Thanks to Matt Cadorette and our Regional PD where he explained a Speed Dating with a Book program he runs, I developed a lesson based on Short Stories and focused reading.

Our English 11 students study short stories, choose 1 to focus and write literary critiques based off of published literary criticism. The unit has been evolving for several years. First we had to find the stories in the anthologies which have literary criticism written (not typically in the MARC records). We came up with about 300 stories which were not already in the curriculum but which had at least 2 pieces of lit crit. In the past, students chose stories based on title, author, or what a teacher might recommend.

This year, we pulled the anthologies, marked the stories, stacked them down the middle of a very long table, with 25 seats. At each place was an exit ticket for 10 stories. I set the timer for 5 minutes, they used the 'grab n go' method, opened & read for 5 minutes. 1 1/2 minutes to make a note to themselves & move down a chair. In 65 minutes, they each read 5 minutes of 9-10 stories & chose 2-3 to read completely. Finally they'll choose 1 for the basis of a literary critique. The next time I see them will be to search for Lit Crit in Gale's Short Stories for Students collection.

To date, the students have been focused & fascinated. Teachers have been thrilled (except they'll have to read a few more stories, as this has expanded the typical stories students choose to read). I do have 2 part time paras & we're very busy making copies of the stories because we don't have enough anthologies for students to check out.

I have attached the exit ticket & the list of stories is linked via google docs, if you're interested.