I’d Almost Forgotten What Engagement Looks Like

Author: Beth Carlson, NBCT. MCELA Executive Board Member, English Teacher and Department Head at Kennebunk High School, [email protected] ​

In the October newsletter, I wrote that my English department was centering reading in our classrooms this year. I was hopeful but also worried that our efforts would not generate the returns we wanted. As part of the changes we’ve made, we are only doing one full-class novel.  We designed the year to also include a couple of book groups to provide students with structured choice as well as full choice through independent reading. I have attempted book groups or literature circles over the years with mediocre results, but this time, I am excited to say that the groups were a resounding success. The unit was called People on the Move. The book choices included American Street; The Faraway Brothers; From Here;  Butterfly Yellow, Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card, Home Is Not a Country; and Four Winds. I gave each student the first three pages of each book to read and asked them to rank the top three that seemed most interesting to them. This gave the students agency, and all students ended up with their first or second choice. My students chose American Street (two groups), The Faraway Brothers, Butterfly Yellow, and From Here.  

Because my students’ choices were all immigrant stories, I asked them what they knew about immigration or how people make the choice to come to the U.S.  The answer was very little. Kennebunk may not be far from Portland or Lewiston and is neighbors with Biddeford, but my students had very little knowledge about the people who have settled in these towns or other places in Maine. I decided to use the 2023 New Mainers series, “Long Way Home” from the Portland Press Herald as well as an article from 2024 titled “400 Years of New Mainers” to introduce them to the idea of asylum seekers and immigrants who have moved to our state. Each student was assigned one article from the series plus the two photo essays. I gave each student an organizer for note-taking for a Socratic Seminar, and I was so pleased to see their knowledge grow, their questions answered by peers, and their curiosity piqued over the course of their discussion. Many had read more than the assigned articles, and several had had discussions with family members about immigration. They left that class motivated to begin reading their books.
Each group decided how to break up their reading across the classes in the unit. They had the month of November.  Using ideas from Kate Roberts’ book, The Heart of Fiction, I gave them criteria to record in their notebook in preparation for each class: three new vocabulary words defined as well as at least two synonyms; one or two lines (quoted) that show important aspects of the main characters or significant secondary characterization; one or two examples (quoted lines) that reveal moments when there seems to be a shift in a character (situation/feelings/knowledge/theme or big idea/plot); and one quoted line that you think is interesting/beautiful/revealing/well written/different: imagery/ figurative language, charged/emotional language/persuasive/ length of sentence/tone/attitude/etc.  This work gave them knowledge and evidence to start the group discussions. Their conversations were rich and students were engaged in the discussions. I walked around the room listening and occasionally answering questions.  Each group designated a notetaker to record their discussions and keep them on task.  I organized each class to start with the group work and end with reading time. I often taught a mini-lesson on the notebook criteria in between.  I found this structure particularly motivating as the students had just discussed what they’d read and were generally invested in getting back into the book for 10-20 minutes at the end of class, especially if they were a little behind.  Most were very earnest at keeping pace with their groups.  

The students closed out the unit with a paper about how being an immigrant complicated each character’s life.  Their book group then became a writing group, helping to develop and polish each other’s writing.  We were not quite done, however.  Students used an annotation template to take notes on the article, “What I Saw In the Darien Gap” published in The Atlantic magazine as well as two articles from the George W. Bush Presidential Center about the complexity of and controversy around immigration.  I then jigsawed the groups so each new group included a person who had read each book.  The students were charged to make a podcast episode to teach others about what they learned.  They spent one class deciding the importance of what they’d learned and what they thought others should know.  They had another class to plan and script and a third to record. They had to title the episode and include introductory music.  The podcasts, titled, “American Dream,” “Borderless Stories,” and “New Roots” are posted on The Herd, our online student publication.

During this month and a half, my class felt like a learning community.  The feedback from the students afterward reinforced this with comments such as, “This unit was fun,” and, “I learned so much, but it wasn’t like history.”  I never focused on politics at all, instead framing the unit around learning about why people move, and the kids rarely brought it up.  Other comments included, “I never knew some immigrants came here because their home was dangerous,” and “Seeing their stories through their point[s] of view gave me different ideas from those I’ve heard about.”  I am calling this unit a big success on several levels.