Say/Do- Week 3
Formal Analysis
Robert
Hand
EDSE
786
Styslinger
10/08/2012
Say/Do:
Formal Analysis
Say:
In Pathways to the Common Core,
the authors state that a specialized curriculum for “speaking and listening” is
not required. The authors seem to view that portion of the Common Core
dismissively. This is understandable; any lesson plan I ever create – perhaps
outside of a workshop – will include speaking and listening. It is impossible
to build an interpretive community without doing so. In “The Chicken and the Egg”, Styslinger and
Pollock further describe how Socratic circles give students opportunities to
respond to text. They can simultaneously build upon the class interpretive
community and allow students to respond to literature. Despite the
student-centered pacing of classroom discussion in a Socratic circle, it is a
highly efficient way of approaching literature.
Copeland’s Socratic Circles
expounds upon the worth of Socratic circles. Just as we focus on teaching writing over assigning writing, we want to teach
students how to learn from literature. Our goal should be to help them become
avid readers. A proper interpretive community gives students opportunities to
truly engage with text; a teacher-led class session involving only guiding
questions is a façade of discussion. Probst points out that student answers
should not be evaluated during the
discussion. Indeed, it is suggested that teachers only participate rarely.
Through Socratic circles, students’ voices are valued and students are given
opportunities to be creative. Obviously, they are better methods of engaging
students.
The authors of Adolescent Literacy
describe how having students participate via authentic class discussions
(versus recitations) helps to maintain high standards for students. I already
agree with and practice much of what is said in the chapter, but it is good
reinforcement. The authors discuss what kind of talk constitutes valuable
classroom discussion. Debates are too rigorously structured and competitive. A
“bull session” is essentially an informal discussion, and is usually
inappropriate for students. Clearly , teachers should strike a balance by preparing students
for discussion. Through synergistic texts, annotating texts, and
freewriting, students can prepare to engage in more thoughtful discussion. With
this preparation, students could engage in a Socratic circle. A Socratic circle
is a good balance of student input and constructive guidance.
Do:
The following is a modified lesson
plan to include a Socratic circle.
Lesson Plan
Instructor And
Room #:
Mrs. Lee
Green Hall
|
Date & Length:
9/28
60 minutes
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Subject and
Block/Period:
ELA 3 & 4 period
|
Topic:
Harlem & An
Introduction to Walter Dean Myers’s Bad Boy
|
Student Objectives:
Students will
-
Determine the central idea behind a poem and a
news article, synthesizing a basic understanding about social inequality and
conflict in Harlem.
-
Understand new vocabulary words, related to
social inequality and conflict resolution.
-
Discuss personal connections and findings
supported by evidence for both works.
-
Begin reading Bad Boy, a work by Walter
Dean Myers.
|
Common Core
-
RL.8.4: Determine
the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
analogies or allusions to other texts; analyze the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone.
-
RL.8.5: Compare
and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing
structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
-
RI.8.2: Determine
a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the
text, including how it is conveyed through particular details; provide an
accurate summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
-
SL.8.1: Engage
effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one and in
groups) on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building
on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly
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Items to Display as Agenda:
-
Admit Slip: “Harlem”
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Article: “Commerce and Conflict…”
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Socratic Circle
-
Introduction to Bad Boy
|
Purpose:
-
In my
previous lesson, I stressed the importance of setting on character
development. In this lesson, I will preface Bad Boy with an
introduction to Harlem. By giving students an idea about the social
inequality and racism in Harlem, I will prepare students to see how such a
setting has an impact on Myers in his memoir. Ultimately, this will help them
to make more meaning of the work. Interpreting settings and how they impact
people is an important real-world skill.
|
Lesson Procedures:
-
Students will log on to Edmodo and access
“Admit slip” based on Langston Hughes’s “Harlem”. We will read through the
poem once as a class. Students will then independently reread the poem, and
write their reactions to it by answering the questions on the admit slip.
-
I will ask students to share their reactions
to the poem, and we can begin discussing it.
-
After a brief discussion, I will have students
access the edited version of “Commerce and Conflict Resolution in Harlem”
article on Edmodo. We will read the entire article through as a class. I will
pause after paragraphs containing bold words (words that students may be
unfamiliar with), in order to give definitions as needed. I will briefly re-summarize
the article and ask students to skim through the article again, and to
highlight what they consider to be the most important sentence in the
article. Students will share these, and we will discuss our findings.
-
Socratic circle - opening question: Highlight the
similarities between Hughes’s “Harlem” and the article. How do they give each
other meaning?
-
Introduce Bad Boy. Explain that the
memoir takes place in Harlem, and that this setting has a major impact on the
narrator.
-
Have students access supplementary graphic
organizers on Edmodo. Explain the purpose of these documents and – if time
permits – allow students to begin reading.
|
Assessments and
Assignment:
-
I will ask students to e-mail me their Admit
Slips, and I will frequently make informal checks for student participation.
|
Admit Slip
“Harlem”
By
Langston Hughes
What
happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load
Or does it explode?
_______________________________________________________________________
1. Write
down your first impressions of this poem. How does Langston Hughes’s language make
you feel?
2. What
do you think the narrator means by a “dream deferred”?
3. The
title of this poem is “Harlem”. What do you know about Harlem? How do you think
the narrator feels about Harlem?
