From an understanding of the stages of the writing process, we will move into writing actual full-length essays, which will begin on a personal, descriptive, level and move into essays more complex and argumentative in nature.
These essays will be taught over a period of a year, because there is a cumulative effect as the children become more proficient in clustering. The longest essay, the term paper is an enlargement of the clustering process, involving many points of view appropriately connected and clustered many times over. I think the clustering process should be used not only to expand on ideas but also to overcome writing blocks which will occur for students at any time. Also, I propose to use clustering in terms of the images in literature. This could be used in
Ethan Frome Hamlet
and
Heart of Darkness
, which are all part of the English suggested readings.
Below are the objectives for the kinds of essays I expect students to be capable of writing by the end of a year’s work. All of the essays presume a knowledge of the four stages of the writing process. As students successfully master each stage, they will come closer with each writing activity to achieving clear, logical essays with good expression and correct grammar.
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l. to write small essays for applications to colleges and for work applications.
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2. to write longer essays on personal goals and plans for the future.
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3. to write essays of opinion on personal or school events and also on world issues.
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4. to write term papers with documented sources and bibliographies.
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5. to write with understanding of the characters presented in literature and to develop more understanding of the imagery used in literature. (Using Rico).
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6. to write feature articles for the school newspaper based on personal interviews.
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7. to decide on a topic and focus on that topic for the length of the exercise, whether it is an essay or a term paper.
Along with all of the above skills comes an ability to look for and find books and/or magazines on their topics. The student should absorb the library skills to do research and finally, to take notes, to read and digest, to paraphrase and to take direct quotes.
Therefore, the overall principle behind these objectives for this paper is to approach all of writing for a purpose with a certain ease and confidence and to correct their own errors in two main areas—sentence structure and spelling.
The newest or most exciting development in the teaching of writing comes from Rico’s book
Writing the Natural Way
, which suggests that the most effective and meaningful writing comes from the use of the right (mute) side of the brain. This part of the brain is the center of our creative ideas. Formerly, the right part of the brain was considered mute, having little to do with the use of language and the writing of words. Lately, research suggests that the process of writing, the conceiving of ideas, the “seeing” of wholeness, and the connectedness of ideas along with the formation of structure for a piece of writing, comes from this right side of the brain. Therefore, Rico states that effective writing is a result of the cooperation of the right (idea) side of the brain with the left side through the use of words.
The following lesson plans are devised using Rico’s method of directing the hand to use the recall and powers of unity that comes from the right side of the brain to compose and find ideas and structure, before writing itself begins.
Lesson Plan One—2 days
Objective The student will write a short essay (for applying to College) on a person who has most influenced his/her life.
Process 15 minute group activity done by the class as a whole
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1. Using the blackboard, have the students suggest a person known to all of them. Use Rico’s method of placing the name in the center in a circle or oval.
(figure available in print form)
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A. Ask the students to give suggestions or characteristics of personal appearance, then brainstorm any facts of his/her life. Write down all contributions in circles connected by lines to the main circle.
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B. Ask the students to give words or expressions which they remember especially that the person
said
. Continue to write on board all the contributions of the students.
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C. Ask students. Then, to give
reasons
that these expressions are so well remembered by them. Write reasons on the board, also in connected circles.
The students should now observe that there is a great deal of information on the board. This, of course solves their greatest problem—“What can I say?” All the information is on the board.
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2. Ask the students now, to focus on the words “personal influence.” This is the shift to the left side of the brain, to begin to see a structure, “see” the emergence of sentences a form for the essay.
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A. After focusing, and as quickly as possible, ask students to begin putting the information on the board into sentences. Write their sentences on the board. Try to stress, the focus of “personal influence.”
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B. When the paragraph is on the board, ask for a quick correction or review of any errors or changes they see.
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C. Give homework assignment to think of a person that has had an influence on their life. Have this person in mind for class activity the next day.
Lesson Plan One Day 2
Objective Individual repetition of the group work the day before.
Process Each student writes the name of the person who has most influenced his/her life in a circle.
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1. Each student clusters or brainstorms for 3 to 5 minutes on the personal characteristics, quietly writing or connecting remarks in circles, to the main circle, focusing on facts and appearance.
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2. For the next 5 minutes the student focuses on clustering expressions of wisdom, or things most remembered said or done by this person.
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3. For 2 or 3 minutes have the students focus on
why
the words or actions of that person are most remembered by them. Cluster these reasons.
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Walk around the room and see that each student is able to participate and give encouragement where necessary.
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4. At this point, ask for a volunteer from the class who would be willing to put their clustering on the board so that the class as a whole can move into the next stage through this individuals work. (If this is not possible, repeat the clustering that was on the board the day before.) Describe this stage to the class, as a shift in thinking—look for a sense of form, a sense of composition, a forming in their minds of a logical arrangement for these circled words into sentences. The design or arrangement is different for each one. There is no one right arrangement—only one which makes sense to them. The one key to the individual arrangement into sentences is the focus of the essay—“personal influence.”
