My "Mt. Rushmore" Lessons (Pt. 1)
two of my four favorite lessons to teach—with resources included!
“Okay everyone,” I say, gathering the classroom’s attention after taking attendance. “I’m really excited about this lesson.”
At the center of the classroom, the epitome of a somewhat-cynical, second-semester high school junior adjusts his hat and then raises hand with profound authority.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Luther, you always say that you’re excited about the day’s lesson.”
(Narrator: this is indeed an accurate observation.)
I try to push through, though, with my idealism. It is the last class period of the week, my voice is struggling after one-too-many read-aloud’s, and the entire room is very much waiting for a retaliatory response from their stubbornly-enthusiastic teacher.
“No guys, seriously, this is like a top-4 lesson,” I say, aware that I have found myself in direct combat with Adjusted-Hat’s cynicism. “Definitely Mt. Rushmore quality.”
Surprisingly, this somehow cuts through—and he sits up straight.
Then raises his hand again.
“Are you saying you have a ranking of your favorite lessons?”
Whoops.
The end of this anecdote is the opened-floodgate of follow-up’s that this classroom has been enjoying ever since, with students consistently throwing out references to “the list” of favorite Mr. Luther’s favorite lessons:
“Is this a Top 10 lesson, Mr. Luther, or just Top 20?”
”When is the next Rushmore lesson?”
“Are you sure this lesson belongs on the list?”
Second semester rapport with high school juniors is quite a ride.
(I’ll also add: this is one my most unique, authentic classroom communities in some time, including Adjusted-Hat! I’m honestly very lucky to end each week with this group, despite the “rapport” we’ve developed at this point.)
That said, there really is a list—including four “Mt. Rushmore” lessons that time and time again emerge as some of favorites across the different class periods I use them with.
This week I wanted to share two of them (I’ll save the other two for a follow-up post in a couple weeks, hopefully), along with reflections on why I love teaching them and resources that may be helpful for other curious teachers to explore. (And please feel free to share one of your own “Mt. Rushmore” lessons in the comments, too, if you’re willing!)
#1: Our First Peer Feedback Workshop of the Year
Context: This workshop takes place after students have had a chance to create their own short story (200-300 words) while applying the skills and styles we had worked with in the preceding short story unit. I do my best to allow ample time in class for them to create these stories, too, as having as many students as possible ready to participate in the workshop is a huge part of it being a successful experience.
What Takes Place: We begin class by moving through several norming activities, including the one pictured above with a reflection centered around our classroom core beliefs. A major emphasis of this lesson is that the skills we are centering very much translate beyond the classroom: how to successfully provide and respond to feedback purposefully. (I center this message frequently throughout the lesson!)
Students digitally share their own story with two peers in their small group, and then we move into silent reading and feedback of each other’s stories while completing the feedback template already on the documents (see link below). I remind them going into this that the best feedback is earned feedback after sustained, invested observation—and thus this “silent feedback time” is a critical step.
From there? students take turns receiving feedback without responding at first using our feedback protocol (explained in the slide deck linked below) and then following up with clarifying questions for peers before rotating to the next student. Finally, the lesson ends with both an individual reflection on their own documents before whole-class debrief about what it was like to share and receive feedback on their writing.
Here’s one of the individual student reflections following the workshop:
Why I Love It So Much: Each year, this is lesson is one of my first glimpses into what “community” can look like in a genuine, academic sense.
Many students walk into the workshop with a considerable amount of anxiety, as sharing your writing with peers for the first time can be nerve-wracking! Yet the sequence of this lesson—norming collectively, sharing intentions and concerns with peers, and then engaging in silent feedback first—almost always creates a “thawing” within the classroom from anxiety to positive energy and then, in many cases, genuine enthusiasm.
What this looks like for me by the time they are sharing their feedback aloud, though? I am strolling around the room watching students fully absorbed in their groups: smiling wide and often laughing as they exchange thoughts, ask questions, reflect with each other about the experience. As the teacher and facilitator, in many ways I’m completely ostracized—wandering aimlessly as the only one who did not participate in these small-group writing workshops.
And absolutely in love with the classroom space in these moments.
