DISCUSSION PROMPTS: THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION, THE SCORPION PROJECT, CLONES, CONNECTIONS OUTSIDE THE NOVEL, TALKING TO THE TEXT, HARKNESS DISCUSSIONS, CHILD LABOUR, THEME, LITSPIRATION CHALLENGE, COLLABORATION, TEAMWORK
UP NEXT: Litspiration: The Scorpion Project + Film Study
Making Connections
This week, students were asked to focus on making connections between the novel and the "real world." (I use quotation marks to indicate this term for me is problematic, as when we are in school, I maintain that IS the real world, but this phrase is common, and so easily understood. What I try to focus on is encouraging students to think of how what they are reading lives in the world, whether that includes events geographically close or far away, or events philosophically close or far away.) Two of the big ideas Farmer touches on in the novel and that we explored were child labour and immigration, specifically "illegal" immigration. For the former, students completed and individual blog post, and for the latter, a Harkness discussion with their team.
Go to the main site to check out the team blogs (links on the right hand side of the website) and explore some of their ideas in their latest Harkness discussions. You can also read their individual blog posts by exploring the two classes' individual litspiration blogs. All teams and students are looking for some readers, so please leave a supportive comment for them on any of their posts so far!
Litspiration Challenge 3: Theme
Students have started their final litspiration challenge for The House of the Scorpion, an exploration of the theme of the novel. I challenged students to start off by creating a theme statement for the novel, another concept we explored at the beginning of the year. Just this act alone has netted some evidence of their learning through my observations of their great discussions. I heard students talking about details of the novel, demonstrating their close reading abilities, with some students even grabbing their book and searching for the sticky note they just knew they wrote about this detail, exhibiting their use of Talking to the Text reading strategies. The teams of 4 were collaborating well, discussing, deciding, and at times commiserating if I had sent them back to refine their statement. The outcome of all this great work will be finished next week, and I am really looking forward to the variety of ways students are exploring the theme.
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| This image and article stick with me when I think about asking students to make connections between what they are reading and everything else. |
This week, students were asked to focus on making connections between the novel and the "real world." (I use quotation marks to indicate this term for me is problematic, as when we are in school, I maintain that IS the real world, but this phrase is common, and so easily understood. What I try to focus on is encouraging students to think of how what they are reading lives in the world, whether that includes events geographically close or far away, or events philosophically close or far away.) Two of the big ideas Farmer touches on in the novel and that we explored were child labour and immigration, specifically "illegal" immigration. For the former, students completed and individual blog post, and for the latter, a Harkness discussion with their team.
Go to the main site to check out the team blogs (links on the right hand side of the website) and explore some of their ideas in their latest Harkness discussions. You can also read their individual blog posts by exploring the two classes' individual litspiration blogs. All teams and students are looking for some readers, so please leave a supportive comment for them on any of their posts so far!
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| Theme in literature is a complicated concept, and is determined by exploring the novel's separate parts (events, characterization, setting, etc.) and weaving them together in an attempt to create a phrase or statement that encompasses it all. Image borrowed from here. |
Students have started their final litspiration challenge for The House of the Scorpion, an exploration of the theme of the novel. I challenged students to start off by creating a theme statement for the novel, another concept we explored at the beginning of the year. Just this act alone has netted some evidence of their learning through my observations of their great discussions. I heard students talking about details of the novel, demonstrating their close reading abilities, with some students even grabbing their book and searching for the sticky note they just knew they wrote about this detail, exhibiting their use of Talking to the Text reading strategies. The teams of 4 were collaborating well, discussing, deciding, and at times commiserating if I had sent them back to refine their statement. The outcome of all this great work will be finished next week, and I am really looking forward to the variety of ways students are exploring the theme.
