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.