The Sub of Last Resort

I like to call myself The Sub of Last Resort because I'll likely wind up working in every elementary and middle school classroom over the course of the year when we're unable to get subs in time. Today, because of a last minute snafu that kept Rebecca at home, I was lucky enough to get to return to my roots and teach 7th and 8th grade Humanities. I had about 20 minutes to prepare a lesson, so I combined something familiar with something new: a close reading and conversation about The Unicorn in the Garden by James Thurber, with a character development activity.

After reading the story, I asked the group if they liked the Wife character. They answered with a resounding no, citing her cruel looks, language, and many actions towards her husband (such as her conniving attempt to have him committed to a mental institution), not to mention her disbelief in the existence of the mythical Unicorn. Then I asked if they liked the Husband character, which elicited a more complicated response: while they liked that he tried -- twice -- to share the Unicorn with his wife, he lied to police and ultimately chose to undermine her. This was followed by conversations about the evocative and powerful language in the story (the Unicorn browsing and cropping, the man's high heart on a shining morning, etc), and the ways in which the story mimics a fairy tale (once up on a time, happily ever after, sleeping woman, mythical creature, etc). And then I gave them a brief background on Thurber, and the unfortunate issue of misogyny in his writings.

This was followed by a character construction activity. First came basic facts: age, name, gender, location. Second came issues of the heart: desires, fears, and secrets. Third came important details about the character's life. After working as a whole class to generate a character, I asked students to create their own characters, using this template. 7th grade students were required to set their locations as Ancient Greece, since that's what they have been studying lately in Humanities class. And, as the 8th grade class was 70 minutes compared to the 50 minute lengths of the 7th grade, I actually began that class with a reading and discussion of another Thurber story -- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- that is slightly longer, and parallel to the other story in several ways, including the two main characters of a husband protagonist and a wife antagonist.

Rebecca will be out again tomorrow, so I've created a lesson for the students to write from, and in, the perspective of the characters they have created - performances of understanding that are grounded in critical thinking, creative thinking and discipline understanding. There are four options:

1. Write a very short story in which your character is the protagonist. By short, I mean no longer than one typed page in length. The story should somehow involve one of his/her DESIRES or FEARS.

2. Write a letter from your character to someone else – a friend, a relative, a teacher, a classmate, or even a famous person (fan letter) in which s/he discusses one of his/her DESIRES or FEARS. Pay special attention to the language that your character uses – try to make it realistic to who that person is.

3. Sometimes people make sense of their experiences through poetry. Write a poem about one of the DESIRES or FEARS from your character’s perspective. Again, pay special attention to the language that your character uses – try to make it realistic to who that person is.

4. Imagine that your character has been threatened with having his/her SECRET revealed to the world. In response, s/he has KIDNAPPED someone involved in this plot. Write the ransom note that your character uses to try to prevent the secret from being told.