Great Ideas Come at 3 A.M.

I woke up with a sudden Aha! at about 3 A.M. this morning. I have spent the last few weeks planning a new design for my AP Language and Composition class in 2015-16. We have textbooks for the first time since I have been teaching the class, so it seemed like a good idea to start over and take into account all the lessons I have learned with five years of experience. Planning has focused mainly on thematic units and independent reading lists for each of the units. While I was typing, sorting, and revising the lists yesterday, my youngest daughter was doing her AP Bio summer work. I have been mad at myself for not thinking of Stephanie Sisk's idea earlier. Instead of summer reading, she gave choices of things to do--grow a plant from seed, start a compost pile, collect sand from two different beaches, read five books not assigned for any class, touch a shark. Yesterday my daughter and a classmate tie-dyed shirts. When the Aha! moment struck, I realized the things to do are not just for summer work. I could incorporate them into the independent work and assign things to do. Our first unit is economics and the ideas for things to do just flowed out. I couldn't go to sleep until I had brainstormed ideas for all four units first semester. I am calling this READ | WRITE | WATCH | DO. Students have four units--Economy, Gender, Community, and Education first semester. They will have to select a reading activity for one, writing activity for another, film or documentary viewing for another, and a doing activity for another. The reading activities are non-fiction, novels, or short works--essays, poems, visual texts, short stories. They choose one long work or four short works to read on the theme, then complete a reflective letter on the work(s). The writing activities are more creative or long-term than we typically work on in a unit; many require original research such as interviews, surveys, data analysis, or observation. The watching activities are classic and contemporary films or documentaries on the subjects. Many are controversial; some are R-rated. All movies above a PG rating require parental approval and permission. Finally, the doing activities. A few of these are suggested by essays in the text. For instance, the excerpt from Walden prompted me to tell students to go to the woods; an essay by Wendell Berry about waste prompted me to ask them to collect their family's trash for a week and document it. Students have the freedom to choose their media and to present information effectively but creatively. By the end of the semester students will have read at least one additional book, watched a film, written a creative response, and done something they might normally not have done. All of these things are what I refer to as "stacking ammo," a term I stole from Eminem when he was explaining his thought process to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes In the process of writing all about doing things, I realized I needed to be doing something I have neglected--blogging. So as my students work on their READ | WRITE | WATCH | DO, so will I. The blog will be my product. I will be demonstrating how I stack ammo. On the AP test, students need ideas beyond the classroom to successfully argue. The need ideas that don't belong to Nathaniel Hawthorne. They need individual voice. Planning, selecting, and choosing the path through the thematic units and activities will ensure they have unique ideas. And great ideas sometimes come at 3 A.M.