Exploring Point of View: Writing-in-Role

Point of view is threaded throughout all four strands in Language and provides the backdrop for meaningful ways to look at issues and topics.  Whether writing-in-role, writing a persuasive letter, looking at advertisements or debating an issue, point of view allows our students to look at something from many sides, linking to the important social skill of listening and thinking from many perspectives.

In this lesson, Abbass is using a current event photograph, from the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, to launch into exploring point of view and writing-in-role.

Part I: Mini-lesson

Abbass introduced the image without letting students know where it was from.  Students were asked to think about the image and reflect on what the story might be about that connects to it.  From this thinking and reflection time on the carpet, students moved into jotting their ideas down on sticky notes, using the format of the GO chart.  A focus on the first four categories was stressed.

Students posted their sticky notes on the GO chart to bring their ideas together and Abbass discussed the various thoughts.

Part II: Independent/Guided Practice

After discussing and sharing their thinking from the GO chart, Abbass launched into setting up the success criteria for writing-in-role.  Students had written from a specific role during a Science investigation, so Abbass wanted to set the parameters for this expectation.  He co-constructed the criteria, allowing for his students' voice to be included.  The task for their independent work was to choose something from the photo of Haiti, whether a person or object, and write-in-role.

Part III: Group Share/Consolidation

After students were finished writing-in-role, Abbass had three students that he spoke with share their different points of view.  He carefully chose three different perspectives so students heard from the many "voices" in the photo.

Abbass has integrated point of view in other subject areas, to allow for connections to be made with many topics.  After defining it with his class, he moved into some work on public service announcements, using media and drama as a context to explore point of view.  During his Science unit on Biodiversity, he used many different articles and readings to look at the different sides of an issue, like the BP Oil Spill.  Students had to write from one point of view on the issue and debate their perspective.

 

In addition to using the GO chart, Abbass uses other ways to organize the thinking and discussion time with his class.  Below are two examples, real talk and the thinking chart:

A great connection to this image and writing is using the book, Eight Days: A Story of Haiti

Three Part Lesson: Area with Conversion of Units

Here is a summary of the 3-part lesson we observed in Laura's Grade 6 classroom.

Prior Learning:

The class had just finished learning about multiplication and division strategies.  This is a diagnostic task for area involving conversion of units.

Part 1: Activating prior knowledge

Laura used a mental math string to activate students prior learning about different multiplication strategies.  Students completed this string individually in their math workbook.

As Laura took up the different strategies to solve these multiplication expressions, she represented them as arrays.  This reinforced what students had been learning about arrays in the previous unit.

This is what the math string looked liked at the end of the sharing.

Part 2: Working on It

Laura introduced the problem to the whole class by setting the context.  She used what her students knew about her and her condo to modify the original EQAO question.

This is a modified version of the Grade 6 EQAO question from the Spring 2006 assessment.

Laura then completed the KWC chart with the whole class to ensure that everyone had the same understanding of the problem.

These are some misconceptions we noticed in the student work.

no conversion of units; ignored measurement of tile

ignored different units

found area of rectangle, then converted to smaller units

Part 3: Reflecting and Connecting

The following groups were asked to share their thinking with the whole class during the MATH CONGRESS.  They were chosen to share because their thinking would clarify some of the misconceptions observed during the group problem solving.

Group #1

Representation of the first group's solution

Group #2

Representation of the second group's solution (done by Laura)

Group #3: complete solution

Part 3: Explicit Teaching
This is the part of the lesson that Laura connected all three solutions.

She also demonstrated a complete solution to the whole class.  This ensures that everyone left the lesson with the same understanding of the correct solution and the problem solving process.

One of the things we noticed during the Math Congress was that after each group shared, the class was confused about their thinking.  So Laura had to represent their thinking visually so the rest of the class can move on to the next solution.  This is a great example of what the teacher's role might look like during the math congress.

Pre-Reading Strategies: PROBABLE PASSAGE

Using pre-reading tasks with our students is key to engage them with a text and frontload meaning with them.  Through these strategies, students feel connected and invested and want to immerse themselves in the reading.

Probable Passage is one strategy to use to introduce a text, usually fictional.  Students work with a set of words, in partners or small groups, and decide how these words connect to the text that will be read or shared.  Decisions need to be made together with regards to whether the words are part of the setting, problem, outcomes or characters.  After these decisions are made, students need to come up with a "gist statement," a prediction as to what the text is about.

There are many outcomes that come from this strategy.  Discussing words together, exploring meaning, looking at literal and figurative meanings, making predictions, working as a team, listening and speaking are some of the positive results you will notice and address with your class.

During Laura's literacy block, she wanted to read a very important book with her students, looking at the issues of fairness and race.  The book, Martin's Big Words, is a favourite to read to students and is often shared with students before Grade 6.  In order to use the book, Laura decided to try probable passage with her class and have them think about some key words while working with a group.  Not only did she want her students to make meaning about the text from the words, but she wanted them to work together to do so.

It is not important for students to have the right prediction when doing this activity.  The focus should be on students drawing on their prior knowledge and connecting this to the words to come up with a prediction that relates.  You may decide not to give students the title beforehand, as Laura did, or you absolutely can.  The words you decide to give may be elusive or straight-forward, again, that decision is up to you.  

These are the words Laura chose from the story to have each group work with.  They read the words together, talked about them, and then cut them out to paste onto their probable passage template.  Students needed to come to a consensus about where these words fit into the story.

After giving the groups enough time to discuss and decide where the words go, Laura met with her class on the carpet to talk about their thoughts.  Groups shared their ideas and predictions and justified why they made the decisions they did.  Going through the words together allowed for multiple meanings to emerge.  For example, the word "fists" was interpreted by one group as fists used in a fight, while the other talked about shaking your fist in anger or cheering someone on.  

From this discussion, Laura then read the book aloud to her students, which led to a richer understanding of the text as a whole.  Students were attentive and deepened their understanding of the story and the details.  When they heard the word "blistering" in the story, they connected to their pre-reading work and discussed the implications of the word in context with the story.

Here are the 7 probable passages from Laura's class... the seven title predictions are:

1. The garbage city
2. Gandhi, a biography
3. Martin Luther King Jr.
4. Gandhi the Peacemaker
5. Gandhi
6. Gandhi and the City
7. Gandhi's Life Story

Notice the differences from group to group, these differences are important to talk about with the class, not to say that one is better or right, but to highlight how we all bring our background knowledge and experiences to a text and these intersect with the text to create meaning.

This is a fabulous resource with more pre-reading strategy ideas, as well as other reading gems, to engage our students in meaningful, thought-provoking tasks.

Other texts to extend the ideas and themes of Martin's Big Words and to use with this story are:

• The Other Side
• Gandhi
• White Socks Only
• A Taste of Colored Water
• "I Have A Dream" speech
• Barack Obama's speeches
• U2's songs, "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" or "MLK"

For more information about probable passage, please see click on the following resources:

• Probable Passage (strategy templates)
• Think Literacy (Grade 7-9, Language/English strategies)