Joe Burke 9th Grade English Language Arts Clarkston Junior High School

The problem,

the background,

the question, the important ideas moving forward

Literature, especially canonical literature, is often difficult for young students to approach.
Canonical texts are often approached scientifically. Supposedly
I have seen this struggle occur in several
tried and true methods of teaching these texts are used and
circumstances, seemingly for various reasons.
reused, in a heavily structured and concrete manner. And
Preconceived notions regarding certain texts
writing, when incorporated into a literature unit, is typically
obviously play a major role in the students attitudes,
used as a demonstration of reading comprehension, also known
but teachers have been trying to combat that for a
as an assessment.
long time, frequently failing.
I would like to see how writing and art can be used more
liberally as fuel for thought during the reading process.
Literature is an art, and should not be taught as science.
Literature
Attitude &
Students may appreciate a text more if they are given the
is art.
Motivation
opportunity to freely interpret it through their own art.

To what extent can the regular use of writing and art in the classroom
increase student motivation to read a novel such as Lord of the Flies?
33% of students knew
of or had already read
Lord of the Flies before
the unit began.
75% of students were
not looking forward to
reading Lord of the Flies.

(1) Write-your-ownchapter journal entry

(2) CHARACTER
TIMELINES (student
generated pictures and
captions creative
exploration is
encouraged)

After reading the first chapter of Lord of the

Flies in class, my students began to draw
artistic renditions of a specific character of their
own choosing, to be used in a comprehensive
timeline at the end of the unit. After having
done this, the number of students who
participated in class discussions about the
novel increased from 25% to 60%.

66% of students were

excited to engage in art
projects to help
stimulate their thinking.
10% of students said art
projects seemed like
useless busy work.

ART is EXPRESSION
EXPRESSION causes HAPPINESS
HAPPINESS is MOTIVATION
Three students went out of their way to tell
me that they changed their mind (from a
negative view to a positive view) about Lord of
the Flies specifically because of the creative
writing and art activities that we did.

pictures of students character timelines

0% of students were
excited to show me
their character list
worksheet.
42% were excited to
show me pictures
they drew for their
character timeline.

Joe Burke 9th Grade English Language Arts Clarkston Junior High School
As I taught this unit on Lord of the Flies to my ninth grade ELA students, I took notes on the students in all of my
classes, and ultimately created three major categories of students based on their attitude about the prospect of
reading Lord of the Flies. About 25% of my students were excited about reading it, about 40% of students were
indifferent about it, and about 35% of students were decidedly disappointed about the idea of reading the novel.

Student Quiz Results

Student Participation
100

100

90

90

80

80

70

70

60

60
50

50
Participation Grade Participation Grade Participation after art
from Previous Unit before art project
project

Quiz on
chapter one

Quiz on
chapter 5

Quiz on
chapter 8

Character
timeline

Students who were disappointed

Students who were disappointed

Students who were indifferent

Students who were indifferent

Students who were excited

Students who were excited

These graphs demonstrate the chronological progression of each of the three major
student groups (described above) in terms of participation as well as quiz grades. The vertical
red line in each graph indicates the point at which the art activities were introduced to the
class. The green line represents the students who were excited about the novel prior to
reading. These students (a rather low percentage of the total) did not change very much as
the unit progressed. The brown line represents the students who were unhappy about the
prospect of reading Lord of the Flies. These students demonstrated a small increase in
classroom performance, but they also make up a rather low percentage of the total student
population. The students who were indifferent, shown in dark blue, however, made
up 40% of the total and exhibited the greatest increase in classroom performance,
primarily after the introduction of the art projects. These students had high
participation in prior units, fell below 80% at the beginning of the Lord of the Flies unit, but
jumped beyond where they had previously been after the implementation of the art activities.
The fact that the blue line rises so significantly to meet the rather steady green line
indicates that the only thing missing between middle-achievers and high-achievers
is motivation and excitement. The reading-check quiz results demonstrate an obvious
increase in all students reading. These quizzes were unannounced, so the results indicate
that students were motivated to read by other things, such as the art-based projects in class.

Take a look at what these experts wrote

Church, Ritchhart, and Morrison explained that documentation must serve to
advance learning, not merely capture it (38) in their pedagogical guidebook
Making Thinking Visible. This means that making students thinking visible (through
art, for example) is especially important since school is often a game that requires
mastering techniques for committing ideas to short-term memory but very little real
thinking If we want to reverse this situation and develop students as thinkers and
learners, then the expectations for thinking must be present on a daily basis (221).