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Posted by:
Sandra Scott
K-12 Classroom teacher
Stone Mountain, GA
Topic:
When Mentoring, Give a Concrete Example
Message:
In order to help a colleague begin to think about direct literacy instruction in a content area, I would begin by offering a concrete example of an actual project that I have been involved with and that has been successful. I'm a social studies teacher, and my students read textbook, non-fiction, and fiction related to historic events and concepts I am teaching. We try to select fiction from authors with whom we can arrange an actual face-to-face visit. Students then have a reason to read and a broader context for the history we are trying to learn. The follow-up discussions encourage analysis and comparison.
The most recent author visit we arranged was to a writer's workshop given by the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta. The students had the opportunity to meet with a published author, Melissa Faye Greene. Her book, The Temple Bombing, is about events surrounding the bombing of Atlanta's oldest and most prominent synagogue in 1958. The students had the opportunity to read the book over the summer in preparation for the workshop. They discussed the book in class and how it relates to current events, as well. The book weaved together parallel events in Atlanta at that time -- white supremacists, African Americans, the Jews, and the White power structure. With the events of September 11, 2001, this book provided students yet another opportunity to draw some parallels between the events of the 1950's in Atlanta and the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Additionally, the author presented the essentials of getting a work published- PIE- Performance, Innovation and Exposure.
I think this example would assist another teacher in seeing how to incorporate literature into their classroom. It does not necessarily require the author to be there, but collaborating with the school's media specialist in choosing a novel that complements the curriculum and has real literary value is important.
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