I've been accused of being far too confusing in the past.  So I have an idea that started simply enough.  I'm sure it won't end that way.

But I also want to give you a lesson structure that, with slight modification will work below the grade level I'm teaching (11th-12th).  So here goes.

Objective: 
Analyse impact of author's choices in a series of related texts. Analyse common theme. Analyse word choice.  This is all customisable depending on what you want to do with it.

Common Core Anchor Standards:

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
   
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

Explore: 
Students are divided into groups (or if you want to make it simple but more time-consuming, have all students do all/most of the songs).

Read the lyrics to the song (and/or listen to it or watch it on YouTube if time/tech allows).  The inquiry question is some form of this:

What is the overall message in the song?  What language helps convey that message?

All of these songs make extensive use of figurative language to convey the theme/narrative.  Here are some songs that could work (substitute your favourite song or poem if you want):

Your Heart is an Empty Room or Title and Registration by Death Cab For Cutie
The Stone (full band) or The Space Between by Dave Matthews Band
The Cave or Roll Away Your Stone by Mumford and Sons
Ballad of Love and Hate or Weight of Lies by Avett Brothers

Then have the students mark up the text.  I use patterning.  You can use whatever you want.  You could even do it with them, so long as they draw conclusions about the inquiry question for themselves.  They can write their answers or do videos or talk in small groups...whatever floats your pedagogical boat.

After that, get students into groups with students who did different songs/poems.  Have them start making lists of similarities in the way the artists convey theme.   Hopefully it is here they will figure out that it's figurative language that make them similar.  Even better, they'll figure out something WAY more interesting than that connection (this always happens when I do this with students).

Flip:
If you are a content-video flipper, you could make a video with definitions of literary terms like this video. 

If you are a process-video flipper, you could make a video of yourself marking up a different song/poem and discussing the inquiry question to model the process.

Apply:
Have students find their own song or poem and complete the same analysis process on it that we did in the Explore phase.  I'd also have them do a process video of them marking it up, then I'd have two students trade videos and come up with ways in which their poems/songs were similar.

But here's the cool thing about the apply phase - you could have them do ANYTHING.  A creative project, write their own song with figurative language, whatever.  Application is the "fun" part in EFA.  

You could even have students define a literary device in a video/essay/blog post/project using their self-chosen song/poem as an example.  These would make awesome teaching videos next time you taught this unit.

More ideas of how to expand this lesson?  Post them as comments!

In the last post, I talked about Guiding Principles for flipped reading instruction.  This is now two posts because someone...who will remain nameless...told me that it was too much for one post (he's right, of course.  I just spiral out of control when I'm excited about an idea. Or fifty).

Today, I'll deal with the last Guiding Principle, particularly as it applies to shorter works (GP 3):

4. Flipping reading has to be about process and skill rather than content

For my Essay and Exposition class (an 11th/12th grade English semester-long elective):

• Units are roughly a week, but part of a larger sequence, planned using Understanding By Design, and incorporating my adaptation of Ramsay Musallam's Explore Flip Apply structure:

            Explore Flip Apply Explore Apply Assess

More on that in a minute.

• Students will be about 75% self-paced. Monday will be the one day that is rarely/never self-paced.  
• We will read a short text together on Monday - the class focus is on essays and creative non-fiction.  This includes selections from Essay Connections, The Orwell Reader and The Blair Reader, as well as Me Talk Pretty One Day.  Because I realise that is VERY different from what most people are teaching in US English classes, I've done my example here with two poems, which at least are easy to modify for your own context.
• After reading together and assessing basic comprehension, students will either work alone or in groups to look at theme/structure/style/whatever the focus is.  This will usually take the form of inquiry.  
• • Sample Inquiry/Explore Questions (again, these are 11th-12th grade level, but could be adapted for lower levels):

• • What common structures can you find in the language in the text? 
    
