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    Discovering What Works

    I began my career in 1971 as a member of a very large English department a large suburban high school. Our curriculum at that time was a series of quarter-long electives.

    Because we had eight to ten full and part time teachers in the department, it was possible for a student to journey from grade 10-12 without ever having had an English teacher for more than a nine week period. This is an extreme case that probably no longer exists in schools today. But it is useful to refer to it, because it brings the issue of continuity and consistency into heightened focus.

    Though my departmental colleagues were all expert practitioners, we had few (if any) conversations about expectations, or about the ways that electives might be arranged in a sequence that developed skills and knowledge in a systematic way. We did have an agreement on which texts could be taught at which level...but the most important question-- "What skills are we developing as we teach a text?"-- had not been formally agreed to.

    As a result, students did not have the benefit of reading, writing and thinking activities that were consistently taught and reinforced from teacher to teacher and from year to year. Just as problematic, the literary works they did read at each level were there because of teacher preference; not because they were logical extensions of essential questions that had been covered in preceding classes.

    As a way of dealing with this discontinuity, I developed a two year Humanities course (not "courses") wherein successful completion of the first year was a prerequisite for enrolling in the second.

    Immediately after launching this two-year program I discovered how varisty football coaches felt when their first-string juniors returned to the squad for another year.

    For my second-year students, the rules and procedures were understood at the outset; the expectations for practice, participation and performance were givens; and previously learned bread and butter plays (writing skills, essential questions, themes) presented themselves anew for more mature analysis and for ever more perfect execution.

    They had returned to the same class in order to experience the second half of a continuous curriculum.

    This two-year relationship was powerful--not only for students who relished taking essential ideas to depth, but also for the student who was 256th in a class of 300, but who nevertheless could find his footing on the scaffold that an intentional curriculum can provide.

    I carried this idea of continuity to Bellevue International, but was able to extend it much further. We had designed a 6-12 school, and opened in 1991 with 150 sixth and seventh graders.

    I accepted the self-imposed challenge of creating a continuous seven year long course (again, not "courses") where every activity was essential, and where new learning was based upon what had been learned before.

    Quarterly grading periods, winter breaks and summer recesses were merely interruptions in a continous learning journey.

    By the time my 6th grade students were seniors, we had built--and then climbed--a ladder of skills and knowledge that stretched back to the ground floor of our earliest years. Works and ideas that had been introduced in sixth, seventh and eighth grade were essential to the high flying class discussions we enjoyed at the senior honors level--and my students and I relied upon and invoked this previous learning often.

    The achievement reflected in my students' test scores was not an accident of demographics--which is why I have arrayed these scores against those earned by students within the same district.

    Instead, their achievements reflected what articulated learning experiences can produce: a familiar neighborhood of practices, skill development and concepts that are carried forward, and that build trust in the learning environment.

    I share this story because it is a microcosm of what schools can become.

    Though few teachers will ever have the luxury (and the burden) of being solely responsible for a student's secondary preparation grades 6-12, they can create the same continuity and consistency within their departments and schools.

    The following are some of the prompts that my students have been asked to respond to in their Humanities classes--often as in-class, timed writes.

    For the unitiated: in-class timed writes are the true indicators of proficiency. Take-home papers and long term research assignments are of neglible value compared to these. Teachers who narrow the focus, tie writing assignments to actual in-class activities, and create pointed writing prompts based on class discussion side-step plagiarism issues at the same time that they improve their formative assessment practices. In my view, the vast majority of papers written in an English class should be of this variety--and they should be less than one page in length. This length is easier to grade, and provides quicker turnaround for correction of student writing.

    On Lucretius' De Rerum Natura Lines 241-300: what law is Lucretius attempting to establish? Which piece of evidence, from among the many that he offers, seems to be the most interesting or persuasive? Quote those lines and then compose a paragraph that demonstrates how those lines provide support for this "law."

    On Mo Tzu: Find the "radical" or "extraordinary" thesis at the heart of this passage. Compose a paragraph, weaving three quotes, that describes and highlights the uniqueness of this idea of his. Do not indicate whether you agree; just describe his view

    On Yang Chu and The Book of Job:Weaving three quotes from Job 21:7, describe whether this author is in fundamental agreement with the selection from Yang Chu.

    On the Hymn of Akhenaten: Compose a paragraph that identifies and then discusses the chief similarity between this document and Francis of Assisi's Canticle to the Sun. Weave three quotes into your answer.

