Radical+Reading,+Writing,+and+Revision

=Radical Reading, Writing, and Revision: Motivating Engaged Reading and Writing=

Margo Figgins, Jessica Meth, Carly Nicolson

 * This session didn't have a handout so I'm summarizing the things that intrigued me about this session from memory.
 * These teachers did a project that centered on the inquiry of truth.
 * When reading radically, students are anticipating the author's bias, reading, and questioning perspective. Who has the power? Is this truth?
 * The focus was three different events/themes: a local one (called Vinegar Hill), a national one (homelessness), and a global one (Tienanmen Square). Students read articles about these events in groups on laptops, and discussed what they read with the above questions as their focus.
 * Here's a teaching idea: it's a variation on a tableau
 * Show a photo that has some kind of action, and it's best if it's a bit ambiguous or something questionable is happening, and DEFINITELY best when there are multiple people in the photo.
 * Put students in groups. Tell students to take the role of someone in the picture, or someone on the margins observing the event happening.
 * Each student thinks of one line that the person they've taken the role of might say or think.
 * Then the students get up and create a freeze frame of the position they might take as the person they are portraying.
 * When the teacher taps each kid on the shoulder, they say their line.
 * This helps students look at a situation from multiple perspectives.
 * Writing Assignment: Upset the power structure in the event/theme you studied; give voice to those who have none.
 * The example we gave was to write a letter from a homeless teen to a caregiver/parent.
 * Then they talked about Radical Revision.
 * It's a strategy that is founded on the following principles:
 * "Revision is not an act of closing down, it's an act of opening up." - William Stanford
 * Look at revision as an act of breaking boundaries you've created in your first draft and opening up to the surprise of new meanings.
 * I tried Radical Revision with my students when I got back. The instructions are below:
 * [insert assignment here].