________________________________________________________________________
Commerce
and Conflict Resolution in Harlem
By Linda Stamato (edited)
This article was first published in Peace Review 9:3
(1997), 399401
On December 8, 1995, a
street vendor, Roland Smith, Jr., entered Freddy's,
the discount clothing store on 125th Street in Harlem that he, along with many
others, had been picketing for
several weeks. He fired a gun, killing several people. He doused the store with
a flammable liquid and ignited it. In all, eight people died, including Smith.
Others were injured and the store was ruined.
Why did this tragic
event happen? It arose from an argument between a Jewish landlord and his
African-American tenant. It happened when the tenant's lease renewal was
denied, and he sought to reverse that decision. But the roots of the clash lie
deeper, embedded in historic resentments,
racial and class conflicts, the disappearance of jobs, and political struggles
in the community.
To avoid repeating its
mistakes, we study history. Even now, the Harlem tragedy allows us to learn. How can the community manage its differences
so that competing visions do not explode in violence?
We should revisit what
happened in Harlem in the weeks before this tragedy, not only to understand
what really took place there, but also to learn what this history exposes. Generations
of peoples, Jews and African-Americans among them, have owned and operated
stores on 125th Street. Some failed, others have succeeded; some left, others
have stayed on. Harlem's stories have been mostly invisible. One of these
struggles to succeed would have otherwise remained invisible, too, had Fred
Harari -- wanting to expand his business, Freddy's,
not tried to evict Sikhulu Shange.
Shange had been
operating Record Shack for two
decades, in a space he rented from Harari in a building owned by the “United
House of Prayer for All People”, a Pentecostal Church. A series of
demonstrations, accompanied by anti-white and anti-Jewish diatribes against
Jews in general and Mr. Harari in particular, exploded on that day in December
when Smith eventually walked into Freddy's
and started shooting.
Why did this tragic
event occur? Why didn’t they talk through their differences? Before and during
the protests, which began in early November 1995, Shange requested mediation, as well as community support
for retaining his lease. As a community fixture for 20 years, Shange had many
backers.
But the street protests
were also joined by those with political ends, and by those who were Freddy's economic competitors: Morris
Powell, a store owner and head of the 125th Street Vendors Association, led the
protests not only at Freddy's but
also down the street at Bargain World. As an African-American, his call to
"buy black" reflects more than simply racial interests. Even after
the fire and deaths at Freddy's, for example, Powell led, as scheduled, the
protest outside Bargain World, which the Rosen family owned for several
generations. Shange discovered that some people wanted to fuel the dispute
rather than resolve it. Others, less directly interested and reluctant to
"interfere," either watched from the sidelines or looked the other
way. Shange received no offers of mediation.
Investigative reports
run in The New York Times (December 1995-December 1996) show several
opportunities where mediation might have led to a peaceful resolution. The
building's owner tried to arrange meetings but key participants would not
attend.
Four months after the
violence, Freddy's remains closed, a
steel door barring entry, decorated with tributes--poems, photographs, and
candles dedicated to those who died there. According to his lawyer, Shange's
new lease could not have been "arrived at or done without the cooperation
of Mr. Harari." Why couldn't this have been done, with the help of a mediator, on time?
The tragic events at
Freddy's show Harlem at a crossroads, with visions for its future uncertain,
residents at odds with merchants and merchants at odds with one another, some
clinging to long-established businesses, others new, fresh contenders for the
consumer's dollar. Some still recall the days when African Americans were
denied jobs in stores that thrived on their purchases. Battles were waged then,
in the 1 930s, and boycotts gradually generated job opportunities for Harlem
residents. In the I990s, on 125th Street, though, the cry now was not for jobs
but rather for black ownership:” Buy Black!” and “Support the Black Community!”
were the slogans.
Against this background,
Harlem residents hold uncertain expectations for the future. While the Freddy's
attack was obviously racist, problems of economic growth and development-and
who is in charge and who profits-also loom large. The descent of Harlem into
poverty and misery provides another subtext for this story. Problems of social inequality threaten the fabric
of Harlem society, fueled by record-level joblessness.
Remedies such as
education, employment, social support, and economic development incentives
require state and national backing. Yet local action remains essential. At
least part of it must involve "conflict resolution." Without a means
to effectively confront differences, particularly over commercial interests,
Harlem will not likely begin to grow again.
Mediation was missing in December 1995. We need it
all the more today, not only for individual, retail, and commercial disputes
but for planning and policy decisions as well.
During hard economic times, when residents struggle
with job insecurity and declining wages, citizen frustrations -- according to Harvard
Professor William Julius Wilson -- must be channeled in constructive
directions. More than ever before, Wilson believes we need a vision of interracial unity that acknowledges
distinctly racial problems but also recognizes common problems that should be
addressed with common solutions.
On December 23,1995, Sikhulu Shange issued a
statement expressing his grief for the dead, and pleading for help in
resurrecting his business:
“Please God, in this
season of peace and good will, help me find justice and a fair solution... Help
us all learn from this tragic act of madness that will haunt me forever ...
Help me rebuild and show that Harlem ... can work out its problems.”
For the survivors of those who died, and for the
greater Harlem community, can something positive come from this tragedy? If so,
then it rests with those who have devoted their lives and fortunes to commerce
on 125th Street, from the Rosens and Hararis to the Baynes and Shanges-who
collectively have more than a century invested there. Harlem's civic growth and
economic revitalization depends upon its ability to build community and
commerce amidst constant change and diversity. Mediation can help Harlem adapt
to this change, and deal with these differences.
