|
|
|
|
| Overview |
Any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some
reason. This lesson introduces students to censorship and how challenges to books occur then invites them to read a challenged or banned book and decide
for themselves what should be done with this book at their school by writing
a persuasive essay explaining their perspectives.
|
| From Theory to Practice |
Many factors come into play when a teacher is choosing reading material
for students. The NCTE
Guideline “The Students’ Right To Read” explains that “English
teachers consider the contribution which each work may make to the education
of the reader, its aesthetic value, its honesty, its readability for a particular
group of students,” in addition to the appeal of the students. But, there
are times that the books that are part of our curriculum are found to be questionable
or offensive by other groups.
Should teachers stop using those texts? Should
the books be banned from schools? No! “Censorship leaves students with
an inadequate and distorted picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their
culture. Writers may often represent their culture, or they may stand to the
side and describe and evaluate that culture. Yet partly because of censorship
or the fear of censorship, many writers are ignored or inadequately represented
in the public schools, and many are represented in anthologies not by their best
work but by their ‘safest’ or ‘least offensive’ work,” as
stated in the NCTE Guideline.
What then should the English teacher do? “Freedom
of inquiry is essential to education in a democracy. To establish conditions
essential for freedom, teachers and administrators need to work together. The
community that entrusts students to the care of an English teacher should also
trust that teacher to exercise professional judgment in selecting or recommending
books. The English teacher can be free to teach literature, and students can
be free to read whatever they wish only if informed and vigilant groups, within
the profession and without, unite in resisting unfair pressures.” This
is the Students’ Right to Read.
Further Reading
NCTE Guideline: The Students’ Right to Read.
|
| Student Objectives |
Students will
- be exposed to the issues of censorship, challenged, or banned books.
- examine issues of censorship as it relates to a specific literature title.
- critically evaluate books based on relevancy, biases, and errors.
- develop and support a position on a particular book by writing a persuasive
essay about their chosen title.
|
| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- Because this lesson requires that students read a book from the ALA Challenged
Book list, it’s a good idea to notify families prior to starting the assignment.
See example family letter.
- Bookmark Web sites.
- Compile books for students to explore.
- Copy bookmarks for students to document passages as they read.
- Test the Persuasion Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
Session One
- Ask students to brainstorm a definition of censorship. When you have
come up with a definition the group agrees on, have students record the definition.
- Brainstorm ways in which things are censored for them already and who controls
what is censored and how. Examples include Internet filtering, ratings on movies,
video games, music, and self-censoring (choosing to watch only 1 news show
or choosing not to read a certain type of book) .
- Discuss circumstances in which censorship would be necessary, if any, with
the students.
- Display a selection of banned or challenged books in a prominent place in
your classroom. Include in this selection books meant for children and any
included in the school curriculum. Ask students to speculate on what these
books have in common.
- Explain to the students that these books have been challenged
or banned or that students’ access to them in school has been prohibited.
- Provide the students’ definitions for challenged books as well as banned
books.
- Share these American Library
Association definitions: “A
challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections
of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.”
- After the students have seen the ALA definition, have the students “grow” in
their own definitions. Ask them to revisit their definition and align it
with the one presented by the American Library Association.
- Invite the students to brainstorm any books that they have heard of that have been challenged or banned from schools or libraries. Ask them if they know why those books were found to be controversial.
- Students should then brainstorm titles of other books that they feel could possibly challenged or banned from their school collection.
- Share with the students a list of banned books.
- Take an informal poll to see how many books from the list the students
have read or heard about. Elicit their responses to the books on the list:
- Did they find them to be entertaining, informative, beneficial or objectionable?
- Can they suggest reasons why someone would object to elementary, middle school or high school students reading these books?
- If desired, complete the session by allowing students to learn
more about Banned Book Week, additional challenged/banned books, and
cases involving First Amendment Rights.
Session Two
- From a teacher-selected list of grade-appropriate books from the banned/challenged
list, have groups of students select one of the books to read in
literature circles, traditional reading groups, or through read alouds.
