1
A Changing
Identity as a
Reader
Concept
Teaching
Point
Preparation
Lesson 7
Moodle Activity / Resource
Overview/Purpose, Tips & Alternatives
Reading Identity
Readers reflect upon how books change the way they
see the world and how their identity as a reader
develops based on new reading experiences.
 Make copies of the Summative Assessment Task
 Be prepared to model your thinking for the
Summative Assessment Task
 Consider copying and distributing the four quotes
on reading
Activity / Resource Type: Page (teacher-only)
Title: “Lesson 7 Activity Notes”
n/a
Suggested
Materials
Copyright © 2010-2014 by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Oakland Schools
2
Essential
Question(s)/
Lesson
Framing
Quotes


How does having a reading life change my life?
How have my experiences in this unit changed the
way I see a topic or idea or the world?
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel
like I've accomplished something, learned
something, become a better person. Reading
makes me smarter. Reading gives me
something to talk about later on… Reading is
escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to
make contact with reality after a day of making
things up, and it's a way of making contact with
someone else's imagination after a day that's all
too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”
― Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And
Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
Activity / Resource Type: Pop-up Page
Title: “How Do I See Things Differently?”
Overview / Purpose: Students review the unit-opening
quotes and begin thinking about how their perspective
has changed.
“We read books to find out who we are. What
other people, real or imaginary, do and think
and feel... is an essential guide to our
understanding of what we ourselves are and
may become.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself,
or like the ambitious, for the purpose of
instruction. No, read in order to live.”
― Gustave Flaubert
“For some of us, books are as important as
almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it
is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of
paper unfolds world after world after world,
worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or
excite you. Books help us understand who we
are and how we are to behave. They show us
what community and friendship mean; they
show us how to live and die.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions
on Writing and Life
2
Copyright © 2010-2014 by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Oakland Schools
3
Teaching
Point
& Active
Engagement
Readers reflect upon how their identity as a reader
develops based on new reading experiences and how
books change the way they see the world.
Activity / Resource Type: Discussion
Teacher Model and Think-aloud*: Model your thinking
as you revisit the quotes from the beginning of the unit.
Show students how your thinking about your chosen
topic and your identity as a reader might have changed
since you read a novel and several other nonfiction texts
on a related topic. Model how you would pull evidence
from your handouts and notebook entries to support
your claim.
Overview / Purpose:
Active Engagement - Think-Pair-Share: Students share
their thinking with a partner. They discuss how they see
their identities as readers at the end of the unit and
what changes might have occurred by now. They discuss
their reactions to the quotes about reading lives and
note whether anything has changed as they discuss the
reading they did on their selected topic. They share the
evidence from their handouts and Notebooks that
supports their claims.
Think-Pair-Share: Students practice discussing their
reader-identities and quote-reactions with a peer.
*Depending upon the skills the students had before
entering this unit, you may choose to spend some time
discussing and modeling appropriate organizational
structures and/or use of writing conventions for the
summative reflection / essay that is the focus of this
lesson.
Title: “Update: Reading, Change, and Your Identity”
Teacher Model and Think-aloud: Students hear their
teacher model thinking on how the teacher’s identity
has changed, changed reactions to the quotes, and how
handout / notebook evidence supports the ideas.
Active Engagement:
Online Discussion: Students then revisit their early-inunit comments, in the “Reading, Identify, and Change”
discussion on how reading connected to their identity.
After talking with a partner, they add a post to the
“Reading, Identify, and Change” discussion. In their post,
they discuss one or both of these questions, using
handout-entries and Writer’s / Reader’s Notebook
entries as support:
1.
2.
How has their identity as a reader changed as a
result of their reading in the unit?
What reactions do they have now to the quotes
about reading?
Tips & Alternatives: This online discussion, essentially a
pre-write for the summative assessment task, could be
replaced with (or, better yet, followed up by) a smallgroup or whole-class discussion of the key questions,
with students leading the discussion and/or encouraged
to take notes that they can use when writing the
summative assessment.
3
Copyright © 2010-2014 by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Oakland Schools
4
Independent
Practice
Share
Mini-Task: Complete the summative assessment task.
