Paired Teaching Brainstorming Ideas

NCTE on Revision (Chapter 3) and “The Bath”

Read, Write, Think lesson plan for "A Small, Good Thing"

Hi!

While looking for an example of the Carver story "The Bath", which "A Small, Good Thing" is evidently based, I found this lesson plan. I looked through it a wee bit. 

How do you guys feel about using lesson plans like this? Is this an ineffective teacher cop-out, or a way to structure some ideas? This hasn't really come up in class--but the Beach books we've been reading have pretty detailed lesson plans. 

See ya!

Using the NCTE text

Hi everyone!

I am sorry I have been a little MIA here--I have been suffering under the strong arm of a fierce illness for quite some time. 

About Carver, the '70's and me

I just wanted to wrap up our postings with some comments on the NCTE text. Cathey made comment at the beginning of our blogging experience about how she had to reread some of our selections again because she thought she missed something.  I definitely felt that at the beginning too--that "that's it" feeling. But after a few stories, I wanted to read a few more--not unlike Rubenstein's students in the NCTE book. Carver's words seem to make sense of the negative space between words, or at least shed light on that space. Rubenstein writes "...because it seems so slim and slight, it compels the reader to become deeply involved." (Rubenstein, 17)

While reading many of the stories, for some reason I visualized my parents, family and family friends  as the protagonists--especially my mother's side whose stories I listened to so intently while aunts spent long summer evenings talking about shared memories. It didn't click until the NCTE book revealed to me that most of the stories give a voice to that blue collar population in the '70's that maybe didn't get recognized otherwise. A contemporary example might be the protagonist in 'No Country for Old Men'. 

One of those repeated stories I heard from my family was about my Uncle who was given a junior science kit as a gift and ended up accidentally burning down a few vacant lots with his magnifying glass. My grandfather was  reportedly had uncontrollable drinking and anger problems found out and much to the surprise of my uncle, did not fly off the handle for once and stood by my uncle as the local authorities tried in vain to get to the bottom of the arson. Reading Carver teased that out of my memory, for some reason.  

My family--through blue collar follies, drinking, divorce and all--managed to carve out what they considered their own American Dream. My Uncle married his high school sweetheart after all, raised a family in Amherst and is generally happy. 

The moments from the 1970's that punctuate the time between freewheeling and settling down were discussed  so much when I was growing up. Metabolizing those histories, I now can juxtapose my own late 20's experiences on those stories and find solace that someone like Carver has the gift to poetically paint what I see in my mind.

Anyway, I see a lot of my own history--the history of where I came from-- in Carver's words.  It's unnerving and comforting at the same time. 

About Minimalism (things to think about when considering our paired teaching)

 The NCTE text explores the reasons why minimalism became popular in the latter portion the the 20th Century.  Lifestyle changes having to do with the inception of the suburbs and strip malls in addition to advances in technology that led to how Americans spend leisure time have a lot to do with the lack of motivation to read. 

This is interesting thinking about contemporary culture and how in Japan, novels in text speak sent to a cell phone are popular. Modernity and Post-Modernity have certainly changed the way we spend time. But is this a bad thing? It was only around 1450 when Gutenberg's printing press was in full-function after over a millenium of people deciding what history is. Still, it would take centuries for print literacy to be addressed as something everyone is should have a handle on. A lot of people talk about how people don't read like they used to, and value print literature over other types. But through the history of people communicating, print media has been a relatively new kid on the block. Considering that through most of the centuries up to and including even the 19th and 20th, literacy was still something for privilaged (even today in Buffalo and WNY, the illiteracy rate is around 30%)

But I digress. 

I really, really like the ideas in web 2.0--"we are living in exponential times". 

Is the reason minimalist writers are so popular because of this?

I like the idea of prompting students to write their own pieces of minimalist writing  (Runebstein, 27) because I know a lot of the students I work with think because it' short, it's easy. Rubenstein got surprised by some of his students work. Maybe we could incorporate brief explaination of minimalism and how the style came about from Hemingway and the 'Iceburg Method' to strip malls and Carver and have our peer students write a minimal story of their own. Fun!

Huh?

What do you think?

 

Teaching Space.

But, after all, the aim of art is to create space - space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live. - Frank Stella
The 2nd chapter of Rubenstein's guide to teaching Carver talks about models of creativity, assigning Carter (who goes grudgingly) to Minimalism, which is as much a critique of art as it is a genre of it. It is a term that can be used in a broad way over many mediums- and this is what piqued my interest as far as ideas for teaching. Rubenstein focuses mainly on minimalism in prose writing, citing Hemingway as a direct influence on Carver, but I would encourage a much broader take on Minimalism in art, music, photography, film to give a more holistic approach. I included the quote by Frank Stella at the top (along with one of his paintings) because I thought it could be broadened into a theme for a class, or even a great writing prompt in relation to the characters in Carver's "space." Carver's world is certainly not "compromised by decoration or illustration."
Bringing in a visual aspect to a unit on Carver (the work of Stella or Modigliani) as well as encouraging students to pursue musical and film representations of the ideals of Minimalism that we see Carver establishing is a great way to make the work we are experiencing part of a larger literary conversation.

muscles, bikes and cigarettes

I like reading Carver because it's like sitting on your porch and watching the goings on around you in your neighborhood. His characters are so genuine and familiar. He keeps his descriptions so minimal that the reader's imagination is allowed to fill in the backdrop. I love this because although we're all reading the same story, the uniqueness of our own experiences set the scene and create the plot on our own terms. The characters could be your neighbors as much as mine. Because of this, I think his stories would be a great entry into a short story unit in any high school class.

