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Kahn, Elizabeth A.! And OthersWriting about Literature.ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and CommunicationSkills, Urbana, Ill.; National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, Urbana, Ill.National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.84400-83-002561p.; TRIP: Theory & Research into PracticeSeries.National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 KenyonRd., Urbana, IL-61801 (Stock No. 58773, $6.00nonmember; $5.00 member).Guides -.Non-Classroom Use (058) -- BookInformationAnalyses -ERIC Information Analysis ProduC

MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.Curriculum Design; Educational Research; *EnglishInstruCtion; *Inteqiated Curriculum;'Language Arts;*Literature Appreciation; *Reader Response; SecondaryEducation; Teaching Methods; Writing (Composition);.:*Writing Instruction; *Writing Research-

IDENTIFIERS *Theory' Practice Relationship

ABSTRACTIntended to help secondary school" English teachers

integrate literature study and composition instruction, this bookletexplores the relationship between literature and composition andsuggests ways of designing instruction so that students may writeeffectively about the literature they read. The first portion of thebooklet discusses such components of research and theory as theassessment of student response to literature, the basics of literaryinterpretation, and "rinciples of sequencing and activity design. Thepractice portion of the booklet presents instructional activitysequences for supporting an interpretation, explicating impliedrelationships, and analyzing authors' generalizations. (HTH)

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Writing about LiteratureU.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONEDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION/ CENTER (ERIC)

This Cocument. has been reproduced asreceived from the person or organizationoriginating it.Minor changes have been made to improvereproduction quality.

points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official NIEposition or policy.

Elizabeth A. KahnCarolyn Calhoun WalterLarry R. Johannessen

ER1161

Writing about Literature

Elizabeth A. KahnJames B. Conant High SchoolHoffman Estates, Illinois

Carolyn Calhoun Walter

Larry R. JohannessenLyons Township High SchoolLa Grange, Illinois

ERIC C:Ialinglionst on Rcading and Connuunicatiou Skillstill 1,:iyon Road, hana. Illinois 61801

al--P National Count it of li'm hers of l'intlisliEll IIII kunyon Road. I) bana, Illinois

NCTE Editorial Board: Julie Jensen, John Mayher, Elisabeth McPherson, Candy Carter,Delores Lipscomb, John Maxwell ex officio. Paul O'Dea ex officio

NCTE Stock Number 58773

Published 1984 by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills and theNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801

bThis publication was prepared with funding from the National Institute of Edu-cation, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. 400-83-0025. Con-tractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged

to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Prior to publication,the manuscript was submitted to the Editorial Board of the National Council of Teachers ofEnglish for critical review and determination of professional 1....nmetence. This publicationhas met such standards. Points of view or opinions, however, do not necessarily represent theofficial view or opinions of either the National Council of Teachers of English or theNational Institute of Education.

4

Contents

Foreword vii

Theory and Research

Assessment of Student Response to LiteratureRationale for Teaching Writing about Literature. 2What Is Basic to Interpreting'Literature? 4Writing to Express Interpretations 6Principles of Sequencing and Activity Design 8

Practice 13

Supporting an Interpretation Sequence 13Explicating Implied Relationships Sequence 19Analyzing Author's Generalization Sequence 33

Sources Cited 53

5

Foreword

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)is a national information system developed by theU.S. Office of Education and now sponsored by theNational Institute of Education (NIE). ERIC providesready access to descriptions of exemplary programs,research and development reports, and related infor-mation useful in developing effective educationalprograms.

Through its network of specialized centers orclearinghouses, each of which is responsible for a par-ticular educational area, ERIC acquires, evaluates,abstracts, and indexes current information and liesthat information in its reference publications.

The ERIC system has already made availablethrough the ERIC Document Reproduction Servicea considerable body of data, including all federallyfunded research reports since 1956. However, if thefindings of educational research are to be used byteachers, much of the data must be translated into anessentially different context. Rather than resting atthe point of making research reports easily accessible,NIE has directed the ERIC clearinghouses to com-mission authorities in various fields to write informa-tion analysis papers.

As with all federal educational information efforts,ERIC has as a primary goal b lidging the gap betweeneducational theory and classroom practice. Onemethod of achieving that goal is the development bythe ERIC Clearinghouse on R ading and Communi-cation. Skills (ERIC/ RCS) of \ a sales of bookletsdesigned to meet concrete educational needs. Eachbooklet provides teachers with \a review of the besteducational theory and research on a limited topic,followed by descriptions of classroom activities thatwill assist teachers in putting that \theory into practice.

The idea is not unique. Several educational journalsand many commercial textboo4 offer similar aids.The ERIC/ RCS booklets are, h?wever, noteworthyin their shall) focus on educational, needs and theirpairing of sound academic theory with tested class-room practice. And they have been developed inresponse to the increasing number of requests fromteachers to provide this kind of senkce.

Topics for these booklets are recommended by theERIC/ RCS National Advisory Board. Suggestionsfor topics are welcomed by the Board and should bedirected to the Clearinghouse.

Charles SuhorDirector, ERIC/RCS

vii

1 Theory Ind Research

Literature and composition are both essential parts ofthe secondary language arts and English curricula.Too often, though, they have been separated ratherthan integrated within these curricula. Classroominstruction is often planned around discrete units ofeach: a literature unit, followed by a language orcomposition unit, followed by a literature unit, andso forth. Elective programs may have compoundedthe problem as well. A glance at typical offerings inelective programs suggests the separation of composi-tion and literature: Composition I, Elements of Writ-ing, Literature of the Midwest, and Major BritishWriters. Commenting on this separation, Anthony R.Petrosky explains,

Ac a result of separate instruction and assessment ofptogress in reading, literature, and composition, curriculain language are fragmented to the point where literatureis often kept out of reading, and composition instruc-tion seldom includes reading or study of literary works,except as models of writing (1982, 19).

Although there are few texts devoted entirely towriting about literature, most composition texts andliterature anthologies commonly used at the secondarylevel fall short of thoroughly integrating literature andcomposition instruction. Because of their comprehen-sive nature, composition texts can provide only verygeneral, generic instruction concerning writing aboutliterature. Space limitations normally allow these textsto devote only one or two chaptersif anyto thesubject. In a like manner, most literature anthologiesmerely assign writing, usually in the form of discus-sion or reaction questions which follow selections, andoccasionally provide models of professional criticismwhich students are to imitate. At best such textbooksexplain what students are to do in these assignments,but this is little preparation if students lack the skillsnecessary to interpret and write about literature. .

A logical means of reducing this fragmentationwithin the secondary English curricula is to find ways

in which literature and composition instruction cancomplement one another. The theory and researchpresented in this booklet explore the relationshipbetween literature and composition and suggest waysof designing instruction so that students write effec-tively about the literattire they read.

Assessment of StudentResponse to Literature

Evidence for the need to combine instruction in read-ing and writing is abundant. Most prominent, though,are the results of the 1979-80 National Assessment ofEducational Progress in reading and literature, Read-ing, Thinking, and Writing (1981). This tudy, whichprimarily focused on literature, measured student per-formance on a wide range of multiple-choice and writ-ing tasks. The study assessed the skills of more than100,000 nine-, thirteen-, and seventeen-year-olds, com-prising socioeconomic and geographic variations rep-resentative of the United States. The results indicatethat American schools lave been reasonably success-ful" in teaching students:to comprehend at the literaland lower inference levels and to arrive at what thereport calls "preliminari interpretations." Older stu-dents were better at these skills, and by age seventeenmost could express theii; initial ideas and judgments,especially when these were concerned with personalreactions to what they read. However, the resultsstrongly indicate the general inability of students toread critically or to support or explain their interpre-tations and responses to literature in any but the mostsuperficial ways. Students at all levels "do not appear,"says the report, ''to have learned how to look for evi-dence for their judgments" (1981, 2). In addition, "stu-dents seem satisfied with their initial interpretationsand seem genttinely puzzled at requests to explain ordefend their points of view" (1981, 2). Even olderstudents who did provide more evidence to supporttheir interpretations than younger students, wrote

2 Kahn, Walter, and Johannessen

responses that were "super icial and limited," and theoverwhelming majority of students "lacked strategiesfor analyzing or evaluating" what they read.

What is perhaps most indkative of the weaknessesof secondary students is that between 1970 and 1980both thirteen- and seventeen-year-olds have becomeless likely even to try to interpret what they read andmore likely simply to make unexplained and unelab-orated value judgments. The report describes this find-ing in a most unsettling fashion. The change, theauthors say, may be characterized by saying that dur-ing the seventies "17-year-olds' papers became some-what more like 13-year-olds' papers" (1981, 3). Inbrief, over the last ten years, student skills in analyzingand writing about literature have seriously declined.In fact, the authors of the report say that the schools"have failed to teach more than 5 to 10 percent tomove beyond their initial reading of a text" (1981, 2).Clearly, the results seem to indicate that new waysmust be found to teach students the skills and strate-gies which will enable them I o write effectively aboutthe literature they read.

Rationale for Teaching Writing about Literature

If the results of the NAEP assessment of reading andliterature suggezt the need to combine instruction inliterature and composition, the assumptions behindthe study provide an even stronger imperative. AsJudith A. Langer notes, the NAEP measured studentperformance from the "rich perspective" of "reading,reasoning, responding, and writing as integral partsof the 'literate' tradition" (1982, 336). It is from this"literate" stance that the NAEP authors argue thatthe skills students learn in studying and writing aboutliterature are important for reasons beyond the sec-ondary school. The report says that academic andvocational postsecondary education, as well as thebusiness world, "require careful reading, and strongskills in analysis, interpretation, and explanation"(1981, 5). Also, they point to the fast growing "infor-mation business" as an area in which students withthese skills will have a "personal advantage," and thereport argues that these skills will become increasinglyimportant as the "information explosion continues."In addition, the authors believe that these skills "willbe increasingly important at personal and social lev-els" in helping individuals and society find "what wevalue" and "what will make our lives worth living"(1981, 5). The report concludes by stating that "the

habits of disciplined reading, analysis, interpretation,and discourse" (1981, 5) are important because theyhelp ensure a society of intellectually strong and vitalindividuals.

Combining instruction in literature and composi-tion in the context suggested by the NAEP report mayalso fulfill other important needs of the individual.Considsfirs,t, Louise Rosenblatt's most importantrdison for having adolescents read literature:

There is an even broader need that literature fulfills,particularly for the adolescent reader. Much that in lifeitself might seem disorganized and meaningless takes onorder aad significance when it comes under the organiz-ing and vitalizing influence of the artist. The yout'isenses in himself new and unsusp,efted emotion impul-sions. He sees the adults about him acting in inexplica-ble ways. In literature he meets emotions, situations,people, presented in significant patterns. He is shown acausal relationship between actions, he finds approvalgiven to certain kinds of personalities and behaviorrather than to others, he finds molds into which to pourhis own nebulous emotions. In short, he often findsmeaning attached to what otherwise would be for himmerely brute facts (1968, 42).

The question left unanswered in her statement is howcombining instruction in literature and compositionmight help a young reader "find meaning" out ofchaos. Petrosky explains,

Although Rosenblatt does not herself assert this point,writing about reading is one of the best ways to getstudents to unravel their transactions so that we [teach-ers] can see how they understand and, in the process,help ,hem learn to elaborate, clarify, and illustrate theirresponses to the associations and prior knowledge thatinform them (1982, 24).

In other words, having students write about what theyread is one way teachers can help students turn "brutefacts" into "meaning."

Petrosky carries his argument even further. Afterrelating research and theory of reading and literatureto research and theory in composition, he concludesthat "our comprehension of texts, whether they areliterary or \ not, is more an act of compositionforunderstanding is composing than of informationretrieval, and that the best possible representation ofour understandings of texts begins with certain kindsof compositions, not multiple-choice tests or writtenfree responses" (1982, 19). James R. Squire also con-cludes that omprehending what is read 2nd writingabout what is read are inextricabl, linked. LikePetrosky, Squire relates research in reading compre-hension with hat of composing. He argues that teach-

ing students to compose and comprehend are "whatthe teaching of the higher thought processes is allabout" (1983, 582).

The NAEP report identifies current practices inteaching and testing as important reasons why stu-dents have difficulties in reading, interpreting, analyz-ing, and writing about literature. For example, thereport indicates that teachers continue to utilize tradi-tional patterns of "whole-class teaching and recita-tion." This pattern involves moving "quickly fromstudent to student so that many students can beinvolved without any one student dominating." Theresult of this pattern is "teacher dominated question-ing in which brief comments from individual studentsare solicited and extended discussion is deliberatelycurtailed" (1981, 2). Students, therefore, have "littleopportunity to learn to formulate extended and de-tailed interpretations" (1981, 2). In addition, the NA EPobserves that the relatively short responses encouragedby this methodology parallel "the multiple-choice andfill-in-the-blank formats that dominate standardizedand teacher-developed tests" (1981, 2). The problem,again, is that "when doing well in most school con-texts requires little beyond short responses, it is notsurprising that students fail to develop more compre-hensive thinking and analytic skills" (1981, 2).

Studies by Taba (1955), Hoetker (1968), Squire andApplebee (1968), Purves (1981), and Applebee (1981)confirm the analysis made by the NAEP and suggestthat for at least the last thirty years the teaching ofliterature has relied on lecture, recitation, and short-answer discussions, which may preclude students'engaging in the kind of extended inquiry necessaryif they are to interpret, analyze, and write about theliterature they read. Purves reports that students dovery little writing about literature and that "teacherstend to teach in a lecture or lecture-recitation mode."When Applebee examined writing in the secondaryschools in 1980, an examination that included 259observations of ninth- and eleventh-grade. studentsin two high schools, he found that only ten percentof the lesson time in English classes was devotedwriting that required students to provide at least aparagraph.

The NAEP report makes a number of suggestionsabout how instruction might be enhanced to help stu-dents master the skills which the assessment indicatesthey lack. The report found a positive correlationbetween students' interest or engagement in passagesand the degree of elaboration in written responses.Therefore, instruction should be designed in ways that

Theory and Research 3

ensure student interest and engagement since this willimprove the likelihood of student learning. In addi-tion, the report calls for the creation of more situa-tions which "require students to explain and defendtheir opinions at son,e length" (1981, 4). This shouldinclude "discussion activities in which students haveto contend with the immediate demands of an audi-ence, and extensive writing, in which longer segmentsof text must be organized and related to one another"(1981, 4). Also, the report asserts that "students needto be shown a variety of problem-solving and criticalthinking strategies. Instruction in such skills shouldbe systematic rather than accidental, as part of thecurriculum in English" (1981, 4). The report under-scores t:-ie need for small group discussions in order"to provide each stude:it with opportunities to stateand defend interpretations and opinions" (1981, 5). Inemphasizing the most consistent weakness found inthe assessment of reading and literature, that of stu-dents' apparent lack of systematic approaches to taskswhich required analysis of a text, the authors makethese recommendations:- students need "to learn avariety of ways of analyzing a text in order to findevidence for judgments," (198! 5) and to be givenopportunities "to write at some length" in response tovarious texts and writing situations in order to prac-tice applying "alternative approaches."

The results of the Purves .(1981) and Applebee(1981) studies underscoi-e the recommendations madeby the NAEP; in fact, both researchers echo some ofthe same recommendations. To improve instruction,Purves suggests that the schools "become places wherethe language and reading of children are stretched,where a variety of experiences is made available,where lectures are replaced by questioning, and whereindividualized instruction is replaced by small groupwork" (1981, 106). From the classroom visits made inhis study, Applebee highlights the characteristics ofthe "better" and "best" lessons that he observed. Inthese lessons students are "actively involved in teacher-designed tasks"; their "own experiences are freelyincorporated into class discussions"; and they are"enthusiastic about their work." In addition, "theteacher encourages students to explore and discoverand seldom dominates the class," and "writing isviewed as a means of learning and emerges naturallyout of otl.er activities" (1981, 104-5). In the mosteffective lessons Applebee observed, students "wouldwork together to solve problems posed by the teacher;this forced students both to articulate their solutionsmore clearly and to defend them in the face of oppos-


ing opinions. . . . When writing assignments followedsuch lessons, they were treated by the students as away to continue an activity in which they had becomedeeply involved" (1981, 105).

What Is Basic to Interpreting Literature?

