Navigating Unfamiliar Territories in Life and Literature

by Kara Haubert Haas and Nancy Smith, Aurora High School, Aurora, Ohio

Teaching English at a two-week language camp in a small resort village north of Prague, Czech Republic, during the summer of 2005 was a defining moment for us. In April of that same year, we learned that this camp needed teachers. Loving to travel and discover something new, Kara immediately told Nancy that we had to go. Nancy just as immediately said, "No way!" However, by the next day Kara had the itinerary planned, the ticket prices analyzed, and the luggage out, so Nancy decided that since the trip was already organized, she was in. In our minds, this was going to be a breeze. Little did we know that a personally challenging and professionally changing experience awaited us.

Prior to this adventure, we had been teaching partners for four years, collaborating on how to differentiate lessons for our three-tiered twelfth grade world literature classes at Aurora High School. Kara taught the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, Nancy taught the general courses, and we shared the middle. At this point, we thought we were strong collaborators. However, we had never seen each other in action, let alone fully understood differentiation. We actually worked behind closed doors― Nancy in Room 212 and Kara down the hall in Room 206. Close, but not close enough.

Prague joined Rooms 212 and 206 in ways that would have never been possible, even if we shared a classroom back in Aurora, Ohio. Our living and teaching conditions were not what we had expected: three days of lost luggage; inefficient, uncommunicative camp organizers; and nonexistent supplies, including lesson plans that we had carefully packed in our lost luggage. Besides these rather incidental problems, things got even more challenging when we discovered that we had fourteen adolescent students, only one of whom was an intermediate English speaker. The rest could say, with great pride, one phrase: "My name is Katka," "My Name is David," "My name is Josephina..." Furthermore, our dorm-style accommodations, sleeping in two twin-sized beds arranged footboard to headboard in a tiny room, certainly promoted another kind of closeness. With just enough room to squeeze by Nancy's slew of adaptors and Kara's ever-present journal and day planner, we couldn't get out of each other's space if we wanted to. So instead we got in each other's faces.

It was a fight― a big fight― that brought us together for possibly the first time. Midway through the first week, Kara accused Nancy of not pulling her own weight. Feet planted, Nancy accused Kara of not listening and not giving her enough time to process and participate in the lesson planning. For the first time in her professional life, Nancy did not walk away. Nancy's unusual aggressive posture caused Kara to listen, truly listen for the first time. From this fight we discovered our differences: Kara is an internal processor; Nancy is an external processor. Kara a visual learner; Nancy a kinesthetic learner. We learned not only who the other is, but more importantly who we are as individuals. And since that discovery, that "ah-ha!" moment, our classrooms back in the States have never been the same.

Ironically, one of our favorite and most rewarding units that we developed since our collaboration epiphany in Prague (and that we present below) is the one we've designed for Czech author Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1916/2005). By incorporating art, capitalizing on our differing strengths, and differentiating the lessons, we've found ways to make this challenging novella and other difficult texts accessible for all our students.

Unit on The Metamorphosis and Art― Different Strokes

Day 1
Using paintings by famous artists, we hang ten poster-sized reproductions in the school library and ask students to find the painting that is art to them. From Pierre Auguste Renoir's Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, and Ren� Magritte's Time Transfixed to Jackson Pollock's Greyed Rainbow, students walk from painting to painting determining which piece they consider art. Once they've decided on their painting, they complete the first step in the Art and Literature handout (see Figure 1). They explain why that painting is art as well as what type of day is portrayed in the piece. The entire first day is spent connecting with and discussing these paintings.

Because Prague taught us how even we as teachers process information differently in new and intimidating circumstances, we know more clearly now that our students feel similar anxieties when they encounter a difficult reading selection. Consequently, we begin this unit with students' various learning styles and experiences in mind. The art posters are our invitation for all students to join in dialogue about texts and their meanings. This method allows all the students to approach this unit from where they are as learners and observers of art, just as we approached teaching English language learners in Prague from our own biases and experiences. Furthermore, the art posters provide tangible and visual elements that appeal to visual and kinesthetic learners. Thus we've found that using art provides an avenue for learning for all our students. Everyone approaches the art (which we have students regard in the same way as they would text) at their own starting point.