  • skill: analyse impact of author's choices on text, analyse impact of word choice on text, CCS 11.3-11.4
  • Example with one text: What patterns can you find in the LANGUAGE (i.e. only the explicit/literal words in the poem, not the inferences you might make) in "Red Dust"?  
  • Example with two texts: What patterns in the language are found in both "Red Dust" and "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
  • How is the idea of (x theme) developed in the text?  
    
  • skill: determine theme and trace development, CCS 11.2
  • Example with one text: What explicit words and implicit ideas/inferences in Philip Levine's poem "Red Dust" would lead you to believe that the author is writing about sorrow?
  • Example with two texts: What explicit words and implicit ideas/inferences in "Red Dust" and "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" can you find?  What common theme can you draw from those patterns?
  • Compare (x text) to (y text).  What do you notice about (x) pattern in the text?  
    
  • skill: analyse author's choices and development of theme in two texts, CSS 11.2-4
  • Example (with two texts, obviously): What do you notice about the patterns related to mortality in "Red Dust" and "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?  What is similar?  What is different?  Which (in your opinion) delivers the theme/impression most effectively?
  • What [figurative language/literary device/poetic meter/etc.] is used in the text?  What patterns do you notice?  What inferences can you make about the text based on those patterns? 
    
  • skill: determine meaning of words and how word choice impacts the text/theme, CSS 11.4
  • Example: Levine uses intense juxtaposition throughout the poem "Red Dust" - what controlling impression does that create?  What word patterns help you understand the controlling impression?
  • What personal experience have you had that you can relate to this text?  Explain the connection and how it relates to the text using specific examples of the language in the text that made you think of the connection. 
    
  • skill: cite textual evidence to support a claim, CSS 11.1

After they read and complete the inquiry task, we will discuss those ideas in class.  This may bleed into Tuesday (or homework for Monday night), depending on the length of the text.

• From there, students will be self paced, using roughly this format:
• Skill: Video on technique/theme/style analysis (flip)
• Practice Skill: Complete task that builds skills with a similar text (apply)
• Process-Teacher Model: Video on choice of texts with guiding questions (explore)
• Practice Process: Analyse text of choice (apply)
• Process-Student Model: Write/do project to show mastery (assess)
• Work on WBP project, either as homework during the week or with left-over class time (explore/flip/apply)

I didn't want to break up the flow of that list, so here are some additional details about those steps:

The work will be completed in order, but it can be done in class or at home, as the kids find easiest/most productive for them.  They do have to be working during class time, but not requiring the videos for homework makes it more self-paced and asynchronous.  There will be a "Watch" station so they can view the videos during class.  

There is potential that some students can skip the skill/practice steps if they can demonstrate mastery.  No point in making them build a skill they've mastered, right?  In that case, the assess phase would have to show mastery AND excellence, since they are now challenging themselves beyond basic mastery.  The will probably end up also having masses of time to work on WBP, which is okay with me.

I'm using these loose definitions for the skill/practice/process terms:
[note: these are VERY under-construction.  Feedback appreciated]

Skill: anything that builds a necessary reading, writing or thinking skill.  Usually modelled explicitly in a video.

Practice Skill/Process: anything that allows a student to work on the skill or process.  It will usually be a reading assignment, a conversation, or a piece of writing.  This is the skill-building stage that allows students to move towards mastery.  This is the step I will be most directly involved in during class time.  I will be working with students individually or in small groups.

Process-TM: these are videos that I'll make with Andrew Thomasson where we model the writing process, a reading strategy, or have a reflective conversation.  Whatever process we model, students will be expected to show mastery of in the Process-SM phase.  If we show a reflective conversation, they will be expected to have a reflective conversation.  If we show writing, they'll be expected to write.  Etc.  

In this example, we will talk about the three texts as a preview and walk through the beginning of each text, showing the beginning of the process we expect them to finish (like marking up figurative language and analysing the impact on tone).  This will evolve as we start trying it [as of now, we've only hazily talked about it and this is probably the most complete description he's read at this point...so Andrew, if you have feedback or think this is a stupid idea, we can/will talk about it more...].