How can we implement the recommendations madeby the NAEP, Purves, and Applebee? In reflecting orhow to engage students in interpreting literature anddefending their ideas in writing, we must first ask,What is involved in understanding literature? Logictells us that s udents' writing about a literary workwill not be very meaningful if they do not understandthe work they are trying to write about. What does areader have to know or be able to do in order tounderstand a literary work?

Textbooks, handbooks, and curriculum guides oftensuggest that understanding literature involves under-standing certain literary terms. The tenth-grade text-book Question find Form in Literature (Miller et al.1982) presents the following list: alliteration, allusion,analogy, assonance, blank verse, cacophony/euphony,characterization, connotation/ denotation, consonance,figurative language, foreshadowing, free verse, imag-ery, irony, lyric, metaphor. mood, narrative poetry,onomatopoeia, paradox, personification, plot, point01 view, protagonist/antagonist, rhyme, rhythm, satire,setting, stereotype, style, symbol, theme, and tone.When faced with a list of these thirty-six terms, teach-ers may find it difficult to know where to begin. (Thetwelfth-grade text contains 160 terms.) Many of theterms are quite problematic. For example, Questionand Form in Literature defines theme in this way:"Theme differs from the subject of a literary work inthat it involves a statement or opinion about thatsubject" (1982, 599). Another literature text presentsa thematic unit in which all of the works involve the"theme of reflections" (Rashkis and Bennett 1981). Ifa student were asked the theme of "Flowers for Alger-non" (one of the selections in the thematic unit), would"reflection" be a satisfactory response? Would thatresponse indicate a student's ability to analyze theme?Does identifying "reflections" as a "theme" require thesame skills as explaining the author's opinion about"reflection"? Are the same skills involved in determin-ing the theme of a fable when a moral is explicitlystated at the end as in determining the theme of awork when it is implied arid never directly stated? Dothese exhaustive lists of terms represent basic skills

.

involved in interpreting literature? Are skills taxo-nomically related; in other words, are there some skillsthat must be mastered before others can be learned?

Recognizing the importance of questions like thesein arriving at a framework for instruction in literature,many researchers and textbook editors have attemptedto define the skills basic to comprehension of litera-ture and have hypothesized various skill hierarchies.Yet, most of these hypotheses have not been substan-tiated by empirical testing. "A Taxonomy of Skills inReading and Interpreting Fiction" (Hillocks and Lud-low 1984) is the only taxonomy to date strongly sup-ported by empirical evidence. The dearth of empiricalresearch on skill hierarchies is pointed out in Rosen-shine's review of studies related to two issues: "whetherthere are distinct reading comprehension skills andwhether there is evidence of a skill hierarchy" (1980,535). He reports that "experimental studies were notfound on these issues" (1980, 535) and that "the mostardent proponent.; of unique reading comprehensionskills, Frederick Davis [1972], does not believe thathis research has produced evidence in favor of a hier-archical skills theory" (1980, 545). In addition, Rosen-shine states,' "In the 1968 NSSE yearbook on read-ing instruction, two authors, Wittick [1968] and Robin-son [1968], noted the lack of research on learningsequences" (1980, 545). In an analysiof four sequen-tial questioning hierarchies (developed by Bloom,Sanders, Taba, and Herber), Christenbury and Kelly(1983) found no evidence to support the contentionthat the cognitive sophistication required to deal effec-tively with one identified level is superior to thatrequired to deal with the levels below it or inferior tothat required to deal with ,the levels above it. Theyalso criticize the levels of these hierarchies as being"arbitrary," "overlapping," and "ambiguous."

The skill levels defined by Hillocks and Ludlow(1984) differ from those posited by Davis (1968, 1972)and the other researchers mentioned above. Hillocksand Ludlow's skill levels are clearly defined, and thereis strong evidence of their hierarchical and taxonomi-cal relationship. In coresearch with Bernard McCabeand J.E. McCampbell (1971) and independently (1980),Hillocks has identified seven skill types and corres-ponding question types. Below is his explanation ofthe seven levels from simplest to most complex. Theskill types are not meant to be exhaustive but repre-sent key skills which Hillocks indicates are of appar-ent concern to reading experts, teachers ofliterature,and literary critics. The first three skill types are literallevel skills. They require identification of information

which appears explicitly in the text. The next fourskill types are inferential level skills which requiregeneralizations about relationships which are notstated in the text. The questions illustrating each ofthe skill levels are based on Chapter 1 of The Pearlby John Steinbeck. These questions comprise one ofthe foil!: question sets examined in Hillocks and Lud-low's study.

Literal Level of Comprehension

I. Basic Stated InformationIdentifying frequent-ly stated information which presents some con-dition crucial to the story. Example: What hap-pened to Coyotito?

2. Key DetailIdentifying a detail which appearsat some key juncture of the plot and which bearsa causal relationship to what happens. Example:Where did Coyotito sleep?

3. Stated RelationshipIdentifying a statementwhich explains the relationship between at leasttwo pieces of information in the text: Example:What the beggars' reason for following Kinoand Juana to the doctor's house?

Inferential Level of Comprehension

4. Simple Implied RelationshipInferring therelationship between two pieces of informationusually closely juxtaposed in the text. Example:What were Kino's feelings about the pearls heoffers the doctor? Explain how you know.

5. Complex Implied RelationshipInferring therelationship(s) among many pieces of informa-tion spread throughout large parts of the text.A question of this type might concern, forexample, the causes of character change. Thiswould involve relating details of personalitybefore and after a change and inferring thecauses of the change from the same details andinterceding events. Example: In this chapter,Kino appears at home and in town. He feelsand acts differently in these two places. Partof the difference is the result of what happenedto Coyotito. Part is the result of other things.a) What are the differences between the wayKino acts and feels at home and in town?b) Apart from what happened to Coyotito,explain the causes of those differences.

6. Author's GeneralizationInferring a generali-zation about the world outside the work from


the fabric of the work as a whole. These ques-tions demand a statement of what the worksuggests about human nature or the humancondition as it exists outside the text. Example:What comment or generalization does thischapter make on the way "civilization" influ-ences human behavior and at6udes? Giveevidence from the story to support your answer.

7. ,Structural GeneralizationGeneralizing abouthow parts of the work operate together toachieve certain effects. irb belong properly tothis category, a question must first require thereader to generalizg about the arrangement ofcertain Darts of a work. Second, it must requirean explanation of how those parts work inachieving certain effects. Example: Steinbeckpresents a group of beggars in the story.a) Explain what purpose they serve in relation-ship to the first eleven paragraphs of the story.b) Present evidence from the story to supportyour answer.

In designing questions for these skill types it isimportant to note that a question must be classifiedas a skill type in conjunction with the text from whichit is derived. For example, if The Pearl containedexplicit statements telling how and why Kino acteddifferently at home and in town, question five abovecould not be classified as a complex implied relation-ship question. For the same reason, for a fable withan explicitly stated moral, a question that asks whatthe fabl.t shows about human nature could not beconsidered an author's generalization question if aliteral statement of the moral provides a satisfactoryanswer to the question.

In Hillocks and Ludlow's study, sets of questions,including the one above, for four different stories wereadministered to students from ninth grade to graduateschool. The number of students responding to eachquestion set ranged from seventy-seven to one hun-ched twenty-seven. Student scores were analyzed todetermine hierarchical and taxonomical relationshipsof items on the individual tests using a form ofthe Rasch psychometric model known as the orderedcategories model (Wright and Masters 1982; Wright,Masters, and Ludlow 1981), which considers partialand full credit. The results of the statistical analysisstrongly support the hypotheses of the study: that theitems are hierarchical and taxonomically related toeach other. In other words, the question types arearranged from easiest to most complex, and the ques-

6 Kahn. Waker, and Johannessen

tion types are taxonomicalreaders will tend riot tobe able to answer question seven if they could notanswer question six, or not to be able to answer ques-tions five, six, or seven if they could not answer ques-tion four, and so forth.

One question that arises from these results is howthe skill levels identified and defined by Hillocks differfrom those of other researchers such as Davis (1968,1972). Davis (1968) identifies the. following distinguish-able skills: "recalling word meanings; finding answersto questions answered explicitly or in paraphrase;drawing inferences from the content; recognizing awriter's purpose, attitude, tone, and mood; and fol-lowing the structure of a passage" (Rosenshine 1980,541). The results of Hillocks and Ludlow's study mayhelp reveal problems in classifying skill levels in thisway. In most fictional works, recognizing a writer'spurpose (if that is the same as an author's generaliza-tion) involves drawing inferences. Therefore, these twoskills, drawing inferences and recognizing a writer'spurpose, in Davis's system of classification may over-lap and, therefore, not be hierarchical. Hillocks andLudlow's study suggests that in interpreting fictionthere are at least four distinct skill levels of inferencemaking, and in Davis's system inference making ishandleJ as one :'kilt type distinct from interpretingwriter's purpose. These problems in identifying skilltypes may be the reason there is no evidence in Davis'swork of a skill hierarchy.

Hillocks's taxonomy helps us identify some of thecomplex skills involved in interpreting fiction and hasother important impli::atie as for designing instructionto help students master these skills. The results of Hil-locks and Ludlow's study indicate the need to workhierarchically in helping students understand literatureat higher levels. The teacher can Use the question typesto construct inventories to evaluate the skills of indi-vidual students and classes. After determining at whatlevel students can work comfortably in interpretingliterature in general, the teacher can design instructionto guide them in dealing with the next higher levels.Working hierarchically is necessary. For example, ifwe want students to understand the ruthor's generali-zations in a given work, we need to be sure that theyfirst understand the lower level relationships (Hillocksand Ludlow 1983). But Hillocks warns that workingat two or more levels above student competence islikely to result in failure to comprehend and hostilitytoward literature. Although this taxonomy admittedlydoes not include all possible types of questions, itprovides a basis for the teacher to evaluate specific

questions in study guides and composition assign-ments to determine what level of skill is required. Alsoit provides a framework for developing discussionquestions and composition assignments appropriatefor the level of a particular class.

Christenbury and Kelly are wary of questioninghierarchies because of the way "many questioningschemata have been abused and have become prescrip-tions rather than suggestions or guidelines" (1983, 5).We are not suggesting that working hierarchicallymeans the teacher must adhere to an inflexible lis: ofquestions and E: ppress any responses that do not fol-low a prescribed pattern. In an advanced class inwhich students have exhibited facility with lower levelquestions, the teacher might skip literal level ques-tioning altogether unless a problem involving literalunderstanding were to arise. In other cases, if studentsbring up a high-level question early in a discussion,there is certainly nothing wrong with pursuing stu-dents' responses (but if students are confused, the beststrategy may be to use lower level questions to guidestudents toward the higher level questions). Further-more, discussion could flow from inferential level toliteral level if, in analyzing how a character changes, astudent questions another's account of "what happensin the story." Most importantly, the taxonomy servesas a framework to help the teacher determine how toproceed in designing instructional activities to guidestudents in interpreting literature at higher levels.

If a teacher asks high level questions without ade-quately preparing students for these levels of interpre-tation, it is not very likely that sophisticated discus-sion will take place. As a result, the teacher may resortto a pattern of recitation and lecture. Luka (19E3) sug-gests how this situation might arise. He observed thatwhen teachers asked high level questions, they receivedinadequate responses or most often no responses fromstudents and then resorted to explaining the answersthemselves. When students are not able to respond tohigh level questions, the tendency of teas, ,s seemsto be to lecture, thereby making the high lev:;:l inter-pretations Cielnselves or to ask only literal level ques-tions that students will be able to answer more readily.In this situation, it would not be at all surprising tofind students hiving difficulty interpreting literature.

Writing to Express interpretations

Although Hillocks's question sets were not Used toevaluate writing ability per se, the questions at levels

five, six, and seven are typical of composition assign-ments often given to students. Questions at these levelsare complex enough to generate lengthy compositions.For Hillocks and Ludlow's study, good answers for,say, a complex implied relationship question usuallyranged from two to five sentences. The following isan answer to the question about how and why Kinoacts and feels differently at home and in town. In thestudy this answer was rated as "good." (Answers wererated either "wrong," "partly right," or "good.")

-At home Kino feels comfortable, secitre, and peaceful(that is until the scorpion stings Coyotito). In town heis nervous and afraid. The difference is caused by thebad way the townspec;p.. have treated his race. Theytreat his race like animals. He is afraid of their powerover his people but also angry that they have this power.

What is needed to expand this kind of responseinto an effective essay? Toulmin's (1958) analysis ofargumentation helps answer this question. A responseto a complex implied relationship, author's generali-zation, or structural generalization question is anargument in the sense that the writer is attempting toconvince a reader that his conclusions about the textare accurate. Toulmin identifies three basic parts ofan effective argumentclaim, data, and warrant. Theclaim is the conclusion that is advanced; the data arethe evidences; and the warrant is the explanation ofwhy the data justify the claim or, in other words,authorization for the "leap" from the data to the claim.

An analysis of the above answer in Toulmin's termsreveals that it is basically a series of claims that couldbe elaborated with data and warrant(s). An effective

composition on this question would perhaps beginwith the ideas presented in the above answer as a seriesof claims to be argued (the "thesis"), and the body ofthe composition would present evidence and warrantsfor each of the claims. For the first claim, for instance,"At home Kino feels comfortable, secure, and peace-ful," evidence might include quotations from the novelsuch as, "Kino heard the little splash of morningwaves on the beach. It was very goodKino closedhis eyes again to listen to his music." At anotherpoint, the novel states that as Juana ate her breakfast,"Kino sighed with satisfaction." The music or familysong Kino hears at home is described as "an achingchord that caught the throat, saying this is safety, thisis warmth, this is the Whole."

This kind of analysis reveals some skills in additionto those suggested by the taxonomy that students needin order to write effective essays interpreting compleximplied relationships, author's generalizations, and


structural generalizations. They must identify each oftheir claims, find supporting evidence for each, orga-nize their evidence, smoothly incorporate evidence intheir papers, and explain how the evidence justifiesthe claims. As the NAEP and our experience in theclassroom suggest, students have difficulty with theseskills. Furthermore, being able to answer successfullya level five, six, or seven question in a short paragraphsuch as the one above for The Pearl does not auto-matically mean that the student can write an effectivepersuasive essay on the question. Students may beable to make insightful claims but not be able to sup-port those claims in a composition.

Often students use virtually no data at all, pre-senting claim after claim in their compositions with-out any support. This makes the paper very weakeven though some of the claims may be insightful.The NAEP reports that very few students at any ageexplained their initial ideas and judgments throughreference to the text. Sometimes students state a claim(x), then present an extended summary of whathappens in the short story or novel, and conclude withthe idea "all of this shows x." In this case they losethe focus of their argument with much irrelevant de-tail. Students developing their papers in thi.; fashionneed to learn how to select and use appropriateevidence.

One of the greatest difficulties, ev2n for competentwriters, is providing warrants. They assume that theleap from k'nta to claim is obvious and that it is,therefore, nt_ t necessary to elaborate on the connec-tion between the two. In some cases the relationshipmay be obvious, but often it is not. For example, thestudent might'use as evidence of Kino's fear in townthe fact that he rernJves his hat when he knocks atthe doof of the doctor's house. Without. a warrantexplaining why the writer concludes that removing hishat shows fear, the reader may not be convinced bythis evidence. He may conclude the action showsrespect or good upbringing instead of fear.

The differences between a_zood answer to a com-plex implied relationship question in the taxonomystudy and a good composition of literary analysissuggest that while reading and writing may be "reflec-tions of the same cognitive process," (Squire 1983,582) they also require a shift in focus for the student.Reading and responding to literature require studentsto focus on a topic (What do they know?), but writinga persuasive composition requires students to focuson a goal (What do they want to do with what theyknow?). In Squire's terms, the learner is reconstructing

13.


the structure and meaning of another writer in com-prehending; whereas, the learner is constructing mean-ing and developing ideas in composing. Flower andHayes seem to agree with this concept of construction,"In composing, writers often work from the bottomof a tree [hierarchy] to more inclusive steps" (1977,460). However, Flower and Hayes identify a problemat this point, "But readers [of analytic prose] under-stand best when they have an overview, when theycan see an idea structure from the top down" (1977,460). It is not enough then for the writer to knowsomething from reading. The effective writer is awareof this shift in focus frop-, what he knows to what hedoes with what he knows. He is aware of this differ-ence between the manner in which he privately con-structs a conclusion and the manner in which it is

best presented to a reader who has not been privy tohis thought processes.

