Harkness CircleBy Pamela J. HaskinsLiterature & CompositionThe Ron Clark Academy

GOAL: Students will be able to understand the term allegory and determine whether or not the story “A Wrinkle in Time” fits the definition. Students will use the class discussion format of a Harkness circle where students analyze the figurative and literal interpretations the characters, settings, conflicts and themes.

TIME: 3 class periods

MATERIALS: Copy of novel, notes on allegory, discussion rubric, notes from text.

Classroom arrangement: Varies between Traditional and Harkness models

Traditional Model Harkness Model

STEPS:

Day 1 – Seats arranged in Traditional Model1. Whole class review of the term “Allegory –a story that has two levels: a

literal level and a figurative level”.

2. Review a popular allegory, The Wizard of Oz. Have students list all the characters, settings and themes of The Wizard of OZ and relate how each is a symbol of a larger lesson that the writer intended for the audience to learn. Discuss.

Harkness CircleBy Pamela J. HaskinsLiterature & CompositionThe Ron Clark Academy

3. Homework: Have students list all the characters, settings and themes of A Wrinkle in Time and relate how each is a symbol of a larger lesson that the writer intended for the audience.

Day 2 – Seats arranged in Harkness Model1. Ask students to think like a writer. What does L’Engle want her audience

to learn? How does she use the characters, settings, conflicts to teach her lesson to the audience? To get the conversation around allegory rolling, challenge students to look at each literary element as a symbol. For example:

• Q: Who/what does Meg represent?

• A: Every person who has personal challenges.

• Q: Who/what does It represent?

• A: Evil, vice

2. Allow students to discuss the topic at will in the Harkness method to discover whether the story is an allegory or not.

3. The Harkness method does not encourage the teacher to be involved in the conversation but instead the teacher should make notations assessing the quality of student contributions. The diagram to the right is an example of how the conversation was progressing within 10 minutes. There is a legend of the annotations below.

Annotations:+ Student offers a new idea

Student furthers an idea

“ Student uses textual support

x Student repeats an idea

? Student asks a question to continue the conversation

! Student clarifies a point

Harkness CircleBy Pamela J. HaskinsLiterature & CompositionThe Ron Clark Academy

Day 3 Essay Prompt: Using textual support, analyze L’Engle’s use of characters, settings and themes to determine whether or not A Wrinkle in Time is an allegory.

• 2.5 pages

• Double Spaced

• 12 pt font. Times new Roman

• MLA style