Lena McKinley December 4, 2013 Final Paper- 5 Concepts Everything that we have covered in ECI 405 is going to be tremendously

helpful in exploring literature in the classroom. From visual aids to choosing the right !inds of literature to analy"ing literature itself I can easily apply that !nowledge to the time spent wor!ing with the seventh graders. From the first day of class we were made aware of the video boo! tal! presentations and the concept of visual aids with young adult novels. Comparing novels to their movies was an awesome way for us to see each wee! the valuable component that visual aids were to novels. #any boo!s I had read but had not seen the movie and the presentations gave me a whole new understanding of the content. $e teach our students to use their imagination as they read and imagine the stories and situations in their heads. %hen to allow the students to actually see on film what was played out in their heads while reading the boo! is a great experience and way to really comprehend and solidify what hey had learned. %eaching students as we learned in class to pay attention to the lighting music and emotions in movies can help them to better identify literary elements in their reading and help them visuals how authors &set the stage' for the readers. %he great thing about visual aids is that you don(t have to show an entire two hour movie clips and pieces of recordings can be shown and be )ust as helpful. %he helpfulness of visual aids was shown especially in %he *utsiders pro)ect. $hether students had read the boo! or not the clips shown when the middle schoolers came in gave them an idea of the setting mood and characters without even much prior !nowledge. %hey understood the &aura' or theme this boo! provo!ed merely with a +,minute clip. -nother concept covered is the idea of relativity. It is critical to choose literature that students can become &emotionally and cognitively' relatable to and something they can apply to the world around them. %he literature has to &clic!' with the students or they will not benefit from it. $ith

suitable wor!s available to students they are bound to find one that interests them on a deeper level and helps them to get closer to discovering a &personal identity.' %he conflicts and resolutions that characters in boo!s go through can open new outlets for learning about things they need to !now to be successful adults that a teacher or textboo! can not teach them. &%he *utsiders' boo! could not be a more perfect choice for this age and maturity of students. It was clear that the students loved the storyline characters and conflict. #any students are going through similar situations mentioned in the boo! and the !inds of discussions we facilitated prior to being given the lyrics must have been very reassuring and comforting to them. $e discussed that many teachers struggle with the decision of whether to teach students what people thin! they ought to be learning verse teaching them what is most relatable to them. Classics can be very confusing for middle schoolers one because of the language and second because they cannot relate to them. Classics have been the standard source of literary practice for many years but educators everywhere see that middle school may not be the best place for them as a sole source of material. I cannot imagine the reaction to the *utsiders pro)ect being the same if a more classic style boo! was chosen. &%he *utsiders' novel spar!ed conversations amongst the middle schoolers that blew me away. It proves that when students en)oy the material they go above and beyond their expectations. -nother concept we discussed this semester was the importance that literary elements play in catering to young adult readers. - .uote from our textboo! best sums up the importance of this by stating that & /iterary elements wor! in the literature to determine the degree in which we as readers suggest that the wor! has .uality.' It was really helpful to discuss the real gears behind &good literature' and what is going on to ma!e students en)oy what their reading. - well developed and exciting plot characters setting theme point of view and style is the recipe for a good piece of wor!. *f all the literary techni.ues authors can employ in their texts I thin! characters are the most important detail to consider when targeting young adult and 0hoo!ing0 their readers. 1eaders experience a lot through the characters in the boo!s they read. It is so important to snag readers attention by ma!ing

them feel an emotional connection and relativity with the character and what the character is going through. 2oung adult readers want a &well,developed' character that they can identify with almost as if they want to grow learn and experience along with the characters. %he outsider pro)ect re.uired us to discuss the characters in the boo! in order to choreograph appropriate moves to the lyrics and it helped a lot that they were able to connect with them so well. %he students also practices other literary elements by discussing the chapters by going lyric by lyric. %he students did a great )ob of identifying the mood of the boo! and estimating the setting by different context clues. %he last concept that we covered this semester was reader response. *ver the past several years we have discussed the importance and benefits of having students respond to their reading and writing. 3y responding bac! and forth to a partner during our earlier novels you are able to comprehend and apply material on another level. $hile reading your mind is constantly wor!ing to ma!e the material relative in order to subconsciously or consciously respond to it. 3y doing this same process afterwards and actually writing it out a reader is practicing higher level thin!ing s!ills. *ur final product for the outsiders pro)ect would not have been near as accurate without our in depth discussions with the students about the boo!. $e constantly as!ed them how they reacted to different parts of the boo! and having the lyrics there gave us a s!eleton for prompting .uestions. %he concepts we discussed throughout the semester all came together in our groups with the seventh graders. *ur instructions and pace would not have been possible without the scaffolding done prior to the pro)ect in class.