Teacher Man

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Teachers notes LEVEL 4 PENGUIN READERSTeacher Support Programme

About the AuthorIn 1997, Frank McCourt received the Pulitzer Prize for his book Angelas Ashes. The novel, which describes his childhood in Ireland, came out when he was 66 years old. Before becoming a published author, McCourt was a teacher. Read more about the writer and his books in the Introduction.

Summary Teacher Man, Frank McCourts third book, tells of his experiences as a high school and college teacher in New York.

Chapter 1: Mr. McCourt refers to his miserable childhood in Ireland and to how hard it is to be a teacher in the United States, especially in public schools.

Chapter 2: Mr. McCourt describes the first day of his teaching career. There is an incident with a sandwich that he manages really well, but the principal finds fault with his behavior.

Chapter 3: Mr. McCourt would like to teach through stories and music, but he is not allowed to do so, and a comment he makes about sheep gets him into trouble.

Chapter 4: Mr. McCourt tells his students about his work on the docks, how he chose to be a teacher and how hard it was for him to get a job.

Chapter 5: Mr. McCourt describes his first Open School Day. He gets into trouble again, as Norma, his student monitor, makes comments that parents disapprove of. On his second Open School Day, a mother blames him for telling stories instead of teaching.

Chapter 6: Mr. McCourt describes a lesson in which he teaches students grammar. He is very proud because he has managed to teach students one big word.

Chapter 7: Mr. McCourt uses some excuse notes as a source for writing tasks. Students love it and are motivated to write.

Chapter 8: Mr. McCourt tells us about a difficult student whom he learns to love. McCourt accepts him as he is, but the boy leaves school, joins the army and goes missing in Vietnam.

Chapter 9: Mr. McCourt takes a job at a college. He thinks he will be more respected, but he is wrong.

Chapter 10: Mr. McCourt is teaching at a high school again. He is also going through a bad patch in his marriage. A student tries his patience and he hits him across the face with a magazine. He loses his job at the end of term.

Chapter 11: At another high school, one of the students tells a beautiful story about the death of her mothers favorite poet and everybody is moved.

Chapter 12: Mr. McCourt takes his students to the movies. This is rather stressful, but for some of the kids it is their first time at a movie theater and they find the experience fascinating.

Chapter 13: He takes the students to see a performance of Hamlet. He is delighted to learn that one of his former students is going to finish high school and go to college to become a teacher.

Chapter 14: Another difficult student proves defiant and Mr. McCourt tries to use his behavior as a source for writing activities. Later, he learns that the students mother, a woman he has met, has died.

Chapter 15: Mr. McCourt goes to Dublin to do a doctorate but returns to New York after two years without having finished the course. His wife gives birth to a girl.

Chapter 16: Mr. McCourt starts teaching at one of the very best schools in New York. He is invited to be the Creative Writing teacher and becomes very popular, but he feels this is because his classes are easier than the rest.

Chapter 17: Mr. McCourt starts finding his style as a teacher but, in his attempt to avoid boredom in class, he asks questions to one of the students which he will be sorry for.

Chapter 18: Another Open School Day, which he finds terrible. All the parents want his attention, even when time is up.

Frank McCourt

Teacher Man

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Teachers notes LEVEL 4 PENGUIN READERSTeacher Support Programme

Chapter 19: He supports two students who want to do something different from what their parents expect.

Chapter 20: It is Mr. McCourts last day at school. When he says goodbye, one of his students suggests he should write a book.

Background and themes

The teaching profession: Teachers get little respect from principals, parents and students. They only feel rewarded by their students success. Teaching is shown as a job that teachers try to get out of as soon as they can.

Innovative teaching: Are unusual teaching strategies more conducive to learning than teaching by the book? Is it important to learn facts and figures? For example, stories are considered by some teachers and principals an excellent source of learning, but others think they are a waste of class time.

Flexibility: A major theme in this book is how to adapt to different contexts and students.

Honesty/Being true to oneself: Mr. McCourt does not hide his origins or his ideas about teaching to please parents or authorities and encourages students to persevere and follow their dreams.

Authority: Students will truly respect people because of their integrity and good will, not necessarily because they are in power.

Streaming: There are schools for the gifted and vocational schools for those who are unlikely to make it to university. How does attending one of these schools affect a students future?

Stereotypes: Different stereotypes are portrayed throughout the story, especially those related to origin and to what different cultures think about one another.

