Modern day Transcendentalism project.
In my general 11 English class, after doing extensive reading and dissecting of Transcendental texts, students were given the chance to look at Transcendentalism in a more modern light. This made the content more tangible for students, as they were able to see how these ideas are still evident in today's society.
To begin, students were given a mini lesson on the tech tool Canva, where they were tasked with creating a biographical flyer for Thoreau. This was just to make them comfortable with the tool before diving into the pamphlet project. After students were familiarized, they were given a list of modern day Transcendental lifestyles to choose from, and they were to become a master on their chosen topic. As with any informational brochure, students were tasked with providing an explanation of the trend, which included a brief explanation on how this trend is Transcendental, giving evident benefits for adopting this lifestyle, which were used as a means of persuasion for readers, providing beginning steps on incorporating this trend into your everyday lifestyle, providing testimonies from those who have benefitted from these lifestyle changes, and providing outside sources so that readers could further deepen their understanding on the topic.
Below are some examples of how these pamphlets turned out:
To begin, students were given a mini lesson on the tech tool Canva, where they were tasked with creating a biographical flyer for Thoreau. This was just to make them comfortable with the tool before diving into the pamphlet project. After students were familiarized, they were given a list of modern day Transcendental lifestyles to choose from, and they were to become a master on their chosen topic. As with any informational brochure, students were tasked with providing an explanation of the trend, which included a brief explanation on how this trend is Transcendental, giving evident benefits for adopting this lifestyle, which were used as a means of persuasion for readers, providing beginning steps on incorporating this trend into your everyday lifestyle, providing testimonies from those who have benefitted from these lifestyle changes, and providing outside sources so that readers could further deepen their understanding on the topic.
Below are some examples of how these pamphlets turned out:
Interactive Twitter boards.
For my College Prep 9 English class, I wanted to make Romeo and Juliet more accessible to them. What better way to do that than to incorporate new literacies into the classroom?! Twitter is a popular form of communication among teens, and it's something that most students are familiar with, so what better way for students to understand what they're reading than to summarize it in their own words, in ways that they are familiar with?
I gave my students an editable Twitter template, which they used to create tweets about the last act they had read. I told them that they could choose whatever event they wanted to tweet about and any character to tweet as. In doing this, students are able to cover a majority of the main events in the act in creative ways that help them and their peers to better understand the what is going on in the text. I saw great success with this, and my students loved creating them, too!
I gave my students an editable Twitter template, which they used to create tweets about the last act they had read. I told them that they could choose whatever event they wanted to tweet about and any character to tweet as. In doing this, students are able to cover a majority of the main events in the act in creative ways that help them and their peers to better understand the what is going on in the text. I saw great success with this, and my students loved creating them, too!