PART II THROUGH THE UNITS - Webs 01... · short stories in English, Gimpel the Fool, was published in 1957. His stories and novels reflect the world of the East European Jews he grew

39ENGLISH STD IX HANDBOOK

PART IITHROUGH THE UNITS

40HANDBOOK ENGLISH STD IX

This unit consists of four literary pieces - two stories and two poems. All the pieces

are thematically interlinked. At the same time, they stand independent of each other.

Both the stories, ‘The Son from America’ and ‘The Tattered Blanket’ deal with the

return of the sons to their parents after a long gap. But their purpose of visit varies.

The son from America returns to his native place to brighten the life of his parents.

They have been living completely ignorant of the niceties of modern life. To his

dismay, the son realises that they live a life of complete contentment with what little

they possess and his money doesn’t have any role to play there. But the son in the

‘The Tattered Blanket’ by Kamala Das is shockingly cold, callous and indifferent to

the feelings of the aged mother. The story painfully reminds us of how the most

sacred relationship between a mother and a son suffers in the context of a life driven

by narrow-minded and extremely selfish motives. The sorrowful image of the aged

mother left lonely and in rags haunts the reader. Both the poems, ‘Those Winter

Sundays’ and ‘To My Nanny’ engage us with the theme of parental love and

remembrance. The father in the poem ‘Those Winter Sundays’ and the old lady in

the poem ‘To My Nanny’ are immortalised as soothing and radiant figures in a

world sans love.

Issue domain : Culture

Sub issue : Weakening of family ties

Importance of one’s roots

Issues of immigrant population

Issues related to the aged

The value of wealth and money in one’s life

Learning Objectives :

• To understand the crucial role of family ties in one’s upbringing

• To create awareness of one’s cultural roots• To empathise with the aged

• To identify the issues of the immigrant population

• To construct various discourses like conversation, skit, character sketch, letter,

story and brochure

• To read and enjoy pieces of literature like short stories, poems etc.

• To think critically and take proper stance on issues related to family ties,

cultural roots, immigrants, the old aged and the value of wealth

Unit 1ROOTS


Uni

tTh

eme/

Issu

esSu

b-is

sues

Pros

e pa

ssag

e

Uni

t 1Cu

lture

•W

eake

ning

of f

amily

tie

s• I

mpo

rtanc

eof

one

’s ro

ots

• Is

sues

of

imm

igra

ntpo

pulat

ion

• Iss

ues r

elat

edto

the

age

d•

The

valu

e of

wea

lth a

ndm

oney

in o

ne’s

life

Shor

t sto

ry‘T

he S

onfr

omA

mer

ica’

- Isa

ac B

ashe

visSi

nger

R

OO

TS

Poem

Ext

ende

dR

eadi

ngPa

ssag

e

Ext

ende

dPo

emD

isco

urse

leve

lAc

tiviti

esLa

ngua

ge A

ctiv

ities

‘Tho

se W

inte

rSu

nday

s’- R

obert

Hay

den

Shor

t sto

ry‘T

he T

atte

red

Blan

ket’

- Ka

mala

Das

‘To

My

Nan

ny’ -

Alex

ande

rPu

shki

n‘S

nake

’ -A

gyeya

Char

acte

rsk

etch

Lette

r dra

fting

Scrip

t for

skit

Dev

elop

ing

ques

tionn

aire

Prep

arin

gbr

ochu

re

Usin

g ex

pres

sions

inow

n se

nten

ces (

eg. b

uzz

like a

bee

, .....

......

..)D

escr

ibin

g us

ing

prep

ositi

ons

of p

lace

Fram

ing q

uest

ions

Sequ

encin

g sen

tenc

eslo

gica

lly a

nd o

rgan

ising

them

in p

arag

raph

sU

se o

f re

lativ

e pr

onou

nsCo

mbi

ning

sent

ence

sus

ing ‘

so th

at’, ‘

neith

er....

nor’

Form

atio

n of

irre

gular

verb

sVa

riant

synt

actic

alstr

uctu

res

Affi

xes

Ana

lysis

of se

nten

ces

Subj

ect v

erb

agre

emen

tLa

ngua

ge g

ame

(pair

activ

ity)

Edi

ting

a gi

ven

pass

age

SY

LLA

BU

S G

RID


The Son from America

Background

The story is set in the backdrop of Lentshin,a little village in Poland near the city ofWarsaw, with humble dwellings andpeople with modest dreams. Both Jewishand non - Jewish people lived there incomplete harmony. Here, we have asplendid description of the village withscintillating details of the little community,of their houses and of the ambience withall the pristine charm of idyllic nature bythe Nobel laureate’s brother I.J. Singer inhis book ‘Of a World which is No More’.This book has captured the beauty, rhythmand music of community life in Lentshin.