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5. Begin writing as quickly as possible for ten to fifteen minutes.
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6. Before collecting the papers for teachers review, ask students to exchange papers for a brief review—looking for sentence fragments or spelling mistakes.
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7. An important process is to read aloud (with student permission) papers from the class—This reading aloud gives ideas to other students and greatly encourages others, when they perceive their peers achieving success.
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8. After teacher correction, have the student rewrite the essay and save in a folder for future use or reference.
Lesson Plan Two-Two Days
Day one
Objective The student will write a longer essay (also for college applications) on personal goals and plans for the future.
Preparation Talk with the students about values clarification, in relation to their wishes and dreams about their lives.
Procedure (This lesson plan assumes that the teacher and students are familiar with the word
clustering and have gone through this process at least once.)
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1. Put the words money, power, sex, love, happiness, fame, helping others, on the board.
(figure available in print form)
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2. As a group, cluster each word. Write on board the student comments or feelings on each word. This will probably take most of the period. Keep reminding the students that they are making comments about their wishes and dreams.
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3. At their desk, have each student pick two or three clusters from the board—the most personally motivating. Write significant thoughts from the board and for 5 to 10 minutes, continue to cluster quietly at their desk all the additional thoughts which come to their minds about these words.
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4. Collect these clusters, to be handed back the next day.
Lesson Plan Two-Day 2
Preparation Discuss specific career choices. Get pamphlets from guidance department on careers, ROTC, also High School Magazines on Careers from counselors. Finally, write the following words on the board and circle each one: Computer field, fashion, accounting, graphics, auto mechanics, lawyer, journalist, and nursing. Tell the students these are just ideas—the main point is make a choice that they feel they can be specific about, the choice should be the one which has the most ideas for them right now.
Procedure
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1. For ten minutes, each student clusters the career of his/her choice, writing facts, feelings which connect them to this career.
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If needed, read aloud or write the following questions on the board.
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a. Why do you like this career?
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b. Do you know someone who does this? Write the person’s name. Why would you choose to follow in his/ her footsteps?
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c. Do you see yourself doing this?
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d. How do you feel when you are doing this activity and what makes you want to do it?
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e. Have you taken courses at Hillhouse which have led you to choose this career? List the courses.
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2. Return papers from Day one of this lesson—clustering on values clarification.
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3. Using both clusters, have the students focus on both of these clusters quietly, until they see a structure for their essay begin to form. Repeat the focus “personal goals and plans for the future”.
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4. Instruct the student to write as quickly as possible, to get all the material down, without worrying about mistakes in grammar or spelling. Just get as much written as possible, using the material from the two clusters, focusing all the while on the theme.
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5. Once the essay is written, try to use peer review or group correction—especially on sentence fragments and spelling mistakes, before the essay is handed in for teacher review. This kind of peer review, or personal review, especially in senior year, helps the student feel even more in control of his/her writing and enhances both their confidence and creativity.
Lesson Plan Three
Objective The student will write an essay of opinion on personal opinion or school events.
The writing of the essay of personal opinion is vital not only to the student’s development as a writer, but to the student personally. They have a great need to express themselves and to be able to do so in writing gives them a tremendous sense of power and personal satisfaction.
Procedure This lesson plan is developed from Rico’s chapter on Creative Tension and seeks to help the student explore the opposite of his/her opinion, before beginning to write.
Focus for this lesson Understanding and presenting the opposite point of view, strengthens and clarifies your own point of view.
Preparation Although the student initially feels that he/she knows full well what he/she wants to say, I have found that he/she becomes disappointed and unable to write after the first few sentences, because—the student becomes repetitious, circular and trapped by only presenting his/her point of view, or only one side.
This can be avoided by asking the student to bring into focus through clustering for themselves the opposite of what they are writing about, because this process clarifies, in their minds, their own remarks.
For example: Any conflict has by its very nature at least two sides. Have the students imagine a dialogue in cluster form of the opposing view. For this dialogue we have 3 focuses: first, the argument; second the student’s opinion; thirdly, the administrator’s opinion.
Procedure Present these three examples and cluster them.
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Example 1:
A. Argument: Should a student be admitted to school after 8:30 without a note or call from a parent?
(figure available in print form)
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Example 2:
A. Argument: Apartied in Africa is wrong. Article from Time magazine distributed, and notes taken. Try to see (as a class) if the author has presented her own position as well as the position of both sides in South Africa.
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Example 3:
A. When a student has reached the legal age of eighteen, how much more freedom should he/she have at home? Is it all right to defy parents wishes, at this point, on staying out whenever he/she wishes and are parents justified in keeping house rules? Is this a public rule of private?
