Stories around the World in Film

Strategy Three (Future)

Again taking its cue from film studies and segmentation, this lesson is built on the idea that narratives, in both literature and film, keep readers/viewers engaged by either denying their expectations or fulfilling them in unexpected ways. Thus the reader/viewer, having seen "A" expects and receives "B." This leads to an expectation of "C" but instead they get "D." This both confounds, though not overwhelmingly so, and also tantalizes; it keeps the reader/viewer guessing and slightly unsure of what will happen. This is part of the appeal of narratives, they attempt to keep us slightly unsettled and curious as to what comes next. These parts of the narrative, the "A", "B", "D" and so on, can be thought of as segments but they can also be thought of as lines in a poem. As each line is read, the poet has made deliberate choices about what is to come next, even down to the word that starts the next line. In this fashion, non-narrative poems can also be said to be working with reader expectation. Because an examination of how a story or poem plays with our expectations of conventions will inevitably lead us to a closer study of the text itself and its component parts, a lesson of this sort can be of benefit in an AP English classroom. It will lead to various written assignments and discussions that will range from the text itself to the function and work of narratives in our culture.

Lesson Three Methodology

This lesson is designed to work with either short stories or poems. It could be used for a section of novel, especially if the novel were written in the form of vignettes and you could use just one chapter, but to try this on an entire novel would be rather unwieldy for a classroom. This lesson's power stems from the understanding that a text can be broken down into smaller parts and that these smaller parts work towards creating larger effects and understanding. One of the jobs of these smaller segments is to create expectations and then delay the gratification of those expectations. If you are going to do this with a short story, then you should read it in advance and break it into smaller units. These units should be relatively short but long enough so that the reader's expectations are built up but not answered. The next segment should provide the fulfillment of the previous expectation and then work to build up a new one. If you are going to use a poem, then I recommend that you use each line as a segment.

Choose a work, a short story or poem that hopefully all of the students will be unfamiliar with. Because the text's unfamiliarity is important this is a good exercise to use with poetry that your students may initially perceive as difficult. If you choose a story from your textbook, then make sure that you have already decided where the breaks are going to be before reading. They will need to close their books periodically as you have them work through the written components of this lesson. If you are doing this with a poem, then it is best to project the poem onto a screen one line at a time. The students should not be looking at a copy of the poem in their books while they work through this. The lesson depends on their working only with limited amounts of information.

If it is possible as you work through the text to read it aloud, then that would be optimal. Often the very vocalization of the text will betray expectations on the part of the reader and these 'predictions' can provoke valuable discussions. At each pause point ask the students to write out what they think is coming next, what they expect to happen or be told. They need to provide as much detail as possible with regard to their expectations without going overboard (give them just 4-6 minutes). They need to then justify their expectation in writing immediately below their prediction. This also needs to be as in-depth as possible focussing on questions such as: What has come prior to this that justifies that prediction? What has been revealed about the characters, narrator, authorial persona, action, etc. that suggests their expectation? They need to point to specific things in the previous text that brought their expectations to bear.

After each pause and their written response, you will want to discuss the options they have brought up. What is usually revealed is that many of the students will be close in their expectations of what comes next. This is a great place to discuss the nature of narratives and how we are set up for certain things. It also lends itself to a discussion of how culture and ideology work to shape our expectations. This is also a good spot to head off any budding 'surrealists' who think that any random prediction is an acceptable answer in an AP classroom. However instead of just shutting down that student and moving on, it is worth the trouble to discuss why some of those outlandish responses will not work. On the one hand, it is entirely possible that Father Christmas could ride in on a sleigh and save Miss Emily Grierson from the townspeople in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," and yet, on the other hand it is not really possible at all. The conventions surrounding a Southern gothic short story by Faulkner prohibit precisely this kind of intervention and if there had been that kind of intervention into her life then you would not be reading it in an AP English class. You might not even be reading Faulkner at all. The reasons behind these kind of narrative constrictions are worth talking about, especially since they will take the discussion into the realms of narrative, culture, and ideology to a certain degree. In the academic classroom, certain kinds of texts will get read and others will not. How these decisions are made and who makes them and for what reasons reveal much about the nature of the ideology that drives our culture's schools. If you have this discussion though, do remember that there is still a text to be finished. Ideology waits for no one.

Continue going through the text in these discrete pieces until you are done. Having gone through an entire text this way, the students can now look back over their notes and examine how their expectations were shaped, met, or left unfulfilled. This is a good place for a written response, perhaps one less academic and more reflective in nature where they can do some self-analysis as to why they expected certain things to happen and what the author did to surprise or disappoint them and why that was the case. You may want to follow that up with a more academic assignment, one that asks the students to examine the nature of narrative and how poems or stories can either constrain interpretation or open it up by their very structure.

Lesson Plan Three

Goal: to develop the students' abilities to read a text closely and analyze how it uses narrative conventions to establish reader expectations.

Objectives: As a result of this lesson students will be able to:

1. Closely analyze how the narrative elements of a text (point of view, character, authorial persona, diction, syntax, etc.) work together to control a reader's interpretation,
2. Write a reflective essay on how they understand narratives to work in literature as well as in the culture they inhabit.

Student materials: pen, paper, textbook

Teacher materials: textbook, markers, board, screen, means to project the poem on the screen (overhead, computer with LCD projector)

Procedure:

1. Choose a short story or poem that the students are unfamiliar with from your textbook. Read it in advance and divide it into small segments based on how the text establishes reader expectation. If you are choosing a poem, it is better if the students can not see the poem immediately. You can either read it to them or place it on a screen in such a fashion that they can only see one line at a time. If it is a short story from the textbook, then they will need to close the book at specific points so that they will not read ahead.
2. At each pause, ask the students to write out what they think is coming next, what do they expect to happen or be told. They need to provide as much detail as possible.
3. Immediately following that they should provide the justification for their prediction.
4. After each pause and their written response, discuss the options they have brought up.
5. Having gone through an entire text this way, the students can now look back over their notes and examine how their expectations were shaped, met, or left unfulfilled. This is a good place for a written response, perhaps one less academic and more personal in nature where they can do some self-analysis as to why they expected certain things to happen and what the author did to surprise or disappoint them and why that was the case.