Teaching Critical Thinking Skills with Fairy Tales

 I'm going to try something new this semester with my regular/inclusion English II class.  Over the Christmas break, my wife and I picked up a puzzle book (think escape room in a book).  We've done this before and some of those books can be very hard.  This one is not overly hard, but not overly easy either.  A good enough mix.  The book is The Puzzle Book of the Brothers Grimm.

There are four fairy tales that you have to work through - Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Mother Hulda, and Rapunzel.  The links are to Google Docs I have of the original Grimm's tale. I figured most of my students have probably not read the original, so maybe I'll use those as texts in my class and may add some state test reading comprehension questions to go with them later.  You are welcome to them to use as you would like.  The Hansel and Gretel tale is six pages long, but the other three are only about three pages long. You can buy the puzzle book on Amazon if you are interested.

How does this fit into my class?  Well, my regular level and inclusion classes often struggle with looking past plot level.  Anything to get them thinking critically helps.  Since the puzzles themselves are fairly short, I'm thinking it might be a fun warm-up activity to breaks them into groups of two or three and let them try and figure it out.  Each puzzle comes with three clues (on different pages), so I can factor that in and let them buy the clue with part of their winnings.  In the book, you score 5 "reeds" for each correctly guessed riddle, minus 1 reed for each clue and wrong answer.  I am using "Bobcat Paw Prints" in my class for incentives, so I will just substitute those.  Here is what a typical puzzle looks like:

It's always like this - two page spread and many of the puzzles are visual like this, which I think my regular students will find appealing.  

This may flop, but I've enjoyed figuring out the puzzles for the first fairy tale, so I figured I would go for it!

Freebie: Reading Challenge

 My English II class has a state reading comprehension test.  Now, I can go over all the tips and testing strategies, but when it comes down to it, a student must read and read often to improve their reading comprehension skills.  But how do you go about it with students who hate to read or struggle with reading disabilities or both?  Sure, classroom reading with questions and a test is a standard and one that is a necessity in our line of work, but it is not always effective, especially when a kid would has already learned that it is easier to take a low grade on reading assignments.

My solution is nothing new.  You may even have a version of it you do yourself, but here is my version that you can feel free to borrow and change up as you wish.

Quarter 1 challenge

Quarter 2 challenge

The idea behind this challenge is that they just read for the sake of reading.  No questions.  The only thing I have to measure if they read or not is the grade they give it and the signature from themselves and a parent/guardian verifying that it was completed.  Can students cheat on this?  Yes.  However, I am willing to take that risk because the students that don't cheat will come out with more reading under their belt.  

The beauty of this challenge is that they get to pick the direction they want to go with it.  There are plenty of big point items for actual books and also plenty of smaller point-value items to get them going (anything from poem to Wikipedia article to cereal box).  I just want them reading.  It also helps to have a small in class library and to give them time in class for reading.  We play with time spans from ten minutes to twenty minutes - building up as we go to give them practice on stamina.  

I've found this to be very successful in the past.  It gets tweaked every so often.  When I had English I, I would always throw the driver's ed manual in the mix too.  

Do you have a reading challenge?  Tell me about it in the comments!

A Different Type of Reading Check - Using Spark Notes to Check Reading

 Checking for reading is always tricky.  You want to reward those who read and at the same time, you don't want to punish the kid who struggles to remember what they read.  My typical fall back for lower level classes is the open note quiz.  That way they can use their notes (if they bothered to take any) to help them recall what they read.

However, I saw the other day on a Facebook group someone sharing an alternative that they like to use that I found quite clever.  The teacher's name is Katie Jo and this is all her idea, not mine, though I wish it was!

The Spark Note Check

Give the students a copy of the Spark Notes summary of the chapters that were assigned.  Ask students to fill in a detail or two (or I guess however many you wish to assign) that the summary missed.  She says that she changes up the summary source so that students don't just use Cliff Notes or something else to get around the Spark Notes short comings.  She also said that the only downfall she's encountered is that it takes longer to grade than a traditional quiz.

I love it and can't wait to try it.  If you have an alternative way to check for reading, please post in the comments!

The Daily Dose

The following can apply to any state reading test though it was designed specifically with the NC EOC in mind.

The Short:

If you could use some simple, quick reading comprehension questions that gets updated daily, go here!

http://dailyeoc.blogspot.com/

The Long:

When I switched schools about 17 years ago, I was hired specifically to work with kids who were destined to not pass the English I EOC.  For those of you not in North Carolina, an EOC is just our state exams.  Students need a 3 out of 4 to pass it and my students were predicted to make a 1 (based on previous state tests from elementary and middle school).  I did have a few 2s.  My principal flat out told me when he hired me that my job was to get these kids to pass the test.

Back then, if you failed the state exam, you failed the entire course.  Lots of pressure for kids who struggle with reading.  Lots of pressure for the new(ish) teacher.  I started looking for samples, test specs, etc. and ran into a brick wall. I managed to pick up a few scraps from here to there.