These combined requirements for writing aboutliterature reconstructing an author's meaning, de-

:.veloping one's own ideas, and then refocusing thoseideas for another reader--can quickly lead to what E.D. Hirsch, Jr. identifies as cognitive overload for thestudent. Hirsch tells us that cognitive overload

. .. is based on the established truth that our cognitivefaculties are very strictly limited in the number of thingsthat we can pay attention to when we perform a com-plex task. . . . We can and do perform tasks that havemany more than ten or twelve aspects, but we cannotdo this if all the aspects are unfamiliar ones which re-quire attention simuItaneously (1982, 45).

In 'terms of writing, Hirsch asserts that "having to payattention to so many things at once degrades everyaspect of performance so that highly intelligent adultscan produce writing that is virtually unintelligible"(1982, 47). Of course, we can see how this applies evenmore to the junior high or high school student who isjust beginning to make literary inferences and is justbeginning to write analytical, persuasive papers. Veryfewif anyof the complex skills required for thesetasks are automatic-for him or her.

Hirsch sees two ways to reduce cognitive overload:either make certain aspects of the task automatic orsubdivide the task itself. In his article, Hirsch's solu-tion to cognitive overload, primarily for younger stu-dents, is to automate certain scribal conventions suchas spelling and penmanship which are present in everypiece of writing.

Hirsch's argument .of cognitive overload is con-vincing, but its implicati-ons can-be-taken much furtherthan spelling and penmanship. If teaching composi-

tion is a matter of skill acquisition, as Hirsch arserts,then the skills of literary analysis, as defined by Hi!-locks's taxonomy, and the skills of argumentation, asdefined by Toulmin, seem to be good places to startin designing instruction for teaching writing aboutliterature. Having students practice reading and writ-ing skills, through activities which gradually andsequentially add new skills to students' repertoire,may help reduce cognitive over.,ad.

This view seems to argue against the approach ofteaching writing primarily through the analysis ofmodels. If students analyze a model of a literarycomposition, they are looking at a finished product.Students are approaching the piece as readers not aswriters, and they are not able to practice the variousskills required to create a similar piece. As Flowerand Hayes identify the problem,

This gap between the textbook and the experience is aproblem composition must face. Because the act of writ-ing is a complex cognitive skill, not a body of knowl-edge, teaching writers to analyze the product often failsto intervene at a meaningful stage in the writer's 'per-formance. Such teaching leaves a gap because it has lit-tle to say about the techniques and thinking process ofwriting as a student (or anyone else) experiences it(1977, 450).

Principles of Sequencing and Activity Design

In the Practice section, we try to alleviate this gap byproviding a sequence of activities to help studentsdevelop the thinking processes essential for writingabout iiierPture. The NAEP findings suggest that ininterpreting literature most secondary students canmake some simple, initial inferences. For this reason,the sequence of activities in the Practice section dealsWith the first three inferential levels defined by Hil-locks in his taxonomy: simple implied relationships,complex implied relationships, and author's generali-zation. The activities are divided into three sequenceswhich reflect the three inferential skill levels of thehierarchy: "Supporting an Interpretation," with activ-ities that have students practicing simple inferenceskills; "Explicating Implied Relationships," with activ-ities that have students practicing complex inferenceskills; and "Analyzing Author's Generalizations," withactivities that have students making generalizationsabout the author's view of the world outside the work.

These three sequences and the flute levels of infer-ential understanding with which they deal are notmeant to be an exhaustive approach to literature. For

14

instance, they do not deal with the highest level ofHillocks's taxonomy, structural generalization. Yet,these three levels of inferential skills seem basic tounderstanding and interpreting fiction; furthermore,they seem to be at a meaningful stage of the secondaryreader's developmental performance.

In terms of writing skills, the activities in each ofthe three sequences of the Practice section are designedto help students refocus their understanding of litera-ture and turn it into a piece of analytic, persuasive writ-ing. In each sequence, students practice drawing conclu-sions, collecting evidence to support their conclusions,evaluating their evidence, and articulating the relation-ship between their evidence and their conclusions.

In addition to the overall arrangement of activitiesfrom less to more sophisticated reading and writingskills, the Practice section also reflects several otherprinciples of sequencing. For instance, each of thethree sequences begins with an introductory activity.Generally, these early activities are nonliterary innature, involving short scenarios, surveys, or role play-ipg. They are designed to elicit students' opinions andknowledge and to introduce some of the key conceptson which the literature will focus. They are also meantto enhance purposeful reading and increase compre-.hension as students compare and refiner their ownideas with respect to the literature once they beginreading (Johannessen,: Kahn, and Walter 1984). Forexample, in the "Romantic Love/ Ma- ciage Survey"activity, which begins the "Analyzing Author's Gen-eralization" sequence, students respond to a list ofstatements (including some clichés) about love andsolicit others' opinions as well. Students and others areasked to agree or disagree with statements such as

. "Love is blind," or "Physical attraction must precedetrue love." After tabulating responses in class, studentscan see how their opinions differ from or are similarto others'. Later in the sequence of activities, studentsread a series of poems concerning love or marriake:,..._and they draw conclusions about the poets' generali-zations. In discussion, the teacher can refer to the"Romantic Love/ Marriage Survey" and ask studentswhether they think individual poets would agree ordisagree with certain statements on the survey. Stu-dents' opinions, of cJurse, will have to be buttressedwith specific re.fercrices to the literary work. At thispoint, students may also begin to refine their own ini-tial ideas as they take into account the poets' general-izations about love, which often challenge the cliches.

A recent pilot study provides empirical evidencesuggesting that when students participate in introduc-


tory activities such as these, they achieve higher levelsof comprehension than when they do not participr,in these activities before reading. Kern found thatstudents who participated in introductory scenarioactivities (similar to the "Ranking Scenarios" activityin the first sequence in the Practice section) beforereading short stories achieved significantly greatercomprehension scores (p < .01 and p < .0005) fromthe simple inference through the structural generaliza-tion levels than students who did not participate inthese activities before reading the same stories. Kern'sstudy suggests that such introductory activities "dohelp students rnrke inferences and generalizations withgreater precision" (1983, 31).

The activities within each sequery.c are also designedto reflect more structure at the beginning than at theend. This design gives students more support whenthey are unfamiliar with a skill. As students gainexperience with the skills, the activities become moreopen-ended in nature. This movement from more toless structure is also linked with another principle ofsequencing, a movement from teacher-directed activ-ities in which the teacher provides more material ormore input to student-independent activities in whichstudents initiate discussion and generate their ownmaterial. This independence, of course, is the goal ofall instruction. Because students have mastered skillsindependently and sequentially, they are able to per-form tasks without cognitive overload. For instance,in the first sequence, "Supporting an Interpretation,"students make a choice between one of two interpre-tations: either Atticus is or he is not characterized asa good parent in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.Then they are given "examples" to evaluate and askedto improve the weak ones. By the final writing assign-ment, however, students must generate their own evi-dence to support their conclusions about whetheranother character in the novel is a good parent.

This kind of instructional sequence does not ask41.tdents=to-,ftwrite about something in the n(vel youfind interesting.'ci?'=meaningful," "write about yourfeelings and reactions While-reading," or "write aboutwhat the novel means to you." We are not suggestingthat these kinds of assignments have no place ininstruction, but there is little in this type of assignmentto ensure that students go beyond a simple literal levelof reading or support their conclusions with specificevidence. A writer could explain, for instance, that heliked the suspense at the end and could not put thebook down or that he really hated Bob Ewell becausehe was so filthy and disgusting or that the novel


showed what it was like to grow up in the South. Butstudents may not know, as the NAEP report suggests,how to turn these kinds of initial responses intomeaningful essays of interpretation. Beginning withmore structure, as in this first sequence, may helpstudents learn to make interpretations at progressivelyhigher levels and support their interpretations effec-tively so that they will later be able to write success-fully in response to more open-ended topics. In system-atically leading to more independence, thi: kind ofstructuring may ultimately result in greater, ratherthan less, freedom for students. As Dewey explains,"Freedom is power to act and to execute independentof external tutelage. It signifies mastery capable ofindependent exercise, emancipated from the leadingstrings of others, not mere unhindered external oper-ation" (1933, 87).

The principles of sequencing a series of activitiesshould ideally be reflected in the design of a singleactivity. The activity may begin with simpler mate-rials, teacher direction, and structure. However, bythe end of the activity, students should be workingwith less structure and increasing independence on amore sophisticated level of performance. For example,in one activity, "Romantic Love/ Marriage Fables,"students begin their analysis of author's generalizationin teacher-led discussion guided by a specific set ofquestions. The next step is student led as the classanalyzes additional fables in small grodps withoutdirect teacher involvement. Finally, students workindividually in writing an analysis of a fable not yet.d iscussA.

All this mention of "practice," however, sh )uld notbe equated with the notion of "rote" exercise. Toensure that students acquire the skills they need, theactivities cannot be simple, pedantic exercises. Tomaximize its effectiveness in the classroom, eachactivity must elicit students' opinions and involvement.At whatever level, the activities must require criticalthinking frem the students. Students must be involvedin problem-solving situations for which there are notransparent answers so that they practice explainingand defending their positions.

Many theorists and researchers conclude that envi-ronments in which students actively participate inexplaining and defending their interpretations of lit-erature are more conducive to learning than thelecture-recitation classroom (Taba 1955; Rosenblatt1968; Squire and Applebe:: 1968; Applebee 1981;NAEP 1981; and Purves 1981). Teachers, too, oftenindicate that they would welcome more student iriterac-

tion in discussions. So why the pervasiveness of teacherdominance and low levels of student interaction?According to Rosenblatt (1968), this lack of interac-..ion with the text and other readers develops in partas a result of structuring questions for students aheadof time before seeing their reactions to a text ratherthan deriving questions from the initial responses andfeelings students have as they are reading or afterreading a text. Her method for achieving a lively dis-cussion is to remove some of the traditional structuresand allow students to express their ideas and reactionsfreely. She suggests beginning discussion with a ques-tion such as "How did the selection make you feel?"or "How did you react as you read?"

Creating a lively discussion in which all studentsactively respond to each other in sophisticated analysisof literature is a goal we share with Rosenblatt.Applebee praises Rosenblatt's goal of "helping thestudent reflect upon and thus refine his responses" butpoints out that Rosenblatt has "few examples of howthis would be done" and that the examples of sophisti-cated discussion that she offers "implied quite a highlevel of initial response" (1974, 157). If students donot have skills necessary for interpreting implied rela-tionships or generalizations, then discussion of their"feelings" and "reactions" may remain at a simplisticlevel of likes and dislikes related to the text and basedon little understanding of it. In this case, removing"structure" and "freeing" students to express their ideasmay not result in lively or sophisticated discussion.

As our own experience and the studies of class-room practices cited above confirm, getting good classor small group discussions going is very difficult. Thephysical problems alonelarge class sizes and smallroomscan be quite taxing. Students Ire often reluc-tant to talk in a classroom filled with their peers. Wehave found that designing and sequencing-instructionin the ways we describe helps overcome, or at leastminimize, these problems. A classroom example mayillustrate our point (Kahn, Walter, and Johannessen1984). After students finished reading the short story"Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, we tried to begin dis-cussion by asking students, "How did you react toPaul as you were reading the story?" Our high schoolstudents tended to respond with unspetific and unelab-orated responses such as "He's weird," or "He's reallyout of it," or "He's a real loser." Probing students'reactions by asking them why they had these impres-sions failed to move them beyond a few references toPaul's peculiar habits. Only a few students responded,and there was virtually no interaction among students.

16

In contrast, students became actively involved, andtheir analyses of Paul's character were much moresophisticated and specific after they worked on the"Literary Characters' Values Profile" (Figure 9). Thisresult is concurrent with observations from a studyby Nancy B. Lester. Lester's study involved adultreaders and a value ranking system much moreinvolved and elaborate than our own. However, sheconcludes, "for these occasions [when the student mayhave been too close to or too distant from the charac-ter], and for these readers, a value analysis couldprovide a way for them to discuss a text without feel-ing uncomfortable if their values are involved or feel-ing inadequate if they have never had experiencessimilar to those provided in the text" (1982, 336).

In our activity students were given a sheet with alist of twenty-two possible values such as acceptance,achievement, aesthetics, altruism, autonomy, creativ-ity, physical appe?rance, pleasure, and wealth. Indi-vidually, they radked the values in order from mostimportant to Paul to least important to Paul. Later,in small groups, students compared their individualrankings and defended their choice of rankings by cit-ing evidence from the story. One student was surePaul valued physical appearance most, "After all, lookat the fancy stuff he wore at the dean's hearingthecoat with the velvet collar, the opal stick pin, and thered carnation. And, then, what does he do the firstthing in New York? He buys silk underwear!" Asecond student held out for wealth as a top value andcited Paul's conclusion, "It says right on page 178 that'money was everything.' Y.m can't make a stro,:gerstatement than that." A third student in the groupmentioned acceptance as a value and offered the ideathat Paul seemed to want acceptance by the operastar whom he followed to the hotel. Another groupmember, though, doubted this and seemed to remem-ber contrary evidence in the story. After searching fora few moments, the passage in question came to light:" 'He had no especial_ desire to meet or to know anyof these people; all ht.,- demanded was the right to lookon and conjectnie, to watch the pageant. The merestage properties were all he contended for.' " Buttressedwith this quote, the same group member volunteered,"Really, don't you think this could be used as evidencefor physical appearance? It seems as if Paul only caresabout appearance and never reality."

The students participating in the "Literary Charac-ters' Values Profile" activity are reacting to Paul andhis personality, but the structure of this activity hasgiven them a specific vocabulary and point of refer-

Theory and Research i I

ence for doing so. Instead of casting about in theirminds for one or two options, the students have manyvalues to weigh and from which to select. They maystill be right in initially labeling Paul "a loser," butthey are aware now that he appears this way to themdue to his inability to distinguish appearance fromreality. As Lester notes, having readers analyze acharacter's values "provides a key to eiusive meaning.It enables students to see that meaning in a text isaccessible to them as well as to the teacher, and thattheir responses are the first steps to disclosing that`hidden meaning' " (1982, 336).

Students become engaged in this problem -sole ingactivity because there is no obvious answer. In fact,good cases can be made for several top value choices.Ranking the values individually constitutes a vestedinterest for students. As they begin discussion ingroups, cont.'oversy arises. Students begin to look forevidence from the text because they want to explainand defend their positions. They are less likely toaccept uncritically any answer that is given. Further-more, small group work helps students to search forthe best answers independently because they cannotlook to the teacher for constant confirmation of the"correct" answer.

The classroom activity immediately following the"Literary Characters' Values Profile" involves studentdebates. Students are divided into small groups againto take sides on the question, "Why does Paul commitsuicA ;,.?" In preparing for the debates, students usetheir opinions of what Paul does and does not valueto defend their positions. While discussion in thisdebate activity is more open-ended than in the "LiteraryCharacters' Values Profile," students are prepared bythe previous activity so that they are able to handlethe new demands of the debate. Again, there is noreadily apparent answer; students must utilize criticalthinking and problem solving skills. The debate for-malizes students' needs to explain and defend theirpositions. It also makes abundantly clear the imme-diate demands of audience. Discussions become heatedas students debate whether Paul committed suicidebecause he lost touch with reality or because he vaiuedwealth and did not have it or because he did not valuemorality and honesty. They become so heated in factthat they sometimes stop to admonish each other,"Hey, remember it's only a story!"

Activities of this kind may help create the instruc-tional environment, advocated by Applebee (1981) andthe NAEP report (1981) because they encourage stu-dents to elaborate and defend their interpretations.

I2 Kahn, Walter, and Johannessen

As students become involved in disagreernants witheach other about Paul's values, they develop an"audience" in addition to the teacher. A writingassignment that asks them to argue their viewpointabout what Paul values most or why he committedsuicide may provide a natural follow-up to the classdebates. The purpose in writing try to resolve aprof' n with which the class has been wrestling. Thestudent has a purpose for writing beyond simplyshowing the teacher what he knows about "Paul'sCase." When he knows his paper will be shared withand evaluated by classmates, as well as the teacher,he may be more likely while writing to considerclassmates' objections to his own theory about Pauland ways to refute these arguments in order to makehis case stronger. Writing assignments, which growcut of actual problems and questions students havedebated in class and which are. read and evaluatedin class by peers, may become a means for studentsto express their interpretations to fellow readers andwriters rather than artificial exercises.

