by Sarah Stanley
This is an exercise that I have used that enables the students to think about how we construct meaning of the “texts” that we read.
Arrive to class a few minutes early and write these three prompts on the board:
- How do you read?
- What is a text?
- What is context
When class begins, ask the class to choose one question of these questions and write for ten minutes.
After ten minutes, ask them to get into groups of four. Once grouped, hand out the attached “Ordeal by Cheque” piece. (I give a small front/back copy to each group member and a larger “book” copy to each group to encourage collaboration.) (Hard copies of these are available on the Resource Center bulletin boards.)
When the students get in groups, they are often confused by the text. You’ll hear things like: “What is this?” Someone will answer, “Its copies of checks.” Then another observation, “Huh, Hollywood Bank,” “Who’s this guy Lawrence? Cause he’s loaded,” etc. Basically they start to share observations of the text and gradually start to piece them together as a narrative. I stay out of these conversations because I want them to have the opportunity of discovering answers and constructing a narrative together. This activity has them engaged for the whole class time, and soon groups start to listen to other groups and steal their ideas, incorporating them in their own emerging narrative.
Two minutes before class ends, I share with them the goal of the class period: to use cultural, historical, textual, and situational context to collaboratively construct a reading.
That night I ask them to read the essays assigned for Unit II and apply what they learned on their own about using context and reading.
The next class meeting we spend a couple of minutes “sharing” (it might be more accurate to call it “arguing”) on possible narratives for the “Ordeal.” I share with them that the goal of this activity is to demonstrate how invested one can become in the idea about what something means (can mean/does mean, etc).
Then, I ask them to choose a single word in the title of the assigned essay and explore how the author is using the contexts of that word in their essay. For example, for Gladwell’s “Science of Shopping,” students may choose “science” and relate the contexts of “science” to his essay. The goal of this writing prompt is to encourage a close analysis and how close that analysis aids in understanding the textual content.
