Stories & Activities for the End of the Year
"There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story." Frank Herbert
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I love my Juniors (British Literature) but boy oh boy is it ever hard to say goodbye to my Seniors. Maybe, it had something to do with the fact that I knew I'd be seeing many of my Juniors the following year in this World Literature Class - or at least when they came around to ask me for a reccomendation. But most of all it had to do with the journey that we had taken together during the year. For the longest time this class earned Regular Credit - though as the students constantly reminded me - it was as hard as an AP Class. Well, I hope the rewards was commiserate with the amount of work that they put in. I know that it was for me. These final stories and activities were designed to bring some amount of clousure to the class. From Ring Lardner's "Haircut", through the incredible late discovered "Dance in America" to Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus" which asks the question - "Just why do we go through this struggle every day?". Like I said in our very first lesson - maybe we won't know what "Truth" is at the end of the year - but perhaps we will all be a little closer to knowing.
Off the Top - "Haircut" by Ring Lardner: So why begin the final "round" with this story about a town bully who ultimately get his comeuppance? Well, the simplest answer is that this text used to be at the beginning of the year - originally in a short Unit on Justice (along with "The Jar" and "Counterparts"), and I didn't get to it one year - and I didn't want to skip it - so here it is. But it really is a great way to begin our last few stories. First, it grabs the students' attention. And it poses some great questions for High School Seniors to ponder as they're about to head off into the world on their own. Finally, it's linked back to our lessons on Hemingway, Bullying, Truth, and more. It is a perfect story to spend an hour talking about with these wonderful people who were my students. I always did this as a Ringmaster Teacher Discussion.
Indignities - "Counterparts" by James Joyce: Except for one year, I always did this as a Ringmaster Teacher Discussion. Perhaps, I was coveting the time that I got to spend with my seniors before they went on their way. One more chance for us (and the Literature) to have an impact upon each other. This is a powerful, gut-wrenching story about what today we would call "displacement" or "projection." The idea that when we are belittled or put down - we take that humiliation out on those who are "below us" - or, in other words, those that we can get away with doing it to. Though it is set 100 years ago in far away Dublin - I don't think that I ever had a single student who was not moved or impacted by this story. After we discuss it, I play the 10,000 Maniacs song, "What's the Matter Here" - and the students follow along and if we have time we connect the song to the story - and to everything else that we've read and can think of.
This lesson was designed for my Senior Final Exam - the students listen (and watch when available) three commencement addresses. The first is by George Saunders ("Failures of Kindness"), the second is by Nobel Prize Author, Toni Morrison, and the third (and my favorite) is by David Foster Wallace ("This is Water"). There are handouts for the students to take notes as they listen - though you can easily modify the handout (there are Word & PDF flavors) for whatever you want - I designed it so they can take notes on ideas, thoughts, and texts that are linked to something that we've studied throughout the year (novels, stories, poems, etc.). I give them a reminder list of some of those things we've done - and, of course, this too could be easily modified by you to what you've done throughout the school years. The commencement speeches are incredible - to my mind, some of the best ever done - and in addition to reminding students about what we did this year - all three of them of remind us of what it means to be human.
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