Reading Non-Western Memoirs
INTRODUCTION:
SSR stands for self-selected reading and for sustained silent reading. Our SSR project will focus on non-western memoirs and autobiographies. Memoirs are narrative autobiographies composed of the author’s reflections on his or her personal experiences. You will need to choose a memoir written by a non-western author that is over 200 pages in length. You can either choose one of the books listed below or select a memoir of your choice. Once you have decided upon a book, complete the attached form for approval. You will be responsible for obtaining a copy of the text. Your teacher has a number of copies of the texts listed below as do the school and township libraries.
You will need to bring your SSR book to class every Friday. We will begin class each Friday by silently reading our books for the first 15 minutes. You will receive points each Friday for bringing your selected text and for completing a reader's journal following our in class reading.
After reading your SSR novel, you will be asked to put together a 20-minute presentation of your book reflecting on the literary techniques, themes, and structure of the text. Groups will teach their novels to the class, focusing particular attention on a cultural tradition presented in the text. Presentations will take place on October 29-31, 2012. We will cover what should be included in your presentations and you will have time in class to prepare for your presentations later this quarter.
The SSR project will be completed in six weeks time. You will not have enough time in class to finish reading your text, so you will need to devote some time outside of class to complete your reading.
CLASS PRESENTATION:
Each reading group will need to work together in order to “teach” the class about their selected text. You will not be preparing book reports with visual aids; that is not the point of our project. After reading your chosen SSR novel and researching the history and traditions of the culture you read about, you have become an expert in our class on that particular culture. You need to teach others about that culture. Your group will need to find the most effective way to teach your novel to the class. You will need to capture the audience’s attention and make sure that they understand the major events of your book. Your presentation will be organized like a lesson plan with goals and objectives for your fellow students’ learning. To do this, you will need to use a minimum of three different types of multimedia visual aids.
You will need to put together a 20 minute presentation that utilizes various multimedia visual aids to accomplish two tasks. First, you will need to give the class some basic background information about your text. You will want to teach the class about the author of your book and share some of the main plot points of your story. The second portion of your presentation will connect to a research project that you will be completing in connection with your reading. You will need to research and present a cultural tradition represented in your book. This will be the bulk of your presentation. As you finish reading your SSR book and reflect upon particular passages, you will need to find a cultural tradition - a celebration, a belief, a holiday or festival, a ceremony - that is represented in your text. You will then research this tradition and present it to the class.
As you begin to put together your presentation, think about how your teachers help you remember key ideas.
TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES:
And, check out these tools:
| Interactive Presentation Tools: |
- Prezi is a online presentation maker that is dynamic and engaging. Never used it?Here's a tutorial.
- VoiceThread allows you to create a presentation using photos, audio, or video files but then make it dynamic by allowing your audience to respond using text, audio, and video.
- Glogster is so much more than an online poster site. Glogster allows users to create online posters that have music and videos embedded in them.
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| Discussion and Collaboration Tools: |
- Nings - create your own social network and give your members a place to discuss ideas online.
- Blogs - create a blog for your presentation. It will give you a place to link all of your resources as well as a place for your audience to interact with the ideas you present.
- Wikis - create a wiki page! It's like a web page but much easier to use and your audience can post comments on your materials.
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| Video Making Tools: |
- Photostory 3 - easier than Windows Movie Maker.
- Jing - snap a picture of your screen or create a video of what you have on your computer screen using Jing.
- Animoto - upload your images, add a bit of text, pick your music and you're done! Animoto is a fun and easy program for creating videos. The free version creates 30 second videos, but talk to your teacher. Teachers can get access to more!
- Camtasia - record a video of what is on your computer screen and create a polish video to upload in just minutes. There is a free trial subscription.
- Sketchcast - record a sketch and narrate it.
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| Quizzes and Polls: |
- Poll Everywhere - poll your audience with the use of their cell phones. So easy!
- Google Forms - create a quiz that you can either have your audience access as a webpage or embed into another site. Once they answer, show the audience the results!
- Survey Monkey - another easy survey tool.
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| Finding Images, Music, and Videos: |
- Flickr: Creative Commons is a group that collects photos that users have uploaded and designated that these photos can be use royalty free as long as credit is given to the original source.
- Free Play Music is a fabulous site for background music. There are hundreds of downloadable mp3 files to use with your video projects and as long as you give credit to the source, you will not be infringing on any copyright laws.
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| Creative Images: |
- Big Huge Labs is a site that allows you to create motivational posters, magazine covers, and much more!
- Image Chef allows users to either add their own text to creative images or drop personal photos into creative frames.
- Wordle turns text into a word cloud then picks out the most common words and gives them prominence by increasing their size. Behind this simple concept lies many possibilities for use in the classroom.
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| Publishing Tools: |
- OpenZine helps you create an online (or printed) newspaper.
- Do you like comics? Check out these comic strip creation sites for creating your own comics: Pixton, ToonDoo, and Comiqs.
- Or, create your own website using Google Sites, Weebly, or Wix.
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Got some time on your hands? Check out this HUGE list.
LOCAL RESOURCES:
LESSON PLAN FORMAT:
Since your group will be teaching your text and culture to the class, you need to start thinking and planning like a teacher. Use the basic format below to help you begin planning the elements you will include in your presentation.
- Learning Objectives: What is it that you hope the class will learn, remember, and do?
- Anticipatory Set: How will you capture the attention of your audience?
- Concepts Taught: What ideas will you present? Keep in mind the content requirements of the project.
- Instructional Strategies: How will you teach the concepts? Think about how you will you visual aids to help you present the concepts.
- Resources: What information will you use to put together this presentation? Remember, you will need to use more than just your SSR book to put together your presentation.
- Assessment/Evaluation: How will you know that the class accomplished your objectives?
- Closure/Reflection: How will you bring all the main ideas of your presentation together?
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