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Inquiry Group Project: Judith Langer, //Envisioning Literature//

**__ Abridged Rationale __**

Judith Langer’s process of Envisionment provides teachers with a means in which students can experience texts and develop their understanding of themselves and the world. Langer calls it “an activity in sense-making, where meanings change and shift and grow as a mind creates its understandings of a work” (10). Envisionment happens through a process of moving through different stances as one encounters a text and begins to try to understand that text. There are four stances in Envisionment and each one can happen at any given time and in a circuitous manner:
 * What are the author’s core principles about teaching English language arts?
 * Stance One: Reader is outside the Envisionment and then steps in as he or she begins to read. Reader builds what Langer calls a “text world” that the reader moves into, out of, and through."
 * Stance Two: Reader relies on surface understanding or personal knowledge and then begins to become more in-depth as the reader becomes immersed in the text.
 * Stance Three: Reader moves out of the text world and reorganizes what he or she knows and understands. Ultimately, shifts outside to their personal world.
 * Stance Four: Reader steps back out of the Envisionment and reflects on or analyzes the text and makes connections to other texts or transfers the understanding to another, unrelated, situation. Note: a person’s understanding is continually growing and evolving.

Ultimately, the process of Envisionment begs the use of texts with which the students can engage on both a personal and intellectual level. We propose the study of the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell as one possible text through which students can engage in the Envisionment process. It has an exciting story line and explores the universal theme of survival in an interesting and unusual manner. We want our students to cultivate and expand their own understanding of what it means to be human (our course-driven EQ) and how “survival” plays in to that human experience. The text will allow students to move between the Envisionments since students will likely have a base-knowledge of the concept of “hunting” and “survival,” but the text is controversial enough that it has the potential to open up a slew of conversations and questions our students will likely not have considered before.
 * How do these principles inform “what” we will teach with our literary texts?

The Envisionment process is both personal and social. Individually, students need to reflect upon their experience and their prior knowledge frequently to help inform their understanding of a new text. As a social process, Envisionment demands the discussion with and understanding of others for a reader to fully develop an Envisionment of a text. Therefore, our learning processes and activities are dedicated to providing both types of experiences as often and as authentically as possible.
 * How do these principles inform “how” we will teach our literary text?

Ultimately, we desire for the literature that our students read in our English classrooms to influence and illuminate their lives and hopefully grow them in their understanding of themselves and the world. As Langer writes, “the Envisionment illuminates (and influences) life, and life illuminates (and influences) the Envisionment” (Langer 19). For us, the Envisionment process not only teaches students how to set about understanding what a text explicitly says, but it also allows them the practice the skills they need in terms of communication and the formulation of ideas, preparing them to be launched into society as adults. Our unit is designed to give students a chance to explore their own personal experiences and understandings of “survival” in context of our own universal humanity, and to expand or change those ideas based on the experiences and understandings of their peers.
 * What do we want students to know and be able to do?

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the text and their ability in terms of the Envisionment process in a multitude of ways. First, it will be demonstrated through the use of “Tweet Journals” in which they keep a record of their reactions, understandings, and confusions with the text. Students will also keep a daily “warm-up” journal in which they will reflect on Essential Questions that will help guide them through the Envisionment process. On the final day of the unit, students will engage in a thirty minute timed write in which they will discuss the ways in which their understanding or thought process towards “survival” and “humanity” has changed over the course of the unit. This product will directly demonstrate how the students have moved through the Envisionment process over the course of the unit. Other major performance assessments will include participation in a Socratic Seminar and the writing and sharing of a narrative writing piece in which the students reflect upon a personal experience with survival.
 * What product and/or performance will demonstrate this knowledge and ability?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">The majority of our unit focuses on student-centered learning in which the individual students are dictating their own understanding of the text through personal reflection and interactions with other students. We will use a scenario-based activity, whole class and small group discussions, a Socratic Seminar, reflective journals, and a personal writing piece to facilitate our students’ journey through their Envisionment process and their text inquiry of Connell’s short story.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">What processes and practices will facilitate this learning?