Spencer and I had our mini-teach last Wednesday on Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets. Overall, I thought the experience went pretty well.
We started our demo by having the students think about secrets that would hurt a relationship. The purpose of this activity was to get the students thinking about the themes of the book, and how the characters in the book may have felt at various points in the story.
The next activity we had students do discussed the various themes found within the books. Afterwards, we regrouped and shared.
We concluded the activity by having our classmates construct an identity doll for either Aristotle, Dante, or Bernardo. They were able to use quotes and passages to create a visual representation of these characters.
Our lesson plan channeled multiple intelligences. I believe that it would be appealing to students due to its engaging features. As previously stated, the students in my adolescent literature class appeared to enjoy it.
Although this book is addresses touchy subjects, I think that it has merit in a secondary ELA classroom. There are ways of approaching the subject without going too far or pushing the subject to an uncomfortable level.
aly preach
ReplyDeleteI agree that you and Spencer did a very nice job of leading discussion on this text. Aside from your preparation, I found the lesson to be very thoughtful. It was clear that you both valued the many and diverse possibilities offered by the text for adolescent readers. I hope that you and your peers can begin to make a real difference in "real" schools regarding the kinds of texts that your students read. Good work :)
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