Performing Joseph Bruchac's The Scattered Stars: Choral Reading & Comprehension

This poem is from: Bruchac, Joseph.  (1995). “The Scattered Stars.” In The Earth Under Sky Bear's Feet:  Native American Poems of the Land.  New York:  Philomel Books. (Cochiti Pueblo Southwest)

Choral Reading 

1. Read the poem aloud. Let the children hear the poem several times.
2. Explain to students that they will be reading the poem together. Tell them that choral reading is simply reading in unison under the direction of a leader.
3. Assign speaking roles based on interest and capacity and have students highlight their roles.
4. Practice and practice some more until the poem can be read with expression.
5. Consider audio recording the performance with Voice Recorder (or another app of your choosing) and making it available on iTunes--or you could make a podcast (see how here). 

           

Part II. Sample Arrangements for Choral Reading

In the previous post, Part I: Recent Poetry Books for Choral Reading in Grades 2-8, I provided a book list of recent poetry books that can be used as a text source for choral reading.  In this post, I have selected a few poems from those books and created sample choral reading scripts.  I also have included a very brief slideshare  about conducting choral readings. Thanks to Jane Gangi who first showed me how to arrange texts for choral reading.

Choral Reading from Mary Ann Reilly / Blueprints for Learning, Inc.

Part I: Recent Poetry Books for Choral Reading in Grades 2-8

In this post I provide a list of recent poetry books that can be used as text sources for choral reading. In Part II. Sample Arrangements for Choral Reading, I provide a slideshare explaining how to conduct choral reading and sample arrangements of poems taken from the list of books below.

Grades 2-5

Bochard, David. (2014). Voices From the Wild: An Animal Sensagoria. Illustrated by Ron Parker. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

Elliott, David. (2014). On the Wing. Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Frank, John. (2014). Lend a Hand: Poems About Giving. Illustrated by London Ladd. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Greenfield, Eloise. (2010). The Great Migration: Journey to the North. Illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. New York: Amistad.

Iyengar, Malathi. (2009). Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown. Illustrated by Jamel Akib. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Janeczko, Paul. (2014). Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Jiang, Emily. (2014). Summoning the Phoenix: Poems and Prose About Chinese Musical Instruments. Illustrated by April Chu. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Johnston, Tony. (2014). Sequoia. Paintings by Wendell Minor. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

Mora, Pat. (2014). Water Rolls, Water Rises: El agua rueda, el agua sube. Illustrated by Meilo So. New York: Lee & Low Books. 

Rogé. (2014 ). Haiti My Country. Illustrated by Rogé. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

Rogé. (2013 ). Mingan My Village. Illustrated by Rogé. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

Sidman, Joyce. (2014). Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold.  Illustrated by Rick Allen, San Diego, CA: Houghton Mifflin. 

Sidman, Joyce. (2010). Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors. Illustrated by Beckie Prange. San Diego, CA: Houghton Mifflin.

Singer, Marilyn.  (2011). A Full Moon Rising. Illustrated by Julia Cairns. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Wood block from Etched in Clay.

Grades 5-8

Cheng, Andrea. (2013). Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Lewis, J. Patrick & George Ella Lyons. (2014). Voices from the March on Washington. Honesdale, PA: WordSong.

Nelson, Marilyn. (2014). How I Discovered Poetry. Illustrated by Hadley  Hooper. New York: Dial.

Shange, Ntozake. (2012). Freedom's a-Callin Me. Illustrated by Rod Brown. New York: Amistad.

Smith, Hope Anita. (2011). The Way a Door Closes. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. New York: Square Fish.

Smith, Hope Anita. (2009). Mother Poems. New York: Henry Holt.

Woodson, Jacqueline. (2014). Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books.

What Makes Your Heart Beat?

I am planning some work I will be doing tomorrow with staff developers in Manhattan. It is a full day and I hope to help them to know, if they don't already, that close reading is aesthetic reading. The afternoon will be dedicated to deep thinking, dwelling, and full aesthetic immersion.

Below is a Slideshare, I will be using to engage the educators in close reading of Barry Lopez's essay, "Gone Back into the Earth." The students will conclude with an art conversation that begins by discussing the question: What makes your heart beat?  which echoes Lopez's conclusion.