The activities explained in the Practice section areintended to serve as a model for activity design andsequencing that teachers can follow in creating mate-rials to meet the needs and interests of their own stu-dents. We present the activities as they would be usedwith specific literary works in order to illustrat clearlythe procedures and classroom dynamics. We haveattempted to choose literary works or authors thatare widely used in secondary English curricula, thatrepresent various genres, and that encompass a rangeof levels of sophistication. The sequences are designedto help students interpret literature at higher levelsand write effective compositions expressing theirinterpretations. We are not suggesting that the activi-Lies we present comprise a complete instructional unitfor the literature included. We would expect them tobe part of the instruction (such as study guides,vocabulary activities, audio-visual presentations, roleplaying, student procuctions, projects, and so forth),designed to guide students in understanding each workas a whole.

2 Practice

Supporting an Interpretation Sequence

In the activities in this sequence, students practice theskills Toulmin (1958) identifies as basic to argumenta-tion: finding data to support a claim and linking thedata and the claim with warrants. These skills werenoted as particularly weak among the students assessedby the NAEP (1981). The activities in the sequenceare based on the novel To Kill a Mockingbird byHarper Lee (1962) but could be easily adapted, towork well with other literary works in which parentingis an issue or refocused for works dealing with otherconcepts. They are designed to prepare students towrite a persuasive composition arguing whether or nota particular parent in the novel is characterized as agood parent. In preparation for this task, students workon interpreting simple implied relationships throughexamining specific examples of parental actions in thenovel. This sequence appears first in the Practice sec-tion because the activities provide more data andstructire for students than those in the next sequence.In addition, in the final writing assignment, studentschoose between two given pOsitions (the character isor is not a good parent). In the next sequence, "Expli-cating Implied Relationships," students are given amore open-ended topic for which they, must generatetheir own position statement.

The introductory activity in this sequence, "Rank-ing Scenarios," involves students in some seriousthinking about the qualities of a good parent beforethey begin reading the novel. This activity provides afocus or purpose for reading: students seek to discoverwhat they can about the relationships in the novelbetween parents and their children. In "EvidenceExtract," students work on finding extensive evidencefor an interpretation and making this evidence spe-cific. The follow-up activity, "Warrant Workout,"involves students in writing warrants linking theirevidence and their interpretations. "Planning andComposing" guides students in generating their ownpersuasive essays.

Ranking Scenarios

This activity introduces students to some skills basic toargumentation--elaborating their reasoning for anaudience and defending their views when challenged.It prepares them for later activities in which they mustargue an interpretation about a literary character. Inthis sequence of activities, students will becomeinvolved in analyzing literary characters in order todetermine whether they are characterized as goodparents. Some students may tend to define a goodparent as one who lets them do what they want, andfrom this perspective make hasty judgments about aliterary character. "Ranking Scenarios" gets the stu-dent to do some serious thinking about the qualitiesthat make a good parent and confront some view-points that may differ from his or her own beforereading a work which deals with this concept. if theteacher explains his or her own definition of a goodparent, the student may be reluctant to express hisown ideas and may not actively engage in thinkingabout the problem. On the other hand, students seemmore willing to challenge ideas on this subjectexpressed in debate with their peers.

The set of scenarios below, "What Makes a GoodParent?" illustrates how this kind of introductoryactivity is designed. The same technique can be usedto design scenario sets to focus on other concepts inother literary works. To begin the activity, have stu-dents individually fill out Figure 1.

After students have completed their individual rank-ings, they should be divided into small groups of threeto five students. With other group members they tryto reach a consensus. This is no; easy since there is noone obviously best system of ranking. As students tryto corm ince other group members that they are "right,"they must elaborate,the reasons for their choices. Onestudent will argue, for example, that Sue's parents aretrying to protect her from getting in trouble. Anotherwill find her parents owrprotective and declare thatSue is too old to be told with whom she can and

19

13


WHAT MAKES A GOOD PARENT?

Rank the following situations from the one you think shows the BEST action of aparent (or parents) in raising a child to the WORST action of a parent(s) in raising achild. Below each situation explain your reasons for ranking each action as you did.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Best Worst

A. Although Bill and his friends are only fifteen, they are at "- to get into "R"rated movies at a local theater without any questions asked. Bill's parents findout. They tell him he has been "breaking the law" and that he cannot accom-pany his friends`to any more "R" rated movies.

B. Andy has a big history test for which he has not studied. So that he may studyand take the exam later, his parents call the school and say he is sick.

C. Sue has just started attending a different high school. Her parents do notapprove of several new friends she has brought home because they "act dis-respectfully, use bad language, and ride motorcycles." Her parents say theyare afraid of what will happen if Sue gets involved with the "wrong crowd"and tell her they do not want to see her with these "friends" again.

D. Four-year-old Jeffie always screams and cries when he has to go to nurseryschool. His mother tells him that if for a whole week he does not cry aboutgoing to nursery school, she will buy him a new toy.

E. Jenny works very hard to get B's in .all her classes. H r parents tell her sheshould try harder and be more like her older brother, who always makes A's.

F. Patty's parents will not allow her to smoke cigarettes. She argues that sinceshe is sixteen she should be allowed to smoke. Each of her parents smokestwo packs of cigarettes a d..

G. Joe breaks a neighbor's window while playing baseball. His father "grounds"him for three weeks. Since Joe does not have enough money to pay for thedamage, his father makes him work in the yard and around the house to earnthe money:

H. Steve is driven home by the police because he was caught shoplifting. Thepolice tell his parents that they will not arrest him this time but that he shouldbe aware of the seriousness of what he has done. His parents decide not topunish him because "boys will be boys."

I. Marianne woud be happy wearing inexpensive jeans to school. Her mother, asingle parent, does not make much money, but she insists on buying Mariannevery expensive, stylish clothes because she ants to be sure her daughter is inthe "most popular group" at school.

Figure I. What Makes a Good Parent?

20

cannot be friends. After the small groups complete theirdiscussions, have the groups present their rankings tothe whole class. At this point the debate begins againas groups defend their rankings against attack. As thedebate continues, lead students to discussion of thequalities that make a good parent. As students gener-ate ideas such aF honesty, fairness, and good rolemodeling, list these on the board and have studentscopy them for future reference.

In this activity students can hardly avoid arguing aviewpoint and trying to persuade by explaining theirreasons and challenging the reasons or logic of others.In addition, this kind of activity may result in morepurposeful reading when students begin a novel suchas 7'o Kill a Mockingbird. They have something tolook forthe attitudes, behavior, and motivation ofthe parents presented in the novel.

Evidence Extrac;

This activity focuses on the following skills: evaluatingevidence to determine whether it is specific enough,revising "evidence" that is not specific, and generatinggood. evidence on one's own. Building on the ideasabout what makes a good parent discussed in theprevious activity, it is designed to follow leading anddiscussion of Part 1 of To Kill a Mockingbira. A sim-ilar format can be -used in dealing with many differentsliort stories and novels.

Many students really do not understand what ismeant when an assignment requests specific evidence.They often think that a stateme it such as, "Scoutthinks Atticus treats her fairly," is good supportingevidence to show that Atticus is a good parent. The"Evidence Extract" is designed to help students learnto use specific quotations and details from a literarywork as supporting evidence for their conclusions. Itappears early in the sequence because students aregiven data to analyze rather than immediately askedto find evidence on their own.

Begin by giving students the following two state-ments:

At ticus is honest and does not hide things fromother people.

Scout says that Atticus never did anything toher and .1em in the house that he did not do inthcyard.

Ask student.sNto, explain what is different about thetwo statements. Which one is more specific? Why?What kital of statement is the other one? Summarize

Practice 15

comments from this discussion about the differencebetween conclusion and evidence for that conclu-sion. Show students that the second statement couldalso be written as a direct quotation: Scout says," Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in thehouse that he don't do in the yard."

Hand out Figure 2. Although this activity can bedone individually by students, it usually works best insmall, heterogeneous groups of three to five studentsso that group members can help each other and thusrefine their answers.

After students have completed this assignment,assemble the class into a circle, or other similar seatingarrangement, to discuss findings. Students begin tounderstand what makes good evidence as they presenttheir ideas to the class and get responses from theirpeers. One group may say that "Atticus does riot listento just one `side' of an argument" is specific evidence.Another group replies, "When does that happen? Youneed to tell more about it." The first group is thenfor f:d to be more specific as they relate the situationin which Uncle Jack jumps to conclusions without lis-tening to Scout's side and Scout explains that A' ticusalways listens to both sides. Encourage groups toelaborate counter-arguments to refute the thesis whichis opposite of their own.

To reinforce the skills introduced in this activity,have groups read aloud the evidence they wrote inPart E of Figure 2, and ask other students to identifythe strengths and weaknesses of the evidence presented.Or, that evidence could be put on dittos for studentsto evaluate in class the next day.

Warrant Workout

In their writing, students often omit warrants andassume that the evidence "speaks for itself." Thisactivity, which focuses on writing warrants, builds onthe previous activity because students now add war-rants to their evidence.

Begin the activity by explaining the function of thewarrant and the need for explaining how each pieceof evich..'.ce supports the conclusion. Give students anexample of a warrant such as the following:

Claim: Atticus is characterized as a good parent.

Evidence: Scout says that Atticus never did any-thing to her and Jem in the house that he didn'tdo in the yard.

Warrant: According to Scout, Atticus treats hischildren just as well when he is out of the public

21


EVIDENCE EXTRACT

Students have been given the following assignment:

At several points in To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubosequestion Atticus' behavior as a parent and suggest that he lets his children "runwild." Think carefully about the events in Part I of the novel and state yourviewpoint on the following issue:In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus is or is not characterized as a good parent.Then write five specific examples or details from the novel that support yourviewpoint.

Read the two student papers and evaluate them in the following ways:

A. For each paper, identify any statements that you believe are incorrect or donot support the student's viewpoint. Explain the problems you find.

B. On each of the papers, which statements present specific evidence? Explain thereasons for your choices.

C. On each of the papers, which statements are not specific enough? Explain thereasons for your choices.

D. Select the paper that presents the viewpoint with which you agree. For thatpaper rewrite each statement that is not specific enough so that it is a good,specific example.

E. Write two additional examples that provide good, specific evidence to supportyour conclusion about whether or not Atticus is characterized as a goodparent.

Figure 2. Evidence Extract.

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9

Prat. lice 17

18 Kahn. Walter, and Johannessen

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eye as he does when other people can see whathe is doing. He is not two -faced and this is onequality that makes him a good parent.

Hand out the following evidence for which studentsmust provide the claim and warrants (Figure 3).

After students have written warrants for each pieceof evidence, lead a class discussion in which theypresent their warrants for the class to evaluate. Asstudents work on warrants, they explicate the infer-ences they have made in deciding whether Atticus ischaracterized as a good parent. They must explaintheir inferences clearly and logically in order to -.:in-vince a reader of their conclusions. Since the evidencelisted could possibly be interpreted to support eitherside, students begin to understand why the evidencealone does not completely support their claims.

When students have reached a point at which theyarc writing effective warrants for their evidence, assigna persuasive essay arguing whether Atticus is or is notcharacterized as a good parent. In their papers stu-dents should use the evidence and warrants they havebeen writing as support for their conclusions.

Planting and Composing

This final writing assignment for the "Supporting aninterpretation" sequence asks students to argue theirviewpoints about .another parent in To Kill a Mock-ingbird. They apply the skills they have practiced inorder to convince a reader of their conclusions. Fromthe writing,the teacher can evaluate students' progresstoward mastery of these skills in order to determinethe direction successive instruction should take.

Figure 4 illustrates the kind of assistance most stu-dents will need at this point to help them in theirwriting. Distribute the planning sheet, which beginswith the assignment.

Students complete the planning sheet to prepareinformation to use in their drafts. If students plan theirevidence before writing, they will be better able to lookat their information and organize it for their drafts.Otherwise, they may be tempted to put evidence intotheir drafts in the order they think of it instead ofconsidering how they might best organize their evi-dence. If a check on student progress seems necessary,have students evaluate and revise their completedsheets or drafts in class in pairs or in small groups..

!n writing, this paper, students apply skills theyhave practiced in the previous activities in a newsituation in which they must analyze another parentin the novel. This time they must work ntore indepen-

Practice 19

dently, find evidence on their own, evaluate whethertheir evidence is specific enough, and provide warrantsin order to support their claims and persuade a readerto accept their conclusions.

After students have completed their writing, theymay be interested in discussing their conclusions aboutAunt Alexandra and how the contrasts with Atticusor with other parents in the nov ::l (for instance, RobertEwell and Mr. Radley). Ask students to look back atthe scenarios in the first activity in this sequence andexplain how they think the author would feel abouteach of these parents and what qualities she thinksare important for a parent to have.

Although some theorists consider structure of anykind inhibiting and artificial, the type of structure pro-vided in these activities is designed to enhance studentmotivation and interaction. Students are not pusl..ed topredetermined responses but encouraged to debate andrefine the various ideas they have. Most preteens andteenager's are quite concerned about relationships withparents, motives for parental decisions, and parental.

--fallibility. They have opinions about these issues,andmay even change some of their initial opinions as aresult of this instruction. By the end of the sequence,,they may conclude, for instance, th,Itt a parent's lyingto the school to keep a son or daughter out of troubleis not as clever as they first thought.4

Explicating Implied Relationships Sequence

One typical kind of assignment for secondary studentsis to wrte what is sometimes called, a "character'analysis." Such a task requires tizat students be ableto interpret simple and complex, implied relationshipsinvolving character and to translate their inferencesinto written products involving sophisticated arguements and counter-arguments, as well as..:to use evi-dence from the text(s). As the NAEP report (1981)indicates, secondary students have difficulty effectivelyperforming such writing tasks.

This sequence of activities is designed to teach stu-dents the skills necessary to write effective composi-tions of this type. The first activity, the "Student3pinionnaire," is designed to prepare students fordealing with initial inferences involving cha.-acter inwhat they will read and later write tibout. The.nextactivity, "Inferring Emotions," utilizes photographs ofpeople to help students practice making inferencesinvolving characterization. The "What if . . ?*Char-acter Questionnaire" is designed to help students make


WARRANT WORKOUT

I. State your viewpoint on the issue of whether Atticus is characterized as a goodparent and briefly explain why you think so.

The following evidence could be used to argue either side of this issue. Afterthinking about how the other side would use this evidence, write a warrant foreach that explains how this evidence supports your conclusion about Atticus asa parent.

A. Atticus says he has threatened to whip Scout but has never actually hit her.B. When Scout uses profanity in front of Uncle Jack, Atticus tells him that if he

doesn't pay any attention to her she'll get over this "stage."

C. When Scout says she is never :.;oing to school again, Atticus makes a com-promise with her, saying, "If you'll concede the necessity of going to school,we'll go on reading every night just as we always have. . . . By the way,Scout, you'd better not say anything at school about our agreement."

D. Atticus allows Scout to wear overalls; Aunt Alexandra suggests that heshould encourage her to wear dresses so that she will become a lady.

II. Look back at your answers in "Evidence Extract." Find the two pieces of new evi-dence you wrote on your own to support your viewpoint. Rewrite each of theseexamples and then write a warrant that explains how each supports your con-clusion about Atticus.

Figure 3. Warrant Workout.

<71

PLANNING SHEET

Practice 21

In Part 2 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra moves in with the Finches toserve as a mother figure for Jem and Scout. After reading Part 2, what is yourviewpoint on the following issue: Aunt Alexandra is or is not characterized as a goodparent. Write a persuasive essay arguing your viewpoint on this issue.

Thesis (State your viewpoint on the above issue a-tri briefly explain your reasons):

Organization Evidence Warrants

Conclusion:

Look at your evidence/ warrants and the order of the reasons in your thesis. Placenumbers in the organization column to indicate the order of your evidence/warrantsas they should appear in your paper.Figiire 4. Planning Sheet.

9


initial inferences about a major character and practiceskills essential to explicating inferences in written dis-course. In the "Literary Characters' Values Profile,"students work with complex implied relationships andrefine their argumentation skills. in a follow-up activ-ity, students practice organizing arguments and evi-dence from the "Literary Characters' Values. Profile"in preparation for a final writing assignment. In thecharacter debate activity, students learn how to refuteopposing arguments. The final activity asks studentsto pull together all that they have learned and prac-ticed by writing an extended comparison and contrastof two major characters. Before students turn in com-positions, they evaluate their peers' rough drafts as afinal check. While doing one or two of the activitiesoutlined in the sequence might provide an interestingchange of pace, this will probably not be enough formost students to master the skills described above(Johannessen, Kahn, and Walter 1982).

