December 13

ELA 20: Dec 13

  1. We finished the few questions on yesterday’s last poem, “Imprints.”

    In our unit on Anticipation: perspectives and passages, we’re looking at the perspective of parents in trying to protect and raise their children well.

    Can parents protect their children from harm?

  2. We read, paraphrased, analyzed and answers questions on the poems “The Man Who Finds That His Son Has Become a Thief” and “The World Is a Beautiful Place.”
  3. Through reading these two poems, we focused on the transitions in tone throughout the writing. It shows the slow progression of the author’s (father or world observer) emotions with their topic of discussion.
  4. I shared a few personal stories with the students that have meaning to me in relation to these poems. One was the story of a childhood friend of mine who had a very similar upbrining and supportive and caring home who ended dropping out of high school, getting involved with the wrong group of guys in Saskatoon and eventually participating in a shooting/robbing of a gun shop. He ended up in the Prison in Prince Albert and I retold to the students his mother’s frustration and hopelessness as she shared with my family, after one visit to see him, that he had been sexual assaulted several times in prison. He made choices in his life and she was unable to protect him from that kind of life.
    Also, another family close to my own struggled as their youngest son was consumed with an addiction to drugs. There came a point when they went away on vacation and had me house sit because they didn’t trust their son to not ‘break into’ their home to steal from them and pawn objects to get more money for drugs. This friend of mine pawned off his snowboard, all his cds, his Oakley sunglasses, everything to fund his addiction. I told the kids, though, that I recently was back home for a visit and was sitting behind a man with broad shoulders in church and didn’t recognize who this person was. I thought he must be a new person in the church. His son was crawling over his shoulder making faces at me. It finally dawned on me that this man in front of me, with his little son, was that very boy I used to know who was so messed up. He’s clean, he’s married, has a child and one on the way and has gotten his life on track. It’s nice to see that ‘sometimes’ parents can be rewarded for their patience in having faith in their children, despite the lack of appreciation those children may sometimes display.
  5. Sam T was quite excited by the second poem we studied, “The World is a Beautiful Place” and I promised her I would post her favorite part of the poem that made her giggle while we were reading. The author goes on to speak about the irony of how great the world can seem if you’re on the receiving end of it’s bounty and not on the poorer end of the wars, starvation, death and hoplessness that exists. He then turns his attention the carefree attitudes so many people have when appreciating their wonderful lives when they’re “even thinking / and kissing people and / making babies and wearing pants / and waving hats and / dancing/ and going swimming in rivers / on picnics/ in the middle of the summer / and just generally/ ‘living it up’ / Yes / but then right in the middle of it / comes the smiling / mortician.”  (Kyron M pointed out for us a question: Why does the mortician come in the ‘middle’? Middle of what? Good question, Kyron!


Posted December 13, 2006 by Waldner in category ELA 20

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