After reading a self-selected novel and several nonfiction
texts on a related topic, write a reflective essay that
describes your growth as a reader. Refer back to your
Pre-Unit Performance Task and discuss how anything has
changed in terms of your reaction to one of the quotes.
You might choose to discuss a different quote this time.
Has your identity as a reader changed? Do you feel
differently about fiction? Nonfiction? Do you see a
different role that reading can play in your life? Support
your claims using examples from your reading and from
personal examples.
(Essential question, task, and rubric below)
Activity / Resource Types
1.
2.
Assignment. Title: Summative Assessment: How
Have You Grown as a Reader?
Forum (Discussion). Title: Share Your Thinking
on Reading, Growth, and Identity
Overview / Purpose: The Assignment is the culminating
task in the unit.
Tips & Alternatives: The Moodle Assignment, worth 200
points, allows typing or copy-pasting of students’
reflections into an online form; or uploading of a Word
or PDF file. Students could also submit the URL to a
Google Doc.
The Moodle Forum (discussion) asks students to post the
essay they have already submitted as an Assignment,
this time for feedback from their peers. The Moodle
Forum type is "Q&A," which means that students do not
see others' work until they post their own essay.
Students are asked to give two peers feedback on their
essays. There is a link provided to Discussion Guidelines,
which should help students make more-constructive
responses to others' writing.
Note: Only use the “Share Your Thinking…” forum,
where students are to post their essays for feedback
from peers, if your students have taken to online
discussion. If not, it is likely just another discussion for
them, and one that comes directly after another
discussion and an essay assignment. In that case, you
might delete / replace the online discussion activity.
A follow-up to the online discussion could be a live
discussion where students identify and discuss
interesting phrases, ideas, and books from their peers’
posted essays.
An alternative to having online discussion would be to
have a read-aloud and discussion of students' essays.
4
Copyright © 2010-2014 by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Oakland Schools
5
Summative Assessment Task
Essential Question: Has your identity as a reader changed at all, and how did the books you read in this unit change
the way you see the world?
Task: After reading a self-selected novel and several nonfiction texts on a related topic, write a reflective essay that
describes your growth as a reader and addresses the focus question. Refer back to your Pre-Unit Performance Task and
discuss how anything has changed in terms of your reaction to one of the quotes. You might choose to discuss a
different quote this time. Has your identity as a reader changed? Do you feel differently about fiction? Nonfiction? Do
you see a different role that reading can play in your life? Support your claims using examples from your reading and
from personal examples.
Independent Reading
Summative Assessment Rubric*
Highly Proficient
Focus
Meets Expectations
Addresses all aspects of prompt
Addresses prompt with a
with a highly focused and
focused response.
detailed response.
Reading/
Accurately presents and applies
Presents and applies
Research
information relevant to the
information relevant to prompt
prompt with specific examples
with general accuracy and
from the research.
sufficient detail.
Development
Presents detailed information in Presents information in order to
order to answer questions and
answer questions and solve
solve problems. Concisely
problems. Explains key
explains key information with
information with some details.
details. Identifies reading shifts
Identifies a reading shift.
and supplies evidence.
Organization
Applies appropriate structure(s)
Applies a generally effective
to explain, examine, convey,
structure to explain, examine,
define, analyze, synthesize,
convey, define, analyze,
compare, or explain
synthesize, compare, or explain
cause/effect, problem/solution.
cause/effect, problem/solution.
Conventions
Demonstrates a well-developed
Demonstrates a command of
command of standard English
standard English conventions
conventions and cohesion;
and cohesion; employs language
employs language and tone
and tone appropriate to
appropriate to audience and
audience and purpose.
purpose.
*Designed by Literacy Design Collaborative. www.literacydesigncollaborative.org
Attempting to Meet
Expectations
Attempts to address prompt but
lacks focus or is off-task.
Attempts to present information
relevant to task but may lack
sufficient or relevant details.
Presents limited information.
Ideas do not include details or
examples.
Applies an ineffective structure;
text rambles or line of thought is
disconnected.
Demonstrates a weak command
of standard English conventions;
lacks cohesion; language and
tone are inappropriate to
audience and purpose.
Teacher Comments:
5
Copyright © 2010-2014 by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Oakland Schools