When I ask my preservice teachers to create visual responses to texts, the results are always amazing. Last week, we read “Eleven”by Sandra Cisneros, a text that I have read again and again, and still respond so strongly to. The text is written through the point of view of Rachel, a child turning eleven. Her birthday begins at school, where she is accused, by the teacher, of leaving a raggedy red sweater for months in the class cloak room. While it is NOT her sweater, her denials are not heard as classmates wrongly confirm that, yes, that sweater is Rachel’s. The school day is a day of emotional draining, and although a birthday celebration awaits her at home with her loving family, for Rachel, the joy of the day has been supplanted by feelings of rejection, loss, and helplessness.
So, students had copies, and I did a read aloud— then turned them loose.
This is what you get when you ask students to respond with visuals. Bravo Hope College ED 282 students!!
Reading and Writing in the Middle 