More Resources for "Student Choice and Engagement"

Here are some excellent resources from the ORC collection* that provide choice. If you find a favorite or two (or three or four or . . .), be sure to save them in your "My ORC Collection" for easy access.

Boys Read: Considering Courage in Novels (ORC #9178)
In this lesson designed to motivate adolescent boys to read, they are given a selection of five young adult novels with distinct male protagonists. A suggested booklist is provided. Books are divided into four sections and read outside of class. Students discuss each section with partners or in small groups, make connections with their own daily acts of courage, and use an interactive tool to map the main events. After completing the novel, individuals write persuasive essays taking a stand on whether the protagonist showed courage or a lack of courage. An interactive Persuasion Map is available to help with planning essays. Finally, students share their reactions to the books with a wider audience through an online site that promotes teen reading.

Girls Read: Online Literature Circles (ORC #9183)
In this lesson, girls are given a selection of five multicultural young adult novels with strong female protagonists. A suggested booklist is provided. Books are divided into four sections and read outside of class. After reading each section, students use e-mail and discussion boards to share written responses with a partner or group. Specific prompts are supplied to get the exchanges going. Participating in literature study circles, the students continue their conversations in class. Possible questions are supplied to encourage discussion that focuses on perspectives gained. Finally, students share their reactions to the books with a wider audience through an online site that promotes teen reading.

Examining Transcendentalism Through Popular Culture (ORC #3736)
Using excerpts from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, comics, and songs from different musical genres, students examine the characteristics of transcendentalism. In the course of their exploration, students use multiple genres to interpret social commentaries, to make connections among works they've studied in class, and to develop their own views on the subjects of individualism, nature, and passive resistance. This lesson features traditional literary texts and examples drawn from popular culture. Colleen Ruggieri's article, "Multigenre, Multiple Intelligences, and Transcendentalism," inspired the lesson, and is available at the website. In this article, teachers will find examples of comic strips, lists of songs with related themes and ideas, and suggestions for integrating student projects.

Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues (ORC #3812)
Critical stance and development of a strong argument are key strategies when writing to convince someone to agree with your position. In this lesson, students explore environmental issues that are relevant to their own lives, select topics, and gather information to write persuasive essays. Students are guided through the writing process and are supported in generating ideas, writing thesis statements, and revising their writing. Although this lesson focuses on the environment as a broad topic, other topics can easily be substituted for reinforcement of persuasive writing.

Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections to Literature (ORC #4415)
In this lesson, students choose four quotations to inspire their personal responses to a novel that they have read. Students write a narrative of place, complete a character sketch, create an extended metaphor poem, and write a persuasive essay. Each piece of writing is linked to the quotations. Students may also incorporate photos into their presentation and then publish the collected texts on their website. This lesson may be used with novels that contain a strong sense of place, that focus on closeness of characters, and that are metaphorical in character, such as A River Runs Through It, Montana 1948, and The Bean Trees.

Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (ORC #3804)
In the vocabulary self-collection strategy, students choose the words they want to learn, offer a rationale for their selection, and agree upon words to include in a classroom collection. This strategy helps students to understand the meanings of new words, integrate new words in their conversations and writing, and make personal connections with words while reading. In this lesson, an online Shakespeare text is used as an example. The self-collection strategy is versatile and may be applied to any content-area reading. This lesson can easily be modified and used with other content-area topics as well. Although self-selection of vocabulary enhances students' motivation and achievement in learning new words, overuse of the strategy will diminish active engagement.

Telling Your Story (ORC #97)
Created and reviewed by teams of educators, this writing activity describes a lesson in which students use historical information from a museum exhibit to write a fictional story from the point of view of someone who lived in the past. Drawn from the curriculum guide Collecting Their Thoughts: Using Museums as Resources for Student Writing, which was developed by the Smithsonian Institution, this resource encourages the use of museum artwork, exhibits, and artifacts as a basis for student writing. Information for obtaining a copy of this publication is offered at the website. Links to online exhibits, such as online versions of the National Museum of American Art exhibitions, allow this activity to be completed as part of a virtual field trip.

Choose Your Own Adventure: A Hypertext Writing Experience (ORC #2774)
After reading and discussing various stories, students work in small groups to plan and write their own adventure story. Divided into literature circles or book groups, students begin by analyzing the literary elements of adventure stories. To demonstrate their understanding of narrative structure, students work cooperatively to write their own stories. This lesson successfully combines technology tools with the writing process. Each group uses an online webbing tool to plan its story and then uses web-authoring software to create a website linking various parts within each story. Detailed lesson procedures, online resources, and ideas for modification are provided at the website.