Close reading of barry lopez'z gone back from Mary Ann Reilly / Blueprints for Learning, Inc.

K-3 Global Multicultural Poetry for Shared, Choral, Paired, & Echo Reading

This is a poetry booklet I made for upcoming work I will be doing with primary grade teachers.  It is part of an eBook that explores shared, choral, paired, and echo reading techniques. It can be downloaded.

Poems for shared, choral, paired, and echo reading

View more documents from Mary Ann Reilly / Blueprints for Learning, Inc.

Create Dangerously

Osip Mandelstam (M.A.Reilly, March 2012)

"We live, not feeling the country beneath us," writes Osip Mandelstam in his poem, "We Live, Not Feeling." Mandelstam, as you might know, was shortly arrested after the poem came to the notice of Stalin, who had the poet tortured and imprisoned. He was sentenced to five years hard labor in May 1938 and died at the transit camp in December 1938 from starvation and madness.

Here's the full poem:

We Live, Not Feeling

We live, not feeling the country beneath us,
Our speech inaudible ten steps away,
But where they're up to half a conversation -
They'll speak of the Kremlin mountain man.

His thick fingers are fat like worms,
And his words certain as pound weights.
His cockroach whiskers laugh,
And the top of his boots glisten.

And all around his rabble of thick-skinned leaders,
He plays through services of half-people.
Some whistle, some meow, some snivel,
He alone merely caterwauls and prods.

Like horseshoes he forges decree after decree-
Some get it in the forehead, some in the brow,
some in the groin, and some in the eye.
Whatever the execution - it's a raspberry to him
And his Georgian chest is broad.

I think about Mandelstam and his courage, as well as that of his wife, Nadezhda Mandelstam, who preserved his work at considerable cost.  I think of this poet in light of what it means to write and read and how we situate these acts at school. I worry that we are forgetting (perhaps have yet to learn?) that writing is not five paragraph test responses (regardless of those who would elevate such nonsense to a genre), nor is it a race through 10 different genres crammed into a sad map.  I wonder what will become of us if these understandings become what writing and reading mean to our children and their children.  Who would want to do such things unless forced?

II. Professional Texts

I grow weary of the number of professional texts that are about reading and writing and are poorly written, inaccurate, cite research that seems not to have been actually read or at least comprehended, and make gross assumptions about teaching, learning, and children.  Tonight I read a section of a literacy text that will be published in the summer.  The author is so grossly misinformed about so many of the topics--that it seems impossible that anyone would publish such nonsense.  But it will be published and countless school educators will read it and some will actually act on it. This is the great race through nothing: Every few weeks the students are to read and write some different type of genre. And now that technology needs to be embedded--they are to create films, digital comic books, picture books, short stories, advertisements, legends, fantasy stories, performance works and so on.  I think of it as the great units of study scheme.

Such nonsense. When does one dwell? I have lived a half century, authored numerous books, and I could not accomplish the list of writing tasks this author sets out for 10-year-olds.  No one has time to breathe, let alone think.

As the book mentions the Common Core a lot, I suspect it may become a best seller. Mores that pity.

III. Embracing Danger

It seems so demeaning to art to tell our children that writing and reading are about testing genres and that text can be understood by listing the literary components of a specific genre (even when the list is erroneous).  Whereas this is demeaning to art, it is a spirit killer too. Each time my son comes home with a silly writing task to do or a cereal box response to construct based on a book he was forced to read or a pseudo close reading response log-- I shudder and I think of Mandelstam who died because of the power of the written word.  That's what I want my child to understand: that composing are acts of bravery, acts of danger.

Edwidge Danticat (2011) offers an inspiring interpretation of composing.  She advises the writer to "[c]reate dangerously, for people who read dangerously." She explains that she has lived by this adage:

This is what I’ve always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them. (Kindle Location, 181-182).

That seems a fair litmus test. Let's ensure our children feel their country beneath them.  Resist the recipe book professional texts that insults you by offering to do the thinking for you.

I can imagine an entire literacy curriculum summarized as such:  

Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously.

Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge (2011-09-20). Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (Kindle Location 181- 182). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Unpacking the Common Core State Standards: Reading/Performing/Writing Yeats

The Golden Apple Tree by Arthur Rackham (from a book of  fairy tales, 1853)

In order to better understand the middle school ELA Common Core State Standards, deconstructing the actions taken when engaging with a literary text can helpful.  In this post,  a series of performance and analysis tasks are explored and this is followed by examining the CCSS in order to see which of the standards were attended to. One of the 'model' texts included in the Common Core is William Butler Yeat's poem, "The Song of the Wandering Aengus."

Note: This post is done in preparation for work I will be doing with literacy coaches in Manhattan.

I. Entering the Literary Text 

1. Hearing the Poem



2.  Hearing/Reading the Poem



3. Examine the image, The Golden Apple Tree, that is at the top of this post.  Tell your partner one or two ways that you can connect the image with the Yeat's poem.


Talk with a partner: How are these performances (audio/video and still image) similar? Different? 


II. Dwelling Inside the Poem


4. Visualizing the Text: Slideshare

Visualizing Meaning

View more presentations from Mary Ann Reilly

6. Chorally Performing the Poem: Slideshare
Note: I will audio tape the performances so you have a record.

Choral Reading

View more presentations from Mary Ann Reilly

7. Annotating the Poem

Here are some examples of ways that others have annotated a poem.
Heaney's Digging.
Out of the Dusk
Annotating the short story Miss Brill

An annotation of a poem are the marginal notes you make while reading and rereading a poem (or any text). For our work, I have given you a few questions to guide this annotation.

Materials Needed:
Copy of the poem (You may want to download this to your computer.)
pen/pencil
Internet search engine

1. Read the title: Does it offer a clue as to what the text may be about? Go ahead & note what you think.
2. Read the whole poem.
3. Reread the poem, this time with a pen at hand. As you read, talk back to the poem. Here are some questions to guide you.

• Who is the speaker? 
• What is the speaker's story? Go ahead a write a line or two in the margin for each stanza about what is happening literally.
• What's the tone of the poem? Does the tone change by stanza? If so, how? Go ahead and make some marginal notes.
• What do you notice about the images you make as you read the poem?
• Are there any patterns you notice? Repetition of words, sounds, phrases, image, motifs? 
• Are there lines/stanzas that confuse you?  What are you wondering?
• What do you notice about the word choice? Are there words you wonder about and/or don't know? Highlight them and look them up in an on-line dictionary. What are you wondering?
• Notice the structure of the poem--3 stanzas. Why do you think Yeats divided the poem into three stanzas? Look at the notes you made about each stanza.
• What's a big idea this poem suggests? Does the structure of the poem connect with the big idea you cited? If you were going to only say two words in response to this poem, what might they be? Go ahead and place them in your marginal notes.

Discuss your annotation with a partner. Note similarities and differences between your work.

8. Quick Writing in Response to the Poem

Review the work you have composed:

• visual renderings of the poem, 
• notes you have made in preparation for the choral reading of the poem, 
• audio file of choral reading
• poem annotation

Make a statement about a theme you think is operating in the poem and support your assertion
by citing evidence from the text. Fashion this work into a paragraph.


Part II. Connecting Our Work to Common Core Standards, Grade 8 (Unpacking the Standards)

1. Open this Google Doc of the Common Core Standards for middle school.  Looking at the list of standards for grade 8, highlight any you noticed that we attended to during our work with the Yeats's poem. 
2. Be ready to discuss the Standards we worked on this morning.

With more time we might connect the poem to the following works:

1. This retold version by Patrick McCully of Wandering Aengus Mac Og

While lying asleep one evening Angus was visited by a fair maiden of the Faery named Caer Ibormeith. So taken with her beauty was he that when she disappeared as he woke he could think of no other, the thought of being without her caused him to fall ill, in essence... Love Sick.

Angus enlisted the help of Bodb and together they managed to track her to a Loch where she was living with 149 other maidens each in the form of a swan. Each Swan Maiden was bound by a silver chain, which as in all good tales could only be released by true love.

To gain her love Angus transformed himself into a Swan upon which the chain that held his love broke in two therefore freeing her. Reunited with Caer Ibormeith the lovers flew around Loch Bel Dracon three times singing a song so sweet all who heard it fell asleep for three days.

