtime the unit. When students see these foreign rules, they will no dubiousness be curious every bit to what they hateful. Continue the mood mysterious by channeling Benjamin and replying with cryptic answers. And as you see in my caption, these posters tin be used throughout the entire unit to create a lesson nigh vigilance.

* Introduce Shirly Jackson'southward The Lottery past doing like EB Academics recommends in her podcast episode "Three Elementary Ways to Create Student Buy In" and post signs all around the room that say the following: "Unit Start Date: All villagers meet in the boondocks square. This meeting is MANDATORY. NO EXCUSES"  or "We volition exist having a lottery on (unit start date). ALL villagers must attend." As she describes in her podcast, these posters are certain to create suspense and intrigue leading up to your unit!

Use art to start at literature unit

Use art to start- Similar the ambient sounds, this is some other strategy that I use often. In fact, I employ art to start every time flow introduction in British and American literature. Not only is this strategy artistic and requires no prep, simply information technology's besides research-based. The commodity "Drawing is meliorate than writing for retention retention" from Science Daily, outlines a contempo study in which scientist found that drawing exceeded all other memorization strategies and that the benefits of drawing to learn did NOT depend on artistic talent.

Therefore, when I desire students to acquire and memorize the historical context of a fourth dimension catamenia before we dig into the literature, I have them draw it. Here'due south how:

• Give students a succinct i-page commodity that has the central concepts of the time catamenia. You can detect these articles here: British Literature, American Literature
• Have students read the commodity silently noting all of the important elements of the time menstruation.
• Put students into groups of three to 5 and have them summarize the content into give-and-take art that spells out the time period.
• Require students to justify their fine art with evidence from the text.
• Have students share their art choices and summaries with the class.
• Use the best art summaries to display throughout the unabridged unit for quick reference and review.

Since our Keeping the Wonder Workshop had a loose Shakespeare theme this year, I taught this strategy to our workshop attendees using Renaissance every bit a task. They loved it and came up with and so many ideas for adapting this lesson for dissimilar classroom needs! If you missed our workshop, be sure to sign up for our waitlist and larn how you lot can get access to all of our by Keeping the Wonder content here: Join our waitlist and wonder club

Yous tin likewise access all of these ideas in our new bestselling book, Keeping the Wonder: An Educator's Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Blithesome Learning

Set stations for whatsoever volume

Though I'g guilty of information technology myself at times, introducing a new topic with a irksome PowerPoint does very little in capturing student curiosity or building excitement for a new unit. Nevertheless, there's no need to create a lot of work for yourself! You tin can hands take old PowerPoints and turn them into stations! For instance, I was mentoring a new instructor the other day, and he was telling the presentation he did before starting Beowulf. Every unmarried thing he showed in that presentation could have easily been ready up in a station including the 5 min Anglo-Saxon history video, an sometime English reading, a map tracing, etc. Past setting tasks upwardly into stations, you are allowing a certain level of self-guided exploration which is one HUGE cistron in students taking an interest in a new topic.

If you take no idea how to prepare stations to first a unit, I made a helpful template for yous. You can find it hither: Introduction Stations for ANY Book : Pre- reading activeness for ANY book . This unit introduction activity helps you lot easily create stations to practice what good readers do:

• Preview
• Visualize
• Question
• Predict
• Infer
• Connect
• Summarize
• Evaluate

For case, this volume introduction station has students PREVIEW the comprehend and use color connotation to PREDICT what the mood or plot will be. You can become all eight station templates hither: Introduction Stations for Whatsoever Volume : Pre- reading activeness for ANY book or detect more this specific introduction for The Neat Gatsby here: Meaningful & Fun Activities for Instruction The Great Gatsby

Host a gallery walk to showcase a new topic

This strategy comes to yous from one of our Keeping the Wonder attendees, and I asked her if I could share it considering I retrieve it'south SO CLEVER and perfect for cultivating marvel for a story. All she did was get together a variety of book cover editions and accept students walk around to look at each one and make inferences and predictions. And then, she played the book trailer and had students either ostend or change their inferencing. Now, she made hers wait all fancy with these photo displays, only you could arrive work by simply taping these images around the room and allowing students to rotate through like they were looking at an fine art brandish at a gallery.  While book and picture cover art is the most obvious form of art to use, you could likewise employ other creative elements such as writer portraits, fan character art, symbol fine art, and more! The possibilities are countless! The main goal is for students to really take in the art, make inferences, talk, move, investigate, and and then check their inferences either with a movie trailer or as they actually read the story.

Use apprehension guides with a twist

Anticipation guides are a mutual best practice considering this comprehension strategy activates students' prior knowledge, builds curiosity about a new topic before learning virtually it, and then checks for understanding after the topic is presented. However, if your students are a little jaded with the traditional worksheet mode anticipation guides, then just change information technology up with a movement strategy instead!