Days 2 and 3
On the second or third day (depending on each class and how much experience students have with art), we help students to recognize four basic genres in art: realism, impressionism, surrealism, and abstractionism. Utilizing the same pieces of art shown in the posters, we provide brief definitions of each genre, which the students add to the literature handout. Then students identify which piece they believe fits that genre. Usually debate ensues, especially over Caillebotte's Rainy Day. Is it realism or impressionism? The nuances and subtleties are discussed, and gray areas emerge. Students see that genres are not fixed, definitive categories. (See Part Two of the Art and Literature handout.)

Also on the second or third day, we focus on the genre of surrealism (Part Three of the Art and Literature handout). Using children's art books on surrealism (we have numerous books― we scour the local libraries so each student will have some) and Post-it notes, students mark the pages that show surrealist art that evokes a strong emotion in them. Following the guidelines and questions in the Art and Literature handout, students now interact closely with the genre that directly connects with the novella The Metamorphosis.

Day 4
Because Nancy is highly kinesthetic and also a "big-picture" person, she recognized a hole in our sequence of activities: Not all students were getting the significance of genre. So next we group students in fours and assign each group a topic. For example, we have used the topics of birthday party, broken arm, graduation ceremony, car accident, and school dance. Each group member must portray the assigned group topic in one of the four genres. Thus each group generates four different portrayals of the same topic. The comparison between the different portrayals of the same scene helps students to make meaning and significance of each genre. This particular activity within the unit is the ah-ha! moment for many visual and kinesthetic learners. We have found that this is also often the link for unmotivated learners, as well for those who have little experience with art and with literature.

Again, our experience in Prague helped us to create a more meaningful and differentiated lesson. Because our Czech students' needs were so apparent, especially since our classroom was filled with multiple levels of language speakers, we were forced to differentiate. So why would we not differentiate for our own classrooms where there are different learning styles and reading abilities?

Day 5
Next, we begin to bridge the gap between art and literature. Here we employ some reading strategies that we discovered in Kylene Beers's When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do (2003). In order to make meaning and depending on each individual class and student need, we use prereading, during-reading, and post-reading strategies. These include Probable Passage (p. 87), Say Something (p. 105), and Most Important Word (p. 173). We find that these adaptable reading strategies work well to help students, especially those who are less proficient or reluctant readers, make meaning of difficult texts. The utilization of and the differentiation that these strategies afford make a text that was once reserved for only the "top" students now accessible and a favorite for many students.

Post Reading
After transacting with the text, students return to the Art and Literature handout and complete Part Four. This exercise brings them back to the opening of the unit with the art posters. Students respond to the same line of questioning for The Metamorphosis as they did for one of the art posters and their selected surrealist piece. This process helps students to create meaning not only with visual texts like the art posters but also with written texts. Those learners who have struggled in the past with difficult print texts now have access to reading material that they could not access or struggled to access before.

Differentiated Assessments
Finally, students are ready for the assessment. As Figure 2 shows, here is where we incorporate more differentiation.

Reflecting on What We Learned

Though a long hallway still separates Rooms 212 and 206, we are closer than ever before. Prior to our Prague adventure, we thought we were collaborating and differentiating; now we know we are. While in Prague, we learned by being under pressure, much as our students are under pressure when facing unfamiliar territories in literature, that we approach new circumstances differently. By applying this discovery to difficult reading selections in our classrooms, we help our American students to have ah-ha! moments much as we did in our dorm-like close quarters in Prague. Consequently, our lessons in the States, infused with differentiated activities and assessments, now enable more of our American teens to learn, especially to transact with difficult reading material. It's humbling to think that a classroom over 4,000 miles away full of Czech students, most of whom could not speak English, forced us to differentiate and thus value each other's and our students' different processing and learning styles. Although we set out in the summer of 2005 to teach Czech teens how to speak English, they instead taught us how to teach English.