I also love this workshop lesson because of what it opens the door to going forward for our classroom: much more peer feedback—including with higher-stakes, analytical pieces—and a continued centering of student voice and agency in how our classroom operates.
This lesson is where all of that begins, and it easily makes my “Mt. Rushmore” list as a result.
Resources:
#2: Introducing Graphic Novel Analysis
Context: This is one of the early lessons in our 10th grade graphic novel unit—following our review of basic terminology for reading and discussing graphic novels along with some historical context for George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy.
What Takes Place: After students have already read and annotated an initial section of the reading, we introduce several structural techniques such as juxtaposition and color archetypes with examples from the text. They discuss what they notice and then take their first swing (with support from sentence starters) at structural analysis.
After we’ve reviewed each of the examples with guided practice, students shift to continuing forward with their reading—but now with a new lens: attempting to find their own example of a technique and evaluate it as an “exit ticket” to assess how quickly they have picked up this new skill.
Why I Love It So Much: My guess is that you might read this lesson description and sort of wonder why this type of straightforward, lesson makes the list?
The first reason has to do with my experience teaching graphic novels overall: each year students walk into our graphic novel unit thinking this will be the “easy month” and then we hit this lesson—and that changes really quickly. Those students who might have been rolling their eyes inwardly (or outwardly!) in our opening unit lesson begin hitting walls, as analyzing structural techniques is a first for so many of them.
And, simply put, I love when students hit meaningful walls with critical thinking—especially when I know the path towards helping them overcome them.
In my experience with multiple years of teaching this lesson over many different class periods, this lesson time and time again creates just that: an acceptance and appreciation in the classroom of the complexity and challenge available within these texts along with the confidence to begin analyzing at a deeper, more-critical level.
Furthermore, I’m aware at this point how essential this lesson is in establishing a foundation for what will become our end-of-unit project (linked below) in which students will create their own graphic novel pages employing and analyzing these same structural techniques.
This lesson is the pivot point for all of that, so while not flashy or excessively collaborative, it is a lesson that lights the spark for so many students around what a text can do.
Mt. Rushmore-worthy, indeed, I’d argue.
Resources:
Some Concluding Thoughts and Notes
I think it’s important to end Teacher Appreciation Week with a note of appreciation to all of you who continue to read, engage with, and share out our posts and podcasts.
On a personal level, I cannot tell you how often my day has been made, genuinely, by a kind note by one of you about one of the resources we’ve shared or even a follow-up question about a topic from the latest episode.
Teaching can be its own island, too often, and continually I find this community as a reminder that we very much are not alone in this work.
So, quite simply, thank you, and I do very much hope you had an affirming Teacher Appreciation Week!
Some additional links/resources to explore:
On the most recent podcast, Jim interviewed Cyndi Mahne about her very-cool journey from the classroom into an instructional coaching role as well as her emphasis on relationship-building amongst teachers in her building.
I had the chance to be a guest on the Through the Educational Looking Glass podcast, too, in discussing reflection and how it shows up in my own classroom. Give this very cool podcast a listen, if you get a chance!
Want to be inspired by what a 5th grade classroom can become? Check out this piece by
: “EnCORE Con” — a student-run learning experience.If you’re in education I would recommend you read anything
writes, but his recent piece Best TV Series Drawn from Novels had me very excited to see two of my all-time favorite shows featured: Station Eleven and The Leftovers.I also am admittedly an annotating-the-text nerd as a HS ELA teacher, but I have to also forward this Cult of Pedagogy podcast and written piece with two different viewpoints (one elementary, one secondary) on what annotation can look like in the classroom.
Have a great week, feel free to share your own “Mt. Rushmore lesson” in the comments, and take care as you go into the homestretch of this school year!
—Marcus
Thank you for providing these awesome lesson resources! I love teaching graphic novels in my ESL class, the correlation between visual structure and linguistic structure is engaging. Your slides are clearly laid out for content comprehension.
I love teaching graphic novels! Our prescribed reading curriculum meant I had to cut that unit from my rotation. This post, and incredible resources, have inspired me to fight to get graphic novels back in my classroom. Thanks!