“Discovering Emotions
and Thoughts through the Use of Inflected and Stressed Words”
WHAT’S ON FOR TODAY AND WHY:
Today, students will explore the language and emotions the characters use when they “discover” that Margaret is dead. Students will be able to understand the initial shock of realizing that a family member is permanently gone. They will be able to follow Nico through a journey on how she faces that shock, and how she begins to learn to live with the emptiness inside and around her. Students will also “discover” the subtext and inflections embedded in the passages throughout chapters two and three. As a class we will discuss loss and grief, and how one copes with it. In their journals, students will be asked to free write about a loss they have experienced and how they have managed to deal with it. It can be a loss of a boyfriend or girlfriend this will help them connect Nico’s tragedy to that of their own life experiences. Students will be given an exercise on subtext. Understanding the subtext (thoughts that we imagine the characters to have as they speak) affects the actor’s interpretation of a role and enhances student’s ability to read the character’s lines. For example, in chapter three, Nico claims that her heart hurts. Her parents say “your heart? your actual heart?” This has an inflection and underlying meaning. It could be that Nico is really experiencing physical heartache, but she could also be suffering a type of emotional heartache one has when something tragic has occurred. The inflection in a specific word can have a different meaning all together. If we inflect on your, then maybe it’s not just Nico that’s having a heartache, but everyone else in the family. “It’s not just your heart; it’s everyone else’s as well.” To determine subtext, students need to consider:
· the context of the lines (the conversation that is taking place between the parents and Nico during dinner, about Nico having a pain)
· what the character wants in this particular chapter(Nico wants her sister back and is suffering from the loss, so in her mind she begins to think that there is something wrong with her as well)
· what the character’s ultimate objective is (to show that she is suffering and in pain)
· what obstacles prevent the character from attaining his goals(the fact that Margaret has passed away, and will never come back into their lives, she needs to learn how to cope with grief. However, Nico does not know how to)
Acting and memorizing requires active comprehension and oral interpretation of the text. Students will practice their oral skills in inflection exercises and thinking skills in subtext exercises.
WHAT TO DO:
Students will sit in groups of five and listen to the teacher. The teacher will write the following sentence on the board:
“I’m glad you’re here this evening.”
The teacher will then ask students as a whole class what this sentence means. After a brief discussion, the teacher will ask six students to read the line, stressing a different word each time:
· With I’m the subtext becomes “even though nobody else is.”
· Glad indicated that you haven’t always felt this way.
· You’re makes the subtext “Frankly, the others bore me.”
· Here implies “It’s so reassuring to see you right here.”
· With evening the subtext becomes “This is much better than any other time of day.”
Now, students will be asked to do this with a line from Goldengrove, in chapter three, page 43 with the line “They’d brought their own weather inside, the way that people carry winter into a warm room.”
· Stressing They’d shows that the parents are also having a hard time coping
· Stressing Brought shows that they can’t help leaving their emotions outside, they must bring them to the “table.”
· And so forth.
Students will be introduced to subtext and the teacher will convey information based on “What’s On for Today.”
Next, students will practice inflection exercises. Teacher will explain that depending on which word or phrase our voice goes up or down influences the oral interpretation of the written word. Two students will be asked to say “Joe didn’t steal the book, did he?” One student’s voice should go up on the “did he” part, while the other student should quietly say “did he.” Ask the students what is implied about Joe by each speaker. Randomly, students will be chosen to receive five index cards with the following subtext: “I don’t believe it,” “How lovely!,” “ So what?,” “Look out!,” and “Don’t be so rude!.” The students with the index card will be asked to say “Oh!” according to what their subtext encourages them to do. The rest of the class will guess the subtext. Students will be asked to do the same thing with the word “Well” to express confusion, contempt, sorrow, love.
Students will then be asked to go into groups of five to explore chapters two and three by practicing this exercise. I will ask them to close read the passages in the beginning of chapter two, from pages 21-23, when they are searching for Margaret, and then close read the passages in the beginning of chapter three, from pages 35-37, when Nico faces the fact that Margaret is no longer around. First, the teacher informs the students that they must identify the objective of each character, and then add stress and inflection to reflect the subtext. Students will discuss in their groups their interpretations of these passages and what they think the characters inner thoughts really are. The teacher will walk around the room to answer any questions and make sure that the students are staying on task.
For homework, students will be asked to read chapters four through six. Students will also be required to sign on to voxopop.com, join, and search for a discussion group that is called Goldengrove, 10th grade English. Students will be required to post one voice comment exploring some of the following ideas: How does Nico cope with the loss of her sister? Reference specific pages from the text that depict Nico is suffering, and what are some of her strategies for coping? How do her parents cope with the loss? What is happening to their family? What are some of the ways Aaron’s parents think is a good way to cope with the loss? How would you cope with the loss of a loved one? Students will be instructed to keep the comments under 3 minutes and to make sure they synthesize all the chapters they have read prior to this. They must analyze and close read the text to explore some of these ideas.
HOW DID IT GO?
Did students participate in the subtext exercises? Did they pick up the ideas of meaning as related to inflection? Could they change implication by changing diction? Could they “read” implication in another student’s diction? If they could do all of the following then they are doing work that which is of an aspiring actor. Actors constantly use inflection and subtext to stress meaning. By doing all of the above exercises, students understand irony. How people may hold two conflicting thoughts in their mind, while literally only applying one.
