What's the Big Idea? Ch. 1 – An Intellectual Rite of Passage

Ch. 1 – An Intellectual Rite of Passage

In this chapter Burke described an inquiry-based project that he has developed for his senior AP English students during the second semester.  Students are to select a subject that they are interested in and formulate a “big question”.  Some examples included:

·        How do you measure and maximize human worth?

·        How does war affect those who experience it and their families?

·        What does the future look like?

·        What most influences the choices we make?

·        How does the environment in which we live or are raised shape us?

·        How and why does our relationship with our parents change as we grow up?

(Burke, 2010, p. 25)

Students select three novels on the subject, which they must read over the course of the semester and write in-class essays on.  They are expected to conduct additional research on their subject and ultimately design a presentation on all that they have learned by the end of the semester.  Burke has several handouts describing the assignments, as well as rubrics for the essays available for print and reproduction at www.heinemann.com.

I love the idea of an inquiry-based project, especially since I do teach high school seniors and I know that they need a project that holds their attention in order to combat the effects of senioritis that takes a very strong hold by the second semester.  I can imagine this working very well for AP students.  I especially liked the statement Burke included on a handout he created for his summer reading assignment, “AP Literature is college.  If you are looking for ways around this reading assignment, you should not enroll in this class.” (p. 43).  I will keep all of these suggestions filed away in case I ever have the opportunity to teach AP English. 

The average reading level of the seniors that I teach, however, is very far from college level.  My students tend to read on a 5^th to 7^th grade level.  Assigning independent reading is a challenge with these students because the books have to be written at a level that is not going to create frustration.  Another challenge with these students is finding any subject that truly interests them.  I am currently working on persuasive essays with my 12^th grade English classes, and I asked them to think of an issue on a local, state, national or international level that they think needs to be changed.  This suggestion was met with blank stares.  I provided them with lists of suggested topics that ranged from gun control to animal experimentation to school start times.  Some students found a topic that interested them; others still insisted that they just don’t care about any of those issues.  I had one student tell me that he wanted to write about how all drugs should be legalized.  Another student told me that the only issue that she is upset about is that her birth control pills caused her to gain weight.  I don’t know what I can do to inspire my students to think about the types of significant questions that Burke listed above.  I hope that Burke dedicates some of the chapters in this book to ideas for the kind of students that I teach.