I also realized that having the kids read a whole passage was one task and having them figure out how to answer a reading comprehension was a completely different task.  The biggest problem with the second task was that I was struggling to get them to complete the first task.

So I started writing short reading passages on the white board with multiple choice questions.  Super short reading passages.  Super super short reading passages.  That way we could spend time focusing on how to break down that question, how that literary term worked, etc.

But I'm lazy.  It's rule #1 in my class.

Ok, there is a story behind the "Lord Alford" thing that I do not have time to get into now.  Maybe later.

I didn't want to have to keep writing those on the board.  So I began putting it on a blog so that I would have it year after year.  Then I realized that other teachers were finding it and using it because there was just NO RESOURCES FOR THE STINKING NCEOC! 

The test has changed, somewhat.  It is now in the 10th grade (poor kids who had to make that transition and get it two years in a row) and students no longer need to pass it to be promoted.  I also no longer teach the test, but I have decided to keep the blog going.

Over the years I have had quite a few people tell me they are happy that the blog is there.  Some shoot me emails when I forget to update it (I do it in chunks, recycling the questions each semester), and some who have sent me questions to add to the mix (I love those teachers!).  I also have quite a few that have seen fit to get mad at me because they didn't like the answer or do not like the daily format because they wanted to find one specific question or other.  People like to complain. I also got reported to my principal, superintendent, and state superintendent for "teaching to the test" by some person I've never met, but that's a story for a different time too.

So, take some time to enjoy the questions (or send me a nasty email about the way I am doing it), make some of your own and share it, or have your kids create some themselves and share with me the good ones to be immortalized forever and ever.

http://dailyeoc.blogspot.com/

How Do I Love Thee?

Today is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's birthday.  She is known almost as much for love letters as she is for her poetry.  For those of you who need a refresher, Elizabeth (and her ten siblings) was forbidden by her father to ever marry and have children.  When Robert Browning read her poetry, he fell in love with her and began to write her.  Between the two of them, they wrote 570 letters to each other before they ran away and eloped.  They both kept all the love letters and the door to the Barrett house which half of those letters came through, was saved before the house was torn down.  I believe it is kept at Wellesley College Library and was a popular place for college students to slip Valentine cards until it was sealed shut.

So why did Elizabeth's father want to stop his bloodline?  Well, according to one scholar, Julia Markus, in her book Dared and Done, It might be because either her grandfather or great grandfather has a child with a Jamaican slave. Either he was such a racist that he did not want his bloodline tainted or, being an abolitionist, he was ashamed of his white bloodline and wished to end it.

Either way, it was the reason for Elizabeth and Robert's secrecy.  Her father never forgave her for running off and getting married and having a child.  She wrote to him often and he always returned her letters unopened.

Here is a reading comprehension practice for her poem "How Do I Love Thee?"

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

On September 21st, 1897, The Sun ran this letter to the editor and its famous response:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'

Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

So as the anniversary of this printing comes forward next week, you may wish to incorporate it into your classroom.  If nothing else, expose the kids to this bit of American culture.  Use it in journalism class to discuss the responsibility of the newspaper.  Just give the class the original letter and let them respond to it before showing the editor's response (could be a great way to teach audience). Use it for a reading comprehension practice (I have one here you may use: Reading Comprehension Practice).  Use it to spark a letter writing exercise and then write letters to editors of your newspapers.

Anyone else use this letter in their class?  If so, how?

Merry Christmas!

Daily Reading Comprehension Questions

In my state, we have two English tests that are practically the same.  One is the North Carolina Final Exam (formerly called the MSL, formerly called the Common Exam) for freshmen, juniors, and seniors.  The other is the End of Course for sophomores.

They are quite horrid tests, as I am sure you can relate to in whatever state you are in.  It is more of a test of a student's ability to stay focused for two to three hours rather than an accurate measure of a student's reading comprehension.

I have two daily reading comprehension blogs for you.  While one is labeled for the NCFE and the other for the EOC, they have the same type of questions and will fit most any reading comprehension tests.

The first is the Daily Dose of NCFE:

And the second is the Daily Dose of EOC:

They hit literary terms, vocabulary, author's purpose, inference, and basic plot understanding. 

Currently, they each run for a semester and then recycle the questions. Next year they may be merged into one blog, since supposedly my state is doing away with the NCFE, which should mean I can pick from the best questions on both.

I have had great success on my state reading comprehension test scores.  I've spent a lot of time understanding these beasts.  I do have a free resource on my Teacher-Pay-Teachers store that helps you walk students through prepping for the test.  I usually use it a week before the test.  It gives students a way to stay focused longer during the test.  I know  you probably do not have a state test for your students this year with all the shut downs, but feel free to download and give it a look for next year.  And if you like it, please leave a review for it. It helps me out a lot as a fledgling store owner.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Extreme-English-Teacher-Acing-State-Reading-Comprehension-Tests-5283540