Here is part of the My Class is “Structured” thread from tonite that wouldn’t post as a comment (error message), so I am making it into a post:
Jody had said:
My kids, as young as they are (11 and 12), have always had to write “essential” sentences or dialogue–copied from the text to help fill out their illustrations of text (novels or written stories). Part of my insistence that they do that is that their drawing skills can be pretty limited at their age. I was spending too much time trying to figure things out. They figure out pretty quickly which pieces of text are essential and which are not when they have to draw “meaning”–some interesting brain stuff is occurring which I don’t totally understand. I just get the benefit of watching it take place. This is the most “differentiated” activity on the planet in my opinion. I can certainly see how this idea can be tailored/ramped up for different levels and ages.
And then Robert (this is the comment we couldn’t get to post properly) said:
I’ve been doing some more thinking on this. Jody is right that this activity shows a high level of differentiation. In addition, there is a lot of brain work going on. Today I had my infamous fifth period doing this, and they were more on task than I have ever seen them. I did allow them to work with a partner, and they spent time truly collaborating with a minimum of extraneous conversation.
In addition to the interpretive work that is going on, I think that “mere copying” is a good exercise because students are practicing writing the target language. It’s sort of like having art students copy works of art: they improve their perception and ability at the same time, and they create more neural pathways for the language to get into their brains. Of course, we want to be certain that what they copy is worth copying; I would prefer to have different readers for this, but sometimes you have to go with what you’ve got.
I’m glad the activity worked for you today.
BTW, Jody, students’ drawing skills can still be pretty limited in high school. I always emphasize that the goal is to show understanding, not produce great art. Some of them resort to labels to aid understanding (and that is a good thing).