Most of the activities contain suggested short follow-up writing assignments which are designed to give stu-dents additional practice and serve as a means for theteacher to check on student progress. Three works areutilized as examples in the sequence: Louis L'Amour'sSackett, Ernest Haycox's "A Question of Blood," andShakespeare's Julius Caesar. We also explain how theactivities can be used with various types of literatureand how students can be guided through a single workor longer unit.

Student Opinionnaire

For literary works which seem far removed from stu-dents' life experiences, many teachers feel that tellingstudents about the author, about historical back-ground, or a hit about the story before they begin read-ing helps students with reading problems and motivatesthem to read. However, Rosenblatt argues that thisapproach often puts the students' focus on "much thatis irrelevant and distracting" (1968, 27). An alternativeapproach we have used is the opinionnaire activity. Thisapproach is designed to foster, what Rosenblatt calls,

"fruitful . . . transactions between individual readersant' individual literary works" (1968, 26-27). This typeof introductory activity is based on the idea that stu-dents have opinions about various subjects; it usesthose opinions to create interest in a work and helpswith problems students will encounter in trying to inter-pret complex implied relationships involving character, which students wil! have to write about.

A successful opinionnaire typically contains sevento twenty statements, depending upon the length anddifficulty of the work, the focus of instruction, andthe age and ability level of students. The statementsare keyed to specific interpretive problems and askstudents to make a response of either agreement ordisagreement (or either true or false) for each state-ment. Figure 5 is designed for use with LouisL'Amour's western novel Sackett, but it is easily adapt-able to instructional sequences which focus on West-ern or frontier literature, or individual works such asTw ain's Roughing It, Rolvaag's Giants in The Earth,Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, Crane's "The BrideComes to Yellow Sky," and Schaefer's Shane.

The first step in using the opinionnaire is to dis-tribute it to the class, perhaps the day before theystart reading. Once students have completed it ontheir own, lead a class discussion focusing on eachstatement, and encourage students to express theiropinions and to challenge the opinions of others. Forexample, when a student agrees with statement 8, en-courage him or her to explain why. The response isusually something like, "John Wayne would nevershoot a man in the back!" Others often respond with,"Anyone who believes that has watched too manyWestern movies!" Encourage other students to explainand argue their .responses, but provide synthqis anddirection as the need arises. Because the statementsrequire students to take a stand, this activity ensures'a lively discussion.

After the class has gone over all of the statements,point out that the statements deal with aspects of amajor character in the novel and that they should keepthem in mind as they read. In subsequent discussionsand activities on the book, refer to how studentsresponded to statements on the opinionnaire andcompare their responses to what they actually find intheir reading. The statements are also designed to linkstudents' attitudes and opinions about cowboys, gun-fighters, and the Old West to how these things arepresented in the novel. For example, many studentsmark the first statement as "true," but after readingthe first few pages, they learn that the major charac-ter, Tell Sackett, has a reputation as a gunfighter.However, he is neither proud of it nor does he seek tofight or kill others to improve his reputation. In otherwords, the purpose behind this statement is to helpstudents deal with stereotyped views they may haveabout gunfighters, as well as prepare them for under-

,standing the character of Tell and issues with which

28

OLD WEST OPINIONNAIRE

In the space provided mark each statement true or false.

1. Most gunfighters in the Old West wanted to kill other men in gun-fights to gain reputations as mean or tough men.

2. Most gunfighters were lawless and took what they wanted whenthey wanted it, ignoring the rules of society.

3. A gun was an essential tool for survival in the Old West.4. Most people who came out west after 1864 'were seeking freedom

and a place to settle down and raise a family.5. Being able to read was not a necessary skill in the Old West, so

few people even bothered to learn.6. The family was not important to the cowboys of the Old West.7. Most cowboys had no desire to settle down and raise a family.8. Cowboys never shot people in the back; they always faced an

enemy head-on in a fair, quick-draw fight.9. If people ran into trouble in the West, they could always depend

on the law to settle troublesome matters.10. Few people helped other people in the Old West; it was pretty

much every person for himself or herself.11. At the first sign of trouble, men with reputations as guniighters

"shot first and asked questions later."Figure 5. Old West Opinionnaire.

T or F

Practice 23


he must deal. Since one way L'Amour builds thecharacter of Tell is by playing against the stereotypeof the Western gunfighter, many of the statements onthe sheet relate to these aspects of Tell's character.

Figure 6, an opinionnaire designed for Shake-speare's Julius Caesar, illustrates another way that theactivity encourages discussion and helps students pre-pare for the literary work they are about to read.

In marking their answers, students, without realiz-ing it, often contradict themselves. For example, somestudents agree with statements 1 and 3. As the discus-sion develops, however, students often realize (on theirown or as a result of their peers pointing it out) thatthey have a contradiction in thought. It is not uncom-mon for one student to tell another, "How can yousay it is all right to kill an evil political leader whenyou just got through saying it is wrong to kill anotherperson!"

This activity serves as a first step in closing the gapbetween students' experiences and the experience of aliterary work. An interesting variation of the activityis t. put students in small groups and have them tryto arrive at a consensus before the whole class discus-sion. Not only does this ensure more student partici-pation, but it often encourages an even livelier andmore fruitful discussion.

Inferring Emotions

This activity is designed to give students practice inmaking inferences and gathering data. It is a prelimi-nary activity because it uses pictures to prepare,stu-dents to make inferences about a character in a workof fiction.

In preparation. for this activity, the teacher needsto assemble a set of nine to twelve close-up photo-graphs of people who exhibit various emotions suchas anger, fear, suspicion, embarrassment, contentment,and so on. Good sources for appropriate photographsare the National Geographic, The Family of Man byEdward Steichen (Museum of Modern Art: New York,_1955), and any of the books in the Stop, Look, andWrite series particularly the volume entitled The Writ-er's Eye by :7. D. Leavitt (New York: Bantam Books,1976). (The following pages of The Writer's Eye, with-out their captions, are excellent for this activity: 21,30, 40, 55, 63, 90, 103, 104, 119, and 160.)

After the class observes three or four photographs,list on the board six to eight emotions that seem to besuggested by people in the photographs. Then, directa class discussion in which students choose an emo-

tion which best describes each picture and explainwhich details in each photograph have led them totheir conclusions. Encourage students to go beyondthe obvious and pick out more subtle details. Bymatching photographs with emotions, students makeinferences from details. As they identify and explainwhich details show ear- emotion, they gather sup-porting data for the inferences they are making.

Once students have the id,to, divide the class intosmall groups. Have each group examine a new photo-graph and write a paragraph which identifies theemotion expressed and uses our to six details fromthe photogl-aph to support its conclusion. Composi-tions may be collected and returned later.

As a check, we often collect the photographs andparagraphs, and after redistributing the paragraphs toother groups, we have each group read a compositionaloud and try to match it with the correct photograph.Once all compositions have been correctly matchedwith photographs, we lead a brief discussion in whichthe class identifies the most effective compositions andexplains which details best support five emotions iden-tified. Also, for weaker compositions, we ask theclass to explain how these might be improved. Beforegroups return paragraphs to the authors for revision,we have each.group note at the bottom of the compo-sition which details helped them matzh the paragraphwith the correct picture and which were confusing ordid not help.

At this point in the activity, students have gonethrough the process of making inferences, gatheringsupporting data, and writing an analysis. In addition,the discussion after the small group activity gives stu-dents peer feedback on their writing and inductivelyleads students through the process of evaluating con-clusions and assessing the quality of the supportingevidence they gathered.

As follow-up writing practice, show the classanother photograph and have each student write aparagraph stating the.emOtion the person in the photo-graph is expressing and giving at least four detailswhich support that emotion.

What If . . . ? Character Questionnaire

The purpose of this activity is t give students practicein interpreting simple and complex implied relation-ships. From their initial inferences students gather andselect data and explain how data support a conclusionabout a major, character. While "Inferring Emotions"utilized a visual medium to help students practice

POLITICS, PATRIOTISM, AND PROTEST OPINIONNAIRE

In the space provided mark whether you agree or disagree with each statement.

1. It is never right to kill another person.

2. Political leaders usually act in the best interest of their countries.3. If a political leader has done something wrong, it is all right to

get rid of him or her by whatever means necessary.4. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."5. In certain situations it may be justified for a political leader to

bend or break the law for the good of the country.6. People should never compromise their ideals or beliefs.7. "My country right or wrong" is not just a slogan; it is every

citizens' patriotic duty.

8. No cause, political or otherwise, is worth dying for.9. "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant taste of

death but once:"10. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is [often buried]

with their bones."Figure 6. Politics, Patriotism, and Protest Opinionnaire.

31.

agree ordisagree

Practice 25

26 Kahn, Walter, cad Johannessen

making inferences and gathering data, this activity ismore difficult because students analyze a text.

As discussed in the Theory and Research section,one reason class discussion of literary works, especially initial discussions, may fail to elicit much stu-dent response is that questions may 1)e beyond studentcapabilities or skill levels. As a result, students feelintimidated by the questions and are afraid to respond.However, the format of this activity, tl 'I of multiple-choice questions, obviates this probl. 'ally allstudents are familiar and most feel corni,,, tdolethe multiple-choice format. In addition, this fcgives students a place to start in making initial infer-ences, and, therefore, they are less likely to becomefearful and fail to respond in small group or wholeclass discussions.

The ten to twenty questions contained on a typicalquestionnaire all focus on a major character. Thequestions are designed to take the character out ofthe context of the story end put him or her in newsituations. However, students are to make their choicesbased on evidence from the text. The questionnaire inFigure 7 is designed for use with Louis L'Amour'sSackett. This activity may be easily adapted for otherliterary works.

This questionnaire is best used when students havefinished or are nearly finished reading the novel. Havestudents complete it on the basis of their understandingof the character. Then, divide the class into smallgroups and have students try to reach a consensus ontheir answers. This will usually not be a simple tasksince the multiple-choice questions are not designed ina typical fashion. No one answer is the correct answerfor a given question. For most questions, several of thepossible answers might be reasonably defended as goodanswers. They are deliberately designed in this mannerto create disagreement so that students actively engagein making inferences, gathering and selecting data,and explaining evidence as they argue their choices.The following transcript of one small group's discus-sion of question 1 illustrates this process.

Martha: :via)* PE because he beat everybodyhe wrestled when he was a kid.

Laura: No. I think English would be his favoritesubject.

Pete: Well, why?

Laura: He wants to learn to read better.

Martha: Yeah, like when he said he is ashamedbecause . . . here on page four he "couldn't readenough to get the sense out of a letter."

Pete: But thet doesn't prove he wants to readbetter. It just says he's ashamed that he can't.

Laura. Yes it does. Look at page thirty. Whenhe looks at the books in his ma's house it sayshe felt "a longing . . . to read them all."

Pete: Yeah, he wants to iearn how to read andthat's English.

Gilbert: I think you're all wrong. It's history.

Pete: Oh; no'

Gilbert: Sure, he viants to improve himself, butthe book he tries to read is that history-law bookby Blackstone. And he's always talking abouthistoryhis family or the places he goes. Heeven starts saying things right out of the bookwhen they're talking about building a town.

group began with two possible answers, phys-ical education and English. In order to make a deci-sion, the group had to go to the text for evidence.After considering additional evidence and warrants,Pete pushed for even more. Laura found new evidenceand expanded her warrant, and the group decided onEnglish. They later refined their answer even further,to history, after considering new evidence and Gil-bert's rebuttal of the English argument.

The group discussion illustrates another importantaspect of the design of the activity. The question asksstudents to consider the character in a situation withwhich they are familiar, subjects in school. This famil-iarity helps bridge the gap between students' lifeexperiences and that of the literary work. In addition,familiarity helps encourage response in the discussions.

At the conclusion of the small group discussion,have the students reconvene as an entire class. Goover each of the questions, and have them explain thereasoning for their answers. Some disagreements mayarise during the discussion; let students debate backand forth and draw their own conclusions based onevidence from the book. Many of the questions arekeyed to statements on the "Student Opinionnaire,"the introductory activity (Figure 5). During the dis-cussion, or as a means of summarizing what studentshave learned about the main character, refer to stu-dents' responses on the opinionnaire. Examine howand why their opinions may haye changed. For exam-ple, question 5 (Reading was not necessary, so, peoplein the Old West did not bother to learn how) on theopinionnaire (Figure 5) is keyed to question 1 (Sack-ett's favorite subject in school) on the questionnaire(Figure 7). Students will now realize as a result of

32

WHAT IF TELL SACKETT . . .?

Read each of the following statements and circle the letter that best completes thestatement in terms of what you think would fit the character of Tell Sackett. Beprepared to defend your answers with reasoning based on evidence from the book.

1. Sackett's favorite course in school would beA. English. C. history/social studies.B. physical education. D. biology.

2. On a typical date Tell would take his date toA. a rock-folk music concert. C. a dance.B. a wrestling match. D. the opera.

3. Sackett would liveA. in an apartment in !he city. C. on a farm.B. in a house in the suburbs. D. with no permanent address.

4. If Sackett met Adolf Hitler, he wouldA. shoot him on sight. C. praise him.B. scold him. D. ignore him.

5. If Sackett were at a wedding, he wouldA. be the best man.B. be the groom.

C. drink too much at the weddingparty and kiss the bridenumerous times.

D. sit quietly during the ceremonyand turn red when he had to kissthe bride.

6. If Tell were alive today, his job or profession would most likely beA. mechanic. C. police officer.B. lawyer. D. farmer.

7. Sackett would most .id mireA. Babe Ruth. C. Martin Luther King.B. John Wayne. D. Elvis Presley.

8. If Sackett took a vacation today, he would most likely travel toA. New York City. C. the Amazon jungles.B. Alaska. D. Miami Beach.

9. If people started a campaign today to elect Sackett mayor, he wouldA. gladly accept. C. refuse to run for office.B. try to talk them into running his D. bribe people for their votes.

brother Orrin.10. At a football game Tell would

A. be a quiet fan.B. be a quarterback.

C. sell peanuts.D. sit near the bench and harass

the players and coaches.I L Today, Sackett's favorite hobby would most likely be

A. jogging. C. stamp collecting.B. reading poetry. D. carpentry.

Figure 7. What if Tell Sackett . . .

21

Practice 27


their reading and discussion how and why reading wasan important skill to people on the frontier.

A questionnaire on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar(Figure 8) illustrates two other aspects of the activity.

First, question 3 illustrates the ease with whichquestions can be modified to go with other works,since this question is very similar to question 9 onFigure 7. More importantly, since the questions takestudents outside the experience of a work, studentsfeel more at ease in sharing what Judith A. Langercalls "novel responses" to literature. This activityencourages students, as she says, to "explore, defend,or elaborate their more unique ideas" (1982, 339). forexample, in discussing question 1, many students makeconnections between the political events in the 'playand more recent political events. For other studentsthe characters come alive as they make connectionsbetween characters in the play and historical figuresnamed in various questions.

As a follow-up writing practice, have students selectone of the questions and write a paragraph explainingwhich of the answers would best fit the character andwhy. Stress the use of evidence from the text.

Literary Characters' Values Profile

This activity builds on the inferential skills studentshave practiced in the "What If . . . ? Questionnaire."Coming later in the sequence, however, it requiresincreasing sophistication on the part of ,the students.In the "What If . . . ? Questionnaire," students prac-tice making initial inferences concerning a character;each question is designed to focus on a single aspectof character. In the "Literary Characters' Values Pro-file" (Figure 9), students are given a list of valueswhich they rank fcr a character in a story. Makingthis ranking requires students to interpret compleximplied relationships from various Pieces of informa-tion in the story. They must consider and weigh manydifferent possibilities. In making their choices andlater arguing them with peers, sttidents practice sup-porting their claims with evidence 'from the story.

Give students the "Literary Characters' Values Pro-file" (Figure 9).