References

Beers, Kylene. (2003) When kids can't read: What teachers can do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Kafka, Franz. (2005, orig. published 1916). The metamorphosis (M. A. Roberts, Trans.). Cheswold, DE: Prestwick House.

Bibliography of Art Books

Abadie, Daniel. (2003). Magritte. New York: Art Publishers.

Ades, Dawn. (1997). Surrealist art: The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Thames and Hudson.

Alden, Todd. (1999). The essential Rene Magritte. New York: Abrams.

Anderson, Robert. (2002). Salvador Dali. New York: Franklin Watts.

Bolton, Linda. (2003). Artists in profile: Surrealists. Chicago: Heinemann.

Bradley, Fiona. (1997). Surrealism: Movements in modern art. London: Cambridge University Press.

Carter, David. (1995). Salvador Dali. New York: Chelsea House.

Descharnes, Robert. (1985). Dali (Eleanor Morse, Trans.). New York: Abrams.

Garland, Michael. (1995). Dinner at Magritte's. New York: Dutton.

Gaunt, William. (1974). Painters of fantasy from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dali. London: Phaidon Press.

Gaunt, William. (1972). The surrealists. New York. G. P. Putman's Sons.

Hammacher, A. M. (1981). Phantoms of the imagination. New York: Abrams.

Jean, Marcel. (1967). The history of surrealist painting (Simon Watson Taylor, Trans.). New York: Grove Press.

Montagu, Jemima. (2002). The surrealists: Revolutionaries in art and writing 1919-35. London: Tate Publishing.

Raimondo, Joyce. (2004). Imagine that! Activities and adventures in surrealism. New York: Watson-Guptill.

Ross, Michael Elsohn. (2003). Salvador Dali and the surrealists. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Ross, Nicholas. (1995). Miro. Hauppauge, NY: Aladdin Books.

Swinglehurst, Edmund. (1995). The art of the surrealists. New York: Shooting Star Press.

Torczyner, Harry. (1977). Magritte: Ideas and images (Richard Miller, Trans.). New York: Abrams.

Venezia, Mike. (2002). René: Magritte. New York: Children's Press.

Wenzel, Angela. (n.d.). The mad world of Salvador Dali. New York: Prestel.

Art Posters

Caillebotte, Gustave. Paris Street; Rainy Day. Art Institute of Chicago. Paris: Graphique de France, n.d.

Dali, Salvador. The Rose. Private collection. New York: Artists' Rights Society, McGaw Group, 1964.

Dali, Salvador. Soft Watch at the Moment of First Explosion. Private collection. Paris: Graphique de France, 1999.

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks. Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1982.

Magritte, Ren�. Time Transfixed. Art Institute of Chicago. Paris: Productions Flammarion, n.d.

Monet, Claude. Wheatstacks (Late Summer). Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1997.

Picasso, Pablo. Mother and Child. Art Institute of Chicago. Paris: Graphique de France, n.d.

Picasso, Pablo. The Old Guitarist. Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.

Pollock, Jackson. Greyed Rainbow. Art Institute of Chicago. Paris: Graphique de France, n.d.

Renoir, Pierre Auguste. Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1999.

Poster and art prints are available from the Museum Shop at the Art Institute of Chicago, www.artinstituteshop.org.

* For an excellent example of a student-created two-voice poem, and for more information about this type of poetry, see Simple Poems, Powerful Teaching: Experiencing Poetry in Content-Area Classrooms.

Kara Haubert Haas earned a B.A. in education from Miami University and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from Kent State University. She teaches twelfth grade English at Aurora High School.

Nancy Smith earned a B.A. in education and an M.A. in literature from Youngstown State University. She teaches tenth and twelfth grade English at Aurora High School.

Return to top