Tom Sawyer

An Artifact

December 1, 2010

When I was a BTSA* mentor a few years ago, part of the assessment phase of the operation was the collection of what they call artifacts. These are pieces of evidence from the classroom for all the platitudes we spew on the forms. These would be things like quizzes and tests and project assignments, as well as student work in response to these things. I offer, for your consideration tonight, the following artifact. (You like that nod to Rod Serling?) I will withhold my comments, including my reasons for withholding my comments. However, I REALLY want to see what you have to say. REALLY. Just a bit of background: This was a test for an advanced 7th grade English class who had just finished Tom Sawyer. Seventh. Grade. They had one period in which to complete it. This is real. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Final Essay Exam Respond to ONE of the following prompts with a complete essay: 1) Reread Twain’s “Author’s Preface” and his “Conclusion.” How do these short pieces help a reader read the novel well? How do they serve as clues that might guide a reader toward a meaningful reading of the work, guide him or her away from

Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Tom Sawyer.

November 28, 2010

By mrC

I was thinking of not even teaching Tom Sawyer this year. It’s not in the “approved” reading list for the state, and our district head of curriculum wants to see it gone. It’s been getting tougher every year to get the kids through it, and a growing percentage just don’t. And right now the only reason I was thinking about Tom Sawyer at all was because it’s Sunday after another long weekend, and Mark Twain’s description of Tom’s attitude on Mondays captures my current feelings perfectly: “He generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious.” I had a two-day week, then a regular week, and then another two-day week. That means twelve days off out of twenty-one. I’m getting mighty lazy. I’ve spent more time working on my Christmas Parade bike float than thinking about school. But after that first quote, I got to thinking. (I know; dangerous…) Here’s Huck talking to Tom about how much he hates being rich, and wants Tom to take his share of the money, but maybe… “…gimme a ten-center sometimes — not many times becuz I don’t give

More Mailbag and a New Tom Sawyer Fan.

May 3, 2010

By mrC

I like responding to comments over here. It gives me a little more room to “spread myself” as Mark Twain would say. That reminds me. We’re almost finished with Tom Sawyer, and I think more kids than usual are actually enjoying it. I had one kid come up to me at the Open House for my boy’s school (this kid’s alma mater last year), clutching his copy of TS. He wanted to laugh and talk about the Tom taking Becky’s punishment scene. There were several things that were unusual about that exchange: 1. This boy is batting .480 in my class. (That’s 48% to you non-baseball people.) 2. He was three chapters ahead of the class. 3. He was getting most of MT’s irony, and about 80% of the language. 4. He said, and I quote because it will forever be seared into my brain, “I’m liking this book so much that I think I might buy it when we’re done reading it in class.” I said he could keep that copy of the book when we’re done. Our department has 350+ copies in various states lying around. I think we can spare one. Especially since our sister school, the

Picture Day (Part I)

April 21, 2010

By mrC

We’re sort of in the dog days of the school year. Instead of being hot and muggy though, it’s been wiiiiiiiindyyyyyyyy and cold, but there be laziness in the air for some reason. Maybe that’s why I’m so laggy on posting lately. The kids really haven’t been doing much of anything, and they’re rubbing off on me. We’re steaming through Tom Sawyer. This year I decided to increase the pace. I’m shooting for five weeks. Most years, with the vocabulary and the grammar pink sheets and spelling and all the rest we do along the way, I spend about seven weeks. We’re doing 2 chapters a night most nights and with the Moodle working nicely, things seem to be going better so far. Of course there is always a significant percentage who just don’t read it at home. At all. This year I’m trying to read a whole lot more of it out loud to them. “We understand it better when you read it. You act it out and explain it and stuff. Plus you read the dialog so we can tell what they’re saying.” “They do talk funny. And you mean you like my ‘acting’? I’m touched.” “We didn’t say that.

Your Inner Steamboat.

April 14, 2010

By mrC

Last night they read chapter two in Tom Sawyer, with the famous whitewashing scene. The “steamboat” kid was a topic of questions today. Ben Rogers is the first of Tom’s victims. “What was that two pages of noises? What is up with that kid…? “He was pretending to be a steamboat, you know, swinging his arms around like the big paddle wheels, and making all the bell and steam noises, and also pretending to be the captain giving all the orders.” I start “steaming” around the room to demonstrate, amid general laughter and such. The general feeling is that he’s a geek for acting like a little kid. One girl though, amid the laughter admits, “I still do stuff like that too.” A few others sheepishly admit to still doing some playacting and pretending. Then Big Joe strikes a professorial pose, stroking his chin, and says, “I’m sure we’ve all wanted to be a steamboat at one time or another.” Yes indeed. In another class they still thought he was being silly. “OK. It’s 1835 or 40. No electricity, no recorded music of any kind, no toys to speak of, not even running water in the house! Your town has maybe 200

“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class. We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony and Johnny to “hop the 3:15 freight to Windrixville.” We pause and talk about how it’s only been less than 36 hours (book time) since the beginning. They find it hard to believe until we start to do the timeline. Figure that Pony gets out of the movie in the late afternoon, and gets jumped and saved. Pony and Johnny and Dally go to the Nightly Double the next night, and it’s now 3:15am that same night. Then I make sure they know that a freight is a train. And one girl says, “How cute. Like hobos…” Hobos maybe. Cute? [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do? When the boys run to find Dally at Buck Merrill’s house, Pony offers a brief description of Buck that ends with, “…he was out of it. He dug [...]

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Tom Sawyer

An Artifact

Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Tom Sawyer.

More Mailbag and a New Tom Sawyer Fan.

Picture Day (Part I)

Your Inner Steamboat.

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“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

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