Go over the values and ask students if they areunfamiliar with the meanings of any of them. Mean-ings can be discussed and noted in the appropriatecolumn on the activity sheet. Next, direct students torank the values for a specific character in order frommost important to the character (1) to least importantto the character (22). Or, as a variation on thisprocedure, have students rank only the top five (1-5)

and bottom five (18-22) values for the character. Thisis often a more appropriate option for a 1in which there is not a great deal of characte,opment. A second variation of the activity is possibleif a character changes during the course of the work.In this case, have students rank values fora characterboth before and after his or her change. The range ofchoices in this activity's design makes it potentiallyuseful for any literary work with a complex character.

Giving students a specific task like this with manychoices allows them to consider more options to ananswer than they might consider cn their own. Withsomething concrete in front of them from which tostart, students become personally engaged in the ques-tion of what the character values most and are lesslikely to accept any answer uncritically.

After students have completed their individualrank'ngs, place them in heterogeneous groups tocompare their ideas. For the activity to work well, thecharacter in question must be complex enough to havemore than one potential top value. For instance, somestudents will select wealth as Tell Sackett's top valuesince he sees the gold mine as the answer to his pray-ers and since he risks the lives of those whom he caresabout in its pursuit. Other students, however, arguethat Sackett values altruism the most and that wealthfor him is only a means to an end. In the same way,students will differ on Brutus's highest value, whichsome students.,will see as altruism, citing his decisionto kill Caesar for the good of Rome. Others selectmorality as his highest value After all, they argue, heis the man who will never compromise his standardsof what he considers right and wrong. In either case,students have found specific and concrete ways to talkabout the actions and motives of the major charactersand they have practiced the skills of making and sup-porting claims.

After reaching consensus in their small groups, stu-dents finally debate their ideas in a whole class discus-sion. As the various groups compare answers, discus-sion should be at a high level because of the students'preliminary work. Students have progrtssed from mak-ing their own decisions independently to refining thoseideas and challenging others in groups and finally todebating conclusions with the whole class.

As a follow-up writing activity to the "LiteraryCharacters' Values Profile," Figure 10 helps studentsto formalize and put into writing the processes theyhave been going through orally in class discussion.After completion of the "Literary Characters' ValuesProfile" (Figure 9), give students Figure 10.,,Theyshould fill out the sheet for the character whom they

7a

WHAT IF BRUTUS . . .?

Practice 29

Read each of the following statements and circle the letter that best completes thestatement in of what you think would fit the character of Brutus. Be preparedto defend your answers with seasoning based on evidence from the play.

1. If Brutus had been a general in Adolf Hitler's Secret Service, he would haveA. waited until the right opportunity C. worked to overthrow Hitler.

and then shot Hitler.B. hired someone to assassinate Hitler. D. praised Hitler.

2. If Brutus were at a baseball game, he wouldA. be a pitcher. C. sit quietly and enjoy the game.B. be an umpire. D. sit near the opposing team's

dugout and harass players,coaches, and umpires.

3. If people started a campaign today to elect Brutus president, he wouldA. pretend that he didn't want to run. C. make deals with other politicalB. try to talk them into running a leaders to make sure that he won

better candidate. tile election.D. refuse to run.

4. Today if Brutus were at a large family picnic, he would most likelyA. go off by himself, sit under a C. stand around and sulk until

tree, and read a book. someone asked him to participateB. organize and participate in contests in the activities.

and games. D. have long talks with anyone whomight give the family a bad name.

5. Brutus would most admireA. George Washington. C. Jack the Ripper.B. General George Patton. D. the Beatles.

6. In school Brutus's favorite course would beA. philosophy. C. political science.B. English. D. speech.

7. If Brutus were alive today, he would most likely liveA. in a mansion. C. in an apartment.B. in a monastery. D. on a farm.

8. Brutus would probably most enjoy a social gathering ofA. close friends. C. Hollywood film stars.B. family. D. college professors.

9. Today, Brutus's favorite hobby would most likely beA. listening to music. C. travel.B. playing cards. D. reading.

10. If Brutus were alive today, his job or profession would probably beA. computer programmer. C. sports announcer.B. used car salesman. D. lawyer or judge.

11. Brutus's favorite type of television program would beA. detective show. C. game show.B. soap opera. D. situation comedy.

Figure 8. What if Brutus . ?

35


LITERARY CHARACTERS' VALUES PROFILE

Character:

Rank the values in order from most important to the character to least important tothe character. If the character's values change, then rank the values both before andafter the change.

1. Acceptance(approval from others)

2. Achievement

3. Aesthetics

4. Altruism

5. Autonomy

6. Companionship(friendship)

7. Creativity

8. Health

9. Honesty

10. Justice

11. Knowledge

12. Love

13. Loyalty

14. Morality

15. Physical Appearance

16. Pleasure

17. Power

18. Recognition

i9. Religious Faith

20. Self-Respect

21. Skill

22. Wealth

Figure 9. Literary Characters' Value., Profile.

36

LITil:RARY CHARACTERS' VALUES PROFILE ACTIVITY SHEET

Character:

A. Thesis: Explain what the character values most.or

Explain the character's change in values.

B. What are the character's top three .lues? (If a ch:, e c urs, also list the topthree after the change.)

C. Give evidence for the top value. (If there is a change, giv evidence sep, atelyfor the top value both before and after.)

D. in a sentence or two, explain how the ev:.der in C supports your thesis.

E. Give evidence to show that 2 and 3 are less important than I.

F. In a sentence or two, explain how the evidence in E supports your point.

Figure 10. Literary Characters' Values Profile Activity Sheet.

37

Practice 31


have analyzed in the previous activity. The completedworksheet could well serve as an outline for a shorttheme before students go on to other activities andthe final assignment in this sequence. Students shouldbe instructed to retain the completed sheet for use inconjunction with the final assignment in the sequence.

The Great Character Debates

This activity is designed to serve two important pur-poses. First, it reinforces the skills students Larned inthe "Literary Characters' Values Profile" activitiessince students must apply these skills in analyzinganother character. Second., the activity helps studentsdevelop an important skill necessary in effectivelyarguing a position in writing or speaking: refutingopposing viewpoints. The. problem, of course, is notjust that students lack such skills. It seems that nomatter how we explain to students the reasons theyneed to refute other viewpoints, they seem puzzled atour requests and resort to the common reply, "Well,it's just my opinion!" The debate format requires stu-dents to attend to refutation or rebuttal in attemptingto prove to a real audience (their peers) that one valueis a character's most important and that it remains sothroughout a work or that by the end one or anothervalue has become most important.

Although this activity is easily adaptable for mostworks of literature, selecting appropriate characters isan important factor in ensuring its success. For exam-ple, in Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is a good charac-ter to use for the debate. Many minor characters lackenough depth to provide much for students to debate.lf, for example, students have worked on the charac-ter of Tell Sackett in the previous activities, no othercharacters in the novel really offer much for studentsto debate. Therefore, as a follow-up to Sackett, weoften have students read Ernest Haycox's "A Questionof Blood" (a Western short story), and have studentsdebate which of Frank Isabel's values is his mostimportant, or, given that his values change, whichvaltic becomes most impoitant to Isabel by the end ofthe story.

On a slip of paper, we have students write theirnames and what they think Isabel's (or if we're study-ing Julius Caesar, Mark Antony's) most importantvalue is or becomes. We collect the slips of paper andthen, as much as possible, assign students to smallgroups based on their selections. We give the groupstime to find evidence to support their positions, withemphasis on preparing rebuttal arguments for one or

more of the other possible viewpoints. The next stepis to pit the groups against one another. Severalgroups often choose to argue similar viewpoints, sopairing groups with clearly opposing positions is

important for the debate. For the character of_FrankIsabel, one debate might pit an "autonomy" groupagainst an "acceptance" group while two other groupsmight debate "autonomy" vs. "companions'lip" as hismost important value. "Love," "justice," and "moral-ity" are also possible values students might debate forthis character.

We have the two groups who are debating go to thefront of the class and face each other for the contest.The first group is given about three minutes to presentits case or position. The second group is given the sameamount of time to present its case. After this step, wegive the groups a few minutes to prepare additionalrebuttal arguments and evidence, and then each grouphas a chance to refute the other group's position. Atthe conclusion of the debate, have the class discusswhich group won the debate and why, with particularattention to how well each group refuted the othergroup's arguments and evidence. Have members of theclass suggest how the groups could have improved theirpositionswhat other arguments, counter-arguments,and evidence they could have used to defend theirpositions.

The character debates involve students in the pro-cess of refuting opposing views; they experience theneed to convince a real audience, their opponents andthe class, of their viewpoints. For example, in debatingthe most important value of Mark Antony in Shake-speare's Julius Caesar, a class might start with fivepossible values as most important: "justice "power,""wealth." "loyalty," and "altruism." As the debatesproceed and students actively engage in presenting aviewpoint and refuting another, they begin to\ realizethat if they are going to convince others that, forinstance, loyalty is his most important value, theyhave to refute the other possibilities. By the end ofthe debates and follow-up discussions, classes oftenhave the values narrowed down to one or two strongpossibilities such as "power" and "wealth." The debatesenable students to draw sophisticated conclusionsabout the characters who are the focus of the debates.

As follow-up writing practice, have each studentwrite a brief analysis of one of the debates (of whichhe or she was not a part). Each student shoulddetermine which group won the debate based on thequality of arguments, use of evidence, and refutationof the other group's position.

Putting It All Together

The previous activities have taken students step -b;-step through the skills necessary to write a composi-tion interpreting complex implied relationships. Thegoal of instructiOn-i§f6r students to apply their knowl-eLige to a new situation. This activity asks student; toapply in this culminating writing situation the knowl-edge and skills t'..,zy have :earned. The informationthey have gathered in previous activities b''omes thebasis or students' compositions.

The assignment involves students' comparing andcontrasting the characters they have worked with inprevious activities. For example, one possible assign-ment is to ask students to write a composition inwhich they compare and contrast the values of TellSackett and Frank Isabel to determine which wouldmake the better father and why. Or, for Julius Caesar,students compare and contrast the values of Brutusand Antony to determine which wouid make the bet-ter leader and why.

Utilizing the information they have gathered aboutthe characters (as well as new information as needed),students fill out`the planning sheet in Figure 11 to aidthem in writing a rough draft.

Students bring\their rough drafts to class and cri-tique in small groups, pairs, or individually their peers'compositions. They should use questions such as thefollowing as a guide. The questions might be put on aditto or simply written on the board for student- torefer to while they evaluate other students' papers.This gives students a chance to help their peers throughconstructive critiques. Ratherthan a general, "all pur-pose" set of questions, these are tailored specificallyto assess the skills needed for writing an extendedexplication of this type. Thus, the questions are de-signed to pinpoint specific strengths and weaknessesin a student's work.

J. Do-es the paper identify in the opening para-graph which character would make the betterleader or father) based on the values of each?

2. Does the composition include arguments toprove which character would make the betterleader (father)?

3. How effective are the arguments?4. Does the essay contain enough evidence to

support the arguments?

5. How well does the evidence support the argu-ments?

Practice 33

6. Does the composition contain warrants?7. How effective are the warrants?8. Does the essay contain arguments, evidence,

and warrants to refute the opposing view?9. Is L'le paper clearly written and understand-

able?

10. Overall, how effective is the composition?

11. How might the composition be improved?

Collect rough drafts and redistribute them amongstudents. Give students time to read and answer thequestions for the papers they are evaluating. Afterbeing critiqued, papers and answers should be returnedto the authors for fina. revisions.

In follow-up work on Sackett or Julius Caesar, tointroduce students to the next level on the taxonomy,focus on relating these complex character relationshipsto the authors' generalizations: What comment orgeneralization does L'Amour make about the role ofthe family in the Old West? What comment or gener-alization does Shakespeare make about rebellion?

Analyzing Author's Generalization Sequence

The purpose of this sequence is to have students learnthe skills necessary for writing compositions concern-ing authors' generalizations. As such, activities withinthis sequence 'involve reading skills at the level ofauthor's generalization. Since dealing with author'sgeneralization questions requires that students be ableto interpret simple and complex implied relationships,teachers need to determineeither through readinginventories or previous instructionwhether studentsare ready for instruction at this level. Even if they are,it is likely that work at this level, especially whendealing with novels or plays, would be preceded bydiscussion and work at less complex levels and wouldbe accompanied by vocabulary instruction, studyguides, and other activities.

There are two major writing assignments and sev-eral smaller ones suggested in connection with theactivities of the sequence. Parallel to the reading skills,there is also an increased sophistication of writingskills. In the "Supporting an Interpretation Sequence,"students select one of two possible claims, characterX either is or is not a good parent, as a thesis state-ment. In the "Analyzing Author's GeneralizationSequence," students generate their own claims. In do-ing so, students additionally use skills which they


PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Thesis: (Which character would make a better

Values of the character who would not be the better(with evidence and warrants)

7)

Values of the character who would be the better(v ;th evidence and warrants)

Explanation of reasons the second character discussed would be a betterthan the first.

Figure I I. Putting It All 1,:gether.

An

developed earlier such as writing warrants and findingand evaluating evidence.

In this sequence, literary works focusing on roman-tic love and marriage relationships have been chosenin order to provide continuity and encourage sophis-ticated analysis. Through in-depth focus on a conceptsuch as this one, students develop greater precisionand perception in interpreting authors' generalizations.The activities lead students to increased sophisticationas they progress from inteinreting fables to interpret-ing more complex literary forms such as poems, anovel, and short stories. The last three activities, whichfocus on The Great Gatsby, together form a set ofinstructions preparing students to write an essay inter-preting an author's generalization in a lengthy work.

Romantic Love/ Marriage Survey

This activity begins an instructional sequence in whichstudents interpret and write about authors' generali-zations in selected works concerning love and mar-riage. As with the "Student Opinionnaire" introduc-tory activity in the previous sequence, this activityutilizes student opinions to create interest in the con-cept that is the focus of the sequence. More impor-tantly, the survey format, in requiring students togather, compile, and then discuss opinions about fif-teen different views of love, introduces and preparesthem for the various authors' generalizations they willencounter and write about. In addition, the wide rangeof views represented on the survey provides an impor-tant link for the fables, poems, novel, and short storiesin the sequence. Often, asking students which state-ment on the survey is closest to an author's viewpointhelps them better conceptualize a particular author'sgeneralization. Also, asking students how their ownviews may have changed after reading a work or workshas another important benefit; it helps students betterunderstand how their own views may have be-:aaffected as a result of their study of romantic love ormarriage relationships.

Students should be given the "Romantic Love/ Mar-riage Survey" (Figure 12) several days prior to classdiscussion and tabulation. Pass out the survey in classand go over the procedures for having students con-duct the survey outside class.

On the appropriate day, students should bring theircompleted surveys to class. Tabulation is probablyeasier to accomplish in a three-step process. First, askstudents to add up their totals for eazh statement.Next, divide the class into sections by group or by

Practice 35

row. Appoint one person in each group to compilegroup totals. On the board or on an overhead trans-parency, list each statement. After each statement isread, the student spokesman for each group will reportthe group statistics for that item. Other students canbe working on adding the group totals for the entireclass. (Calculators might be handy if students havethem.) When you have your totals, ask students toanalyze the results. Are they surprised by any of th.t;results? Are there definite trends which can be idnti-fied? Did different age groups respond differently tothe statements?

By compiling the survey findings in class, all stu-dents can contribute to class discussion in a non-threatening situation. i he amount of participation ishigh at this point as students spot trends and concuror take exception with the results. Although mostteenagers think they have a pretty good idea of what"love" is, throwing out the discussion question, "Whatis love?" is a sure conversation stopper for mostteenagersas well as most adults. "The RomanticLove/ Marriage Survey" activity circumvents this prob-lem by asking students to respond to specific state-ments about love and to survey others outside theclass as well. Through the survey, students examineand consider their own points of view about love aswell as the viewpoints of others. Many of the clichésabout love which many students accept without ques-tion are challenged.

Besides the activity's usefulness in this sequence, itcan be used with other works such as Romeo andJuliet which have love as a central concept. Of course,the survey format could be adapted for use with otherconcepts since in any instructional sequence an intro-ductor: survey such as this gives students a chance toexamine generalizations about a topic. Because it pro-vides students with a general frame of reference forexamining the attitudes of authors whom they will bereading, the survey makes students' reading more pur-poseful. As students begin their reading, direct themto ask themselves: How would the poet answer thesurvey? or, How would a main character in the story,novel, or play answer the survey?

