ELA 9B: The Painted Door

The 9s are deep into their short story unit and the runner-up story was The Painted Door by Sinclair Ross. Because there was so much argument over the interpretation and symbolism embedded in the story, I thought it would be a good piece to use in a modified think, pair, share type of activity. The students read The Painted Door as a class, were given questions to answer individually, and then they were put into groups to discuss their answers. Each question for discussion was placed around the classroom and they had 3 minutes per question to divulge their thoughts. They then had to write key points about their answers on each question so the next group could see their answers and agree or disagree. It was an activity that took a good chunk of a period to do, but it was well worth it. Students seemed to feel more comfortable sharing their answers when we came back together as a class as I heard responses from students that don't normally like to participate in a large group setting. They also found the activity helpful because not only did they discuss answers with their groups but they got to see the thought process of other groups as they added their answers to each sheet.