Suzanne Renner took
her classes to the Lindo Theater last Friday, February 20th, to see
the movie “Selma”. Before she took her students to the movie, she set the stage
by preparing them in the following way.
First I gave everyone an index card and said I needed them
to take a little survey. I just made up something silly – said I needed some
ideas for RTI for the rest of the year, or activities they would like to do in
class. To some students instead I gave a copy of the Alabama literacy
test, which is 4 pages long and very hard to read. (She used the following
website and copied “Setting the Stage” for background, the sample Alabama
Literacy Test, and both maps, inside Selma and Selma to Montgomery). http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/133SEMO/133selma.htm
I said I didn’t think they were quite ready to take the survey,
but if they could fill out that test then that would show me that they were,
and then I’d let them do it, too. I chose a group, such as left-handers, or if
not enough of them, chose students I thought would get kind of riled, or at
least challenge it, and boy did they!! They said things like, “why do I have to
do it?” or “it’s too hard; I can’t read it.” Some tried to start, but
were frustrated right away. Most of the students figured out what I was
doing, so then I stopped and projected
the test on the screen so everyone could see it. They all agreed it was
ridiculous. Then we read “Setting the Stage”, which talked about literacy
tests, poll taxes, etc. After that we read the New York Times article ( http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/march-7-1965-civil-rights-marchers-attacked-in-selma/?_r=0) and looked at the maps. By reading this
article to help frontload the information, they were able to learn about a
couple of the characters before seeing the movie. So the lesson wasn’t fancy at
all, but once we got started they were really into the reading and we did some
questioning and discussion along the way.
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“Find That Word”
(Richek & McTague, 2008)
· Students are asked to record words they are studying when they encounter them in reading and speech.
· This enables students to see the words in different contexts and deepens their vocabulary knowledge.
· Teacher gives students a list of target words.
· Students are to write the sentence in which the words appears (students can be given strips of paper).
· One way to add interest is to see how many a class can collect!
Devote a few minutes each week to reading the sentences – then post them.
Points can be awarded for:
· 1 point – Student saw or heard the word in speech, print or the media.
· 2 points – Student used the word in speech (peer wrote the sentence).
· 3 points – Student used the word in writing.
Activity takes a minimum of instructional time, yet encourages notice and use of vocabulary words.