Romantic Love! Marriage Fables

After discussion of the opinions of classmates andothers on the "Romantic Love/ Marriage Survey," thenext step is for students to analyze literary works todetermine various writers' viewpoints and insightsabout love and marriage relationships. But, as the

41

36 Kahn. Walter. and Johannessen

ROMANTIC LOVE /MARRIAGE SURVEY

Answer the questions yourself, then survey nine other people. Survey three freshmen(indicate age as Fr.), three seniors (indicate age as Sr.), and three adults (indicate ageas Ad.). Ask each person whether he or she agrees (a) or disagrees (d) with each ofthe statements about love.. Keep track of each person's response to each item on thissheet by placing an x in the appropriate box for each response. Do not poll anyoneelse in this class. Do not poll anyone who has already responded to this Survey.

This survey is due

Responder you #2 #3 #4i

#5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 Total

Age

ada da dad-r ad adada dadadadI. Love means

never having tosay you're sorry.

2. Teenagers can-not experience"true" love.

3. No one is evertoo young tofall in love.

.,

4. It is better tohave loved andlost than neverto have loved atall.

5. Love at firstsight is possible.

6. Love is blind.

7. Love neverchanges.

8. Physical attrac-tion must pre-cede true love.

9. If you're reallyin love, physicalappearancedoesn't matter. 1'

10. You can', expect a person t-i^hange his orher 'nat-itc. :litermarriage.

II. In love relation-ships, "oppo-sites attract."

Figure 12. Romantic Love/ Marriage Survey.

42

Responder you #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 Total

Age

adadadad ad ada da d a d a d

12. If st:meone doesnot return youraffection, Ill.best thing to dois to keep tryingto change his orher mind.

13. You have towork at love.

14. For the mostpart, being inlove is "a painin the neck."

15. If you truly loveF o me o Ile , you

will not beattracted toanyone else.

Figure 12 continued.

43

Practice 37


results of the NAEP indicate, interpreting authors'generalizations is difficult for secondary students. Hil-locks's taxonomy suggests that it is difficult becausebefore the reader can make interpretations at this level,he must be able to attend to significant details andunderstand many stated and implied relationships. Thelonger and more sophisticated the literature, the moredifficult this task becomes. Students often have trou-ble just understanding what is meant by the term"author's generalization" or even a definition such aswhat the author is showing about human nature orthe human condition. Giving students the definitionand examples does not ensure that they will be ableto perform this skill when they read a literary work.Beginning instruction with fables before approachingmore complex works such as short stories or poems isa good way to help students understand what anauthor's generalization is. In fables, the author's gen-c: alization, or moral, is often explicitly stated or, if itis not, is less subtle than in other forms of literature.(If a fable contains an explicitly stated moral thatappears on the copy students are given, then a questionabout what the moral is would not be classified asauthor's generalization because it is at the literal level.)

In .this activity, through developing morals forfables, students practice stating authors' generaliza-tions and supporting their conclusions. Begin theactivity by asking students what they know aboutfables and how they are written. Then hand out theromantic love fable and questions (Figure 13). Noticethat the moral has been omitted and that the fable isnot one which is widely known.

Lead a class discussion focusing on these questions,and as students present various possible morals, havea volunteer list these on the blackboard or overheadprojector. As students debate which statement of yhemoral is best, encourage them to provide evidencefrom the text for support.

Once students have reached agreement or all viewshave been thoroughly debated, they are ready to workmore independently in generating morals for otherromantic love fables. Hand out Figure 14.

In small, heterogeneous groups of three to five,students woik together to write a moral for each fable.As group members propose different morals, studentsconsider various pOssibilities and go back to the textto evaluate each. They weigh choices of wording inattempting to state clearly what they mean.

After all groups have completed this step, a studentfrom each Lroup puts on the blackboard or an over-head transparency the moral his or her group wrotefor each table. Students are then assembled into acircle for Cscussion. Begin discussion of each fable byhaving students identify the best moral and defendtheir choices. Most often each group will have writtensomewhat different morals. Whether the differencesare slight or extreme, lively discussion ensues as stu-dents defend their choices and challenge others. Theyexperience verbally a process that we want them todo mentally on their owngenerate possible answers,evaluate each, and refine their ideas. In one class dis-cussion, a group argued that the best moral for "TheMan and His Two Wives" is "A person can never behappy with two wives." Another group disagreed andpointed out that in the story the most important thingwas that both wives were ashamed of their husband.They concluded that the moral is "You should behappy with what you have instead of trying to changeit." The debate continued as a group argued foranother possible moral: "If you try to change some-thing, you sometimes ruin it." At this point the valueof designing this activity with fables that all deal witha similar concept becomes clear. The teacher can helpstudents refine their moral for this fable by askinga question such as, "The other two fables, 'Venus andthe Cat' and The Lion in Love,' also involve some-one trying to change, another; how are these fablesdifferent? In what ways would their morals be differ-ent? How could the morals be stated to emphasizethese differences?" As students respond to questionslike these, they refine their morals and reach a betterunderstanding of the subtle differences in the authors'generalizations in the fables.

A possible follow-up writing assignment (Figure15) is to have students write a short composition stat-ing a moral for another romantic love fable such as.Aesop's "The Fatal Marriage" and defending theirmoral using evidence from the text.

By using fables in this activity, we are not trying tosuggest that an author's generalization is always mor-alistic. To bring out this idea in later discussions ofauthors' generalizations in poetry or short stories, aska question such as "How is the author's generalizationin a poem (or short story) different from a moral?" Inthis way, students themselves discover differences invarious literary forms.

4 4

WHAT IS THE MORAL?

Practice 39

Venus and the CatAesop

Once upon a time there was a cat who fell in love with a handsome young man.She prayed and prayed to Venus, the Goddess of Love, to give her the youngmat. for a husband. So Venus, taking pity on the cat, changed her into abeautiful young lady. The man saw her and instantly fell in love. So the twowere married, and the man took home the young lady as his bride.

But had she really changed, or was she still a cat underneath? Venus wantedto find out.

One day the goddess sent a little mouse into the lady's house, where she wassitting with her husband. At first the young lady did not notice the mouse, butsuddenly she saw it. She made a quick movement and sprang upon it, andalmost before the young man had seen the mouse, it was dead.

"So," said. Venus to herself, "she may look like a young lady, but she behaveslike a cat."

And the goddess was so angry that she changed the young lady back into acat, and the young man never saw her again.

I. What things about the cat could Venus change and what things couldn't shechange? Why couldn't she change some things? (Complex implied relationship)

2. Look at the "Romantic Love/ Marriage Survey" from the previous activity.Find any statements with which you think the author of this fable wouldstrongly agree or disagree. What in the fable leads you to your conclusions?

3. Make up a good moral for this fable. (In creating a moral, think aboutwhat the author is trying to show about love or love relationships or humannature.) What evidence in the fable leads you to this conclusion? (Author'sgeneralization)

Figure 13. What Is the Moral? "Venus and the Cat" from Fables from Aesop by James Reeves.Copyright C) 1962 by Henry Z. Walck. Reprinted by permission. This material may not be reproducedbeyond classroom use without permission of the publisher.

45


ROM ANTIC LOVE /MARRIAGE FABLES

Read each of the following fables and think about what each author seems to beshowing about love, love relationships, or human nature. Write the best moral youcan for each fable and explain what evidence from the fable led you to write themoral you did.

The Lion in LoveAesop

Many years ago a lion fell in love with a woodcutter's daughter and begged thathe might be given her hand in marriage.

The woodcutter was not at all pleased with the offer, and declined the honorof so dangerous a son-in-law. Whereupon the lion became very angry andthreatened to use force if his suit was denied.

The poor man, seeing that the dangerous creature was in earnest, hit upon aplan whereby he could gain his ends without risking his life.

"I feel greatly flattered by your,proposal," said he, "but, noble sir, what greatteeth you have and what long claws!, Where is the damsel that would not bealarmed by such frightful weapons? You must have your teeth drawn andyour claws cut before you can hope to be accepted as a suitable bridegroomfor my daughter."

So madly was the lion in love that he fell into the trap and sat quietly whilethe operation was being performed. He then claimed the daughter for his bride.

But the woodcutter was no longer afraid of his unwelcome visitor; he seized astout stick and drove him from the door.

The Man and His Two WivesAesop

A man whose hair was turning gray had two wives, one young and the other old.The elderly woman felt ashamed at being married to a man younger than herself,and made it a practice whenever he was with her to pick out all his black hairs;while the younger, anxious to conceal the fact that she had an elderly husband,used, similarly, to pull out the gray ones. So, between them, it ended in the manbeing completely plucked, and becoming bald.

Figure 14. Romantic Love/Marriage Fables. "The Lion in Love" from Aesop's Fables published byFranklin Watts, Inc. "The Man and His Two Wives" from the Caldecott Aesop by Aesop. Copyright© 1978 by Michael Patrick Hearn. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. Thismaterial may not be reproduced beyond classroom use without permission of the publisher.

Practice 41

FABLE WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Read the following fable and think about a good moral for it. Write a compositionin which you state what you think would be a good moral and support your moralwith specific evidence from the fable.

The Fatal MarriageAesop

The lion, freed from the snare, was exceedingly grateful to the little mouse whichhad helped him, and made up his mind to reward him handsomely. He thereforeasked the mouse what he would like, and the little creature, full of ambition anddetermined to make the most of his chance, asked for the lion's daughter as awife. The lion agreed at once, and called his daughter to come to her husband.The young lioness came bounding along, and, not expecting her future husbandto be so small or near the ground, accidentally set her foot on him and crushedhim to death as he was running to meet her.

Figure 15. Fable Writing Assignment. "The Fatal Marriage" from Aesop's Fables published by FranklinWatts, Inc.

42 Kuhn, Walter, and Johannessen

Romant Love' Marriage Poems

The purpose of this activity is to give students practicein interpreting author's generalizations in literaryworks that are more subtle and sophisticated thanfables. They must also defend their interpretations ingroup and class discussions.

Assemble a set of four or five poems which implygeneralizations about love, love relationships, infatua-tion, or marriage. Since students usually have diffi-culty interpreting poetry because of the amount ofinference making required, it is important to choosepoem'. that are accessible for the level of the students.If the vocabulary, syntax, and concepts are too diffi-cult, students may not be able to comprehend eventhe literal level, and in that case, interpreting theauthor's (poet's) generalization would be too advanceda level at which to work. The poems preseni:A in thisactivity work well with junior high and middle schoolas well as high school students. The procedures forthis activity are basically the same as those for theprevious fable activity.

Begin with the poem "The Choice" (Figure 16).Read it aloud or ask for a student volunteer to read.Give students the following discussion questions towork on individually for about fifteen to twenty min-utes. Then, using these questions as a guide, lead aclass discussion of the poem. The goal of the discus-sion is for students to generate possible statements ofthe author's (poet's) generalization and refine them sothat an effective statement is achieved.

After the class discussion has reached closure, handout the three short poems in Figure 17 dealing withlove relationships. Following the same procedures asin the fable activity, students work in small groupsand write a statement of the author's (poet's) general-ization in each poem. They should explain the com-mf:nt the poem makes about love or love relationshipsand the evidence in the poem that leads them Lo theirconclusions. Give each group a c'ictionary and remindthem to find meanings of all words with which theyare unfamiliar.

When all groups have finished, lead a class discus-sio; in the same manner as in the previous activity.Urge students to explain the evidence for their con-clusions and to challenge conclusions with which theydisagree. Also, refer students to the "Romantic Love/Marriage Survey" and ask them to find statementswith which they think the poets might agree or dis-agree. For example, students often comment that"Carrefour" takes issue with Tennyson's often quoted

solace, "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Thannever to have loved at all." As students look at thesurvey in conjunction with the poems, they discovermany interesting similarities and di Terenc in theviewpoints suggested and hone their statc,,,,,. theauthors' (poets) generalizations.

To give the students practice in writing aboutauthor's generalization, have students choose one ofthe three poems discussed and write a short composi-tion explaining the author's (poet's) generalization andthe evidence in the poem that leads to their conclusions.

Author's (Poet's) Generalization Composition

In this activity, students write a short compositionexplaining the author's (poet's) generalization in apoem that has not been discussed in class. They workindependently and apply to this new task the skillsthey have learned in previous activities. Hand outthecomposition assignment (Figure 18) for the poem "Inthe Metro." Students write a composition in whichthey (1) explain the generalization or comment thepoem makes about love or marriage relationships and(2) argue, through effective use of evidence from thepoem, their reasons for interpreting the meaning thisway.

On the day that students bring their rough draftsto class, divide them into small groups to evaluateeach other's papers. In groups, each student reads hisor her paper aloud, and the other group memberswork together to fill out the check sheet about thecomposition (Figure 19). The group should discusseach paper with the writer and explain reasons forthe comments selected. After the group discussions,the check sheets and papers should be given to thewriters so they can make revisions and a final copy toturn in to the teacher.

From Quotations to Generalizations

Especially in a longer work such as a novel or a full-length play, it is often possible to identify severalauthor's generalizations. When this is the case, it isuseful to have students identify these various general-izations separately through activities and specific dis-cussion questions rather than altogether through dis-cussion of a general, all-purpose question such as"What is the author trying to say to us in this work?"Working with the generalizations separately not onlyforces student.) io be more specific but also allowsinterconnections among the generalizations once they

48

Practice 43

ANALYZING AN AUTHORS (OR A POETS) GENERALIZATION

The Choice

He'd have given me rolling lands,Houses of marble, and billowing farms,

Pearls, to trickle between my hands,Smoldering rubies, to circle my arms.

Youyou'd only a lilting song,Ciliy a melody, happy and high,

You were sudden and swift and strongNevef a thought for another had 1.

He'd have given me laces rare,Dresses that glimmere. with frosty sheen,

Shiny ribbons to wrap my hair,Horses to draw me, as fine as a queen.

Youyou'd only to whistle low,Gayly I followed wherever you led.

I took you, and I let him goSomebody ought to examine my head!

Dorothy Parker

I. Define each of these words:bill :vingliltingsmoldering

2. What was the only thing the suitor who was chosen had to k,:fer to thespeaker? (Key Detail)

3. What did the speaker do when her suitor would "whistle low"? (Stated Rela-tionship)

4. Why does the speaker never have "a thought for another"? (Simple ImpliedRelationship)

5. What are the differences between the two suitors described in the. poem? Towhich one is the speaker more attracted? For what reasons is she attracted tohim rather than the other suitor? (Complex Implied Relationship)

6. The speaker expresses two different feelings about choosing the man she did.What are the different feelings she expresses? Why does she have these differentfeelings? (Complex Implied Relationship)

7. State the comment or generalization the poem makes about love or love rela-tionships. Give specific evidence from the poem to support your conclusion.(Author's/ Poet's Generalization)

Figure 16. Analyzing Author's (Pott's) Generalization. "The Choice" from The Portable Dorothy Parkerby Dorothy Parker. Copyright© 1925. 1954 by Dorothy Parker. Reprinted by permission of Viking Pen-guin. Inc. This material may not be reproduced beyond classroGrn use without permission of the publisher.

49


ROMANTIC LOVE/MARRIAGE POEMS

Read each poem careful:y and be sure to look up words you do not know. For eachpoem, write a statement of the author's (poet's) generalization. In other words,explain the comment the poem makes about love, marriage, or relationships. Beprepared to offer specific evidence that supports your interpretations.

Carrefour(French for 'crossroad')

0 you,Who came upon me onceStretched under apple-trees just after

bathing,Why did you not strangle me before

speakingRather than fill me with the wild white

honey of your wordsAnd then leave me to the ti...tLyOf the forest bees?

Amy Lowell

Symptoms of Love

Love is a universal migraine,A bright stain on the visionBlotting out reason.

Symptoms of true loveAre leanness, jealousy,Laggard dawns;

Are omens and nightmaresListening for a knock,Waiting for a sign:

For a touch of her fingersIn a darkened room,For a searching look.

Take courage, lover!Could you endure such painAt any hand but hers?

Robert Graves

Love Is Not All

Love is not all; it is not meat nor drinkNor slumber nor a roof against the rain;Nor yet a floating spar to men that sinkAnd rise and sink and rise and sink again;Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath,Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;Yet many a man is making friends with deathEven as I speak, for lack of love alone.It well may be that in a difficult hour,Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,Or nagged by want past resolution's power,I might be driven to sell your love for peace,Or trade the memory of this night for food.It well may be. I do not think I would.

