I understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to
encourage learners to develop a deep understanding of English and Literature and their connections to other disciplines, helping them to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
As teachers, we must always be actively considering our own practice. Are we using varied instructional strategies for the purpose of fostering deeper learning and helping students to understand the connections between content areas? Furthermore, how are these strategies helping students to build skills and apply their knowledge in ways that are meaningful to them?
As I was teaching Antigone, I sought to help students make connections between literature and ancient history. I additionally sought to help the students make connections between the content of the play and the relevance to their own lives.
As I have thoroughly focused in other sections on the cross-disciplinary aspect, I will now focus specifically on the ways in which I sought to help students discover personal meaning and relevance for their own lives in the reading of this play.
1.Antigone Anticipatory Set
This activity took place after the introduction of Ancient Greek theatre and before the beginning of the play. Students were tasked to rate on a scale where they stood on various moral and ethical issues. They were then given the opportunity to expand on four out of eight of the issues on a separate worksheet. From this assignment, we engaged in large or small group discussions (depending on the composition of the class) and unpacked these various issues. We considered together, has anyone ever had to make a difficult decision when what is right and what is wrong seem to be in conflict? Is it more important to obey the law or to obey what is morally correct, when these two elements are in conflict? From here, the stage was set for students to empathize with what Antigone faced, on a personal level.
2.Ancient Greek Theatre Masks
(Me, modeling my own Ancient Greek theatre mask)
Early on, in the Ancient Greek theatre lesson,students learned about Ancient Greek theatre masks, and how from these masks we gained the modern day words “hypocrite” (derived from the Greek word for actor) and “persona.” Students were asked to consider the meaning of the word “persona”, which meant a public image that is shown to the world, and to contemplate whether or not they were guilty of having a “persona” themselves….were they a different person, say, in front of their parents than they were their friends? NO! they all emphatically and self-consciously proclaimed. I chuckled inwardly and moved on, tasking them with creating a mask that had a persona. Was the mask happy? Was it sad? Who was this mask? What kind of persona did it represent? Although publicly students declined to affirm that they were in any way guilty of having a persona… their paragraphs revealed a quieter kind of vulnerability, as in this student example.
(As the photograph did not come out very clearly, I will transcribe:)
“The persona of my mask is Shrek. Shrek is lonely and longs for companionship but never gets it from anyone because of his scary exterior. It takes the love of a talking donkey and a cursed princess to change that. Shrek has a heart of gold. I personally can relate to Shrek because he feels he doesn’t deserve love just because of the way he has been treated, but learns it’s not what’s on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside. ”
This student crossed over from what could have appeared to be a whimsical art project in which she connected with a very vulnerable part of herself. By facilitating this connection, students were able to feel personally engaged with the material we were going to be studying, enabling the knowledge they were gaining to be meaningful on a deeply personal level.
3.Inspirational Posters
(Student Artifact; Inspirational Poster)
This assignment occurred at the end of the unit. And this was because I wanted to end the unit as meaningfully as it had begun. I wanted the students to conclude Antigone just as strongly as they had begun, in the application of the knowledge gained not as something to quickly forget, but rather something that would remain with them for long after. In this exercise, students were to choose from several quotes from the play. They were to turn the quote into an inspirational poster. Using colored pencils and crayons, they were to draw a picture of what they felt the quote represented, and then on the back, write a paragraph describing what the quote meant to them. Across the board–from the most struggling students all the way to those who were quite advanced–students engaged in this whole-heartedly. There was not one project that was done carelessly or half-way. This particular artifact was created by a student who was perhaps among those who struggled the most. This is how I knew, in the end, that I had reached my population. That the connections had been made, that skills were built, and the knowledge had become meaningful.