Lentshin was a tiny township - almost avillage. The houses were small and low. Theroofs were not made of straw, like the housesin the villages all around, but of upended tiles.Many bird nests chirped inside the tiled roofs.Only one house possessed a parapet. Theroads were not tarred but were not muddy asthe soil was sandy. The sand was deep andwhite, for the township was in the vicinity ofthe river Visla. The little shops sported manyvarious drawings over their doors: drawingsof cloths, perfumes, sugar-cones, pots, candles,horseshoes and scythes. Near these little shopsthere were workshops belonging to tailors,shoemakers and bakers. There was only onefactory in Lentshin, which produced acoloured drink called Kvass. The bathhouseswere at the edge of the town and thesurrounding water created a peculiarlygreenish spot. This place also attracted cowsand geese. At some distance from the town,was a church – a big, red building with twospires and crosses – shooting up into the sky.

Meet Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in 1902in Poland, then a part of the RussianEmpire. His father was a rabbi (Jewishreligious teacher) and his mother,Bathsheba, was the daughter of the rabbi

of Bilgoraj. Singer later used her name inhis pen name ‘Bashevis’ (Bathsheba’s).World War I separated him from hisparents and he had to support himself bygiving Hebrew lessons. But soon he gaveup that and joined his parents, consideringhimself a failure. In 1935, Singer emigratedfrom Poland to the United States because ofthe growing Nazi threat in neighbouringGermany. Singer settled in New York,where he worked as a journalist andcolumnist for The Forward , a Yiddishnewspaper.

After World War II and the neardestruction of the Yiddish-speaking people,Yiddish seemed to be a dead language.Though Singer had moved to the UnitedStates, he believed in the power of hisnative language and thought that therewas still a large audience that longed toread Yiddish. In an interview in Encounter (Feb. 1979), he claimed that althoughthe Jews of Poland had died, ‘something -call it spirit or whatever - is still somewherein the universe. This is a mystical kind offeeling, but I feel there is truth in it.’ Singerpublished 18 novels, 14 children’s books, anumber of memoirs, essays and articles, butis best known as a writer of short stories,which have appeared in over a dozencollections. The first collection of Singer’sshort stories in English, Gimpel the Fool, waspublished in 1957. His stories and novelsreflect the world of the East European Jewshe grew up with. After many years inAmerica, his stories dealt with both theworld of the immigrants and how theirAmerican dream proves elusive when theyobtain it. Prior to winning the Nobel Prize,translations of his stories were frequentlypublished in popular magazines such asPlayboy and Esquire. Although Singerspoke English, Hebrew and Polish quitefluently, he always considered Yiddish hisnatural tongue. He always wrote in Yiddishand he was the last famous American


author writing in this language. After hehad achieved success as a writer in NewYork, Singer and his wife began spendingtime during the winters with the Jewishcommunity in Miami. Singer remains anunquestionably Jewish writer, yet hisprecise views about Jews, Judaism and theJewish God are open to interpretation.Whatever they were, they lay at the centreof his literary art.

Singer died on July 24, 1991 in Surfside,Florida, after suffering a series of strokes.

About the story: The Son from America

Theme:

The story focuses on multiple themes likethe crucial role of family ties and culturalroots in one’s life. It also opens up issues ofthe aged, immigrant population and theabsurdity of amassing wealth and money.

Plot:

Exposition - We are introduced to Berl andhis wife and the setting.

Inciting Event - Samuel arrives in Lentshin.

Rising Action - Samuel tries to help hismom to prepare the Sabbath and theycelebrate the Sabbath together.

Climax - Samuel asks his dad where themoney is and he shows him.

Falling Action - Samuel realises the natureof life the villagers lead.