Angus is known in Celtic Lore as a God of Love and with his Swan Maiden they are said to have returned to Bruig na Boinne, otherwise known as New Grange.

2. This Inquiry Chart.
3. This Grade 8 ELA Curriculum Aligned to NCTE and Common Core State Standards
4. Grade 8 Units of Study from Common Core Mapping: Units 1 - 6

Books for My Presentation with Jane Gangi at 5th Annual Conference: Literacy Essentials

Tomorrow I will be co-presenting at the 5th Annual Conference: Literacy Essentials with friend and co-author, Jane M. Gangi at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT.  Our topic is "The Wonderful World of Multicultural Children's and Young Adult Books." Jane and I will be engaging participants in selected multicultural literature through performance, discussion, examination of art conversation artifacts, and a "Check it Out" book pass. In preparation for the conference I am listing the books I will have on hand, so that participants will have a bibliography to refer to after the event.

Global, Multicultural Books to Study Writer's Craft & Visual Art
Alarcon, Francisco X. 2005. Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera. Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
Argueta, Jorge. 2006. Talking with Mother Earth/Hablando con Madre Tierra. Illustrated by Lucia Angela Perez. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Atkins, Jeannie. 1995. Aani and the Tree Huggers. Illustrated by Verantius J. Pinto. NY: Lee & Low.
Baker, Jeannie. 2001. Home in the Sky. London: Walker Books.
Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki). 2002.  Navajo Long Walk: The Tragic story of a Proud People's Forced March from Their Homeland. Illustrated by Shonto Begay (Navajo). Washington D.C.: National Geographic.
-----------------------------, Jonathan London. 1992. Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back. Illustrated by Thomas Locker. NY: Philomel.
Campbell, Nicola (Interior Salish & Metis Ancestory). 2005. Shi-Shi-etko. Illustrated by Kim LaFave. Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.
Chambers, Veronica. 2002. Double Dutch: A Celebration of Jump Rope, Rhyme, and Sisterhood. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Cheng, Andrea. 2008. Where the Steps Are. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
Cohn, Diana. 2005. ¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. Illustrated by Francisco Delgado. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.
Erdrich, Louise (Chippewa). 1999. Grandmother's Pigeons. Illustrated by Jim LaMarche. NY: Hyperion.
Figueredo, D.H. 2003. The Road to Santiago. Illustrated by Pablo Torrecilla. NY: Lee & Low.
------------------. 1999. When This World Was New. Illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez. NY: Lee & Low.
Goldberg, Dana (ed). 2007. On My Block: Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists.  San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
Gollub, Matthew. 1998. Cool Melons - Turn to Frogs: The Life and Poems of Issa. Illustrations by Kazuko G. Stone. NY: Lee & Low.
Girmay, Aracelis. 2005. Changing, Changing. NY: George Braziller.
Grimes, Nikki. 1998. A Dime a Dozen. Illustrated by Angelo. NY: Dell.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. 2003. Super Cilantro Girl/La Supernina del Cilantro. Illustrated by Honori
Robledo Tapia. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
Ho, Minfong (Trans.). 1996. Maples in the Mist: Children's Poems from the Tang Dynasty. Illustrated by Jean & Mou-sien Tseng. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books.
hooks, bell. 2002. Homemade Love. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. NY: Jump at the Sun.
-------------. 2002. Be Boy Buzz. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Hubbard, Crystal. 2005. Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl's Baseball Dream. Illustrated by Randy DuBurke. NY: Lee & Low.
Issa. 2007. Today and Today. Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. NY: Scholastic.
Jiménez, Francisco. 1998. La Mariposa. Illustrated by Simon Silva. NY: Houghton Mifflin.
Johnson, Angela. 2004. Just Like Josh Gibson. Illustrated by Beth Peck. NY: Simon & Schuster.
--------------------. 2003. I Dream of Trains. Illustrated by Loren Long. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Johnson, D.B. 2002. Henry Builds a Cabin. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Lee, Milly. 2006. Landed. Illustrated by Yangsook Choi. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Letria, Jose Jorge. 2006. The Moon Has Written You a Poem. Illustrated by Andre Letria.  Translated by Maurice Riordan. Kent, England: Winged Chariot Press.

