Discovering the Code: Using Discovery Packets to Help Students Decode Texts
- Paige Wallace
- Jul 15, 2021
- 3 min read
Sometimes students really want a cut and paste answer from my class. They want me to just tell them what their thesis statement should be or the meaning of a text. I understand their frustration. I’ve been in their exact position before but I can’t give them an answer because my perspective and thoughts on a text will be different than their own. This isn’t because I teach English or have a Ph.D. and study the texts that I teach.
Okay...well...that’s part of it, but it’s also that the act of reading isn’t just decoding. What I mean is that there is not one finite claim that everyone arrives at once they’ve successfully decoded a text.
Reading is a sociocultural act and the perspectives and experiences of our students impact their understanding of a text. I can’t give them the answers because I don’t know their answers. This is why I love discovery packets so much. First, let me explain the discovery packet. This is really complicated but it’s just a packet of information about a text. Sometimes the materials in these packets overlap and sometimes everyone has a completely different packet. Each folder has a theme that connects to the text we’re reading.
I usually put together 4-6 packets of information about a text. These packets can be physical copies or digital folders. As I’m putting the packets together I think of one subpoint or idea for each packet, but these aren’t always evident to my students. The subtopics don’t need to be explicit. In fact, sometimes students deviate entirely from the subtopic that I used to organize the packet, and that’s okay as long as their analysis can be supported with evidence from the packet. I divide the students up and give them a prompt to respond to on the class discussion board. This prompt is always purposefully broad. I want the students to narrow their scope of exploration without much direct input from me.
It’s probably best if I show you what I mean. Here’s an example of a discovery packet activity.
Text: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward and the film Beasts of the Southern Wild
Prompt: Explore the meaning(s) of disposability in Ward’s novel and/or Beasts of the Southern Wild. Use the information in your packet to develop your points. At the end of the activity your group must have three distinct claims about disposability as an overarching theme. Please post one response from your group to the DB.
****Remember that DB posts are conversation starters for the next class period. Summary alone doesn’t move us into productive in class discussions so make sure that your points move beyond summary and to critical analysis.****
Questions for getting started:
What kind of information does your packet contain?
How would you classify each text in your packet (genre? Narrative style? Specialized or general source source?)
Can you identify any distinct topics/ideas that connect each text in your packet?
Sketch a mindmap of the central topics/ideas included in this packet?
What points of connection does this packet have to the ideas/discussions/texts we’ve encountered in this class?
Pause! Take 5 minutes to brainstorm with someone from another group. Compare information from the different packets and consider how your packets differ from that group’s packet.
Packet 1:
MOYNIHAN, SINÉAD. “FROM DISPOSABILITY TO RECYCLING: WILLIAM FAULKNER AND THE NEW POLITICS OF REWRITING IN JESMYN WARD'S ‘SALVAGE THE BONES.’” Studies in the Novel, vol. 47, no. 4, 2015, pp. 550–567. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26365201. Accessed 1 July 2021
Packet 2:
LLOYD, CHRISTOPHER. “CREATURELY, THROWAWAY LIFE AFTER KATRINA: Salvage the Bones and Beasts of the Southern Wild.” South: A Scholarly Journal, vol. 48, no. 2, 2016, pp. 246–264. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26233565. Accessed 1 July 2021.
Dayan, Colin. 2011a. The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Packet 3:
Troutt, David D. “Localism and Segregation.” Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law, vol. 16, no. 4, 2007, pp. 323–347. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25781111. Accessed 1 July 2021.
Packet 4:
MOYNIHAN, SINÉAD. “FROM DISPOSABILITY TO RECYCLING: WILLIAM FAULKNER AND THE NEW POLITICS OF REWRITING IN JESMYN WARD'S ‘SALVAGE THE BONES.’” Studies in the Novel, vol. 47, no. 4, 2015, pp. 550–567. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26365201. Accessed 1 July 2021
Kyo Maclear, Something So Broken: Black Care in the Wake of Beasts of the Southern Wild, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Volume 25, Issue 3, Summer 2018, Pages 603–629, https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isy060
This activity usually takes the entire class, and the next class period is devoted to unpacking the information together. The objective of the discovery packet activity is to move away from stale discussions where students are parroting one another to discussions that incorporate many perspectives or interpretations.
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