One of the areas where our students have struggled in NCLB testing is with literature devices and terminology. I have toyed a lot with these terms through the years, but one of my current favorite tools is the foldable, which we are using to make a portable and personal glossary of the literature terms. I have an online glossary (I like the online glossary because I can change it when it is wrong and add to it as I see fit), which is where students find their definitions.

I like the foldable because it creates this mass of construction paper in students’ things, which theoretically makes it easier to keep track of. Plus, since we used a flap-foldable, they can use it to study the terms instead of creating a separate set of flashcards out of their notes. Last year I had them write notes in their notebooks, but the results were unimpressive. The notes were not great for studying and they easily got lost in the classic spiral notebook “system” that so many of my students prefer.

Of course, a foldable is only a cute thing to carry around if I don’t use it, and another idea I have begun to pursue this year is to have mini-lectures at the beginning of class (five minutes or so) where I share examples of the literature terms that are used in memorable ways. I would imagine I’ll do it about once a week (there aren’t that many terms), so one could kind of call it bell work that begins not at the bell but when I’m ready to talk. I am not pressuring myself to use a formula for them, so I will look for any place where the literature term is legitimately and obviously used, whether in literature, journalism, pop culture, or film. Obvious is key–there can be no stretching when I’m just introducing many of my students to these terms. If the idea doesn’t leap into my mind when I think of it, it’s probably not a good one.

Recently I used one of my own articles in my blog to share allusion and then the black knight’s scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail to demonstrate understatement (“It’s just a flesh-wound!“). Since I’m convinced that for the most part bits of film work better for educational purposes than whole movies, I’ll consider a few more of my favorite films and see if they hold classic examples of these important terms. I’ll have to choose carefully–there’s enough allusion and irony in most of my favorite movies to fill up the rest of the year–and see if I can adequately address each of the terms in the glossary. In that glossary I’ve put stars next to the most important terms for our curriculum (that is, for our tests) so I’ll begin with those.

We’ll see where it takes me, but I think it will likely be fun–and if I’m honest, that’s ultimately why I work here.

Thanks for reading, and on this Thanksgiving, may you be grateful for what you have and thankful for that which you don’t.

P.S. – If you’re looking for a good Thanksgiving read, I recommend revisiting Leo Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Need? (Start with section 2, as section 1 gives away a great ending.)

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