Lofthouse, Liz. 2007. Ziba Came on a Boat. Illustrated by Robert Ingpen. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Lord, Michelle. 2008. A Song for Cambodia. Illustrated by Shino Arihara. NY: Lee & Low.
Medina, Tony. 2001. DeShawn Days. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. NY: Lee & Low.
Messinger, Carla (Turtle Clan Lenape) and Susan Katz. 2007. When the Shadebush Blooms. Illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden (Wolf Clan Mohawk). Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press.
Myers, Walter Dean. 2009. Amiri & Odette: A Love Story. Paintings by Javaka Steptoe. NY: Scholastic Press.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2005. A Wreath for Emmett Till. Illustrated by Philippe Lardy. NY: HarperCollins.
Neri, G. 2007. Chess Rumble. Art By Jesse Joshua Watson. NY: Lee & Low.
Shange, Ntozake. 2004. Ellington was not a Street. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Sheth, Kashmira. 2010. Boys Without Names. NY: Balzar & Bray.
Shin, Sun Yung. 2004. Cooper's Lesson. Illustrated by Kim Coogan. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
Smith, Charles R. Jr. 2002. Perfect Harmony: A Musical Journey with The Boys Choir of Harlem. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Tapahonso, Luci (Navajo). 1999. Songs of Shiprock Fair. Illustrated by Anthony Chee Emerson (Navajo). Walnut, CA: Kiva Publishing.
Testa, Maria. 2005. Something About America. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Tran, Truong. 2003. Going Home, Coming Home/Ve Nham, Tham Que Huong. Illustrations by Ann Phong. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press.
WeatherfordBirmingham, 1963. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
Wilkes, Sybella. 1994. One Day We Had to Run! Refugee Children Tell Their Stories in Words and Paintings. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press.
Williams, Mary. 2005. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. NY: Lee & Low.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2001. The Other Side. Illustrations by E.B. Lewis. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Zinn, Howard (ed). 2004. The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known: Dramatic Readings Celebrating the Enduring Spirit of Dissent. NY: Perennial.

A Poem about Tempo (and fluency too)

Tempo

 By Charles Smith From Perfect Harmony: A Musical Journey with The Boys Choir of Harlem.

(Antiphonal 1: Read quickly)

If-the-tempo- is-too-fast-it-makes-your-words-crash-and-
causes-your-song-to-sound-like-trash.

(Antiphonal 2: Read Slowly)

But. . .
If
the
tem-
po
is
too
slow
you
lose
the
flow,
you
know?

(Antiphonal 1: Read with a moderate pace)

Keep the tempo at a moderate pace.
Let the music be your guide and don't chase.

(Antiphonal 2: Read with a moderate pace)

Not too fast or too slow,
just let the words go
with just the right pattern of temp.

A poem for Two Voices and a Chorus

The Last Word
by Nikki Grimes from A Dime a Dozen.

Voice 1: granddaughter
Voice 2: Grandma
Chorus: Chop! and Chop! Chop!

I peeled several potatoes
and tossed them in a pot.
                                         Chop!
Said Grandma, "You should boil them first,
then peel them when they're hot."
                                         Chop! Chop!
When they were done, I cubed them
into pieces one-inch thick.
                                         Chop!
"No! No!" she said. "You slice them fine.
Like so. I know the trick."
                                         Chop! Chop!
"The recipe is mine," I said.
(As if she cared a lick!)
                                         Chop! 
"Just do it my way: Do it right.
Here! Hand me the knife!
                                         Chop! Chop!
"You'd better learn to cook well
if you want to be a wife."

                                         Chop! Chop!
"I'll have you know, I've made
this salad many times before.
                                         Chop!
"I'm grateful for your help
but I don't need it anymore."
                                         Chop! 
"No need to get all huffy,"
she said, "handing back the knife."
                                         Chop! Chop!
      I asked, "Oh by the way
     who said I planned to be a wife?"
                                         Chop!