Resolution - Samuel realises one doesn’tneed money to be happy. The chanting ofthe holy rhymes by his mother reminds himof his mistaken notion of life.

Protagonist - Samuel

Antagonist - Samuel

Conflict - Person Vs Self

Module 1

Discuss the lines of Pablo Neruda given atthe facing page.

‘When I lived amongst the roots

They pleased me more than flowers did.’

Every flower is a smile that radiates thesurroundings. When we look at flowers weare carried away by their radiant buttransient life. But, the obscure roots godeeper and deeper, wider and wider,unmindful of our attention expanding theirgrip on the earth. Roots and flowers aremetaphors of human life. The unglamorousroots, living in the muddy earth unexposedto light and air, lend charm and beauty tothe flowers. Then what about our roots?Aren’t they our parents? Our grandparentswho lend us health, wealth, charm and life?Our parents had their parents.... It givesanother shade of meaning to human lifethat we all belong to one big family. Ourroots are the same. But unfortunately weoften forget the roots and admire theflowers. To live among the roots implies tolive in the soil, however drab andhumdrum it is, with the toilers who createall that is wonderful and beautiful on earth.Flowers stand for the external beautywhich is transient but roots are more lastingand life giving.

Lead in Activity: Setting a Purpose

There are multiple ways of introducing aliterary piece to the learners. You mayintroduce a literary text using pictures,quotations, poems, fables or stories relatedto the theme. Here is an interesting Zenstory. You may use it as a starter. You couldread the story in the class or get it typedand distribute it. You may also conduct adiscussion thereafter.

The Moon cannot be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplestkind of life in a little hut at the foot of amountain. One evening a thief visited the


hut only to discover there was nothing in itto steal. Ryokan returned and caught thethief.

‘You may have come a long way to visitme,’ he told the prowler, ‘and you shouldnot return empty-handed. Please take myclothes as a gift.’

The thief was bewildered. He took theclothes and slunk away.

Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon.‘Poor fellow,’ he mused, ‘I wish I could givehim this beautiful moonlight.’

Discuss:

• Zen master’s way of life

• Zen master and the thief

• Significance of moonlight in the story

• The message

It is needless to say that every teacher shouldread the story given in the textbook a numberof times to achieve complete mastery over thetheme, tone, craft, word images and otherlinguistic and literary devices that lend it thedesired effect.

Let the learners read the first part of thestory ‘The Son from America’ (Para 1-7)silently.

Process Reading

• Let the learners read paragraphs 1-7 ofthe story ‘The Son from America’individually.

• Let them mark ,?,! with a pencil to keeptrack of their reading.

• Let the learners sit in groups (5 to 8members) and share what they haveunderstood and what they haven’tunderstood. Let them also share what theyhave found interesting/surprising in thatpart of the story.

• If there are words/expressions theyhaven’t understood let them refer to the

ready reference given at the end of the storyor to the glossary given in the last pages ofthe reader.

• If a group can’t understand a certainarea, encourage them to raise their doubts.

• Megaphone their doubts to other groups.

• If no group can clarify the doubt raised,you can scaffold them by asking simplequestions.

• After clarifying all the difficult areas, letthem assess their reading. For this, let themfill in the self assessment checklist on Page10.

• Remind the learners to identify words tobe noted in the personal wordlist givenalong side the story. They should write theword, its meaning and use it in a sentence.

Now, ask them to answer the scaffoldingquestions (1-4) individually.

Hints for Scaffolding Questions (1-4)

1) Let them answer the question and askthem to justify their answer quotingrelevant lines/expressions from thepassage.

Possible answers:

(a) The description of the house and thevillage vividly throws light on their modestliving. It also suggests they are far awayfrom the amenities of modern life. Thegarden, the cow and the goat provide thevillagers with most of their needs.

(b) Let the learners fill in the chart anddescribe their places.

(c) Let them draw the picture of theirvillage/town and colour it.

2) Lentshin is not a village of materialsplendour. They lead a contented life andthere is nothing worthy to be robbed off.

3) Let the learners answer the question ontheir own.


4) Let the learners predict the place wherethe money is kept. Berl and Berlcha arealready happy with what they have.