In his essay "Cocky Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson begins with a quote that says, "Human being is his own star."  He then goes on to write, "To believe your own idea, to believe that what is true for you in your individual eye is true for all men,— that is genius."  Yous can use this mantra as a prompt for students to get into a yoga star pose and answer the anticipation questions by tilting right to agree and left to disagree. Movement, paired with the controversy of the apprehension questions, is sure to liven up the introduction of whatsoever unit of measurement!

You tin detect lots more move strategies for the classroom in this post: 10 Ways to Add Movement in the ELA Classroom as well as in the Freedom Section of our book.

Speed debate topics related to a new unit

In the same vein equally the anticipation activity above, you can also utilise speed dating to fire upwardly students' neurons through movement and give-and-take earlier starting a new unit. My co-author Abby Gross loves this strategy! Not only tin can this activity work to introduce an argumentative unit, but it tin can as well piece of work with but about whatsoever fictional text besides.  Here are some ideas:

• Macbeth Speed Debatable Questions: You tin can never be also ambitious. Power always corrupts. You must be cutthroat to advance in life. It's better to exist a peasant than a king or queen. Living in a countryside cottage is better than living in an urban castle. What'southward the most disgusting thing yous could add to a cauldron? (don't exist afraid to throw some fun ones in for giggles!)
• The Crucible Speed Debatable Questions: Some wrongs are so bad that they should never be forgiven. It'southward ok to prevarication for the right reasons. You can tell if a person is upwards to no good but past the way they look. You can tell a pious person merely past the mode they look. It'southward impossible to live a life of fun while existence deeply religious. Going to church ensures you are a adept person. Peer force per unit area isn't real.  Goody (teacher's name) has been with the devil.

There are many ways to ready a speed dating session, but the key elements will include rotating students and rotating debate topics. If you take your room set up in groups, you tin identify ane debate question at each table and have students rotate tables in pairs. If you want to motility your desks, you can place two desks facing each other straight down a line. Then, you can take students pass the debatable questions down the line, or you lot tin can take ONE side move to get a new partner each time while passing the contend questions in the contrary direction. Y'all could even have students only stand in forepart of one another to debate!

If you lot want to hear more from Abby, be certain to cheque out our book or sign upwards for our free mini wonder workshop in which you will receive four free tutorials for adding a spark of wonder to your classroom.

Apply a picture book to innovate complex concepts

Picture books are beautiful forms of complex, artistic literature, and because of their outgoing nature, they brand the perfect introduction tool. My co-author Jenna Copper gave a session on using picture books in the secondary classroom at our first ever Keeping the Wonder Workshop at The Story Shop in Monroe, Georgia. Many secondary teachers don't realize the ability that picture books take until a instructor like Jenna helps yous uncover the magic for yourself. You lot tin observe her blog post on the topic of introducing complex concepts through motion picture books here: How to use Picture show Books to Teach Literary Assay

If you desire to hear more than from Jenna, be sure to sign up for our free mini wonder workshop in which you volition receive 4 free tutorials for adding a spark of wonder to your classroom or check out our book, Keeping the Wonder: An Educator'south Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning

Give a personality quiz to introduce a topic

One thing that students are guaranteed to prove insatiable interest in is themselves! This is homo nature and one reason why data-collecting companies similar the one in The Dandy Hack accept no problem collecting information points from thousands of users online. Nosotros willingly take quizzes similar "which Hogwart'southward House would you be sorted into?" because they are fun and insightful. You can harness this natural inclination by giving your students (safe!) personality quizzes that direct relate to your content.

For instance, before I starting time the Romantic time flow, I requite my students a fun picayune quiz to decide if they are a romantic or a realist (based on the literary definition). This short footling personality quiz hooks the students and teaches them the literary definition of being a romantic.

In another instance, I take students track their level of Transcendentalism before jumping into our unit of measurement on Emerson and Thoreau. They then do Transcendental tasks that are tied directly to the text to increase their level of mindfulness and connection to nature. Past self-assessing at the beginning, students are automatically more connected to the text throughout this important unit!

Transform your room to start a unit

Yous don't have to get all out to transform the await and feel of your classroom. I spent one dollar and i hour transforming my room for Lord of the Flies and it created such a buzz (get it?) that I found my endeavour well worth information technology! You can read about that transformation here: Lord of the Flies Introduction and Activities  Likewise, I started decorating for my Great Gatsby Political party BEFORE fifty-fifty beginning the volume and those decorations helped to get students excited and immersed in the setting of the novel. You can read most that here: Why you should decorate for your Gatsby party before reading the book

I hope that this big list gave yous lots of ideas for planning a artistic way to first your next unit! If you give one of these ideas a effort, I would love to hear from you! Tag me at @BuildingBooklove

Source: https://buildingbooklove.com/creative-ways-to-introduce-literature/

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