I seek to understand how my students grow and develop as individual learners, recognizing that not all students are going to process information in a uniform way; there will be individual variations across cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas. I take this all into consideration when I design and implement learning experiences that are, based first and foremost on this knowledge, simultaneously challenging and attainable.
Vygotsky’s original concept of scaffolding (the novice assisted by an expert) was honed by cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner. It in essence is providing support to learners mastering new concepts by building upon that which they have already mastered, that which is familiar to them. Within every classroom–beyond the designations of Co-Taught General to Advanced Placement–there are going to be a wide array of variations in strengths and weaknesses present in the population. My choice of the following artifacts: the Twitter DM argument translation, the StoryBoard That graphic novel re-telling of the story of Oedipus Rex, and the creation of inspirational posters based on quotes from the play Antigone, all serve to scaffold onto pre-existing skills and abilities–the manipulation of social media, the engagement with a cartoon-creating application, and the use of art materials for the expression of an idea–engage students of all levels of development and pave the way for content mastery as higher level concepts are delivered to them in a way that is accessible to a diverse array of cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical levels.
The implementation of what these artifacts represent in the context of this standard also engages the tenets of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The discipline of English naturally lends itself to the linguistic intelligence. However, engagement with this theory in the classroom enabled me to transcend the linguistic only focus of English and cater to a variety of intelligences that are specified in more detail below.
1.The Twitter DM Translation Project
In order to better assist students in navigating through the challenging language of a 2,000 year old play, students “translated” the argument between Haimon and his father into modern language in the form of a Facebook or Twitter DM argument. By scaffolding onto their knowledge of technology and how the modern expression of disagreement would be made manifest within such a platform, students are able to have this as a filter to come to a greater mastery of understanding of literary language. The intelligences of bodily-kinesthetic (typing and using their hands to build the project), linguistic (reading and translating the text into their own words), visual-spatial (the layout and arrangement of images on screen), interpersonal (comparing and exchanging ideas with peers in their pods), and musical were engaged in this lesson (students were allowed to listen to their own music as they worked, or had the option of listening to traditional Greek music in the classroom.)
2. Oedipus Rex StoryboardThat
Understanding the story of Oedipus Rex was an important part of understanding Antigone. Rather than merely read it aloud to them or have them read it out of a textbook, I had students use the app StoryboardThat to re-create the story of Oedipus Rex as a graphic novel. By scaffolding onto their knowledge of technology and allowing them to express in their own words a visual representation of the story, students were able to have this as a filter to come to a greater mastery of a classic literary tale. The intelligences engaged here were bodily-kinesthetic (the use of their hands on the keyboard), visual-spatial (the arrangement of images and text on the screen), interpersonal (exchanging and comparing ideas with peers at their table), linguistic (translating the text into their own words), and musical (they were allowed to listen to their own music or Greek folk music that I played for the class.)
3. Inspirational Posters
The material in Antigone was from an Ancient Greek play, in language that was somewhat archaic and unlike that which is used in what students experience in everyday interaction. I wanted to make sure that students truly gleaned the relevance and meaning of key passages, not merely in terms of what they meant in the play, but what did this mean in terms of what they understood about their own lives? Students selected from a series of quotes from Antigone and using colored pencils, crayons, and poster paper, created inspirational posters based on the quote. They were tasked with drawing an image that represented the quote, and then writing a paragraph on the back describing what they thought the quote meant and what they believed about it in their own lives. The intelligences engaged in this activity were bodily-kinesthetic (the use of the hands to color with pencils and crayons), interpersonal (students engaged with one another to compare and exchange ideas), visual-spatial (the drawing of an image on the page), linguistic (analyzing and responding to the written word with their written words), and musical (students were allowed to listen to their own music or listen to Greek folk music in the class.)