Reading for Ideas

Have students complete a reading with a very focussed assignment: finding one passage/quote to share with the class.

Steps

1. Choose and assign a relevant reading to the class.
2. Create a blank slide deck to go along with an assigned reading and give students access to it.
3.  Instruct each student to add one slide with a quote from the reading that they found meaningful/important that they would like to discuss with the class. Let them know they should be prepared to lead a short discussion about the quote they choose and explain wat they think it means and why the chose it.
4. Use this presentation to frame discussion about the reading in the next class session, with students presenting/leading a conversation about their slide.
5. Afterwards, talk with students about what is is like to read with a goal/purpose in mind. Did it change how they approached the reading?

NOTE: Tell students they can’t duplicate anyone else’s quote, so there is incentive to do this early.

Follow-up Assignment Ideas

• As students become more adept at finding passages that they want to share and preparing to lead discussion about them, expand the scope of what they need to ”find:”
  • have them create a slide with a main idea and 2-3 supporting quotes
  • have them create a slide with two quotes from different parts of the text that seem to be related in interesting ways
  • have them create a slide with a quote that they disagree with, changed their mind about something, or reminded them of something else they’ve read for class or discussed in class.
• Keep expanding upon the idea of creating slides until you have an assignment where each student creates a slide deck for a reading with 4-6 specific slides with particular focuses you define. Each student could do this for different readings and you could then have them do short 5 minute presentations using their slides to support them as they speak.

Considerations

Students often struggle with “an approach” to their reading. They sit down to read without any questions or defined purpose in mind. Without this context they might find it difficult to engage with the text, making it even harder to understand. The point of this assignment is to frame a purpose for them that feels fairly low-stakes but requires them to “dig” into at least one short passage. It also serves as an entry point into a longer class discussion about the text, since each student is required to pick a unique passage.