How it works

This site is a place for LVUSD teachers to share resources related to our Forward Learning initiative. To share a lesson plan you can use the lesson plan template by clicking on this link. The document will open in your Google Drive. This is a view only template so you will need to make a copy by going to File - Make a Copy. Rename your copy the name of your lesson and include your name as well. Once you have completed your lesson you can copy and paste it onto our blog! Make sure you use labels/tags when you post so that your lesson is searchable. Some examples of labels that should be used are: the grade level, content area and topic.

If you have a lesson using one of the other templates that we have worked with you can share directly to the blog by either copying and pasting your lesson into the blog or by giving a brief description of your lesson and attaching a link to your lesson. If you are attaching a link to a Google Doc make sure you have shared your document with anyone in LVUSD to View Only. Here is a video tutorial that shows how to share a doc with LVUSD view only.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Interactive Dialectical Journal





Interactive
Dialectical Journal

English
Grades 9-10
Best assigned mid-text




Overview

Students will participate in a community dialectical journal to record reactions and analysis of a text and Talk About Each Other’s Thinking (Student Vital Action from the Card). This lesson could easily be adaptable to classroom grades 6-12.

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to
  • Collaborate on a Google Doc
  • Identify important quotes and provide in-depth analysis
  • Provide impactful peer feedback

Activities

Starting the dialectical journal works best when students have already been reading the text for a bit. The teacher should model the format for the first chapter or two, explicitly choosing quotes that focus on analyzing character, structure, language, and plot development.
  1. Teacher posts a shared Google Doc to Google Classroom giving permission to all to edit. The Doc has 3 columns: Quote, Analysis, and Comments.
  2. Students add quotes they find interesting, revealing, or important. They also add their own reactions and analysis.
  3. Once a quote is used, it may not be repeated by another student. However, other students may make comments on both the quotes and the students’ analysis in the Comment cells.
  4. Teachers may assign the dialectical journal based on the text as whole or to divide the assignment up by chapters.
  5. Allow students to use the dialectical journal as a way to start in-class discussions about the text.

Adaptations

Students could be put into groups and work with texts of different complexities.  The teacher could create minimum participation levels or varying participation levels for differentiation.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on their level of participation or completion of requirements and the content of their responses (think quantity and quality). A quick rubric could be used with the categories Content, Depth of Thought, Completion of Requirements, Mechanics.

Materials

  • Access to Google Classroom and Google Docs
  • Any text of your choosing (if you have many students, choose a text with substantial length)

Other Resources

This lesson does not just have to be applied to fiction. Non-fiction texts such as memoirs, essays, speeches, historical documents, etc. would work just as well.

CCSS

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.


Marnie Davis 2017