Hyperlink
Hyperlink is an activity that allows us to really dig into, explore, and discuss a very specific part of a text from multiple different angles. Here's how it works:
- Choose Text: A short text or a passage of a longer text, poem, or song will be shared.
- Read it Aloud: As it's being read aloud, mark places that stand out to you in the text.
- Pull a Short Quote: Pull a 1-7 word quote from the text and write it into your journal.
- Write: Write about the quote. Explore it, probe it and question it. As you write try to start small and granular and end big.
- How is it working on the granular level?
- What are the words doing?
- What's the punctuation doing?
- Where do you see imagery?
- Discuss other authorial choices in your quote.
- What is it doing for readers?
- What is it doing for the text?
- What connections can you make?
- Other parts of the text? Find Evidence
- Themes: Both in class and the world
- Other texts you/we have 'read'
- Hyper-Link: After writing about it, the text will slowly be reread aloud. Each time the end of a student’s quotation is read, they will gently–but firmly–reread their quotation, read–verbatim–their journal entry, then stop. Then you reread the quotation again and keep going. By the end, everyone has “hyper-linked” their ideas into the text.
As an activity, Hyperlink allows us to practice deeply analyzing a text. It requires us to focus on the granular level of the text and discuss what about it works to create meaning. It is the type of analysis that you should be inserting into your written work.
FAQs
- Does it have to be read verbatim? Yes, thoughts grow. It'll be awesome to see how your thoughts about the quote grew as you continued writing about it.
- What if two people have the same quote? Figure out who will read their ideas first, then the other person will share after they finish.
- What if my quote is just punctuation? Great, reread the punctation mark.