Ch. 6 of Smagorinsky: Refining the Unit Focus

After reading Chapter 6 of Smagorinsky, I gathered a couple of assignment ideas that I could use for my upcoming unit on Lazarillo de Tormes. The first idea is student-generated discussions. Smagorinsky discusses dividing students up into small groups, with each group being responsible for leading a discussion of two chapters of a novel. Each group spends a class period discussing its chapter(s). In order for students to lead a fruitful discussion, they have to learn how to ask open-ended questions that elicit thought-provoking responses. I like this idea for a couple of reasons. First, it lends itself well to the structure of the novel that I will be teaching. A picaresque novel is divided into different sections with each section telling a story of an encounter between the protagonist and a new master who represents a particular type of person in Spanish society at the time. Therefore, there is a different critique of a figure in society within each section. If each of the groups got one of the seven sections on which to lead a discussion, then they would be responsible for developing an in-depth understanding of that section in order to come up with the type of questions that lead to a meaningful discussion. As Smagorinsky points out, I would have to teach my students how to come up with this type of question because this is not how lessons are normally structured in school. However, I think that this type of assignment would encourage higher-order thinking in both the group that makes the questions and the rest of the class that has to discuss them. In addition, this type of activity would force my students to speak about literature and ideas in Spanish, which requires different vocabulary and a more formal way of speaking. These students do not have much practice with speaking Spanish in this setting because they are used to only speaking it at home and with their friends.

In addition to suggesting student-generated discussions, Smagorinsky also mentions the value of requiring students to do a multimedia project as a culminating assignment for a unit. Lazarillo de Tormes is written in difficult language, and I know many of my students will struggle as they attempt to interpret what is happening throughout the novella. However, the events and themes of the novella are very entertaining and relatable, so I think that a multimedia project such as writing and performing a script would help the content of the novella to come alive to my students. Smagorinsky points out that sometimes the most unmotivated and least successful students spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into a project like this one, especially when the end result is a performance. Again, the structure of this novella lends itself nicely to a culminating multimedia project. There are seven sections that are largely independent of one another and correspond to the protagonist’s interaction with a particular master. Each section is action-packed, so students would be able to easily act out the events. This assignment would help students to visualize what happens in the section, which would enhance their comprehension. In addition, each scene is open to interpretation, so students would be able to get creative with how they represent the scene. Both of these assignment ideas that Smagorinsky discusses in Chapter 6 ask students to think critically and interact deeply with the text, which is why I think that they are effective ideas to implement while teaching a novel.