Contributed by: Julie Choffel
This exercise can be used as part of Unit #2, but it could be adapted for later units, too.
Homework assignment prior to class activity: Over the weekend, do something you have never done before (that's safe and legal!)
In-class: Choosing an appropriate form, write for 10-15 minutes about your new experience. For example, you might describe what you did in the form of a newspaper report, story, poem, song, etc...Choose a format that complements what you have to say.
Discuss as a class:
- What were some of your experiences? Ask volunteers to share their work. How did you choose to write about them? Why did you choose this form? How does the style of each piece communicate the content?
- Relate to assigned essays--How and why do different authors make similar points with different styles?
- Discuss what the essays you read for class have to say about new experiences, seeing the world through new eyes (because of the new experience, etc...)
- Ask students to discuss their reactions to new experiences. Why are we skittish of new experiences? Connect to the reading: when we read something new or different, how can we approach it without feeling threatened? Relate back to how you just interpreted the students' in-class writing; discuss methods we can use to interpret texts.
Julie said her students really engaged with this. One wrote about driving to New York and getting lost in the form of a fairy tale. Another rapped for the class about going to the biggest party he'd ever been to. Students were comfortable discussing and interpreting each other's work, and seemed relieved to think they could look at a published text in similar ways.