(figure available in print form)
If necessary try a small debate acted out by two students in class on the same issues so that students can observe that their own opinions and problems are clarified by listening to an argument.
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1. Cluster the arguments on the board. Opposing points of view bring the argument into focus, and clarify, and strengthen, a stand to be taken. Understanding the opposite point of view strengthens the argument.
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2. Begin writing by taking a stand on the issue.
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3. Ask for at least five statements both for and against the opening stand the student wants to take.
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4. Write the composition as an answer to the opposition’s stand.
Lesson Plan 4 Images—Day One
Objective The student will write with understanding of the images of the characters presented in literature.
Presentation The characters in book, (
Ethan Frome—Mattie, Zeena, and Ethan. Read the first half of the book before presenting this lesson.
Process Look for fine descriptive phrases which give an image of each character. Quote the phrase, and give the page number for each excerpt. Image is the key word for word picture, the picture in words of the character.
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1. Explain to the class that images are the true language of the right side of the brain which recognizes and identifies all our complex thoughts before they even become known or verbalized or conscious to ourselves. For example, how do we know someone is near us—we sense it. How do we know someone is in pain, or someone is afraid—we sense it. We look at him/her and the image presented and we digest, like a computer on the right side of the brain and we “know”. We recognize feelings and we understand situations because of this more primitive (right-brained) informed side of our brain. So too, this same knowledge is transferred to our senses when we read descriptions of the characters in literature.
The study of
Ethan Frome
is particularly valuable when teaching images to students. The book is abundant in imagery and obvious in its symbolism. Its very simplicity clarifies the images for students. The very first description of Ethans in the Prologue. The “picture”, the image of Ethan Frome is wounded, silent, stern, and hardened by struggle. Townspeople do not even dare to bother him. From this first picture we image, we sense the character of Ethan. Relate this to the student’s own street recognition of people or strangers. How can just looking at a person tell you a great deal about him/her? This exercise is easy for students at Hillhouse. I find them rich in their knowledge of human beings behavior and human motivation. Most of them have sharpened their skills at looking at and understanding people in the street and in the home. They already know and understand the many complexities of human life and need only a way to translate this knowledge of people to the characters in literature.
Day 2
Objective To introduce archetypal images to students.
They are meaningful to all men across the ages as human beings and have occurred again and again in written literature and in the dreams of ordinary men.
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1. Water-symbolizes life and birth.
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2. Desert-symbolizes sterility and lifelessness.
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3. Spilled Blood-symbolizes death.
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4. Earth Mother-symbolizes nurturing, protective, fertile.
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5. The Monster-symbolizes what we fear most, possibly something in ourselves.
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6. The shadow-symbolizes our dark side, our repressed self.
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7. Tree-symbolizes life.
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8. Flying-symbolizes transcending the body’s limitations, also (from the myth of Icarus) separation from a parent, of disobedience and its consequences.
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9. A lake-symbolizes the unconscious and also life-giving water.
Psychologist C. Jung says that these images lie in our collective unconscious and disturb or involve us because they strike at the core of our life here on earth and have meaning for central issues of death, sexuality, abandonment, freedom, etc. These images occur in our dreams and in many writings.
Procedure To introduce the three dominant images in
Ethan Frome Winter, Death, and Light.
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1. Ask the student to cluster these images separately for themselves.
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2. Ask the students to cluster these images in terms of the book—through close reading of the book.
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In terms of the book, the author closely associates “winter” with the isolation, the struggle, and loneliness that the main character Ethan endures. The student must investigate the mind of the author by close reading of the book to find references to these words.
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Death: The student must recognize that Ethan passes the cemetery (death) of his ancestors each day on the way to his house; the vine which swings across his door looks (to him) like black crepe hung for mourning, etc. These are not only images but they are an artful way of foreshadowing the tragic end of the book.
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Light: The only references to light are made about the main character Mattie and indeed, she is the only light of Ethan’s life. It will probably be necessary to tell the students to look directly, in close reading, at only passages connected to Mattie, for the symbol of light and warmth.
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3. Use the clustering of the images of death, winter and light that the student clustered first for him/her self, along with the clustering of lines taken directly from the book done with close reading on the images of death, winter and light.
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4. Focus on the personal view of the student and author try to see a unifying thought from the two clusters.
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5. After the unifying thought emerges, write a short essay on each image. The result should be a satisfying combination of personalized expression of the imagery in
Ethan Frome
.
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6. Day three—or homework assignment is to finish writing 3 separate essays on death, winter and light, using two clusters for each essay. Read aloud essays which are well focused and personalized.
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7. Exchange papers to look for errors in sentence structure and spelling.
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8. Rewrite essays, refining word use, and concentrating on main focus (individualized for each student).
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9. Tell the students that each of these symbols could possibly be enlarged through further close reading in the book to a term paper on a literary topic—a major accomplishment in senior year.