History of Love - A Final Class Discussion 194 - the end
"It wasn't easy. And yet. I found out how little is unbearable."
History of Love Day 14 -A Final Class Discussion (pgs 194 to the end) : We finish it up with an all-class, teacher led discussion. Students were asked the day before to bring in ONE final comment about the book.
Lesson Overview
There is SO much here in this beautiful ending - so many wonderful revalations, twists, and beautiful prose - I don't know any other way to do it successfully than a whole class teacher led discussion. You need to time this very carefully - the day before you should have asked your students to bring in one specific idea, comment, or question from the book (tell them they must be written down) . As in previous Ringmaster Teacher lessons - I give you my lesson notes and a sample page below. Remember to give the students the final word - I've never had a class not love this book - and it such a great way to start out the year. It is a novel about love, mystery, and most of all - empathy. Something we can certainly use in this world today. The quote above at the top of this lesson - discovering how to be resilient - is one great reason among thousands for teaching this novel.
My Lesson Notes & a sample reading page
See above or previous Ringmaster Teacher discussions for instructions - the text with my notes served as a guide for the questions, comments and ideas that I ask - though I was always ready for and often elicited the students ideas, questions, etc. As this is the final lesson and there is so much that gets discovered in these last few pages, it is important to pace the lesson so you finish - and so you get to the students' final comments that they have prepared. Remember - those comments must be just that - and you won't have time to discuss them - beyound a sentence or two.
Over the years - as I wrote notes in this text - the previous years' notes and questions become incorporated into the lesson. Again - you will find that these instructions are flexible - and I had to be - they kept changing the amount of time that we had in the classroom. Because students have most likely worked in groups on some of the covered material - you will need to (and I color-coded my notes) to skip around. I also try to change my pen color from year to year and you can see that at the top.
Audio Visual Content
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Nothing that I have found...yet.
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A visit and reading from the author Nicole Krauss Nicole Krauss comes to Room 207 - does a short reading from The History of Love and answers the students' questions.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
When we switched to the, in my mind, horrible block scheduling - I had to adjust and change so much of what we did. This lesson part of a much larger Row Reading exercise and I made sure that the important things that need to be covered - did get covered if the students didn't bring them up. Two teacher-led discussions in a row. And yet when I started 35 years ago, they were the only ones that I did. So much to cover here and by the teacher leading it - and with them knowing where they want to take the students, you can cut and edit (and add) on the fly!