Discussion activities

Before reading1 Discussion: Guide students with these questions: What can you see on the cover? What is the mans job? Is the story fact or fiction? Is there love in this story? Is

the ending happy or sad? Do you think youre going to like the story? Why/why not? 2 Discussion: Have students discuss these questions: In your country, are teachers mostly men or women? Why

do you think this is so? Compare men teachers and women teachers. Which do

you like better? Why?

3 Predict: Have students read the titles of the chapters and predict what the story is about.

4 Make a list of words: Have students make a list of the words they think will appear in the story and then dictate the words to you. According to the number of times each word appears on the board, decide on the most popular. Ask students to keep this list while they read.

Chapters 13While reading5 Read carefully: Have students read the last paragraph

in Chapter 1 (page 2). Ask them to add more extraordinary ideas about the ideal life of a respected teacher.

After reading6 Word list revisited: Have students tick off on the list

in point 4 the words which they have found. Tell them to add more words to their list.

7 Discussion: Have students answer these questions: Look at the picture on page viii of the Introduction. Does

the man look like a teacher? Would you like to have him as your teacher? Why/why not?

8 Discussion: Guide students with these questions: Are teachers respected in your country? Is this the same

for primary, high school and university teachers? What about other professions? Which are important professions, and which ones are less important?

9 Discussion: You can guide students with these questions.

Do you think Mr. McCourt solved the sandwich situation well? Why? Think of a better way to solve it. Think of a bad way to solve it.

10 Predict: Ask students these questions. Is Mr. McCourt a good teacher? Why/why not? Is he

going to become traditional or is he going to use his own methods and ideas?

11 Check: Have students go back to their predictions based on the titles of the chapters. Would they make any changes?

Chapters 46While reading12 Have students discuss the stereotypes in the last

paragraph of Chapter 4 (page 12). What did people think about the Irish, Italian families,

dock workers and teachers? Do you agree with those opinions?

After reading13 Discussion: Have students discuss the following. How important is it to learn spelling and grammar? Is it

boring? Can you learn grammar in fun ways?14 Open School Day: Ask students to imagine their

parents have been to an Open School Day at their school. What questions would they like to ask their parents?

Teacher Man

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Teachers notes LEVEL 4 PENGUIN READERSTeacher Support Programme

15 Discussion: Mr. McCourts students tell him that some words wont help them get a job. Ask your students what words/information/abilities may help them get a job. Does school teach them what they need?

Chapters 79Before reading16 Predict: Have students discuss excuse notes. Who writes excuse notes? When? Why? Have you or your

parents ever written an excuse note? Have you ever forged an excuse note?

After reading17 Make a list: What topics would students like to

discuss at school? What topics are most popular with students?

18 Compare jobs: Have students compare a teachers job at school and at college. Which one is more difficult, interesting?

Chapters 1011After reading19 Mr. McCourts job: Ask students to compare his job

at the different places he has worked so far. Which one is the best? Why?

20 Discussion: Consider these questions: Why does Mr. McCourt feel at home with the students at

Seward Park? When do his students feel comfortable at school? What about other teachers? And you?

Chapters 1214Before reading21 Discussion: You can use these questions: Are they interesting? Are they necessary? Are they better

than lessons? What can you learn?

After reading22 Discussion: Why did Andrew keep tilting his chair?

Ask students to make a list of possible reasons. Then have them discuss Mr. McCourts behavior. Did he do the right thing?

23 Character description: Ask students to make a list of characters and their description. The chart below can help. Students then decide whether they are main characters or secondary ones.

Name Description Main or not?

Chapters 1517After reading24 Compare schools: In groups, have students write

sentences comparing Stuyvesant High School and the other schools Mr. McCourt has worked at. Ask them to consider methods, students, parents, etc. Is this a better job for Mr. McCourt?

25 Discussion: Have students discuss Mr. McCourts behavior towards James. What do they think? And how do they think Mr. McCourt and the boy felt at the end of the conversation?

Chapters 1820After reading26 Discussion: Have students discuss the following: a Do you agree with Mr. McCourts ideas on teaching? b Of all the students mentioned in the book, who

would you like to go out with? Play sports with? Be in class with? Why?

27 Writing: Write the word TEACHER on the board and get students to find words which contain each of the letters in that word to form a poem, for example:

T E cAre C H E R 28 Role-play: In pairs, have students imagine a

conversation between Mr. McCourt and Bobs father or Kens and dramatize it.

29 Discussion: In groups, have students watch some of the following movies: To Sir with Love, Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Stand and Deliver, Mona Lisas Smile. Have them compare the film to Teacher Man as regards teachers, their schools and their problems. Then ask them to choose local or international actors to play the characters in Teacher Man and justify their choice.

Vocabulary activitiesFor the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to www.penguinreaders.com.