Process-SM: this step is where the students use the exact same process Andrew and I modelled in the Process-TM to show that they've mastered the process AND skill taught that week.  So in the unit I've outlined above, students would have to film themselves (alone or in a team) walking through the process we modelled on a brand new text, or they could mark up the text in writing or in a VoiceThread.  That would be assessed, and if students need to go back to build mastery, they will repeat the Skill/Practice steps with more explicit guidance from me.


*****


This is overly reductive, but using that model means that the content you use (i.e. what you read/watch/talk about) doesn't matter NEARLY as much as the process and skills you're building.  You can read a Cornflakes box and make it work in this format if you're clever enough.

I also know that I tend towards overly complicated systems and structures.  It always gets more simple as I bounce it around with Andrew and the rest of the Cheesebucket Posse.

I've spent a considerable amount of energy this summer trying to figure out this difficult problem: How do you flip reading instruction, particularly in a self-paced, asynchronous mastery environment?  

I don't know that I have an answer yet.  But I have thoughts.  These thoughts were HEAVILY influenced by lots of people (yes...the usual suspects).  In fact, let me make that more explicit.  These ideas are not mine.  I can't claim them and I refuse to claim them.  They only exist because of the amazing people on Twitter who process with me constantly.  They only exist because of the webinar we had last Tuesday.  They only exist because of Andrew Thomasson and Karl Lindgren-Streicher.  Andrew said it better here...and that's how things tend to work.  I talk forever and in circles, and then he just puts it so simply and beautifully, in a way that is perfectly understandable and yet so profound that I just shut up and agree with him.

So I agree with him.

That being said...writing "we" instead of "I" just sounds weird.  So mentally, when you read "I" know that there are multiple "I"s represented in this amazing collective of colleagues.

I'm going to start by listing the general ideas, then I'll give specifics after the list.   This got really, really long.  And it's probably confusing to anyone outside my own head.  For that I apologise in advance.  

Guiding Principles
1. Flipped reading is more than "reading at home" and "talking about it in class."
2. Flipping reading requires way more creativity than flipping grammar or vocabulary or even writing, and it greatly depends on instructional context.
3. Flipped reading works better with shorter texts than with longer texts.
4. Flipping reading has to be about process and skill rather than content.

Explanations of those Guiding Principles

1. Flipping reading is not reading at home and talking about it in class.
This pops up every now and then, and I just have one thing to say:
How is it flipping when you're just following the commonly accepted instructional paradigm?  That's not flipping.  That's traditional.  

So stop saying that is flipped English...please?

You can read Troy Cockrum's thoughts on the matter here.

2. Flipping reading requires creativity and depends on instructional context.
The first part is obvious - the reason there are VERY few strategies for flipping reading is because conceptually, it's really difficult to get your head around.  It takes creativity, which is where the Explore Flip Apply model comes in (more on that later...and there are tons of entries if you look back through my post history).

The second part, about instructional context, is really important.  What will work with me at Redwood High School is not what worked at San Lorenzo High School, and it may not work in your school either.  I don't know.  You're the teacher, thus you're the expert on how to teach your kids.  I can only tell you what I do, and give you guiding principles for how to structure your units and instruction.

When I flipped Night last year, I made videos of myself reading the text.  We had Today's Meet live discussions in class as the videos played (basically, it allowed me to participate in the discussion and manage the room instead of trying to read + do all of that).  Then students compiled theme and figurative language examples in separate Today's Meet threads and on Edmodo.  Then we did a lot of writing and discussion questions.  We watched a lot of related documentaries and film clips to give context.  We discussed them all.  I had a few skills videos, but not many - probably because the skills were mostly higher-level and based on lower-level skills they had learned earlier in the year (either on video or back before the flip, by direct instruction).

