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As St. Valentine’s Day approaches, we thought we’d take a slight detour from the norm. In lieu of presenting such heartfelt works as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) or the romantic tale of Jane Eyre and Rochester, we have opted to showcase a partial eclipse of the heart that is more challenging and often unrequited, and that is the aspect of love we call longing.
As adults, we know that adolescence can be as confusing a time as it is exciting. Young love is seldom as simple as “boy meets girl, boy woos girl, they live happily ever after.” A teen’s first kiss can be eye-opening, awkward, amazing, frightening, hopeful … the list of battling emotions is infinite. During the roller-coaster ride of self-discovery and romanticism, young adults can lose themselves in the melee. It is a time often filled with an undeveloped intensity so powerful that it has the ability to overshadow all other things. That is where our story begins.
The tales we share in this issue are not meant to be preachy. We do not attempt to oversimplify feelings or teach grandiose lessons in morality. All we have here are a few instances of eccentric matters of the heart. We leave it to each individual student to take from the literature what he or she will. If anything, students should learn that love, though sometimes frustrating, has no bounds.
In Charles Dickens’s classic novel Great Expectations, Pip says of Estella, “Often, if not always, I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” Love is a thing that is often inexplicable and unwise, but we feel it anyway. We should all be so lucky to recall the childlike fervor (sans the raging hormones).
READ Aligns to Common Core State Standards—READ aligns to many of the English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Literature in grades 6–10. Lit Scene Investigation connects to many of the “Craft and Structure” standards. In addition, READ’s nonfiction articles align with standards for Reading: Informational Text. To help you determine which standards a READ story aligns to, we list the standards by code on page 2 of this Teacher’s Guide. You can find the corresponding standards on the Web site corestandards.org.
Past Teaching Centers
August - What's Old Is New Again
September - Ordinary People, Extraordinary Situations
October - Strange
November - American Tales
December - Peace
January - Dystopia
Great Expectations - RL.6.3;
RL.7.3 – 7.6; RL.8.3
(page 4)
This classic story by Charles Dickens sets out to accomplish many things. At the forefront, it is a tale of a young man’s desire to be a gentleman. Many readers have suggested that Pip’s growth was oftentimes delayed as he shied away from his humble beginnings and, in a sense, disrespected his family. But Pip’s is a hard tale in that his constant struggle between breaking free and coming home divides him. Furthermore, the web that Miss Havisham weaves
compounds Pip’s maturity, ensnaring him in the wickedest way—she plays on Pip’s heart using her own daughter, Estella, as bait. In this coming-of-age story, students will discover that the path to maturity is never as easy as it may seem and is often met with roadblocks of great proportions.
Class Discussion: The ending of Great Expectations as we know it was not Dickens’s original ending. Dickens had first written an ending in which Pip and Estella see each other years later and do not part as friends. Upon completing the play with your students, share with them Dickens’s original ending below and ask: Which do you prefer, and why do you think the author changed it?
Original Ending: “It was two years more before I saw [Estella]. I had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband, who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, brutality, and meanness. I had heard of the death of her husband … and of her being married again to a Shropshire doctor. … I had heard that the Shropshire doctor was not rich, and that they lived on her own personal fortune. I was in England again—in London, and walking along … when a servant came running after me to ask would I step back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. … The lady and I looked sadly enough on one another. … I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.”
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One Last Kiss - RL.6–10.1–3; RL.9–10.4–5
(page 16)
Daniel thinks his life is stupid. That’s his inelegant way of expressing disappointment with his family, his circumstances, and even himself. His father has deserted him, his mother doesn’t have time for him, and his grandmother appears to be something of a con artist. His family is poor, and his friends are fickle. Daniel himself lacks the confidence that, he thinks, would make him popular. At the school dance, something happens that is at once incredible, perplexing, wonderful, and terrible. As Daniel tries to make sense of his world, his emotions overwhelm him. (A related reading comprehension quiz is here.)
Class Discussion: Encourage students to share what they think of the ending. Where will Daniel go from here? Is he becoming a product of his surroundings, or is it possible he can break the mold and fly free? What is he so angry about anyway?
Writing Activity: After the discussion, invite students to write an epilogue in which Daniel seeks out his mystery girl.
Lit Scene Investigation: Figurative Language: Help students understand simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. Search for examples in the story. Then go online to read editors’ comments.
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i carry your heart with me - RL.7.4–5; RL.9–10.4
(page 24)
e.e. cummings was a poet who refused to be bound by poetical standards. He wrote outside the lines and, in doing so, created some of the most beautiful language that ever danced on a page. We hope that by offering this breath of fresh air at the conclusion of an issue otherwise furnished with clumsy love, we leave students with a sense of romance after all.
Writing Activity: Ask students to compose love poems in the style of E. E. Cummings. That is to say: Let your verse flow free!
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