That carrot is huge
So, that carrot I was talking about…it’s this: If you finish that essay by the end of the day, or if you bring it in, complete, at the beginning of class on Monday, I will let you erase one grade from my gradebook.
For many of my students, this is a great opportunity — they get the chance to eradicate something that’s already missing; they can make it as though it never happened. If they choose the correct assignment, they can raise their grade two letters, and even if they have a pretty good grade, anything they take out lowers the mean (a little mathematics there) and brings up the overall grade.
I’ve never done anything like this, and I’m honestly excited to see just how many students take advantage of this. Let’s hope it works because we’re treating this essay as though it were the State Writing Assignment — something they’ve done each year, and which usually assesses one specific type of writing they’ve learned that year. The problem here is that we haven’t really talked about Literary Elements. We haven’t talked about how an author purposely builds a story. We haven’t taken the time to think about a story as a machine the author has built to work smoothly and effectively; we haven’t thought about stories as an artwork; we haven’t thought about the author as a construction worker.
And just writing this now leaves me thinking about the number of ways I could have taught this essay, and could have led the kids into the story.
The truth is that I was ignorant of our timeline and allowed the kids to get into another assignment, leaving us little time to do this more difficult work (and in less time).
We’ll assess the kids again later in the year, but that time the prompt will be different. Right now I’m thinking of all the ways I failed my students, and am thinking more about what I’ve done as a teacher as well as in my free time that’s led them astray.
This is one of those times I regret being a teacher — that I cannot go in and fix things before the kids come back. That I cannot give them a panacea to right all the wrongs I’ve borne.
As it stands, here is the information I’ve given them (but keep in mind, the list of literary elements below was supplied with definitions, as well as specific examples culled from the story and from class discussion.) Let’s hope they pull it off, because I’m feeling I failed them.
DUE MONDAY — OCTOBER 29!
The short story “Flowers for Algernon,” by Daniel Keyes, is about a mentally disabled man who undergoes an experimental operation to make him “smart.” Underlying this story are a number of themes about human life and personal interactions. Write an essay about one of the major themes you found in this story; explain how the author uses that theme to create a realistic character and a realistic story. Using at least three items from the list below, explain how the author weaves literary elements into his story to further strengthen the overall theme you discuss.
- Literary Elements List
- Characterization
- Mood
- Style
- Setting
- Structure
- Tone
Each of those elements makes this story stronger, but they also help teach the major theme of the story. Daniel Keyes wanted us to learn something from Flowers for Algernon, and we came up with a list of some of those themes:
- Mentally challenged people should be treated equally.
- You shouldn’t take advantage of people.
- Choose your friends carefully.
- Quick fixes might not be worth it.
- People aren’t who they appear to be on the surface.
- Be careful of who you become.
- Don’t pretend to be someone/something you’re not.
- Don’t further disable the disabled.
Your job is to pick one of those themes and teach it through three of those literary elements. Therefore, your paper should look like this:
Introduction Paragraph:Name the story, the author and give a brief description of what the story is about. Explain the major theme or themes Daniel Keyes taught us through his story. Make a list of at least three literary elements Keyes used to help us understand his story.
Body Paragraph #1: This paragraph should be about the first literary element from your list; explain how the author uses the writing skill to show us the theme. Explain what the element means, and give as many examples as you can think of to back it up.
Body Paragraph #2: Repeat, but with the second element from your list.
Body Paragraph #3: Repeat, but with the third element from your list.
Conclusion: In this last paragraph you need to remind me about the overall topic of your paper, and you need to revisit each of those three elements. Explain how Keyes’ use of these elements made it a better story — explain that he used those elements to better understand that theme. Explain what you’ve learned through the story.
Good luck!
Filed under: Previous Post, Questions, Reflection, Teaching, Writing, analysis, critical theory, essay, expository writing, students
That is a huge carrot! What a motivator!
Hey, Thanks for the encouragement! I’m totally keen on doing Honours though, pretty sure the teaching will have to take second place to that meanwhile.. Totally exciting!
