If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
—Frederick Douglass
Quotable Quotes is the strategy that asks or inspires students to respond to specific quotations from literary characters or people of note or accomplishment. Students that have been given an opportunity to read and ponder the words of others can respond with their own ideas and perhaps even with their own newly minted personal sayings, quotations, and maxims. Responding to the words of others is a metacognitive activity that requires thought, reflection, and empathy. Quotable Quotes combines naturally with Who’s Who and Reasons, Causes, Results and provides students with an effective strategy package for writing.
The purpose of Quotable Quotes is to have students establish an imaginary dialogue with the characters or people who have made noteworthy statements. In this dialogue, students express their own opinions or beliefs in relationship to the quoted statement, or Quotable Quote. They are also encouraged to seek out quotations that they can include in their own writing, especially those that relate to the ideas and beliefs they are expressing.
Quotable Quotes can come from nursery rhymes, children’s literature, and novels as well as the words of presidents, social activists, scientists, writers, and anyone else who has uttered words worth remembering.
Quotable Quotes in the Fight for Freedom and Equal Rights
From the very beginning of American history, words have played a role in shaping individuals’ ideas and actions. Throughout most people’s schooling, they hear (if they are listening) the words of Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine. As they move through the years, they consider the calls or messages of Davy Crockett, Chief Joseph, Earl Warren, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Rothstein, Andrew S.; Rothstein, Evelyn B.; Lauber, Gerald. Writing as Learning . SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.