Focusing the Lens
Before reading about French culture in their textbook, Mrs. Grainger's French language class brainstorms what they already know about France and its culture. This information is placed on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. After reading the chapter, they discuss how their preconceived notions of French culture compares to what they learned from their textbook.
Mrs. Grainger then has them pair off and research French culture on pre-selected Web sites on the Internet. As small groups, they then further explore the concept of French culture and how it has influenced other cultures. At the end of the lesson, each group hands in a summary of what they learned.
In the above vignette, how could Mrs. Grainger have guided her students into including other After Reading strategies into their learning process? What type of arts would have been appropriate for her class to participate in? How would you change the lesson so that students would have a research paper as an end product rather than a summary of key information? What types of Multiple Intelligences and Intelligent Behaviors were expressed by the students? What would you have done differently?