Entering Into The Things They Carried through Found Poems, Choral Reading & Reader's Theater

I. Found Poems

1. Create a found poem based on the pages you and your two partners have been assigned from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Record the poem on chart paper, then take a picture of your poem, and create an audio version of the poem using Evernote. Post image and audio recording to class ning or wiki.

pp. 1-3

pp. 4-6

pp. 7-9

pp. 10-12

pp. 13-15

pp. 16-17

pp. 19-20

pp. 22-23

1b. Post the poem in the hallway in the order it occurs in the first section.

1c. Entire class views the found poems (gallery walk).

1d. Discuss with small group what you anticipate The Things They Carried will be about, who the stories will be about, what tensions will exist in the work, and any other opinions you develop as a result of reading the found poems.

1e. With full class, teacher led activity: Engage students in plotting the work based on the information and impressions generated via the found poems. The teacher might elect to use a plot organizer, character analysis chart to help organize impressions.

Words/Phrases We generated based on Found Poems: Lt. Jimmy Cross Martha Kiowa Mitchell Sanders Ted Lavender Henry Dobbins KIA chopper to hump no strategy or mission American war chest Than Che Burned and trashed village Zapped while Zipping Talked grunt lingo foxhole	Setting	Characters
Goal or Problem	Action	Resolution

 

Example of a found poem from pp. 1-2.

Love

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried

letters folded in plastic

at the bottom of his rucksack.

The letters weighed ten ounces.

They were signed "Love, Martha,".

Love was only a way of signing.

At full dark he would

watch the night and wonder.

The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.

To carry something was to "hump" it.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped

his love for Martha

up the hills and through the swamps, carried two photographs.
A Kodachrome snapshot signed "Love,"

though he knew better.

An action shot-women's volleyball

and Martha was bent horizontal

to the floor, reaching.

A dark theater, he remembered,

and Martha wore a tweed skirt.

He touched her knee,

she looked at him in a sad, sober way.

What they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty.

II. Choral Reading

2a. Students should reread the section assigned and choose a section within those pages and create a choral reading.  Students should compose the choral reading by determine how each line will be read. Students should record their choral reading in Google docs so that everyone in the class has access to it.

2b. Student groups should partner and rehearse their choral poems. Each reader is assigned a # and reads the assigned line based on that number.

2c. Students should perform the poems as podcasts  (or for Mac users) and make them available to the class and community beyond the classroom via a hosting web site or  iTunes.

An example of a Choral  Reading for 8 Voices

Reader(s)

1	First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
1,2	carried letters from a girl named Martha,
1,2,3	a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey.
4	They were not love letters,
1, 2, 3	but Lieutenant Cross was hoping,
5	so he kept them folded
6-8	in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.
1	In the late afternoon, after a day's march,
1,2	he would dig his foxhole,
1,2,3	wash his hands under a canteen,
1, 2,3,4	unwrap the letters,
1,2,3,4,5	hold them with the tips of his fingers,
ALL	and spend the last hour of light pretending.
6-8	He would imagine
2	romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
6-8	He would sometimes
3	taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there.
4, 6-8	More than anything, he wanted Martha
6-8	to love him as he loved her,
1,3,5	but the letters were mostly
ALL	chatty,
6-8	elusive on the matter of love.
1,2	She was a virgin, he was almost sure.
1,2,3	She was an English major at Mount Sebastian,
4	and she wrote beautifully
5	about her professors and roommates and midterm exams,
2	about her respect for Chaucer and her great affection for Virginia Woolf.
2,3,4	She often quoted lines of poetry;
2,3,4,5	she never mentioned the war,
6-8	except to say,
Female Solo 1	Jimmy, take care of yourself.
2, 3,5,6	The letters weighed ten ounces. They were signed
Female Solo 1	"Love, Martha,"
2, 3	but Lieutenant Cross understood
2, 3, 4,	that Love was only a way of signing
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8	and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant.
6-8	At dusk, he would carefully
5-7	return the letters to his rucksack.
4,5,6	Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up
3,4,5,6	and move among his men,
2,3,4,5,6	checking the perimeter,
ALL	then at full dark
1,2, 3,4,5	he would return to his hole
6-8	and watch the night
6-8	and wonder if Martha was a virgin.
All	The things they carried
1,2,3,4	they carried
5, 6, 7, 8	were largely
7, 8	determined
8	by necessity.

