Lesson Overview 

Accompanying Presentation

There is a Power Point (also available as a PDF) that I created for Remote Teaching - but it will work well in the classroom too.  It has a little on the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company (that Mr. Smith worked for) and it has the instructions for the students for the class segment below where the students search for textual evidence on whether Mr. Smith tried to fly or kill himself.  There is also the painting by Breughel, "Icarus" that is talked about in class - as well the poem we did in the last lesson - "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert.

Overview

This last Opening Discussion of the year will be in the Ring Master Teacher style.   Though I sometimes assign the entire chapter to be read - we will only cover up through the opening Hospital Scene (page 15 in my book).  Before we begin our discussion in earnest - I introduce the students to the idea of an "overture" at a musical and we talk about what purpose that opening collage of songs plays in the rest of the performance.  Then we apply that right away (though the students don't know it) and go over that scene - and I ask the students what happens to Robert Smith (does he try to fly or is he commiting suicide).  Next I ask them to prove their assertion with text - and I give them time to find evidence for one or the other interpretations - then we discuss what they came up with - and anything else that is important in those first pages (the overture).

As I've said before - I want to give the students a "second" reading of this book on their first time.  It's not easy to do without giving anything away - but I do think that it got easier every year as I spotted more and more beautiful echoes (pre-echoes?) that Toni Morrison puts in front of the reader.  As always, for more detailed instructions, please see my Lesson Notes (found below), as long as you can read my handwriting.

Overtures

I begin the class by playing the Overture to the musical Oklahoma.  In fact, I start playing it while they are taking their quiz (see below).  After their quiz and after a good portion of the song - I ask the students "What is the purpose of an Overture?  What does it do?" See my lesson notes for more.  After I get some answers from the students, I play the song "People Will Say We're in Love" (also from Oklahoma).  Then I ask students - "Does it sound familiar?"  YES - they will answer.  "Why?"  Because it was incorporated into the Overture.  Then I tell them that these first 15 pages are an Overture to the Novel.  Since they've read the first chapter - many of them will already realize that the characters that they meet in this incident at the hospital - show up later in the book.  And in fact, though I do not point this out (it's so important they get these things on their own).  Many of the most important themes and ideas of the novel are also present in these first 15 pages (I actually have a Group Work at the end of this novel that has the students come back to these first pages AFTER they've finished the book).

Initial Discussion

• See my Lesson Notes (a PDF found below) for more - but some of the things I go over include:
  The Dedication
  The book's title
  The epigraph - wow!  This is so important for the rest of the book and the idea of "flying"
  The North Carolina Insurance company and Robert Smith - which leads us to...

Did Robert Smith try to fly or did he commit suicide 

As always when talking about this subject the teacher will need to be sensitive to their students.

So the question is, "Did Robert Smith try to actuallyl fly (as he says he will) in his letter - or is he giving up and killing himself when he leaps from the roof of Mercy Hospital (the name itself is crucial)? 

Ask the students to choose a side (Fly or Jump) and give them 5 minutes to find specific textual evidence from these first few pages to back up their interpretation.  Make sure they know they will need to mark their book and write down the page number so they can easily reference it.

When the time is up - start getting ideas from the students and their textual evidence to back it up.  As the teacher, it's important to make sure that both sides, both possibilities are explored.  That means you may have to be the Devil's Advocate here - or even better, when a student makes their case, ask the other students if someone can directly refute their evidence.  For instance, Student A may say that "Robert Smith definitely killed himself - he even left a suicide note."  Ask the class if anyone on the "other side" sees the note differently.  Someone should point out that the "Letter explicitly says that he will be flying away under his own volition."  My lesson notes contain some of the more common arguments for both sides.

REGARDLESS of how this discussion goes (usually it was 2 to 1 saying that he was killing himself) it is important to point out: "Why are we so biased against the idea of him actually trying to fly?  Try to forget this bias as you read the book. Allow the impossible"  This is so key in giving the students that "second reading" on their first try.

The Remaining Discussion

The finding evidence and discussing of Robert Smith's fate will take about 1/2 of the classtime.  With what is left, here are a few more points to be gone over (for a more complete list - see my handwritten Lesson Notes found below)

• What's the deal with "Not Dr. Street"?  How does that show the bias towards the African Americans in that area?

• Who is the street named after?

• What happens with the Red Petals?  How is this important to what happens?  To Mr. Smith?

• What is the song that the woman sings?  (SO IMPORTANT LATER)

• What happens while Mr. Smith is up on that roof?  Remember the painting of Icarus? (I've included the image down below - but the students have already looked at this painting and this poem during Candide.   The poem by W.H. Auden?

• How are the African Americans disrespected in the crowd? (One way is with the child correcting the nurse)

• We learn the young child's name who corrects the nurse - what is it?  (VERY IMPORTANT)

• What is the Hospital named?  How do the people view that name?  (Mercy - it is ironic - they show no Mercy)

• Why do They end up changing the rules on whom can be admitted? (because the woman goes into labor).

As I said, the lesson notes have these (along with page numbers) and many, many more ideas and things to talk about  (if you can read my writing)...