Teaching With Quotations: Using Quotations to Create Better Thinkers

Quotations can be used effectively in any classroom at any age. Responding to the words of others can be provocative, challenging, frustrating and fun. Try quotes to provide something different for your students or use them on a regular basis and let students bring in their own quotes as well. As students become more proficient in their responses you can start bringing in critical thinking elements that can be quickly practiced using the current quote. By the end of the year their thinking skills will have matured by leaps and bounds!

Different ideas for using quotations in the classroom:

You can use quotations as a bell-ringer, which is an activity that children start working on when they enter the classroom. It can be written on the board or projected with a document reader. It should be written, not just read aloud. Try to pick quotes that capture their attention, so they'll be willing to put some effort into writing about the topic.

When you first introduce quotes it's important to walk students through the entire activity. Pick a quote by someone they recognize. It might even be a quote from a popular song, if you can find one with acceptable lyrics! This is a quote from an interview with Justin Bieber. "I would love to be a superhero. I would love to be able to fly, of course, but my other power would be something like the ability to pause time. That could really come in handy."

If this is your first quote, it would be good to start off with a discussion. Why would someone who is so famous have fantasies about being someone else? If you could have 2 superpowers what would they be? Why do you think the ability to pause time would be a great superpower? Keep going until lots of thoughts and ideas have been expressed. Then ask students to write on one of the topics you've been discussing. Don't expect too much from their initial writings. As they practice they will get better.

One benefit of using quotations is that students can find them easy to relate to their own experiences. Have students write about a memory that relates somehow to the quotation.

Allow students to share their writing with the class if they wish. This can illustrate to kids the different types of responses that occur from the same prompt.

Be imaginative with your use of quotes. In secondary, you might put up a quote and have students respond as a character would from a novel they are reading. Or they can respond the way a historical figure they are studying would respond.

After students become comfortable with writing using quotes you can start putting up some controversial quotations. This can lead to some interesting class discussion! It's important that you teach them how to express their arguments clearly and with no attacking or name-calling.

Keep responses short. If they are only writing a paragraph it will seem doable even for those who don't like to write. And keeping it short means it won't use up much class time.

Quotations can be an easy way to get your students to do more writing. While I don't recommend using them every single day, they can add an extra dimension to your classroom instruction. Keep the initial papers the kids write and at the end of the year show them how much their writings have improved.