Harrison Bergeron- Day 2 Reading

The best part of being an English Teacher is getting to read! Especially when I get to read and share some of my favorite stories with my students.

Before reading, I always have my students complete a pre-reading activity to get them engaged, excited, and ready to read the story. I view the pre-reading as the foundation and anchor for all stories. For the Harrison Bergeron pre-reading activity I used, see my previous post. You can find a free PDF version of this story here.

Below are the steps for the reading portion of "Harrison Bergeron" in the 8th grade on a 45 minute class schedule. This is Day 2 of the unit. Take it, adapt it, and tweak it for your needs.

• Place the word "Handicap" on the board. Ask students to copy the word into their interactive notebooks, explore the word, and define what they think it means.

• While students are brainstorming pass out copies of Harrison Bergeron and a sticky note.
• Ask students to write down one word on the sticky note that represents their feelings on what the word "Handicap" means and place to the side.
• My school follows the Great Books method for teaching reading. I have adapted their method for different readings when my students are not going to participate in a Shared Inquiry. Therefore, when we read, we read the text straight through. I do not stop to point out my feelings, literary devices, etc.
• It is important to NOT give your opinion on anything while reading or after reading if you are planning on teaching an argumentative essay with the story. If you have gone to a Great Books training, it is a great philosophy and technique to use with any piece of literature. I have found that doing this lends to better discussion over the reading. It helps the students generate their own opinions and later will help you teach your students to find and use evidence along with evidence based terminology to accompany their commentary.
• If you're interested in The Great Books, this is a great resource to get you started.

• After reading ask the students if anyone has any questions or comments about the story. Remember, do not tell how you feel.
• Then, ask the students to revisit their definition of "handicap" ask them to write down how they feel about the word now. Has it changed? How?
• Students will copy down their response on the same sticky note and turn in for an exit ticket.

Day 3 of my unit is followed by discussion that serves as a pre-writing activity for our argumentative essays and will lend to a thesis statement writing activity. I will have a full break down of day 3 in a separate post.