These are some of the questions that students came up with for the Higher-Order-Thinking question generating lesson. I was really impressed with their work on this assignment. The range in and complexity in questions showed me they understood the assignment, and the content of the questions reflect prior class discussions. The question, “How do Xiomara and Twin’s identities differ, and how does this change their experiences of growing up in their family?” shows students activating prior knowledge from a class discussion about intersectionality in The Poet X, and many of the questions pertain to Xiomara’s relationships with Father Sean and her mother. One of the guiding questions throughout both the Romeo and Juliet and The Poet X units was the value and role of mentors in young people’s lives. That theme shows up multiple times in these questions.
The following video is a three and a half minute clip of one of my class’ Fishbowl activity. I was really pleased with the results of this lesson. A lot of students were really nervous at the prospect of this class, but afterwards were surprised at how easy it was for them to discuss, and some even wished they could have continued. Some of my favorite things to see were students monitoring which of their peers hadn’t spoken yet or had been interrupted, and which students attempted to save their group from a long awkward silence with a new connection or idea. Overall this activity was really successful because it pushed students out of their comfort zones, but even if they didn’t realize it or were nevertheless intimidated, they had all of the skills they could possibly need to excel in this setting. After reading and writing at length about The Poet X, and answering guiding questions from me regularly during class periods, they were more than prepared to facilitate a discussion on their own.