How I Introduce the Contrasts and Contradictions Signpost in Reading Class
How I Introduce the Contrasts and Contradictions Signpost in Reading Class
"Wait, you're Mrs. Gold? I thought you were a sub!"
"Why are you dressed like that?"
"You look like Party City threw up on you."
"Did Mr. Gold dump you? Are you o.k.?"
I peeked through my fake black bangs and smiled behind my mask. My plan had worked.
As a Literature teacher, I used to teach books to my students, but after reading The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, and Notice and Note, by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst, I stopped teaching books and started using books to teach reading strategies instead. This transformed my teaching over several years until one day I stood in front of my students with combat boots, fingerless gloves, a leather vest, a studded belt, dark lipstick, winged eyeliner, and a black wig. No, my husband had not "dumped" me. No, a certain party-supply establishment had not experienced gastro-instestinal distress of any kind. It was Contrasts & Contradictions day--the day I introduced my favorite reading strategy to the class.
If you haven't read Notice and Note yet, I highly recommend it! In this book, authors Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst describe different "signposts" readers should look for as they read. (I talk about this book in more detail here.) One of these signposts is called "Contrasts & Contradictions" and occurs whenever a character behaves unexpectedly. When this happens, readers are supposed to ask themselves, "Why would the character act this way?" This question leads readers to make valuable inferences and even to foreshadow where they might not otherwise.
When I walked into my classroom in my alternative/punk attire (I know that it was alternative/punk because one of my students set the record straight when an unwitting student had the audacity to describe my outfit as gothic), questions fired from all sides of the room. My students demanded to know why I had come to school in these clothes. They began to form wild guesses as to what had gone wrong in my life. I asked them why they were so curious about my clothes today when they hadn't said a thing about my outfit the day before, and the class practically shouted, "BECAUSE YOU DON'T USUALLY DRESS THIS WAY!" Bingo. When someone acts in a way we don't expect, we naturally ask, "Why?". People don't randomly ditch their professional teacher clothes for combat boots and striped, fingerless gloves, so we ask, "Why?". Blonde-haired teachers rarely show up at school wearing black wigs, so we ask, "Why?". The same is true for books. When a character acts in a way we don't expect, we ask, "Why would the character act this way?".
After our discussion, we stood on our chairs and chanted "Why would the character act this way?" as we danced to a beat from the drumset in the middle of my classroom. I found a cheap disco light on Amazon that set the mood nicely, and my students took turns picking awkward dance moves for the class to imitate while we chanted our Contrasts & Contradictions question to the drumbeat.
My students have found many Contrasts & Contradictions in the weeks since my short-lived punk phase. They are noticing them in the read-alouds we experience together in class, and they are successfully finding examples in their independent-reading books, as well. This is the first year that I feel like my students really "get it," and I owe at least part of their success to my black, plastic bangs.
Maybe you’re not ready to ditch the “traditional” book studies just yet, but when you’re ready to take the leap, I’ve got you covered! With over 30 ELA games, over 30 standards-based activities, and over 10 sets of posters to reinforce reading content with your students, this bundle of ELA resources can help you put your students’ reading skills at the center of everything you do—and have fun in the process! Check it out!