This was such a sweet story fo me to read. I have two boys and though they are not angels by any stretch of the word, they are generally good boys and rarely give me any issues. (believe me, I know how fortunate I am). They have such an underlying sense of goodness that even though they are "typical boys" and stir up their share of mischief, they ultimately would never intentionally do something to hurt someone else. At least, I don't think they would. They're just not mean spirited. Somehow they've become very empathetic to the feelings of others. I'm not going to take credit for this attribute, but I do take advantage of it and try to foster their understanding of other people's circumstances. It helps them to see outside of themselves, and I think that is an important attribute for any human to have.

My dad would never have done anything like this when I was a child. He's very non- confrontational and for a long time I also hated to rock the boat on any issue in anyway. I'm not saying that it's a terrible personality trait, just that more often than not I found myself getting taken advantage of and that led to resentment and tension. Instead of talking about what was bothering me, I'd just cram it all inside and stew about it. I still have a tendencey to do that, but I try to put my feelings regarding a situation out here before they can fester and cause a larger issue later. Which, by the way, is always the case when you try to be a "non boat-rocker." (at least that's been my experience). My mother...on the other hand would totally have gone down the street and made an issue of the bike situation. I'm trying to think how she would've behaved if it were my bike, and she definitely wouldn't have been as nice as Gilbert's mother.
I'm not sure how I would react in such a situation, my Jon let someone ride his bike this summer and complained that the kid "bent his rim". He is my ...opinionated child. I really didn't know anything about it until about 9:30 one night when my doorbell rang and it was the kid's mother with a twenty dollar bill in her hand. She apologized and tried to give me the money, "this is for Jon's bike, " she'd said. I asked her what she was talking about, and then she gave me the story about her boy riding Jon's bike and Jon accusing him of bending the rim and then demanding payment for it. OMG!! I was mortified. Now, don't get me wrong, I stand up for my own when the situation calls for it, if you know anything about me it has to be that I'm not afraid to..express myself. This, on the other hand was different. I smelled a rat, and he was living in my boy's room. So you can get a better idea of this..allow me to paint the picture for you. Jon, my 12 year old, is the hardest headed child that Jesus has ever made. He is going to learn EVERYTHING the hard way. I love this boy beyond words..but there are definitely days when I've considered taking two twenty's for him. Obstinate would be putting it mildly. Jon is 50,000% boy, really, no exageration. He hates to shower, he smells his clothes to see if they're clean, I can smell him coming home in the summer, and even though he goes to school looking like a clean and well brought up child, he comes home looking like he's been working in the coal mines for eight hours. There are actually times when I throw his clothes out because I don't want to foul up my washing machine..yes, really. We bought him one of those silly BMX bikes a couple of years ago, the ones with the pegs sticking out of the wheels. He "ramps" over twigs, okay? Once I looked out the window and he was dragging a palate from behind the grocery store down the street. He came in and started rummaging through Matt's (my husband) tool box, grabs the hammer and walks out. Because I wanted to see where this was actually going, I just watched for a minute. He took apart the palate, and started leaning the boards next to each other against the blue recycle bin. He throws the hammer down and rides his bike to the end of the street. I knew where this was going so I went out and said "uh, whatta ya doin?" "I made a ramp for my bike, he says. "I'm gonna jump it with my bike." Yeah, okay, that's happening, Can you wait 'til I get an ambulance to stand by? "Are you insane???!!!!!!!!!!." He goes through a minimum of four inner tubes for his bike tires every summer, we finally wised up and got the "Unbreakable" ones...and unbreakable is really a matter of opinion, he managed to ruin one of those as well. This is a kid who tried banging a 9volt battery into a AA battery spot, and was irritated with the fact that he couldn't "make the stupid battery fit." When Jon got the bike he gave every kid in the neighborhood a ride on the back pegs...even though we recommended against that. "It's my bike," he'd say to me. (Can you feel my pain)?
so..the point here is I knew damn well the neighbor's kid didn't bend Jon's bike rim. I certainly couldn't take her money. I did make Jon come downstairs and face the music, and he was really mad at me for a while. He really insisted that this kid bent the rim. Now, I'm not sure what this has to do with the story other than I think there are two sides to every story. I was glad Mr. Hamilton kicked Berman's ass. He deserved it. I can see my little (long) story going completely the other way if I decided to pretend that my kid is a perfect specimen of humanity..but I know better. He's not. Can I fault him for it? Neither am I, but I do want him to make the right choices and even if it makes him want to "stick my doll"..I'll do that to the best of my ability. I want them to say that they wish they knew me when I was little, like they could imagine us being friends. I loved this story. Sorry that I carried on and on and on..