I consider that unit flipped.  But a lot of people wouldn't.  This is why we need to come to a common understanding of what flipped English is and isn't.

It also leads to my next Guiding Principle:

3. Flipped reading works better with shorter texts than longer ones.  
Jessica McGrover lays out in this post why this is true.  When you're having students flip a longer work and go at their own pace, they will inevitably do what you want them to do and end up working at their own pace.  And you can't have discussions about the book unless kids are at roughly the same point.  Imagine trying to discuss the theme of fate verses free will in Romeo and Juliet when one student is in Act I, scene v (after R&J meet), another student just finished Act III scene i (where Mercutio/Tybalt are killed), and another student just finished the play.  Unless you explicitly give them permission to talk about the entire play (which "ruins" it for the student in Act I), you are going to have frustrated students and a flat discussion.  Which ruins the whole experience of collaborative conversation.

The plan I've got for my flipped classes this year is to have some strategies for flipping shorter texts, and some strategies for flipping longer texts.  

Read the second part of this entry here.  It was way too much content for one post.

Before I tell you about my exciting unit plan, I'd like you all to go read my friend Andrew Thomasson's NEW BLOG.  Follow him.  He may not have much there yet (he literally built it in a couple of hours today) but he is definitely an amazing writer.  Just sayin'.

On to the main post.

So I got my first REALLY GOOD IDEA about teaching the Essay and Exposition class to which I'm assigned this semester.

I was reading this awesome article.  If you haven't read it, go read it now.  

Thinking through all the typical "first day of class" activities, one thing I just can't NOT do is have them write something describing themselves.  But I hate the way I've done it in the past.  Either I give them a million guidelines and it sounds more like a shopping list than a "here's who I am" letter, or I give them few guidelines and they turn in five lines that describe their epic love for sleeping, hanging out with family, and video games.  

That's when it occurred to me that I could have them write an essay in the style of "Snapshot of a Modern Learner" as their "introduction letter" assignment.  Then this unit plan just fell together in no time.  It's based on a (slightly asynchronous) mastery model, and the bell schedule is M, T, F 55 minutes, and one 90 minute block day (either W or Th depending on the class).  

As always, please tell me what you think about it.  




Unit Plan in the Explore-Flip-Apply Model


Explore:
Students can put the article into categories like I just did (see the bottom of this post if you care to know how I analysed the text).  I will either:

1) Give them four categories (description of action/inaction, and description/antithesis of self).  I will then ask them to add one more category they see in the text to those four categories and justify their choice.

2) Tell them to find their own categories of language and justify why/how they see them developing in the text.

General "inquiry"-type questions:
--Which categories have more?  Why?
--Within the categories, what language patterns do you notice?  
--Why are those important?  
--How do they tell you about the author’s purpose?

They will then write that up into a textual analysis blog entry.

Flip Video Sequence:
1. Finding and analysing patterns/themes
2. Text preview/model conversation questions [for the three options of texts]
3. Essay guidelines for Snapshot of Me as a Learner

Apply:
--Students read another text and apply patterning to it.
--Students have a reflective conversation or write a blog post about the patterns in the piece (similar questions to the ones in the Explore phase)
--Students write their own “Snapshot of Me as a Learner” essay

******

So those are the activities and how they fit into the Explore Flip Apply model.  But I still needed to understand how it looked in a week.  So here's what I mapped out:

Unit Outline
Monday: explore activity (including textual analysis blog entry), first video as HW

Tuesday: debrief video and check for understanding.  The task in class is to read and pattern a second text, and then create an analysis similar to explore phase, so students who can do it on their own will do so (or they can self-select into groups).  Students who need more guided practice (based on my CFU or self-identified need) will work with me on [possibly an easier version of] the same text, with scaffolding along the way to help them prepare for the next activity.

At the end of class, we'll have a short discussion about the patterns they found, which will allow me to assess understanding and assign remediation as necessary.

