Point of View and Empathy

Humanizing Reading through the study of Point of View

POV in literature. From Faulkner's As I Lay Dying to contemporary young adult fiction such as13 Reasons Why, understanding varying points of view and vectors of experience can be enlightening for all readers. For teens, whose world views are in flux and formation, it is a critical democratic insight to understand and value perspectives that vary from ours. Literature can provide a key means of growth in this aspect of truth because authors choose to craft literature from a particular--or even multiple!--points of view, and this gives the reader much to consider. Thus, the maxim: the teller of of the story IS the story.

Beauty. I think this line of study is really a beautiful thing. It guards against solipsism and a narcissistic view of the world, and it creates empathy for others. It causes one to refine his or her view by considering how it might be different from an other's view. Finally, as it pertains to the CCSS, I find it truly amazing that authors so carefully structure texts with point of view in mind, that this artistic choice is so defining for literature (RL.9-10.5). Witness, for example, how different the recent novel, The Book Thief would be if it were told from a character's perspective instead of Death itself!

Here is a set of lessons that I wrote on this topic.

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Conceptual Inquiry Project

Conceptual Inquiry Project It's year-long! As part of a yearlong research project, juniors at MEHS research a thematic topic of importance such as Truth, Beauty, Justice, Honor, Same/Other, etc. This month, they continue their inquiry by finding one book-length reading of non-fiction to fuel their knowledge and also listen to two radio documentaries on the topic. We offer them this list of sources: Multi-modal Inquiry PRX: http://www.prx.org/ NPR: http://www.npr.org/ Radio Lab: http://www.radiolab.org/ Re: sound: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ Ideas: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/ The Next Big Thing: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/tnbt/2006/jan/ Fresh Air: http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/ Snap Judgment: http://www.snapjudgment.org/ I am so excited to see how the students' understandings of their topics--understandings that have been building of the course of the whole school year--will grow and develo...

Learning with Significance

What is Learning of Significance? By helping students to make their own connections and understandings, these awesome teachers of significance have helped students to find meanings that will resonate with them. How to do it? connect with real issues right-size the learning task (and then make it even more challenging) problematize texts use multimodal prompts and texts show students how experts make meaning What does it look like? English -- a student researchers the war in Afghanistan with a partner and presents his findings about the Soviet invasion, the Taliban, and the U.S. involvement following 9/11. These same students connect this powerful new knowledge to The Kite Runner . In turn, the complex events leading up to and following 9/11 help focus the reading of the novel and vice versa ; as meanings become connected, webs of understanding reinforce significant knowledge. Science -- a teacher challenges his students to read a textbook excerpt describing...

How can we read and write with voice? My students will ask you!

Question Formulation Technique: "IT IS POSSIBLE TO PERFORM WITH VOICE and TO WRITE WITH VOICE, LIKE WALT WHITMAN" After a brief introduction to the rules of QFT from the book Make Just One Change (Rothstein & Santana, 2013), my students were ready to form questions in pairs (steps 1 and 2); they then vetted the questions in small groups (4 students) and we posted them on the board below. The quality of the questions and range of participation was off the charts! We are studying Walt Whitman right now, so the idea of writing with voice and reading with voice coincides well with their work to perform a piece of poetry from memory ( Poetryoutloud.org ) I can envision using QFT (Question Formulation Technique) in broad range of contexts. It was hard not to launch into an answer to the question or to discuss it; just ask the questions and use them a s focal points throughout the unit.

Teachers of Significance

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