Giving the kids a chance to redeem themselves by allowing them to erase a grade is a great idea. I was thinking about doing some thing like this for my class!
reinstate@freewill.com
As people begin to age the gods employ corrupting tactics. They ultimately begin to look down on the children and the wisdom they recently understood:::
They voluntarily turn their back on their opportunity to ascend and instead embrace evil.
It’s not old people who go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their lives. Children are the ones who have the opportunity to ascend.
Children are discounted by adults in society. The gods corrupt people as they age, use trust-building tactics and soon adults view the children as ignorant, yet to understand the god’s system, and subsequently look down on the children. This is one of the most bitter, painful ironies the gods employ, for people consciously turn their back on and lose their opportunity to ascend::::
Religions teach that old people to go to heaven when they die. They don’t. Old people are reincarnated. It’s the children who go to heaven, those who have a chance at immortality.
The wisdom the gods impart to children, either through their innocence/purity or religious-based educational pursuits are the gods sharing the truth with their most favored people::::It’s the children whom the gods teach the right way for it is the children who have a chance. For example, they teach children to have faith, for understanding the god’s geographical clues hurts people by illustrating negative things, opening the door for the god’s to employ deceptive tactics.
Old people don’t go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their lives. It’s the children who have the opportunity to go to “heaven”. They must behave apprioriately, think correctly and be genuinely god-fearing. Their innocence and lack of desensitization ensures they have a real opportunity to achieve this goal.
This is charecteristic of the gods methodology::::The big prize gone early, deception compels people to chase something that has already been decided. They sent this clue with boss as well. It is also a clue supporting my claim RW&B’s german is in fact Christianity’s Anti-Christ. Logic also dictates, considering the definition.
The confusion over this multi-dimentional positioning will serve as an effective tactic, eliminating many additional disfavored in the process, for positioning states the Apocalypse to be a continuation of WorldWarII’s Aryan superrace ideals, positioned as punishment for the 5th century invastion of the Roman Empire:::John’s Fourth Reich.
This amounts only to “nested theater”:::::Levels of positioning enables the gods to scapegoat:::::RW&B merely is the tool the gods chose to execute the final scene of their scripted theater that is human history.
Just as they would have had me chase boss so would they have wanted me to sign on to this theater, evil by definition, and chase this role of Anti-Christ. By doing so I would have incurred evil and would have been punished, painfully “losing” Anti-Christ in the process.
Does that mean RW&B is not the Anti-Christ?? I suspect as they would have “offered” it to me so will there be a fake Anti-Christ for those in these generations to accept as well. But it is a clone host. This is ALL clone host theater, created not as a clue to me but instead designed to be preditory on the disfavored, designed to increase indecency and further the god’s goal of justification towards The End.
We were all merely peasants centuries ago, struggling with our disfavor, but without the enormity of temptations, real and telepathic, which exist today.
They have shared I was positioned to some disfavored as the Second Coming of Christ, explaining all the evil surrounding me and RW&B’s placement in the “eye of The Beast” was to positon the sabotage of my candidacy (Damien Omen, Big Army Men, etc).
The Big Lie of course is that Christianity is evil. The reverse positioning nature of Planet Earth dictates that good is demonized, as we wintessed in World War II, while evil is put on a pedistal, as we see with the Italians.
The truth? The gods used their tools to create this and the rest of the incidents surrounding this Situation to distract the people from my message, for I speak the truth:::Only you can save you. You have to be responsible for your own relationship with the gods.
The gods are asexual. They have no sex organs nor rectums.
When the gods take children these individuals have the opportunity to become “god-like”. Temptations are employed and, if sucessful, these are the individuals who make up the human race’s immortals.
I believe there are opportunities that exist for females that do no exist for males. I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush but women’s “sexual peak” may represent the transistion to “sociological males” and their “fall from grace”. Considering today’s promiscuity I question whether this is currently applicable, and is yet anther 20th century-earlier phenominah.
I believe Purgatory is real. I think it is a temporary destination, perhaps sparsely utilized until the Apocalypse, but this will be the destination for those who “ascend” during the event. As they’ve said this planet will too be disposed of one day and it is imperative people try to avoid that destination, for there may be no escaping its fate.
reinstate@freewill.com
The gods convince Oakland pimps that chilldhood prostitution is OK - Learn from the lies they tell other groups!!! The gods are casting these individuals into Damnation!!!