HW is to watch text preview video and come to class ready with which text they are most interested in reading

Block day (90 minutes): debrief video and give out the text to students based on their own choice. Divide into stations/groups based on chosen text.  After reading and patterning, students will do one of the following:
1) pairs/small groups that have reflective conversations and film it (advanced) 
2) write a blog post about the text and comment on others’ posts, or 
3) re-watch the patterning video with guided analysis questions that will lead into writing reflective questions 

HW is to watch the video on starting their SOMaL essay (many students will probably finish early in class, and therefore will watch the video and start the essay that day)

Friday: debrief video and write essay in class. If students are not ready, they can continue the tasks from block day or work on their Blank White Page project.  If necessary, they can finish the essay over the weekend.


Required tasks for the week:
--Analysis of SOML article and one more short article (everyone does the same)
--Textual analysis blog post
--Watch three videos with CFU assignments (probably an embedded google form) 
--a third [student choice] text/pattern assignment and assessment [have a reflective conversation or do a reflective writing on the second text - students who need remediation may use the guided notetaking, but it won't give them the full 85% for the week]
--write a short definition essay (Snapshot of Me as a Learner)

Grading/Mastery:
If students complete all of that work to the required standard in the week, they get an 85% in classwork (if they fail to complete it to the standard, they will earn lower than 85%). 

To get the last 15%, they need to either 1) show at least "an hour's worth" of work on the BWP project, complete an additional task (like finding another model text and doing a reflective blog post/conversation) AND they must show excellence in the writing task.

The Snapshot of Me as a Learner writing task is on a mastery grading system.  They will not “pass” this unit until they get at least a 75% on the essay.  They can complete as many revisions as they wish, up until the end of the quarter (8-9 weeks).


Additional Texts I'm Considering for this Unit:
--Myth of Latin Woman
--The Key to My Father
--Sanctuary of School
--Mother Tongue
--Why I Want a Wife
--On Being a Cripple
--Why I Write (Weisel) 
--Fat
--Shrouded in Contradiction

All of these are from either Essay Connections or The Blair Reader, both of which are class texts.  I'd also love other suggestions, so long as they are readily available and around the 12th grade reading level (higher is preferable actually).

*******

I had one more additional revelation while I was writing this unit.  I don't have to have all the students read the same texts, because as long as I offer different choices in each unit, they never have to read the same text twice.  So if a kid reads "Mother Tongue" in this unit, when we do the "Politics of English" unit, they will just read another of the choices.  I just need to have the "Explore" text not be an option for any of the self-selected options in any unit.

If you want to know what that paragraph looks like at midnight, here it is for your enjoyment:

AAAAAHH!! I don’t have to use diff texts for diff units if there are choices every time!!

Yeah, I'm not all that grammatically correct past 11 PM I guess.  I forgot that was in there, until I was sharing a draft of this document with my good friend Karl, and he laughed at me.  To be fair, I'd laugh at me too.


*******

If you're interested in my textual analysis of the article, here you go!


Stylistic Notes about the Article:
[I left my own stylistic notes in because I thought it might help you understand my pattern system a little.  Sorry if they are unintelligible] 

Style: paragraphs have contradictions/parallels in them, all in present tense, except for when referring to what he “learned” in his history project; switches to imperative in the end (they MUST); the definition of himself is built implicitly throughout, but finally defined explicitly in the end (reverse pioneer - important defining language), becomes an argument at the end.  It really blends a whole lot of styles - narrative, observation, definition, argument and evaluation
Patterns: Santos/He is always the subject of the sentence; language of disconnection/connection, he thinks/they think/the reality is; mixing what is/isn’t “acceptable”, language of involvement but not creation

The thesis/antithesis in this article is interesting - maybe make a list of competing descriptions?

Linguistic Patterns in the Text:
These are the patterns I notice in the way the text is constructed.  These are literally just copied and pasted from the article.

