Bester sat and scribbled away at the back of the room, while I tried to keep in mind simultaneously 39 kids, lesson-plan, room passes, boardwork, Frost, troublemakers, scraps of paper on the floor, correcting their English, and enlarging the scope of the lesson to include moral and ethical concepts.
I didn't have time to cover half of the things in my Plan Book, and I forgot Summary and Windows, but I did ask "pivotal questions," linking the poem to their own experiences. Bester says I'm a born teacher! Congratulate me!
Syl
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 508
TO: 304
Dear Syl,
Of course you are. A born teacher, I mean.
Linking a lesson to their own experiences is fine if you can do it, but sometimes it's a strain. I recall a young teacher whose opening question on Wordsworth's poem to a class of tough city boys in a vocational high school was: "How many of you have seen a sea of daffodils lately?"
Naturally, congratulations!
Bea
Dear Miss Barrett,
Ill be absent tomorrow due to sickness so please let some one else read these minutes I took on today's lesson.
It was a most interesting and educational English period. Miss Barrett collected money for the Scholastics and any one who doesn't bring it tomorrow won't get it. Miss Barrett read some notices about the G.O. and Mr. McHabe came in to speak about no sneakers on cafeteria tables. Miss Barrett sent Roy out of the room for spitting out of the window to cure hiccups and thought us a beautiful poem by Mr. Robert Frost. The title was called "The Road Not Taken". Dr. Bester visited us. He sat next to Fred.
We discussed our different turning points in life. Vivian's turning point was college or work after graduation? This was not a good example because she is only a soph. Linda's turning point was about which dress to wear Sat. night. Eddie's turning point was when he went to the cellar and got hit on the head. Lou had no turning point.
The poet tries to say that because he took the road this made a lot of difference. He tells about yellow wood. He decides to take a walk and takes a wrong turning point and gets lost and sighs. The moral is we can't walk on two roads at the same time. Some people in class disagreed.
The poet (Mr. Frost) teaches us about life and other things. He was simple. He was economical and died recently. He blazed a trial on a new road.
Miss Barrett passed around his picture but it got only to the first row because some wise guy hogged it and wouldn't pass it. Multim im parva means he says very little. Trodden means walk.
His style was very good. He had his eye on things.
In my last term's English class we had to put poems under different Headings like Poems of Love and Friendship, or Nature and God's Creatures, or Religion and Death, and say where they belong to, but I'm not sure where this one belongs to.
Respectfully submitted,
Janet Amdur, Class Secretary
30. The Author Tries to Say
Fri., Nov. 6
Dear Ellen,
I rejoice with you at the departure of the painters. What do you mean, it came out buff?
You're right; I am attracted to Paul. He's very attractive. But the surface is so highly polished, it's hard to get hold of it. One slips off. Our relationship is surface too: an occasional drink together, a dinner, a movie in my "spare time, Ha-ha!"as one of my kids would say. I smile at his amusing verses and I listen to his amused complaints about editors and school and fate. He's a kind of charming Minniver Cheevy without the bathos. I'd like to like him more.
As for your questions: Yes, Linda Rosen is back, presumably cured. So is Joe Ferone, presumably not. He has changed his mind about seeing me after school. "What's in it for you?" he asks.
The day he returned to class, with a Late-Late pass from McHabe, who detained him for coming late (do you follow me?) I was observed by Bester. I taught a poem. Or did I? I don't think I got through to them, in spite of all my careful paper-plans, in spite of all of Bester's paper-words.
The trouble is their utter lack of background. "I never read a book in my life, and I ain't starting now," a boy informed me. It isn't easy to make them like a bookother teachers got there before me. Henrietta with her games in teams, Mary with her outlines. Or perhaps it goes further back, to the 1st grade, or the 5th?
The important thing is to make them feel King Lear's anguish, not a True-or-False test on Shakespeare. The important thing is the recognition and response, not an inch of print to be memorized.
I want to point the way to something that should forever lure them, when the TV set is broken and the movie is over and the school bell has rung for the last time.
But what a book report means to them is: to tell an interesting fact about the author ("Poe was a junkie"); to complete: "This book made me wish/ wonder/ realize/ decide"; to recount one humorous/ tragic incident; or to engage in hokum projects such as designing book jackets, drawing stick figures, holding TV interviews with dead authors or imaginary characters, playing "Who Am I?," and pepping up the classics. In other words, saving the others the trouble of reading the book.
Sample:
LOU: My book is
I: The book you read.
LOU: Yeah. The title is called Macbeth by Shakespeare.
I: Its title is.
LOU: Macbeth.
I: But wasn't it required reading for last term's English? I understand Macbeth was taught in English 2 last term. You were supposed to report on a supplementary book. That means in addition to the required
LOU: I ain't never read it before.
I: I never read it.
LOU: Me neither. In this book the author depicks
I: Depicts.
LOU: Depicks how this guy he wants to
I: Who?
LOU: Him.
I: He.
LOU: Yeah. He potrays that this here
I: He says.
LOU: Mrs. Lewis told us not to say say. She gave us a whole list like depicks and potrays instead.
I: Yes, Harry?
HARRY: Observes.
I: I beg your pardon?
LOU: Remarks. Narrates. Exclaims. I've got it written down.
I: She probably wanted you to avoid repetition. There's nothing wrong with the word "says." What's the theme of the play, Lou?
LOU: Well, the author narrates this murder
I: No, the theme, not the plot. Does anyone know the difference between theme and plot? Linda?
LINDA: The plot is what they do in the book and the theme is how they do it.
I: Not exactly. The theme Yes, Vivian?
VIVIAN: The theme is what's behind it.
I: Behind what?
VIVIAN: The plot
I: Frank?
FRANK: The lesson.
I: What lesson? Please answer in complete sentences.
FRANK: That the author is trying to teach. The morale of the book.
I: The moral. It need not Yes, John?
HARRY: He's supposed to mention three incidents.
I: But we're talking about the Harry?
HARRY: Personal opinion.
I: What?
Harry. He didn't give his personal opinion.
LOU: I didn't even get to it.
I: We're still trying to determine the difference between plot and theme. Sally?