III. Reader's Theater

3a. Working alone or in partnership, students recast a section of the text for reader's theatre.

3b. Students solicit reader's for their performance.

3c. Students practice and record/perform reader's theater.

This is an example that Laura Inman (a former student) created. 

From: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

            In this scene, the Narrator is at Headquarters Company—S-4, which is a battalion supply station out of the unprotected boonies.  He has been transferred there after being wounded.  The soldiers from Alpha Company, the group with whom the Narrator has served in the field, arrive at the Headquarters for a “stand-down”.  The Narrator is glad to be reunited with his buddies; he misses the camaraderie that develops among soldiers in the field.  As they party late into the night, the soldiers tell the Narrator a story about Morty Phillips, one of the soldiers in the Company.  However, the Narrator is so consumed with anger at the young, inexperienced medic, Bobby Jorgenson, who failed to give him proper medical treatment in the field, that his interest in the story about Morty is secondary to his desire to know the whereabouts of Bobby Jorgenson.

Staging:  The characters are sitting in a circle.

Narrator     Norman Bowker     Azar     Dave Jensen     Henry Dobbins

Bowker            Morty Phillips used up his luck

Azar                 Go on.  Tell him everything.

Bowker            Well, that’s about it.  Poor Morty wasted his luck.  Pissed it away.

Azar                  On nothing.  The dummy pisses it away on nothing.

Bowker            It was out by My Khe.  One of those killer hot days, hot-hot, and we’re all                                      popping salt tabs just to stay conscious.  Can’t barely breathe.  Everybody’s lying                          around, just grooving it, and after a while somebody says, ‘Hey where’s Morty?’                           So the lieutenant does a head count, and guess what?  No Morty.

Azar                 Gone.  Poof.   No Morty.

Bowker            By then it’s almost dark.  Lieutenant Cross, he’s ready to have a fit—you know                                      how he gets, right?—and then guess what?  Take a guess.

Narrator          Morty shows.

Bowker            You got it, man.  Morty shows.  We almost chalk him up as MIA, and then bingo,                          he shows.

Azar                Soaking wet.

Bowker            Hey, listen—

Azar                 Okay, but tell it.

Bowker            Soaking wet.  Turns out the moron went for a swim. You believe that?  All alone,                          he just takes off, hikes a couple of klicks, finds himself a river and strips down                                     and hops in and starts doing the goddamn breast stroke or some such fine shit.  No                         security, no nothing.  I mean, the dude goes skinny dipping.

Azar                  A hot day.

Jensen               Not that hot.

Azar                  Hot, though.

Bowker            Get the picture?  This is My Khe we’re talking about, dinks everywhere, and the                          guy goes for a swim.

Narrator            Crazy.

                        (Narrator looks around, wondering if Morty is there.)

Bowker            That’s the kicker, man.  No more Morty.

Narrator           No?

Bowker            Morty’s luck gets used up.  A few days later, maybe a week, he feels real dizzy.                                      Pukes a lot, temperature zooms way up.  I mean, the guy’s sick.  Jorgenson says                                     he must’ve swallowed bad water on that swim.  Swallowed a VC virus or                                     something.

Narrator         Bobby Jorgenson.  Where is he?

Bowker            Be cool.

Narrator          Where’s my good buddy Bobby?

Bowker            You want to hear this? Yes or no?

Narrator           Sure I do.

Bowker            So listen up, then.  Morty gets sick.  Like you never seen nobody so bad off.  Like                         he’s paralyzed.  Polio maybe.

Dobbins            No way.  Not polio.

Bowker            Well, hey, I’m just saying what Jorgenson says.  Maybe polio.  Or that weird                                     elephant disease.  Elephantiasshole or whatever.

Dobbins           Yeah, but not polio.

Azar                 Either way, it goes to show you.  Don’t throw away luck on little stuff.  Save it                                     up.

Sanders            There it is.

Jensen              Morty was due.

Sanders            Overdue.

Bowker            You don’t mess around like that.  You don’t just fritter away all your luck.

Sanders            Amen

(Pause while all sit in silence contemplating Morty and all the ways to die)

Narrator            Where’s Jorgenson?