HE DOES:
Santos sends approximately 125 texts per day. 
He sneaks his phone into his classes either in his book bag or his jacket and 
is online just about all day. 
He posts messages to Facebook during class. 
He looks up answers to definitions of words online. 
He checks sports scores, 
plays games, 
posts his location so his friends can find him easily, and 
streams music through an app on his phone.
Santos opens books and is frustrated when he can’t click on the words or pictures for more information.
Santos listens to his teachers lecture, feeling strange that he can’t pause, rewind, fast-forward, or have anytime access to the information
Santos often helps them when his teachers have trouble with technology or web tools
He knows how to bypass his school’s internet filter and often helps his teachers access Youtube videos to aid in instruction.
he can articulate every detail if you ask Santos what he DID for his History project, 
he recites the definitions to a couple of the words he defined.
Santos participates in school as if it were a giant check-off list
he is always DOING something
When he finishes one task, he moves on to another. 
He does okay, though
When Santos is assigned a big task at school, he goes home and creates a Facebook group around it. 
He shares what he finds on the topic with others and they share back. 
He creates his own opportunities for collaborative learning. 
Santos knows where to find information
he knows where information lives: everywhere
He is more likely to find and copy information without attribution
He learns about these things at night on his own.

HE DOESN’T:
Outside of school, he doesn’t separate technology from other activities. 
think about [technology] because it’s always available.
When asked to give an example, he falters. 
He’s not necessarily always learning at school,. 
His grades are better when he’s interested in what he is doing at school, and marginal when he’s disinterested. Unfortunately, that happens more and more often as he gets older.
He does not necessarily discern what information is relevant and 
he doesn’t necessarily know what he needs to learn from the information. 
he is not likely to connect ideas and create something new from it.

HE IS/WILL BE:
he is misunderstood.
he would be really good at developing Augmented Reality programs or designing nanocircuitry that would enable the creation of incredibly small computing devices
Santos is connected to kids in China, England, Germany, and Australia
he is translating the language with an online tool so that they can effectively communicate
He is connected to these kids because of a mutual interest in nanocircuitry. 
Santos is a good kid. 
Kids like Santos are reverse pioneers, navigating worlds that everyone older than them values. 
he is constrained by system frightened by “what ifs” rather than magnificence of “what could be.”

HE IS NOT:
Santos is not an enigma, 
His parents think he would make a good lawyer or doctor. Santos thinks. He told the Career and Technology teacher at his school what he was learning. The teacher handed him plans for a canned cardboard rocket project.
he isn’t thinking about distances or time when he interacts. 
Santos is not being adequately prepared for the world he will graduate into, at least in school.

HE THINKS (or other thinking tasks):
He accepts the role he has at school, like most of the other kids, and like most of the other kids, Santos thinks that school is largely a time machine.  
He leaves his world and goes back in time at 7:30 AM Monday through Friday. At 3:30 PM, he re-enters his world.
Santos recognizes that the topics he is really interested in are largely blocked/ignored at school. 
He thinks it’s funny that he goes to school to learn a few things that he will be tested on, but don’t really represent his current or future worlds. Santos believes he learns more outside of school than he does inside of school.
Santos knows that they are accountable for specific content, delivered in ways to help him maximize his score on state assessments
he stays up late at night to learn about nanocircuitry, w/a worldwide cadre of like-minded peers.
Santos knows that technology doesn’t move backwards

HIS TEACHERS:
His teachers can’t dismantle his reality to maintain comfort in their professional practice. 
His teachers are going to have to embrace all that modern learning means, though, act on it with purpose, and make technology as ubiquitous as a pencil. Right now, 
His teachers mean well, but Santos knows that they are accountable for specific content, delivered in ways to help him maximize his score on state assessments, which leaves little time for anything that would matter to him in a meaningful way.

Thesis: If kids like Santos will become the future innovators, then they need opportunities to innovate with the tools and technology of tomorrow, not yesterday.

Patterns are everywhere.  Whether we realise it or not, our life is dominated by and surrounded with patterns.  