Edna St. Vincent Mil lay

Figure 17. Romantic Love/ Marriage Poems. "Carrefour" from The Complete Pot fical Works of AmyLowell. Copyright@ 1955 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright renewza 1983 by HoughtonMifflin Company, Brinton P. Roberts, Esquire and G. D'Andelot Belin, Esquire. Reprinted by permis-sion of Houghton Mifflin Company. "Symptoms of Love" from Collected Poems. Copyright@ 1975 byRot;ert Graves. Reprinted by permission of A. P. Wars Ltd. for Robert Graves. "Love Is Not All" fromCollected Poems. Harper & Row.. Copyright 1931, 1958 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and NormaMillay Ellis. This material may not be reproduced beyond classroom use without permission of thepublisher.

50

Practice 45

COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENT

Read the following poem and write a composition in which you (I) explain thegeneralization or comment the poem makes about love, marriage, or relationshipsand (2) explain, through effective use of evidence from the poem, the reasons foryour interpretation of the poem's meaning.

In the Metro(subway)

I know: I'll never meet againthe gir! I met the other day,the girl with shining legs in the metro.I know: she goes her wayAnd I go mine .. . and yetI'm sad, though I don't know why.The escalator carried her awayjust as a rivera flower to the sea,while I, crucified to family duties,stood, transfixed,

on the platformwith a shopping bag dangling from my hand.. .

Mikhail Kvlividze

Figure 18. Composition Assignment. "In the Metro" by Mikhail Kvlividze from Soviet Life (September1968). Published by Novosti Press Agency.


CHECK SHEET

Name of writer:

Names of evaluators:

Check the statement(s) that best describes the paper you are evaluating. You maycheck more than one statement for each item. Please add any notes that might helpthe writer in making revisions.

1. Does the paper state the poet's generalization about love, love relationships, orfamily relationships?

yes it's there but not clearly stated no

2. Does the paper give the title of the poem and the name of the poet?yes no

3. The generalization stated in the paper

expresses exactly what the poem means.is partly right but misses some important things in the poem.is-an interesting idea but does not seem to be suggested in the poem.is not clear.

(There is no generalization stated in this paper.)

4. Evidence:

The writer presents four or five examples or details from the poemas evidence.

There is additional evidence in the poem that the writer should use tosupport the conclusions.

The writer mentions a few things that happen in the poem but is notvery specific about them (does not use exact words or quote specificlines).

Some evidence is provided but it does not relate to the statedgeneralization.

The paper presents almost no evidence.

5. Warrants:

The writer explains clearly how each example or detail used as evi-&nice supports the generalization.

Sometimes the writer clearly explains how the evidence supports thegeneralization, and sometimes he or she does not.The writer needs to add an explanation of how each example or pieceof evidence supports the generalization.

6:The paper ends with a brief summary (about one or two sentences) explainingagain the poet's generalization or idea about relationships (preferably usingslightly different words, in order to clarify for the reader the poet's meaning).

yes

Figure 19. Check Sheet.

no

have been identified. Such is the case in a work ascomplex as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Central to the book is an understanding of therelationship between Daisy and Gatsby. In order forstudents to answer a question concerning the general-ization Fitzgerald is making about relationships likeDaisy and Gatsby's, students must have an overviewof the story's action and outcome. They must alsounderstand Daisy's significance to Gatsby and whatDaisy was really like. Although students may under-stand upon completion of the novel that Daisy isGatsby's all-consuming passion, a more complete pic-ture of her significance to him requires a carefulexamination of the text's references to Daisy. Thus, acareful answer to the author's generalization questionrequires students to identify relevant passages in thebook, to infer a relationship among those passages,and to apply this knowledge to the generalizationquestion at hand. This is a somewhat formidable taskeven for trained English scholars!

One strategy to help reduce cognitive overloadwould be to provide students with a set of significantquotations from the work to examine closely. Inaddition, asking students to interpret complex impliedrelationships, a familiar skill which they have prac-ticed, would prepare them for v Irk at the higher levels.With this support, students then can more easily focustheir attention on making claims about an author'sgeneralization.

After students have finished an initial reading ofThe Great Gatsby, pass out Figure 20.

After students have completed this handout, askthem for their answers to the first two questions. Inthe whole-class discussion, emphasize the specific useof text in supporting the conclusions which the stu-dents suggest. After the discussion, give students timeto revise their answers to question 3, if they wish,before collecting the activity sheets.

On a ditto or on an overhead transparency, dupli-cate several student answers to question 3. On thefollowing day, show students their various author'sgeneralization statements. Ask students for theirassessment of the best ones. What makes them good?Complete? For instance, a student will often pick upon the superficial aspect of Daisy and Gatsby's rela-tionship and write something such as, "Fitzgerald issaying that superficial relationships, like 'Daicy andGatsby's, that are based on wealth do not last." Whilethis answer is accurate, it is not fully developed as astatement which would also discuss how relationships

Practice 47

like Daisy and Gatsby's fail because they are based itiillusions, unrealistic expectations, and false assump-tions rather than on reality.

After assessing ideas concerning Fitzgerald's gen-eralization, students can further practice effectivelysupporting their ideas through the activity in Figure 21.

Have students, working in pairs, evaluate the logicof each other's claim, evidence, and warrants. Asfollow-up writing practice, students may use thisactivity sheet as the basis of a short theme whichanswers the question, "What generalization is Fitz-gerald making about relationships like Daisy andGatsby's?"

Love Triangle

In many literary works authors; present contrastingcharacters to underscore their comments about humannature and society. This activity has students examinethe contra between two characters to arrive at anauthor's generalization. In The Great Gatsby, TomBuchanan and Jay Gatsby, Daisy's two "suitors," pro-vide a striking contrast. The tension in the novel'sclimactic scene comes from the necessity for Daisy tochoose between the two. Thus,.the three form a lovetriangle.

This activity builds on "Quotations to Generaliza-tions" by having students interpret further author'sgeneralizations concerning relationships. However,"Love Triangle" requires more sophisticated thinkingfrom students because they must find all their ownevidence from the novel to support their generaliza-tions. In the final step of the activity, they apply whatthey have learned to interpreting an author's generali-zation on a new subject, how wealth affects humanbehavior.

After students have completed the "Quotations toGeneralizations"activity, 'land out the "Love Triangle"activity sheet (Figure 22). As a first step, make surethat students are familiar with the definitions of all

.1

the terms listed within the triangle. Have them lookup unfamiliar words on their own or define the wordsin class discussioni. Then, since the activity involvestwo parts which are to be completed in two separatesteps, instruct students to complete only Part I of thesheet on their own and, once they have finished thisstep, to stop and wait for further instructions.

When students have completed Part I, before goingon to Part II, divide them into small groups to corn-pare their answer?. To help guide the small group

53


QUOTATIONS TO GENERALIZATIONS

Read carefully the passages below from The Great Gatsby and use them to answerthe three questions. Be sure to include specific references to the passages in youranswers.

1. According to Nick and Gatsby, what does Daisy represent for Gatsby?2. What is Daisy really like?

3. What kind of relationship do Daisy and Gatsby have? What generalization isFitzgerald making about this kind of relationship?

"All right." said Daisy. "What'll we plan?" She turned to me [Nick] helplessly:"What do people plan?"The instant her [Daisy's] voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, mybelief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, asthough the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributoryemotion from me.He had intended, probably, to take what he could and gobut now he foundthat he had committed himself to the following of a grail. He knew Daisy wasextraordinary, but he didn't realize just how extraordinary a 'nice girl' could be.She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby nothing.He felt married to her, that was all.

She was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacitieshe had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbedwire between.

It passed and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defendinghis name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word shewas drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only thedead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what wasno longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voiceacross the room.

"For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids andpleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year,summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes. . . . She wantedher life shaped now, immediatelyand the decision must be made by someforceof love, of money, of unquestionable practicalitythat was close at hand."They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things andcreatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.

His [Gatsby's] heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to hisown. He knew 'hat when he kissed the girl, and forever wed his unutterablevisions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mindof God. . . . At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like, a flower and theincarnation was complete.

'Her voice is full of money,' he said suddenly. That was it. . .----that was theinexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the tingle of it, the cymbals' song ofit . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl.Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealthimprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleam-ing like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.

He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he reevaluated everything inhis house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.

After his [Gatsby's] embarrassment and his unreasoning joy, he was consumedwith wonder at her presence.

Figure 20. Quotations to Generalizations.

54

MAKING CONNECTIONS

In the spao: provided below, write your claim about the generalization Fitzgerald ismaking about relationships like Daisy and Gatsby's. In the spaces marked A, B, C,and D, copy evidence (quotes) which supports your claim. You may use two quotesfound on the "Quotations to Generalizations" activity sheet, but at least two quotesmust be new evidence which you find from the text. ally, write a warrant for eachpiece of evidence.

Claim:

A.

B.

C.

D.

Figure 21. Making Conneciiuns,

55

Practice 49


LOVE TRIANGLE

Part I

Inside the triangle below are descriptive words and phrases which may characterizeTom, Daisy, and/ or Gatsby. List those whic you feel are appropriately descriptiveof each character under his or her name. You may use the words and phrasesfor more than one character or not at all. All blanks need not be filled. Allcharacters need not have the same number of descriptive words and phrases asso-ciated with them.

Tom

Part II

insincere, idealistic, Fast Egg, purposeless,pragmatic, hypocritical, careful, gentle,

inherited position, romantic, brutal,sensitive, pessimistic, purposeful,

self-made man, optimistic,sincere, West Egg, wealthy,

authentic, insensitive,careless

Daisy

Jay

Based on your discussion of Part I, answer the following questions.

A. In the end, why does Daisy choose Tom? Explain your answer with evidencefrom the text.

B. Why does Tom and Daisy's relationship last while Daisy and Gatsby's doesnot? What evidence can you find to support your claim?

C. What generalization is Fitzgerald making about the basis of a lasting relation-ship? Explain and cite evidence for your conclusion.

D. What role does wealth play in both of these relationships? Explain youranswer with evidence from the text.

E. What comment or generalization does this novel make about the way wealthinfluences human behavior and attitudes? Offer evidence for your answer. N,

Figure 22. Love Triangle.

discussion of Part I, put the following questions onthe blackboard:

1. How would you compare and contrast yourdescriptive words and phrases for

Tom and Gatsby,Daisy and Gatsby, andDaisy and Tom?

2. What does each share with the other?3. Is there anything which all three share?

As the discussion develops, students begin to seethat terms such as insensitive for Tom and sensitivefor Jay suggest a strong contrast. Their discussion ofi;uch contrasts enables them to see that Tom andGatsby are, for the most part, opposites. On the otherhand, students see that Daisy and Tom have much incommon and that the only thing all three charactersshare is, of course, wealth. Understanding these rela-tionships prepares students for Part II f the activity.

After students have reached a consensus on theiranswers to Part I, have the groups discuss and fill outthe answers to the questions in Part II. Finally,reassemble the class and lead a discussion focusing ont: le questions in Part II. Since students have had tofi Id evidence on their own, it is important to discusstl.e quality and appropriateness of the evidence theyhave found. Also, they must explain how the evidencesupports their claims. As students go through the stepsoutlined in this activity, they are interpreting author'sgeneralizations and gathering and selecting evidenceto support their interpretations. In the final step, thewhole-class discussion, students must present and de-fend their interpretations to an audience, their peers.

Although the activity sheet is specifically designedfor use with The Great Gatsby, it could be modifiedand used with other works in which an author presentscontrasting characters whose relationship is key tounaerstanding the author's generalizations.

From Taba Mo,-.1P1 to Composing

This activity culminates in a writing assignment inwhich students apply the skills which they have beenpracticing in this sequence. Involving two new worksof literature, it is an evaluation step to see if studentscan apply their skills in a new situation. Based on thetheoretical work of Hilda Taba (1947), the activity'sdesign reflects a three-part structure in which students,as Taba explains, form concepts, interpret concepts,and finally apply concepts. This activity comes last inthe sequence because it is less structured and almost

Practice SI

entirely student-directed once the procedures are out-lined by the teacher. This procedure is easily adaptedfor other works or groups of works which share acommon concept.

In preparation for this activity, have students readFitzgerald's short stories, "The Rich Boy" and "WinterDreams." To begin the activity, ask students to namethe characters in The Great Gatsby and in the twoshort stories. This is a very general and unintimidatingstep in which everyone can participate. Once all char-acters have been recorded on the board, ask studentsto suggest groupings of characters based on somecommon element. For instance, one student mightsuggest grouping Gatsby, George Wilson, MyrtleWilson, Paula Legendre, Irene Scheerer,. and CarySloane. Another might group Daisy Buchanan, Jor-dan Baker, Tom Buchanan, and Judy Jones together.Of course, characters may be used in more than onegroup. A Recorder (either the teacher or a student)keeps a record of the groups made with a system ofnotations on the board. Finally, students must givenames to the groupings they have created. Thesenames reflect the logic behind originally forming thegroup. At this point, for example, students wouldname the group with Gatsby, the Wilsons, PaulaLegendre, Irene Scheerer, and Cary Sloane as "vic-tims" (A) and the group with the Buchanans, JordanBaker, and Judy Jones as "careless ones" (0). Anexample using The Great Gatsby, "Winter Dreams,"and "The Rich Boy" illustrates this entire process.Figure 23 illustrates what these groupings might looklike on the blackboard after students have gonethrough the steps outlined so far.

Of course, the groupings of this example are notdefinitive. Each class will arrive at its own conclusions.Naturally, too, some groupings are more sophisticatedthan others and offer more potential for the next stepof the activity, the final writing assignment. Forexample, a grouping like "bachelors" is probably notgoing to be useful in helping students deal withauthor's generalizations. On the other hand, a group-ing like "old money" offers much potential for eitherone of the following assignments.

After students have finished creating and naminggroupings, they are given the following writing assign-ment: Pick a grouping that will shed some light onone of the following questions: What generalizationor comment does Fitzgerald make about Americansociety and its values? Or, What generalization doesFitzgerald make about the way wealth influenceshuman behavior and attitudes?


Students might bring in their rough drafts and cri-tique their compositions in pairs or small groupsbefore turning in their final assignments. During revi-sion, students should be sure all claims are adequatelysupported with evidence and warrants.

With the completion of this final step, studentshave formed groupings, interpreted author's generali-zations, and written an essay supporting their inter-pretations with specific evidence.

Character Grouping:Nick Carraway 191 a 4)

Jay Gatsby A A V 4)

Daisy Buchanan 191 0 Ili 4Jordan Baker 12 V NTom Buchanan 12 0 11 4 4George Wilson A

Myrtle Wilson A 0 4Catherine 0Owl Eyes aMeyer Wolfsheim A

Dan Cody A®Michaelis

Henry C. Gat,_ 0

Mr. McKee 0Anson Hunter 12 El 0 Oa

Paula Legendre A

Dolly Karger"Rich Boy" narrate- 4) aCary Sloane A (;)Edna Hunter 4Judy Jones 0Dexter Green 4) A CO 0Irene Scheerer A

Figure 23. Character Gr,,uraigs and Notations.

Grouping Notations

A victims

O poor impressed by wealth

survivors

O careless ones

eligible bachelors

a observersFA old money

new money

rootless

dreamers

self-made man

arrogant4 spouse cheaters

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Authors

Elizabeth Kahn is a graduate cum laude of Wake Forest University. She took her master'sdegree from the University of Chicago where she is also working on a Ph.D. in Curriculumand Instruction. She is an English teacher at J. B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates,Illinois, and the author of several publications, among them Designing and SequencingPrewriting Activities, a TRIP booklet she coauthored with Walter and Johannessen. She sthe 1984 Illinois Governbr's Master Teacher Award recipient.

Carolyn Calhoun Walter is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of Wooster, Wooster,Ohio. She was awarded her master's degree from the University of Chicago with a full-tuitionscholarship. She has had teaching experience on both the college and high school levels, andnow is consultant for the McDougal-Littell English Curriculum. She has written extensivelyon composition and the teaching of English, including coauthorship on a previousTRIP booklet.

Larry R. Johannessen is a graduate magna cum laude of California State Univmity-Hayward.He took his master's degree from the University of Chicago where he is also currentlyworking on a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. He is an English and social studiesteacher at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois, and the author of severalpublications, among them the popular TRIP booklet he coauthored with Kahn and Walter.He has recently been honored as one of the distinguished high school tinchers of the Chicagoaiez and with a full-tuition fellowship at the University of Chicago.

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