As people begin to age the gods employ corrupting tactics. They ultimately begin to look down on the children and the wisdom they recently understood:::
They voluntarily turn their back on their opportunity to ascend and instead embrace evil.
It’s not old people who go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their lives. Children are the ones who have the opportunity to ascend.
Children are discounted by adults in society. The gods corrupt people as they age, use trust-building tactics and soon adults view the children as ignorant, yet to understand the god’s system, and subsequently look down on the children. This is one of the most bitter, painful ironies the gods employ, for people consciously turn their back on and lose their opportunity to ascend::::
Religions teach that old people to go to heaven when they die. They don’t. Old people are reincarnated. It’s the children who go to heaven, those who have a chance at immortality.
The wisdom the gods impart to children, either through their innocence/purity or religious-based educational pursuits are the gods sharing the truth with their most favored people::::It’s the children whom the gods teach the right way for it is the children who have a chance. For example, they teach children to have faith, for understanding the god’s geographical clues hurts people by illustrating negative things, opening the door for the god’s to employ deceptive tactics.
Old people don’t go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their lives. It’s the children who have the opportunity to go to “heaven”. They must behave apprioriately, think correctly and be genuinely god-fearing. Their innocence and lack of desensitization ensures they have a real opportunity to achieve this goal.
This is charecteristic of the gods methodology::::The big prize gone early, deception compels people to chase something that has already been decided. They sent this clue with boss as well. It is also a clue supporting my claim RW&B’s german is in fact Christianity’s Anti-Christ. Logic also dictates, considering the definition.
The confusion over this multi-dimentional positioning will serve as an effective tactic, eliminating many additional disfavored in the process, for positioning states the Apocalypse to be a continuation of WorldWarII’s Aryan superrace ideals, positioned as punishment for the 5th century invastion of the Roman Empire:::John’s Fourth Reich.
This amounts only to “nested theater”:::::Levels of positioning enables the gods to scapegoat:::::RW&B merely is the tool the gods chose to execute the final scene of their scripted theater that is human history.
Just as they would have had me chase boss so would they have wanted me to sign on to this theater, evil by definition, and chase this role of Anti-Christ. By doing so I would have incurred evil and would have been punished, painfully “losing” Anti-Christ in the process.
Does that mean RW&B is not the Anti-Christ?? I suspect as they would have “offered” it to me so will there be a fake Anti-Christ for those in these generations to accept as well. But it is a clone host. This is ALL clone host theater, created not as a clue to me but instead designed to be preditory on the disfavored, designed to increase indecency and further the god’s goal of justification towards The End.
We were all merely peasants centuries ago, struggling with our disfavor, but without the enormity of temptations, real and telepathic, which exist today.
They have shared I was positioned to some disfavored as the Second Coming of Christ, explaining all the evil surrounding me and RW&B’s placement in the “eye of The Beast” was to positon the sabotage of my candidacy (Damien Omen, Big Army Men, etc).
The Big Lie of course is that Christianity is evil. The reverse positioning nature of Planet Earth dictates that good is demonized, as we wintessed in World War II, while evil is put on a pedistal, as we see with the Italians.
The truth? The gods used their tools to create this and the rest of the incidents surrounding this Situation to distract the people from my message, for I speak the truth:::Only you can save you. You have to be responsible for your own relationship with the gods.
The gods are asexual. They have no sex organs nor rectums.
When the gods take children these individuals have the opportunity to become “god-like”. Temptations are employed and, if sucessful, these are the individuals who make up the human race’s immortals.
I believe there are opportunities that exist for females that do no exist for males. I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush but women’s “sexual peak” may represent the transistion to “sociological males” and their “fall from grace”. Considering today’s promiscuity I question whether this is currently applicable, and is yet anther 20th century-earlier phenominah.
I believe Purgatory is real. I think it is a temporary destination, perhaps sparsely utilized until the Apocalypse, but this will be the destination for those who “ascend” during the event. As they’ve said this planet will too be disposed of one day and it is imperative people try to avoid that destination, for there may be no escaping its fate.