The+Imposter

The Imposter
Section 2.4, (Instructional Strategy 16)

Rationale: The Imposter develops student understanding of a text or concept by presenting false statements which must be identified and corrected by the students. By requiring students to correctly assess and modify the errors, the exercise reinforces student understanding of the correct definition.

Instructions: 1. Familiarize students with the definition of "imposter." Relate synonyms to aid their comprehension. 2. Explain that you will be presenting false statements regarding the material the class has been studying. Present a number of general examples of Imposter statements from other subjects. 3. Ask students to create their own Imposter statements. Tell them to relate the statements to the themes and concepts that are being studied in the class. Ask them to share their statements with a partner. 4. Present Imposter statements relating directly to recent class material. The task of the students is to identify what is wrong with these statements and then explain what is wrong. 5. The length of the texts should be gradually increased, until students are working with entire passages (possibly with a partner). 6. Eventually, students should be presented with examples from real texts (errors in newspapers, magazines, etc.). Application to Language Arts: The Imposter could be applied to a unit on literary devices. The teacher could present students with a list of Imposter definitions (e.g., "a metaphor uses the words like or as"). Students could identify the errors in the statements and rewrite them using the correct definition. Students could then confer in small groups to check for similar results. Lastly, the entire class could review the list, with groups presenting their results to the rest of the class.