Teaching students to harness the power of patterns to help them make sense of reading, writing, and critical thinking gives them a toolkit that will allow them to understand the entire world.

The way I teach my system, which I simply call "Patterning," is fairly straight forward.  And what I realised is that it's Explore-Flip-Apply without me even knowing it.  There are two systems, one for shorter works (generally it works best with non-fiction), and one for longer works.  I'll describe my system for longer works first, and I'll address the other system in another post soon. 

I could go on and on in words, but I think it's much easier to understand Patterning if you look at this document:

That is the first page in Virginia Woolf's The Waves.  You can see that we found and traced seven patterns.  Some of those are the ones that I showed them (shapes and colours), and the rest are student-found patterns.  

Here are the instructions I gave:
Anytime an author uses a word, it is intentional.  They thought about that word and the way in which it fits in to the entire work.  They use related words, phrases, images, and ideas to create patterns.  In this section, there are lots of patterns - your job is to find them.  If you think it's a pattern, it probably is.  

Then I give them about 10 minutes and instruct them to mark them in different colours.  A requirement of my class is that they have 5-6 colours of highlighters.  Short of having all my students on iPads with Notability, I'm not sure I can make that part digital...yet.

After they found patterns, they shared out with the class.  You'll notice that some patterns intersect, but that's okay.  I love using Virginia Woolf for this exercise because her writing is so freaking intentional.

*******

In a novel, I'll sometimes give them the patterns ahead of time, and have them trace them through the work.  Here's an example from Toni Morrison's Beloved, which I taught to 11th graders in summer school last year:

You can see the pattern groups at the top of the page.  

Yes, I photocopied the entire book for my students.  But it only took 30 pieces of paper for the whole novel because I put 8 book pages on a single sheet of paper.  And I wasn't allowed to bring them from my school to the SS school site, so it was the best option I had.


After we read a section, I would give students time to find ANY evidence of their pattern and highlight it.  Then they would choose their Crystal Quotes - the one or two quotes per section that best illustrated their pattern.  When they were ready, they would come mark them on the class copy.  After all groups were ready, we marked them up as a group so all students had all the Crystal Quotes for every pattern in their packet.


You can probably see the +5 next to some highlighting.  The way I motivated groups to find the best quotes was that I chose two  Crystal Quotes of my own, and if they chose the same ones as me, I gave them extra credit points.


********


So basically, they're finding evidence of a theme, but I'm not using the word "theme" because it's unnecessary.  And when the time comes to write the essay for the novel, they have already selected all of their evidence for a variety of themes.  


I'm sure I'm not explaining it perfectly, but that's my system.  My kids find it incredibly useful, because finding "patterns" is so much more concrete than "analysing a theme" or "choosing evidence to prove a claim" (but it's the same thing).


This system also fits in to my first day activity (White Blank Page - if you haven't read it, you should!).  When I pull them out to do their video interviews, I'm looking for their ability to make inferences and find patterns.  We'll cover the explicit vs. implicit evidence, finding patterns in their own life and in the world around them, and how to apply that to reading, writing, and thinking.  


I'll probably show Derren Brown's AMAZING TV show, The Heist to show them how  one person manipulates others using only patterns.  I am (not so) secretly in love with Derren Brown (side note: he's British, but some of his work is about to be put on Hulu!!!!  You should definitely check him out...you will be entertained and amazed).


Then we'll use those skills in the research unit and in the White Blank Page project I talked about in the last post.  And thanks to Karl for posting the Google Doc description we (really, he) wrote.  I didn't have permission to share it... :-)

In terms of how to use this in my flipped class, I think I'll push all the "here's how you use this system" to video, and then have them mark it up for homework, rather than in class.  That way we can spend class time discussing and analysing the text.  If my guiding question is "How do I use my face-to-face time most effectively?" then I think the best use of in class time is not having them highlight for 30 minutes.

In the next post, I will probably cover my text-coding pattern system.  Probably.