12th+Grade+Color+Coding+Post-It+Notes

**12th Grade Active Reading Lesson**
 * **Class**: 12th Grade English

 **Unit**: Unit One in Glencoe British Literature: The Anglo Saxon Period and the Middle Ages

 **Teacher:** Sarah Essay, Elm Creek High School

** Materials: ** Glencoe Literature Books Post-It Notes Highlighters in three colors: pink, yellow, green Scissors Posters Markers

** Duration: ** 3 days || Students will understand the Anglo Saxon period and the Middle Ages in order to read an excerpt from //Beowulf.//
 * || || ** Objectives **
 * || || ** Objectives **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Standards ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">LA 12.1.4 Fluency: Students will read a variety of grade level texts fluently with accuracy, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">appropriate pace, phrasing, and expression.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">LA 12.1.5 Vocabulary: Students will build literary, general academic, and content specific grade <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">level vocabulary.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">LA 12.1.6.d Summarize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate informational text.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">LA 12.1.6.f Analyze and evaluate information from text features (e.g., index, annotations, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">photographs, charts, tables, graphs, headings, subheadings, lists).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Anticipatory Set ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Web it out” about the Middle Ages – what students know, what they think they know. Draw a circle on the marker board, and write “Middle Ages” inside it. Ask students to give me a few facts they know about the Middle Ages; draw a line to the circle and write the fact next to the line (right or wrong). Then, after students get the hang of it, have them come up and write their own facts. Leave the web on the board as we read the unit background; perhaps circle/underline facts that are true or highlighted in the reading and cross out wrong facts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Teaching: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Teach how to use post-it notes for color coding. (Color coding review on p. 88 of Write Tools 101.)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Using Post-It Notes: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Pass out post-it notes, scissors, and buckets with yellow, pink, green highlighters. Each student should separate their post-it pad into three smaller pads (by peeling apart in three equal sections). Then, they should color the top note of each pad a color from the highlighter (if you already have yellow post-it notes, don’t recolor yellow). Then, they should snip each note into four or five sections until top note is almost cut through. (Each snipped section should have a sticky end – make sure they position their notes with the sticky side facing away from them so they don’t cut it the wrong way). They will have 12-15 snipped notes (still on pads!) by the time they are done cutting.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Starting the Unit, Day 1: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Begin reading from Glencoe anthology about the introduction to the Anglo Saxon Period and the Middle Ages. Read a few paragraphs to get into the article. Stop, go back, and ask what they think the topic of the article is. Have them find the sentence, then put a green snipped sticky note next to the topic sentence. On the sticky note, have them write the topic with the Rule of 5 (five words or less). Have them find the first big idea that you have read about. Put a yellow note next to this, and Rule of 5 it on the note. Continue reading, stop and go back to find the other big ideas. After they are found, go back through to pink it up together, again using Rule of 5 on the sticky notes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Day 1-2: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The next sections are further explanation of the Middle Ages broken into three topics: The Epic Warrior, the Power of Faith, and the World of Romance. Break students into three groups and have them do Post-It Note color coding throughout the article. After they have color-coded their article, have them make a T-Chart of the information (you could also do this before and while they color code if this is easier for them). After they have read their article and color-coded it, have them do the Summary Without Words (p. 56 of Active Reading). Remind them to incorporate the green note, all yellow notes, and important pink notes on their poster.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Day 3: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have students hang up their posters. Have them make blank T-Charts for the two other sections, and as each group explains their section, all students not in that group will listen for essential information and fill out their T-Chart. Try to make this as lecture-authentic as possible; remind them not to shout out “Wait – what was your 2nd big idea?!” while the group is presenting. Have them fill out as much information as possible while the presentation is occurring, and then ask questions afterward, similarly to how they would in a college lecture. After each student has three filled-out T-Charts, have them put their names on them, write which topic was theirs originally, and pass them in for you to grade.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Grading: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It would be easiest to have filled out your own T-Charts prior to reading and then filled out additional T-Charts as the groups presented. I would grade each T-Chart on a pass/no pass scale – if they have 70% of the information correct, they receive an A, if not, they go back and find the rest of the information in the article themselves. I would warn them of this ahead of time; listen and fill out the chart completely and they will not have to do any extra work later.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Closure ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Make a new web on the board with the information the students now know. Remind them to remember this mindset and lifestyle when we begin reading //Beowulf// tomorrow.

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