To best appreciate literature, I believe it needs to be interpreted within cultural,
historical, political, artistic, biographical, and other contexts. For example, as
a child I read and enjoyed Animal Farm, but when I was an adolescent and knew a bit
about communism and revolutions and Russian history I reread it and appreciated it
even more. Whatever we who teach literature can do to give students the various contexts
needed to best appreciate the literature the students are reading is critical for
enhancing their understanding and enjoyment.
Also, students do not naturally study the literature they like in isolation from
other disciplines. For example, when as a child I became very interested in classical
mythology, I did not confine my reading to just Greek and Roman myths. Rather, I
investigated the art, governments, drama, history, and languages of these two cultures.
I instinctively went for "the big picture" in my reading because mythology
had opened the door onto a larger interest. One of the great joys I get from teaching
is helping my students pursue interests piqued by things I have had them read.
Thus, in the cooperative interests of providing contexts for literary interpretation
and facilitating in depth exploration in other disciplines of topics related to the
literature curriculum, I developed a classroom practice that really works for me:
what I call my lists of Independent Research Projects, or IRPs. The options found
on these lists promote increased background knowledge (converging contexts) for interpreting
literature AND they allow students to pursue individual interests stimulated by the
literature in the curriculum (diverging exploration).
Over the past eight years of teaching, I have developed extensive IRP lists from my own knowledge and interests for the different 7th and 8th grade literature units I teach/have taught. The lists are very interdisciplinary, incorporating options relating to art, music, drama, home economics, science, history, and government. The skills utilized in the options are very diverse, allowing for individual interests and different learning styles. Since I keep the lists on disk, I can add to them whenever a new idea strikes me. My 8th grade IRP list topics are: NORSE MYTHOLOGY/THE VIKINGS/BEOWULF, WORLD EPIC HEROES/MIDDLE AGES/ARTHURIAN LEGEND, NARRATIVE POETRY/THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, and PREJUDICE/WWII/APARTHEID/JIM CROW. My 7th grade IRP list topics are: CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY, HOLIDAY LITERATURE, and MULTICULTURAL FAMILY LITERATURE.
I spend one full day each 9 weeks distributing the IRP lists to all my classes
and discussing the requirements and different options on the lists. Page one is always
the requirement page. I read aloud and discuss each requirement and ask for questions
so that NO student can come back later and say he/she did not understand. I have
gone to great pains to make the requirement page as explicit as possible so that
there are not ANY loopholes or ambiguities for students to exploit! I spend the rest
of the bell discussing in more detail each of the options - in fact, the discussions
get so enthusiastic and tangential, that I often have trouble making it through the
entire list! This discussion really gets kids enthused not only about the specific
IRP options but also about the literature unit in general. Since there is 'something
for everyone' on the list, the students gain a new appreciation for, a new perspective
on, and a new connection with the topic of the current literature unit.
My advanced classes are REQUIRED to do a minimum of 5 IRPs each nine weeks to pass.
I check for student AND parent signatures acknowledging understanding of the assignment
on the IRP handout so that I have documentation should a child fall short and a parent
question their grade. These projects provide additional enrichment for the advanced
child. I know my advanced kids are being challenged and given the opportunity for
individual exploration of their interests.
My core classes are given the option to do IRPs for extra credit. This allows students
who cannot perform in other areas of the English curriculum to compensate and learn
something relevant at the same time. Often, students weak in one area, say technical
writing, may be strong in another area, say creative writing, and this gives those
kids a chance to demonstrate their strengths and knowledge and experience success
within the curriculum. Allowing the students to approach the literature unit in so
many different ways almost universally insures that the students will find it relevant.
I give out the IRP lists each 9 weeks right before progress report time. That gives
the kids a little over a month to work on them. If their test scores have been low
and their parents want to know what the students can do to pull up their grades,
all I have to do is tell them to refer to the IRP handout. It makes the parents very
happy to have something concrete like that in hand. Parents also appreciate the variety
of options to accommodate individual skills and interests; children are more inclined
to do extra work when they feel like they have freedom of choice in selecting the
assignment. When a student is absent and misses out on a classwork assignment or
quiz that has already been returned, I just tell them to make up the points with
an IRP. This is very convenient for me (no scrambling to make alternate forms of
quizzes, no struggling to recreate the classroom environment, no reteaching what
has already been taught), and it gives the students a certain sense of autonomy.
IRPs are assignments that keep on teaching in that when I display or otherwise share
the work individual students have done for me, others benefit from it. It makes the
individual student feel validated for< his/her contribution to the educational
process to be publically recognized, and it provides a alternative to teacher or
textbook for the students to learn from, which they really respond to. In a way,
this is a form of cooperative learning. I have a gorgeous collection of catapults,
guillotines, castles, Viking helmets, battering rams, heraldry shields, etc. from
previous years on display in my room - this gets the kids enthused about the literature
units before we even start! I can pull out relevant murals, paintings, and collages
from former students to include on bulletin boards that I teach from for each literature
unit. Really exemplary cassette tapes and reports from previous students are incorporated
into my lessons. The students can see that I really value their work. They always
want to know the names of the students whose work I am sharing with them, and it
is neat when they know one of these older kids! It adds a special element for them.
My IRPs promote a plethora of essential skills. Students are rewarded with bonus
points for typing/word processing, which encourages them to master keyboarding. They
may choose from options in creative writing, technical writing, critical research,
interpretive listening or reading, analyses of film, and public speaking. There are
very stringent requirements regarding documenting sources, so they learn to be responsible
about giving credit for the work of others. Ethics are reinforced with a strict honor
pledge policy. Many of the options encourage parent and/or community involvement
- these projects are often a good way for parents and other adults to interact with
kids on something that is academic yet not tedious. Written IRPs are kept in the
students' writing portfolios, giving them and me additional fodder for assessing
their progress throughout the school year.
Since I do grades in my class based on how many points a student earns out of
1000 in the course of the nine weeks, students do not receive a letter grade for
the IRP work they turn in. Rather, they receive a certain number of points per project
based subjectively on how much effort they have put into their finished product.
Written projects are not graded on mechanics as this would create an unfair bias
in favor of non-written IRPs AND would entail too much correcting time at the end
of the nine weeks (I give them up until the last Friday of the quarter to turn their
IRPs in). ALL IRPs receive written comments from me as well as notification of the
number of points received on the project. If requirements, such as the honor pledge
or bibliography format, were not met then the student will receive NO points. A typical
report, for example, that conforms to requirements may earn 20 points. If someone
turned one in that was absolutely spectacular, however, they would receive a higher
number of points, such as 30 or 40, to reward their extra efforts. After the first
grading period, students have a very clear idea of how this all works and can basically
earn the grade of their choice if they are willing to work for it.