- As the students read, ask them to pay particular attention to the features
in the books that may have made them controversial. Students can keep the following
questions in mind or respond to the prompts in their journals:
- Why do you think someone challenged the book?
- How would you respond, both supporting the challenge and disagreeing with the challenge?
- Invite the students to use bookmarks as they read, so they can record page numbers and passages as they read.
Session Three
- After the students have completed the reading of their book, students should
write a persuasive piece stating what they believe should be done with this
book that has been challenged. If students read the book in groups, they could
write a team response.
- Share the Persuasive Essay Rubric to explore the requirements of the
assignment in more detail.
- Demonstrate the Persuasion
Map and work through a sample book challenge to show students how to
use the tool to structure their essays.
- Allow students the remainder of class to work with the Persuasion
Map as a brainstorming tool and to guide them through work on their papers.
- Encourage students to share their thoughts and opinions with the class as
they work on their drafts.
Session Four
- Invite students to share their persuasive pieces with the rest of the class.
It is their job to persuade teachers, librarians, or administrators to keep
the book in their collection, remove the book from their collection, or add
the book to their collection.
- For an authentic sharing session, invite parents in for a panel discussion while the children present their thoughts and opinions on the matter of challenged and banned books.
- Students can discuss the books after each presentation to draw conclusions
about each title and about censorship and challenges overall.
Extensions
- If the students read their selected books in Literature Circles, the group
members can take on the following roles:
- Concerned Parent
- The concerned parent is interested in how controversial materials affect school children. The concerned parent wants to maintain a healthy learning environment for students.
- Classroom Teacher
- The Classroom Teacher needs to select books that will both match the interests of the students and also meet the requirements of the curriculum. The Classroom Teacher needs to listen to the parents, and also follow the rules of the school.
- School Library Media Specialist
- The School Library Media Specialist selects library materials based on the curriculum and reading interests the students in the school.
- School Lawyer
- The School Lawyer is concerned about how the students’ civil liberties would be affected if the School Board decided to ban books.
- Students can elicit responses and reactions from peers, teachers, administrators,
librarians, the author, and parents in regards to the particular book they
are researching. Ask students to focus on the appropriateness of
the book in reference to an elementary school collection.
- Discuss
Board
of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico and
how the decision from that court case
public school districts around the country developed policies concerning book
challenges in elementary, middle, and high school libraries.
- Students can play the role of the librarian and decide where a challenged/banned
book should be shelved. For example, the challenged book may be a picture
book, but the “librarian” might decide that the book should instead
be shelved in the Teacher Resource Section of the library. An alternative
for Sessions Three and Four for this lesson plan is to ask students to write
persuasive essays explaining where the book should be shelved and why it
should be shelved there.
Web Resources
- American Library Association Banned Books Week
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm
- Definitions of challenged and banned books, booklists, and links to additional sites about Banned Books Week and challenged and banned books.
- ReadWriteThink Banned Books Week Calendar Entry
http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=295
- This calendar entry focuses on Banned Books Week
and the issue of censorship. Links to lesson plans, web resources, and related
texts are also found here.
- Censorship in the Classroom: Understanding Controversial Issues
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=203
- This ReadWriteThink lesson plan provides resources to talk about censorship
and book challenges with older students.
|
| Student Assessment/Reflections |
- As students discuss censorship and challenged/banned books, and as they
read their selected text, listen for comments that indicate they are
identifying specific examples from the story that connect to the information
they have learned. The connections that they make between the details in
the novel and the details they choose as their supporting reasons for their
persuasive piece will reveal their understanding and engagement with the
books.
- Monitor student interaction and progress during any group work to assess social skills and assist any students having problems.
- Respond to the content and quality of students’ thoughts in their final reflections on the project. Look for indications that the student provides supporting evidence for the reflections, thus applying the lessons learned from the work with the Persuasion Map.
- Assess students’ persuasive writing piece using the rubric.
|
1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2 - Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
8 - Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
|
|
|
