The Real Life of Fiction: Using Nonfiction Texts with Literary Texts
Tracy Scholz and John Golden
PPT available at: sites.google.com/site/johngoldenpdx
Agenda for the Session
PPT and handout available at: sites.google.com/site/johngoldenpdx
Two Kinds (page 3)
The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London. One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I could remember. "Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and...that's all I remember, Ma," I said.
And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that night I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back - and understood that it would always be this ordinary face - I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high - pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.
And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me - a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not.
Nonfiction Texts
The Conversation: Motivation (page 10)
Whiplash
“There are no two words more harmful in the English language than ‘good job’.
The Texts (p. 10)
1. from Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
2. from The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
3. How to Raise a Creative Child by Adam Grant
4. from Drive by Daniel Pink
5. from Open by Andre Agassi
Questions: What is this author’s attitude toward motivation? What is his/her best evidence? How might Suyuan and Jing-mei react to the author? Why?
Tracking the Ideas (page 10)
Some of the texts in this Conversation suggest that either extrinsic or intrinsic motivations are more effective. Summarize each text’s point of view and most relevant evidence by creating a chart similar to the one below, including the text that you located on your own.
TEXT | Ideas about EXTRINSIC | Ideas about INTRINSIC | Best EVIDENCE | Your THOUGHTS |
| | | | |
From Outliers (page 12)
Another Text in the Conversation
2. from The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (p.14)
3. How to Raise a Creative Child by Adam Grant (p.16)
Read/skim your assigned text and consider what it adds to your knowledge of motivation. Add to the chart.
Tiger Mom Creative Kid
Tiger Mom
Creative Kid
Tiger Mom Creative Kid
Tiger Mom
Creative Kid
Entering the Conversation
Kenneth Burke writes:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.
The Believing Game
… is a concept teacher and scholar Peter Elbow put forth as counterweight to the skeptical and analytical practice of “the doubting game.” That is, while we normally approach other viewpoints skeptically and analytically, Elbow urges us to “be as welcoming as possible to every idea we encounter: not just listening to views different from our own…but actually trying to believe them.” Doing so, he claims, helps us to find hidden flaws in our own thinking and leads to greater understanding and consensus.
Entering the Conversation
Now that you have examined the ideas of each author individually and begun to make connections, it’s time to really get inside their heads! Take on the role of one of the authors you have just read, and be prepared to discuss the following questions as if you were that author.
1. What are the main factors that motivate people?
2. What are the best methods to achieving success?
Move around the room and have a conversation with people about the questions above. Role play: Speak as “I” rather than, for instance, “Gladwell would say” or “Grant believes.”
A True Conversation
“Hi, I’m Malcolm Gladwell, and I believe that ____”
“Amy, you make a good point about _____, but I also think that ______.”
“Adam, you may have misunderstood my point about _____.”
Choosing a Prompt (page 19)
Prompt 1: Think about an activity that you participate in now or in the past. Write about what motivates you – intrinsically or extrinsically – to participate in the activity.
Prompt 2: Should children be pushed to participate in activities at a very young age in order to get to the 10,000-hour rule Gladwell describes? Where is the line between helping children to succeed and pushing them too hard or too far?
Prompt 3: How should we define success in life? Is it happiness? Is it excellence? Is it being the best? Ultimately, does hard work and practice lead to success, as you define it?
Building on the Conversation
Locate one additional text on this topic that you think adds an interesting perspective to this Conversation. This text can be of any type: an argument, a narrative, a poem, a painting, or even a film clip. Before you decide on adding this text to the Conversation, be sure that it is a credible and relevant source. Read and annotate the text carefully, making connections to other texts in the Conversation and “Two Kinds.”
Criteria for Evaluation
Ultimately, ask yourself, “is this a source worth adding to my knowledge of the topic? Why or why not?”
Writing an Argument
Once you have read multiple texts on the topic and have begun organizing your thinking about it, it is time to write your argument. Respond to one of the following prompts, being sure that you keep your position on the issue central and be sure to refer to at least two texts from the Conversation, including your own source, to support your position.
What we know about successful synthesis
Reflecting
Think back on your reading of “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. How did reading further about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation change your interpretation of that story, or help you understand something about the characters or theme?
Building a Conversation
A “Conversation” of Texts
For example...9th grade:
Drama: Romeo and Juliet |
Conversation: what are the benefits and dangers of organizing into “Tribes?” |
Texts in the Conversation |
|
Another Example...
Mythology: The Odyssey |
Conversation: how does society define a hero and what is included/excluded as a result? |
Texts in the Conversation: |
Resources to locate texts
Newsela: modify lexile
New York Times:
Rhetoric.com
Scholastic Scope
TED Talks
The Atlantic
Wrap Up
Questions, comments, concerns?
Tracy Scholz: Tracy.Scholz@aliefisd.net
John Golden: jgolden@pps.net
PowerPoint and handout: https://sites.google.com/site/johngoldenpdx/