Sandra K. Friday
In thinking through an effective introduction to how storytellers produce, use, and resolve anxiety to dramatize the maturing process in children, I decided to begin with our own culture as a point of reference. Geoffrey Canada, who grew up in the South Bronx, describes in a section of his autobiography
FishStickKnifeGun
the anxiety he experienced when he came to realize at the age of five that in order to continue playing outside with the neighborhood boys he would have to fight another boy to establish himself in the pecking order. Until then, he had never dreamed of having to fight. Worse than this, the boy he would have to fight was his best friend and playmate. His other option was to stay inside with his mother and be considered a sissy. In a few pages, Canada conveys the shock of his realization and the internal struggle that ensues as he comes to terms with this unanticipated revelation. This excerpt from the autobiography gives me the opportunity to introduce several activities and skills that I will reinforce throughout the unit.
First, because the excerpt is only a few pages long, students can read it and
write an
initial response
to it in one sitting. I often ask for volunteers to read a story aloud, and in preparation for this, we will determine whose voice is telling the story. In this case it is Canada himself in retrospect. To help students understand what it means to write a response, I will offer them a number of prompts and perhaps even model one on the overhead projector. Students might answer, "What are your thoughts and questions about the story, a character in the story, or a problem in the story? Prompts: This character makes me think of. . . . ; This incident reminds me of . . . or made me wonder about . . . ; My first reaction (feeling or question) to the story is . . . . because . . . ." I often model a skill I want my students to adopt, in order to "make learning visible."
In preparation for focusing on the presence of anxiety in the story, I will give my students a
graphic organizer
where they will write their observations
about the confli
ct
on the left side and on the right side they will copy sentences (with page numbers) in the story as evidence to back up their observations. Depending on the skill levels of my students, I may model this activity on the overhead projector, asking students for their observations and then for evidence from the story. As students volunteer their observations about the conflict, it will become apparent that Canada has experienced fear, confusion, and loneliness. He is confronted by having to publicly fight a boy who has been his best friend and he feels confused and afraid. Students might speculate on whether there is a way out for him other than to fight. I will ask them whether they think he is experiencing anxiety in this conflict and just what anxiety is?
This excerpt also gives me the opportunity to ask students how the character of Geoffrey Canada changes in the story, making use of the terms:
at first
,
but then
, and
finally
. In studying Geoffrey in this way, we can also study the progression of his anxiety, speculating on
how old
he is before he learns that he has to fight and
how old
he is once he decides that he must do it, and does it. It is effective to use a
graphic organizer
for this
character study
, writing observations on the left side:
at first
,
but then
, and
finally
; and on the right side across the page, copying sentences that prove the observations on the left. This way students learn how to record their observations and to record evidence to back them up. These organizers are often used again when students are learning how to write a five-paragraph essay about a character. They learn that they have done the preparatory work and do not have to go back and reread the story.
Following this discussion of character, students might brain storm about
the lesson of this story
. They could do this using the
"chalk talk"
activity. I hang a wide, long piece of white paper on the blackboard and each student gets a felt marker. No one talks and students volunteer to write with the marker what they think is the lesson of the story. They get extra credit for their entry. We then condense and combine ideas and come up with a manageable list that a student will copy and I will type up and make available the next day. They could then complete a graphic organizer on the lesson in the story, choosing the most significant ideas from the list the class came up with (left side), and finding sentences as evidence to back them up (right side).
Another question
that is effective whether students are preparing for the CAPT or simply making connections to the story is, "
With which events or character do you most
closely relate
?" It is, after all, the connections that we make, both conscious and unconscious, that often allow us to
own
a story we have read or seen in a film. Students may personally connect to an event or character in a story or they may think of someone they know who has had a similar experience, or they may be able to connect an event or character in the story with a character or event in another story. As students read short stories and watch films, they will always revisit those they have already
studied
, making connections with them as well as with their own experience and those of people they know.
They will keep the story and subsequent papers in their two pocket folders for reference. This may sound simplistic, but because many of my students have very little structure in their lives, structure is very important in the classroom. If we manage to complete these activities: (initial response to the story, conflict (and the presence of anxiety), character change, lesson, and making personal connections to the story), they will have concrete models and a good foundation. In our next story, a film, I will introduce storyboards to deepen analytical skills. All of these activities ultimately will be significant when they begin to plan their own stories.