    On the Lottery: Compose a paragraph that describes the etiology of (and metaphorical efficacy of) this ritual, especially as it is allied with the seasonal and vegetative pattern of the monomyth.

    On Deer in the Works: Describe this story as a metaphor for the journey that humans undertook during the neolithic revolution. Utilize metaphors and structures from Ovid's "Four Ages," as well as from The Book of Genesis.

    On Brave New World: Identify and describe the fundamental similarity that exists between the social structure depicted in this work and the constitution of Lycurgus as described by Plutarch. As you do so, refer intelligently to Plato's Republic.

    On Metaphysics: Describe the relationship between the philosophy of the Gita, Plotinus' theory of knowledge, and Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Weave three quotes from Shelley's Adonais in your answer.

    On the Eden myth in Genesis: Compose two paragraphs, one of which interprets this story as an ontogenetic metaphor, and the other which interprets it as a metaphor for the neolithic revolution--in the particularly Ovidian sense that we have used in this class.

    On Lin Yutang: Early in this century, Lin Yutang wrote this introduction to a collection of Chinese literature that he knew would be widely read in the West. Identify his main concern and compose a two page typewritten paper that explains and evaluates his idea. Weave a minimum of five quotes.

    On Confucius: What role do participles play in the first half of this passage; what role in the second? Please note that a dramatic participial shift occurs.

    On Pericles' Funeral Oration: Identify and quote ten Periclean assertions about the qualities of Athenian citizens. Using the same number of assertions, selected from Ayn Rand's Anthem, compose ten brief paragraphs that clarify the contradictions that exist between the values of the "collective" and the values of the Athenian citizen, as described by Pericles.

    On Confucius: Which portion of this passage is inductive? How so? Which portion is deductive? How so?

    On Death of a Salesman: If Bill Oliver is Zeus atop Mt Olympus, and if Biff is Prometheus stealing fire (Oliver's pen), what great gift does Biff bring to humanity after he returns to earth, i.e. runs down "eleven flights of stairs"? Weave three quotes for this in-class answer.

    On Confucius: Citing at least five examples, describe the way that the use of linking verbs in the last half of the passage contribute directly to the thesis that we have been exploring in the previous discussion.

    On Siddhartha: Identify the epiphanic vision that Siddhartha experiences during the last third of the novel. Compose a paragraph, the topic of which precisely identifies what it is that he learns--especially as it may involve a re-definition of the "hero."

    On The Bacchae:Weaving four quotes from the choral speech on pg. 72, compose a paragraph that identifies and describes the fundamental human benefit derived by maenadic participation in Dionysian rites.

    On Confucius:  Find six proverbs which emphasize the importance of the local or that which is within reach (achievable), versus that which is fantastic, distant or beyond reach (remote).

    On Sonnet 60: Weaving four quotes, describe this poem as a confirmation of the philosophy of Heracleitus.

    On Confucius: Find two proverbs that seem to disagree with the values that Ben Franklin espouses in Poor Richard's Almanack.

    On Gilgamesh: Contrast the two positions re. death and acceptance thereof that occurs on pg. 45-6. Which character, Enkidu or Gilgamesh, seems to evince the greater acceptance of death? Which seems most bent upon defying the natural order of things? Weave four quotes.

    On Gilgamesh: Discuss the fatal--and flawed-- interpretation of the dream on page 53. Comment on the author's intention, especially if Humbaba is now read as a metaphor for nature itself...Weave three quotes.

    Durant's Essay on Plato: According to Durant, what accounts for the fact that skepticism flourished in Athens? Develop this in a short paragraph, weaving three quotes from the text.

    On Freud's The Future of an Illusion: Pg. 53: "This would be an important advance along the road which leads to becoming reconciled to the burden of civilization." Explain this passage, drawing elements of your answer from the immediately preceding pages. Weave four quotes.

    On Wayfarer:  Describe the "contest" between the old man and the officer in metaphorical terms. Clearly indicate the roots of this primitive/civilized antagonism in the topic. Weave three quotes.

    On Sound of Thunder: Compose a paragraph that describes Bradbury's use of either: motion, color/light, sound, feel, taste or anatomy/physicality. Make sure the topic identifies the contribution that this imagery makes to the story. Weave four quotes.

    On Red Badge of Courage: Describe the role that ego defense mechanisms such as displacement, sublimation, reaction formation and identification with the aggressor play in chaps. 5-13.

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