Bringing Literatu
Daniela Fazio knows how to make English class engaging. Not only does she make it
a priority to swap ideas with teachers and get feedback from students, but she’s also a
former AOPS high school student herself. Daniela recently shared her favorite techniques
for making reading and writing come alive.
Q
A What project best helps your students to think “outside the box” about the
way they approach creative writing?
Q
A How do you engage students who have a weakness (or feel they have a
weakness) with language?
Q
A What’s your favorite way to make intimidating or
archaic material more relatable?
With blackout poetry, students find a poem within a page of text, whether from a newspaper or a random page
in a book. They identify words that strike them, then link them with other words. When read from top to bottom,
left to right, it creates a poem. Then students “black out” the remaining words with a marker, sometimes even
creating designs. Students get to express themselves in a new way, and they always surprise themselves with
what they create.
It’s important to build confidence in students who struggle. When students
don’t succeed, I let them know that they are not alone, and that we can
all learn from that error. I also reach out to parents to encourage extra
help outside of class. That’s the best time for me to work with a student
and determine how he or she is feeling and how I can best help. Once we
build that trust, I usually notice a significant difference, even in the student’s
participation.
For Romeo and Juliet, I have groups create a five-song playlist — one
song for each act of the play. Students choose a song that represents their
designated act, explaining their decision in a written analysis. Then each
group shares their soundtrack, and we vote on the strongest one. I can’t count how many times students have
told me they never would have realized so many songs they listen to could be connected to such an old story.