Thursday, December 5, 2013

Great Ideas for Using Informational Text to Teach Literature

Finding and putting great informational texts into rewarding dialogue with the literary works we teach takes a lot of time and effort. But of course that does not stop ELA teachers from doing just that!

We think that work should be celebrated and shared, so here are some of the favorite literary and nonfiction text pairing ideas and strategies we've come across lately:

  • Danielle Clarke pairs articles about the trapped Chilean miners with Lord of the Flies: "I've gathered the stories of the Chilean miners into a word document, and we have wonderful discussions about the different outcomes between the boys on the island and the men stranded in the mine. I also have several other non-fiction articles that I've used to compare/contrast with LOTF. They are located in this document."
If you have created or found other inspired pairings, please share them in the comments!

11 comments:

  1. PBS NewsHour Extra offers an intriguing lesson plan that has students engage with the concept of inequality in conjunction with activities and articles on "The Great Gatsby Curve." http://www.sharemylesson.com/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=50013062

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  2. This article on Langston Hughes from YCTeen is a good informational text to pair with one or more of Hughes' poems.

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  3. Don't miss @NYTimesLearning's excellent "Text to Text" feature on "12 Years a Slave" and Solomon Northrup's original narrative. Also check out the NYT's original 1853 article on Northrup's narrative. Great supplementary texts to use with Huck Finn and other slavery-related works.

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  4. If you teach Saki's short story, "The Open Window," pair it with this very timely NBC News article about the families wondering about their loved ones on the missing Malaysian airplane.

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  5. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o's speech on beauty is a must-use when teaching The Bluest Eye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCkfARH2eE

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  6. Ta-Nehisi Coates' incredible Atlantic magazine feature is an enormously rich text, including great videos, to use with A Raisin in the Sun.

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  7. HT @KimChismJasper via the NCTE Connected Community: Pair Of Mice and Men with "NY Times (or other media) articles about the Supreme Court ruling on death penalty for mentally challenged. Such articles go with discussion about George's decision at the end."

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