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Tanya Washnik
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OCTOBER 11, 2007:
What are specific ways you can incorporate literacy activities into your lessons?

I feel that the most important way to incorporate literacy into a classroom is to go beyond the required textbook/workbook for my class. There are millions of sources out there and in a variety of different fields. For instance, instead of introducing a short story unit b explaining to students what a short story is, I would use a visual aide. I would video tape a sitcom and explain to my students that a sitcom has the same set-up as a short story. I would give them a short story map and have them map out the sitcom as they would a short story. This way, they are enjoying their favorite sitcom while expanding their horizons beyond the classroom.
If a particular story we are reading, take Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for example, had references to gangs, I would have the kids take a day to research a present day article on gang related violence and compare it to Romeo and Juliet.
These are only a few examples as to how literacy can be incorporated. Others include a wide range of text from fiction to non, articles, books, textbooks, informational and poetic texts, to name a few, all in a wide variety of different genres.

OCTOBER 18, 2007:
How is the unit planning experiment going?
I feel very confident about Jen’s and my work thus far on the init inquiry project. We are working very well together and it is really refreshing to be able to work off of someone else’s bright and original ideas. We seem to be able to seamlessly finish one another’s sentences and have come up with a solid lesson plan that has thus far, covered everything we want to say and that is required.
We of course have a lot to tweak, but we have a wide variety of literacy activities planned that will bring the student’s minds out of just reading the pages to feeling what the characters are thinking and feeling. I feel like this kind if a topic will reach the minds of the students and stay there long enough for the kids to want to broaden their horizons.
We still have a lot to do, but I feel confident that this will be a phenomenal lesson plan.