Hold a discussion in writing about coping strategies to prepare your pupils for reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. After journaling, pupils come up in an organized fashion and write responses to the prompt on the whiteboard, continuing until every individual has had the opportunity to respond.

Concepts

prereading, coping skills, text-to-self connections

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Adapt this strategy for any number of topics and units
• Follow the silent discussion with a verbal discussion; you and your class can find commonalities among the responses and draw parallels between various situations

Classroom Considerations

• Make sure to let students know that they will be sharing their ideas with the whole class before starting the freewrite

Pros

• Everyone gets to contribute to this conversation; this silent discussion strategy will elicit responses even from shy individuals
• The plan includes clear step-by-step instructions

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.6.2 RI.7.2 RI.8.2 SL.6.1.a SL.7.1.a SL.8.1.a