Classroom Activities
As for the nitty gritty of implementing the unit on a day-to-day basis, the following will give three exemplary moments.
First Lesson
Objectives: Students will go over what can be expected when we say a story is a mystery: a protagonist who will, over the course of the plot, solve a seemingly insoluble crime before the actual ending of the mystery. Students will examine the tone of the first scene, focusing on the humorous aspects of it.
Having taken care of the distribution of the reading schedule, the learning packets, and the assigning of topics, and having taken care to make sure that everyone understands what's going on, I'll begin the first lesson by talking about the characteristics of a mystery and how the "mystery morphology" template can be used to plot the development of the mystery. Then we'll go over the first scene in the book, when Walt reads to a group of pre-school children. I'll first of all ask whether anyone found any aspect of the scene humorous. What is humorous in the scene is of course the remarks by the children during the reading of the two folktales. We can discuss the element of tone in this mystery as we first experience in the opening scene. I'll ask students to talk about what they have found humorous in this scene. Students can present the first topics which are the two folktales, "Brier Rose" and "Sleeping Beauty". The class will discuss these stories and leave open whether they are merely random selections by the writer or whether the reader should be ready for further resonances later in the story. Students would also begin the character analysis sheets by noting down traits belonging to Walt Longmire, Cady Longmire, and Henry Standing Bear.
Lesson Two
Class can begin on this day with the presentation of papers. The city of Philadelphia itself would be the first topic. Students then would be able to discuss the aspects of the city brought up in their own presentations while the presenting student answered questions. Students then would view the large map of the city meant for classroom use. In an attempt to familiarize them with the city as well as to find out what they know, I would call on various students to come up to the map and put pushpins in named parts of the city. The New York Times for Friday, July 27, 2007 describes mapmaking tools available on the web by which a user can create a customized map. Links to these mapmaking tools are at nytimes.com/tech and will prove indispensable to following the setting of this mystery. We can now begin the discussion of the assigned reading, in which Walt and Henry arrive in Philadelphia. We would go over the guide questions and discuss the problems or issues they cover.
Lesson Three
Students will pursue the development of the plot and see how the succession of episodes mirrors the usual progression of a mystery
The next topic would be the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where Walt and Henry stop when they arrive in the city. After the student presentation and question-and-answer session, students would view a virtual tour of the Academy and then discuss any issues raised by the student's presentation and the virtual tour. Students would then continue their character analyses, adding to the list Lena Moretti, who is the mother of Walt's deputy, a young woman who for the moment is still back in Wyoming. Students will also mark on their maps where in Old City Cady's apartment is because that is where Walt will be staying. The pleasant atmosphere of Walt and Lena's enjoyable evening is suddenly shattered by the news that "There's been an accident" (Johnson 39). Students will now be able to fill in the mystery template. Now is the time when the happy setting is interrupted by the news that Cady, Walt's daughter, lies in a coma at the Trauma Center of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Students would then describe the scene which is disturbed by this news.
Lesson Four
Objectives: Students will see how the author has reinforced his purpose in this mystery by using seemingly irrelevant details
Because this is a crucial time in the novel, the whole period will be devoted to explicating the story. First the students must plot on their own maps where the setting moves to. Cady lies in a coma. When the students have arrived at a definition of a coma, we will return to the very beginning of the mystery and talk about the stories that Walt was reading to the children, namely "Brier Rose" and "Sleeping Beauty". At this point we may be able to discover why the author decided to use these two stories in the very beginning of this novel. He obviously meant them to be fairy tale evocations of a coma.
This effort to examine the author's use of these stories is a continuation of my efforts to show something about the craft of narrative writing, to bring home to my students that a writer is not from outer space, but is a thinking, feeling human being just like us.
The reader now learns that Cady's coma is not the result of an accident, but that a witness heard Cady and a "male, Caucasian, approximately mid-thirties" (Johnson 43) arguing at the Franklin Institute where she has been found. Students will add to their description of Devon Conliffe. The second part of the mystery template can now be filled in, keeping in mind that this crime is not the only one, nor yet the pivotal one which puts Walt and Henry in the center of a maelstrom of violence. The large map will be used to indicate the scene of the crime and the location of the other places named so far.
Evaluation
Evaluation of students' performances will be an easy task. Frequent quizzes will give me a good idea of how much of the reading they comprehended. Their reports on the story-related subjects will give me a measure of their writing and speaking ability. Their responses to the guide questions will tell me how involved students were in keeping up with the daily reading. The quality of their mapping and the accuracy of their graphic organizers will give me a measure of the quality of students' higher- order thinking ability. Does the student understand the normal elements that go into the plot of a mystery? Can the student evaluate how closely Kindness Goes Unpunished fits that template? Has the student grasped the idea of what makes something humorous? Can the student understand how the writer has manipulated his plot to keep the reader interested and misled, when necessary, by red herring clues? Does the student understand how the writer gives the reader an idea of what type of people his characters are? Finally, can the student see how all of the elements of a mystery conspire to keep the reader guessing while at the same time these elements serve the ultimate purpose of the writer? The quality of work in students' packets will give me a fair way to measure how well students have answered these curriculum-based questions.
All of these activities will hopefully lead students to surmount their usual apathy and become eager and competent readers. For some it will be still too much to ask, but I think for a significant number of formerly unwilling students, this unit will be the stimulus needed to prod them to become what English teachers hope all students will become: readers.
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