As I was completing the reading for this week I must admit sadly I never knew the wolf had his own story. I have always believed the pig and his story.
I plan on capitalizing on these two accounts this fall. I always have a huge discussion with students sometime during the year about our realities. I always explain to them that my reality may be different from their reality.
To explain this I will use a fight illustration. If two students are fighting and a teacher gets caught up in the fight I am focused on the teacher. Students for some reason flock to fights all seem to see different things. Their focus is on the students fighting. In my reality I don't really care who swung first I care who keeps swinging endangering my co-worker. The students each have an account of stops fighting first. At my school for some reason it takes a huge investigation when fighting occurs. I guess that would be the democratic way. However, in my opinion, they both go home if a teacher gets caught up in the middle of it all (I'll save that for later).
In the above illustration two different realities occurred. The student reality and my reality. While I will most probably stay with my original statement, the student(s) will have different accounts of the fight. Therefore, given the position of the student, physically and mentally, their reality of what happened is different.
I have always had a hard time getting this point across without concrete evidence to show them. Alas, enter The Three Little Pigs and The Wolf's Side of the Story. After reading the passages and the table in the text I have decided to draft a lesson plan on reality from these stories. Although the first story seems to be told by an unbiased outsider which could preclude any prejudice that might occur, I am certain the second story is full of bias. After all, it is told by the wolf.
My plan will be for the students to read both stories and form opinions on each. Then, they will create a presentation in groups (I think) of the events and the reality of each story. This will lend itself to the ability to analyze the components of the stories. It will give them the opportunity to complete a teamwork activity. Finally, it will give them insight of people having opinions and it being alright to express those opinions without judgment.
Please give me your thoughts on this idea and help me expand it to be able to deliver it effectively.
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5 comments:
Great idea for a lesson, Janice! My "off the cuff" suggestion would be to provide a very structured framework for your students' investigation. For example: Guide your students' inquiry to consider the explicit intention of each narrator in their choice of language or technique. Kucer points out around p. 249 - 250, the "Dear Old Granny" word choice in order to "develop a sympathetic reader" and "to frame and build a world view that is sympathetic to his or her beliefs and interests." Most students who are at the developmental stage of literacy analysis will need to be gently guided towards understanding these nuances and subtleties with leading questions for independent consideration and group debate. (I often like to begin with independent analysis that expands into group analysis which "nudges - aka forces" even reluctant students to think for themselves a bit before relying on others to form their opinion. Yet shifting into group work gives those same students who aren't "quite there yet" the ability to be lead by their peers into deeper inquiry requiring higher cognitive demand.) Also, be sure to take into consideration gender bias as you form your groups. It would be interesting to create an all male group, an all female group and a mixed group to see how each inquiry would compare and contrast. I'll keep thinking...
Laurie,
AWESOME thoughts! Thank you so much. I'll be glad to share the lesson when I get it finished too.
Janice, I just found an error in my post to you from yesterday, I meant to type LITERARY analysis not LITERACY analysis - I guess my fingers are just used to typing "literacy" these past two weeks as I've been writing my final paper from Dimensions of Literacy!
Hey, would you please re-read my pieces on Evan's accident? I added a last one yesterday, and I'm planning on combining the three for my writers' workshop final assignment. I need some feedback for revisions. Thanks so much!
P.S. Your comment wanting to know the outcome was the motivation for the third piece (I labeled it "Draft 3")!
Great idea! I was at a workshop four or five years ago where the presenter did something with these two short stories. I don't remember what it was, so it couldn't have been all that inspiring... but at least you are in the company of other intellectuals that see the beneficial qualities inside the pages of these stories. I think it is a wonderful idea to let the students decide for themselves which story they find truth in as long as the can back up their answers. Also, in such an egocentric world it is a very valuable tool to teach how people have different opinions and that that okay. We are not clones and differing thoughts make life interesting.
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