Cues,+Questions,+Advance+Organizers

Read and Reflect
How do you currently apply this strategy with(out) technology?

When I start my “Crucible Unit”, it is centered on the question, “What is your personal responsibility to yourself, your community, and your morals.” Before we get to the reading of the Crucible, we read/watch and discuss some other text that I pose this question to students. One text is an article about Kitty Genovese, “The Dying Girl That No One Would Help.” As a class we discuss the article and what students would do if they were the same situation. As I usually predict, many students say they would not do anything because of various reasons that personally affect them. Then we watch a local news clip of a 91 year old veteran who was attacked and car jacked outside of a convenient store while a group of bystanders watch. Again, we discuss what happened and gather their reactions to the lack of reaction of the bystanders and compare their previous comments about the Kitty Genovese article. I also ask, “What would you do if you were one of the bystanders in the parking lot watching this happen?” From there we begin to read The Crucible. One thing about this whole theme that I struggle to get students to connect is what causes people to just let terrible things happen to themselves and to others. However, I’m going to create a graphic organizer that allows students to collect ideas from the first two texts that we work with to introduce The Crucible. Students will document why bystanders did nothing in the article and video. Then, students will explore reasons why the characters in the Crucible hesitant or did nothing to stop the witch trials. The last section of the organizer will be a spot list all of the ideas that are similar in the three situations. Hopefully, this will help students see the connection as to why people choose to do nothing to help others and how they can identify to any of the characteristics to make personal changes in their own beliefs and actions

Apply and Reflect
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Glogster offers much in the department of interactivity and engagement when activating student prior knowledge. I can see how this web site can be used for a word splash to introduce vocabulary. Teachers can use this activity at the beginning of a new lesson to find out what students know about selected vocabulary by either using synonyms/antonyms or images the teacher preselects. Then teachers can turn the activity over to the students later in a unit to review the vocabulary by showing what new information students have learned about their vocabulary. The option to add video also lends to tying ideas together and reinforcing learning. When using a smartboard or even a PowerPoint, teachers can build interesting and captivating lessons that add more dimension to learning than just paper and pencil activities.

My glogster is used to connect several pieces of literature to the student’s life. I have used a Venn diagram in the past to show the relationship of the American Dream between the characters of Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, and Raisin in the Sun. Glogster allows me to make the relationships more visual so I can pull more detail from students when working with the Venn diagram. The video in my glogster also helps students to identify characteristics of the American Dream in everyday people to show how the characters of the novels are realistic. The segments of my glogster work to scaffold knowledge at different stages of the unit. So, students get to know the characters of the first two novels before they make their own dreams known. Finally, they tie all the pieces together when the class finishes Raisin. Ultimately, I have a graphic organizer that lends to many options for additional learning such as compare and contrast, cause and effect, and character analysis.