I’ve seen more emphasis on College and Career Readiness with the new standards. I know many of the students in my classes are not planning to go to college, but I started to think about integrating STEM activities and career and real-life activities into my classroom. I started to wonder how I could integrate some of the things students like about their Career Center classes – personal interests, practicality, and hands-on activities – into my English classroom.
I discovered the book Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi. This high interest, low reading level novel is told from the perspectives of two cousins: Skye, who was born in America, and Hiroshi whose family moves from Japan to the United States. In each chapter Skye or Hiroshi narrate their experiences dealing with changes in their culture and issues they deal with at school and at home. The children eventually come together through kite building and compete in Washington, D.C.’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival Kite Battle. Wilhelm and Smith have taught us that students, especially boys, enjoy competition. Why not have our own kite competition? Giving students the opportunity to build their own kites would put some of their real-world skills to use in my English class. With a $500 grant, I was able to purchase a class set of the books, some books on kite design and kite battles, and enough materials for students to build kites for at least three years.
Planning the Unit
As I planned the unit, focused on Flying the Dragon, I determined the outcomes I hoped to accomplish through it. Students would:
-Read the novel and use reading strategies independently
-Discuss major ideas themes in the novel
-Review literary elements and write in response to literature
-Practice research skills
-Develop real-world skills
-Complete hands-on activities
-Have fun
In addition to reading the novel in class, I planned three main components for the unit: a choice menu of assignments, working with a group to earn “Dewing Dollars” and develop a budget, and planning and building the kites. Students selected a group of classmates to read and discuss the book with in a Literature Circle format (Daniels, 2002), and to work with for kite building.
Choice Menus
Each student received a copy of the Choice Menu (see appendix A), and was required to complete one activity from each category: appetizer, main course, side dish, and dessert. The activities in each category corresponded to the section of the book students had completed by the due date and to a specific skill I wanted them to work on. For example, the appetizer activities were related to literary terms and figurative language, while the main courses all required some type of research. By giving students choice in their assignments, they were more engaged in the learning (Bluestein, 2012). Students who are given some choice in their learning have been found to complete more assignments in less time (Kohn, 1993). Many of my students, who often didn’t complete their class assignments, quickly became competitive about completing the activities from their choice menus. Although they typically were not motivated by grades, they were motivated by the “Dewing Dollars” that they earned as they completed the activities of their choosing.
