UNIT 10 “Keep Class 2 under Your Thumb” I. General Understanding of the Text The text is a short narrative piece of writing which vividly and amusingly relates how a young inexperienced stand-in teacher attempts to control a class that has frightened away a succession of substitutes for their own teachers. The writer is particularly successful in his effective use of comic exaggeration. The narrative is convincing due to the writer’s keen observation of the behavior of a young and inexperienced teacher when his authority is threatened. 1. The various ways in which comic exaggeration is achieved: (1) The use of vivid similes A simile is a direct comparison of one thing to another by using the word like or as. Examples: To make this clear, he showed me his own thumb, a huge thing, like a pocket cudgel. There was, for a time, pandemonium, like a big scene in an opera being played backwards on a gramophone. (2) The use of appropriate metaphors A metaphor is an expression which describes one thing in terms of another thing with which it can be compared without using the word like or as. Examples: I was inwardly all white flag. I managed to make out that mixed up with these giants was a certain amount of furniture. … individual desks; doll’s house things that rested on mountainous knees and swayed from side to side. (3) The use of striking contrast One thing is put in sharp contrast with another so that a strong effect is produced. Examples: Enormous boys were everywhere, … Was I really so puny… (The writer makes a contrast between the enormous boys and the puny teacher having a small thumb.) …mixed up with these giants was a certain amount of furniture…desks; doll’s house things… (A contrast is made between the big boys and their small desks.) It struck me that I had in my briefcase a book on Chaucer. “Cor! The Bible,” said the voice. (By making a sharp contrast between a book on Chaucer and the Bible, we know these boys were physically giants but intellectually dwarfs.) (4) The use of parallelisms to intensify the meaning Examples: … a succession of startled substitutes had stood before them, ducked, winced and fled. I was toying inwardly with ideas of thunderbolts, earthquakes, and mass executions. (5) The use of vocabulary which emphasizes not the normal order in a classroom but that of fighting and war. Examples: Cudgel, duck, wince, flee, mass, execution, white flag, chase, a strange rain 2. An excellent description of a situation which is totally out of control: (1) The writer describes the young teacher’s sense of inadequacy in the face of the threat coming from his pupils to show the reader that he certainly could not keep what he could not define or understand under control. Examples: Enormous boys were everywhere, doing indefensible things. I can’t recall much in particular what they were doing, … these improprieties couldn’t be nailed down. (2) The writer successfully portrays a scene that met the eye of the teacher when he first entered the classroom to emphasize how totally out of control everything was in the classroom. Furniture seemed to have an active life of its own, chalk seemed to be flying in the air. Strange things happened and normal life was suspended. Examples: …individual desks; doll’s house things that rested on mountainous knees and swayed from side to side. The air was full of pieces of chalk, a strange rain of it. (3) The write vividly depicts how the giants reacted to the teacher’s assertion of authority and how the teacher himself felt. A graphic account is given of how the boys first ignored the teacher, then challenged him to keep order; then laughed at him; then raised a din; and finally mocked him when he took out his book on Chaucer. The young teacher was insufficiently assertive in mood; too self-effacing in manner, and completely lacking in self-confidence. Examples: I was, inwardly, all white flag. …crept through the door. Was I really so puny, so ineffective? 3. A keen observation of the behavior of a young, weak, inexperienced teacher: (1) Avoiding telling off the boy who was illegally running in the hall. (2) Creeping through the door of the classroom (3) Being in a placatory mood. (4) Being ineffectually angry and speaking with a fatal note of pleading in his voice. (5) Issuing threads which were impossible to fulfill. (6) Shouting at the students instead of using a quiet, controlled, but firm voice. (7) Trying to shout above the noise when the class was in chaos. II. Duration of Time: Six periods III. Objectives On completion of the unit, students are expected to understand the exclusive comic exaggeration employed by the writer in the short story, and the rhetorical and stylistic devices as well. IV. Difficult Points The key point in the short story is the use of comic exaggeration which is achieved by the following devices: 1. simile 2. metaphor 3. striking contrast 4. parallelism 5. the use of vocabulary to emphasize not the normal chaos in a classroom but that of fighting or war V. Teaching Procedures A. Bring out the topic of keeping discipline in the classroom by asking students about their view about how both students and teachers should behave. B. Ask students to guess the main idea of the text, then tell them to go over the text rapidly once without worrying about the new words and phrases. The suggested time limit is 5 minutes. Ask students to do the comprehension exercises on pages 123-124. The key to these questions: A. D. C. C. B. D. C. C. C. D. C. Ask students to do comprehension exercise in Workbook. D. Do the vocabulary exercise on pages 121-122. Key: Section A: c. g. f. h. b. a. d. e. Section B: 1. move back suddenly; 2. against the rules and regulations of the school; 3. move slowly and quietly; 4. inexcusable; 5. wishing to do harm, viciously; 6. small and weak; 7. putting a lot of people to death; 8. lazily, sleepily; 9. person who pretends to be somebody he is not; 10. correct or suitable for a particular situation or occasion. E. Details of the text. (1) keep Class 2 under your thumb: keep Class 2 under your control, or control Class 2 (2) cudgel: a short thick heavy stick (3) be engrossed in: concentrate on (reading) (4) succession: the act of following one after another a: a succession of something: a number of people or things following each other closely i.e. A succession of visitors come to Western China. b. in succession: continuously i.e. The days followed each other in quick / close succession and still no news came. It happened four times in succession. (5) startle: shock unexpectedly (6) substitute: n. people who takes the place of somebody else. In the text, substitute means the stand-in teacher (7) duck: lower one’s head due to loss of confidence or courage (8) wince: move back because of fear or for lack of courage (9) it was plain…(line 6): it was clear, easy to see I was a plain impostor (line 40): nothing less than, out-and-out, downright (10) they had got nowhere: they had not made any progress (11) take them for nearly everything: teach them everything (12) illegally: literally means unlawfully, whereas in the text it means against the rules and regulations of the school (13) placatory: not feeling angry Placate: cause someone not to feel angry, appease (14) all white flag: this is typical of metaphor which means I surrender. (15) studious: fond of studying (16) impropriety: improper behavior (17) nail down: literally fix something firmly, here it means settle or deal with a matter successfully (18) male out: understand (19) negligently: carelessly, neglectful (20) crash to the floor: fall and break on the floor (21) feel invisible: feel that nobody paid any attention to me (22) indignation: anger because of something unjust or unfair indignant adj. (23) mount: increase, intensify (24) puny: small and weak (24) note: tone, the tone of speaking (25) in cold blood: when I calmed down (26) indolently: lazily (27) to the core: extremely, thoroughly, completely (28) it was beyond me: it was beyond my control (29) I hadn’t the manner: I lost my proper way of behavior. The Chinese equivalent is “我失态了”。 (30) pandemonium: scene of wild and noisy disorder (31) brawl: noisy quarrel or fight (32) It struck me that…: it occurred to me that…; or I suddenly realized that… It struck me that I lost my key. VI. Oral Work A. Role-play: Arguing about examinations Situation: George and Robert hold very different views on examinations. George thinks that examinations should be abolished, while Robert believes that examinations are a necessary means by which a teacher finds out how much progress his/her students are making. B. Interaction Activities: On School Discipline VI. Exercises in Workbook.