Pause and Reflect 1:

Possible answers

• The young people might be fed up withthe dull and drab existence of the people ofLentshin. They wanted a change.

• They were influenced by modern lifestyle. They wanted to be modern in theiroutlook and tastes.

• The young people never wanted to be likethe old generation of Lentshin.

Module 2

Now, lead the learners to textual activitiesi, ii & iii given on Page 16.

Activity i

Note:

Let the learner get acquainted withdifferent passages describing things/persons so that they can try and invent theirown mode of expression. You mayfamiliarise the learners with similarpassages from known writers.

The passages given below are excerpts fromrenowned writer and the Nobel Prizewinner, Le Clezio’s novel ‘Onitsha’. Theyare alluring, demanding and disarming.They tellingly illustrate how the descriptivepower of the writer illumines theabundance of nature and heightens themood of the reader in his response to theevents in nature. The river, the moon andthe sounds in nature become more beautifulthan what they are. Maxim Gorky once saidthat he loved Pushkin's stars more than thereal stars in the sky.

Describing Persons:

Fintan looked at his mother as if it were forthe first time. Perhaps he had never beforerealised how young she was, how close to

him she was like the sister he had neverhad. Not really beautiful, but so alive, sostrong. It was late afternoon; the sunilluminated her dark gold-flecked hair, theoutline of her profile, her high foreheadwhich rounded sharply to meet her nose,the shape of her lips, her chin.

Describing Places:

Inside I found a long, gloomy, desertedroom. The dazzling light streaming inthrough the curtainless windows made iteven dingier and more forlorn. There werea few rickety tables with dusty glasses onthem, a black sofa, a few shabby woodenchairs. All these stood stagnant in anatmosphere of heavy and poisonous heat.

Describing Scenery:

a) The river flowed gently, with knot-likegurgles, whirlpools, little sucking noises.Sabine Rhodes said it was the biggest riverin the world because in its flow it carriedthe entire history of mankind since thebeginning.

b) She went out to the veranda and wasastonished by the softness of the night. Thestrong light of the full moon. Through thefoliage of the trees, far away, she saw thegreat river, shining like the sea.

c) Beneath his barefeet the earth wasparched and cracked, the bushes blackenedby the sun. He listened to the sound of hisfeet drumming beneath him in the silenceof the savannah. At noon the sky wasnaked; there were no more clouds abovethe hills to the east. On rare occasions, attwilight, the clouds would puff up towardsthe sea. The plain of grass seemed to be anocean of dryness.

Describing Sounds:

She listened with an almost painfulattentiveness to the sounds of ordinary life- cocks crowing, dogs barking, axespounding, the motors of fishing pirogues


backfiring, the rumble of lorries movingalong the track to Enugu. She waited tohear the distant shuddering of thegenerator as it brought the sawmill to life,on the other side of the river.

Describing Natural Phenomena:

Fintan looked at the curtain of rain andlistened to the splattering of drops, thewater cascading into the canvas-covereddrums.

Activity iiNarrating an ExperienceLet the learners narrate an experience theyhave had on their way to school or anymemorable experience they have ever hadin their life. You may also share yourexperience with the learners.

Note:

Presenting a narrative is an art. It shouldbe lively, gripping, arresting and dramatic.

Consider the following tips:

• Presentation should be appealing to thelearners.

• Language used for presentation shouldbe natural and easy to comprehend.

• It would be nice if presented withgestures, facial expressions and voicemodulation.

• A variety of expressions and sentencestructures can heighten the effect ofnarration.

The impression created thus, will linger onthe minds of the learners for a long timeand will motivate them to relate theirexperiences before the class.

Activity iii

Conversation

Note:

Ask the learners to prepare theconversation in pairs.Random presentationSharing in groupsRefiningPresenting it before the class

Editing

Module 3

Now, ask the learners to read paragraphs8 to 13 silently.

Make sure that the process of reading isfollowed properly.

Hints for scaffolding questions (5-6)

5) Let the learners guess who the noble man is.

6) The mother’s reaction is quite naturaland spontaneous whereas the fatherreceives his son only after careful judgment.Mother recognises and receives her soninstantly, whereas the father takes time.

Let the learners fill in the self assessmentchecklist on reading.

Pause and Reflect 2

The word ‘yellow’ in ‘yellow tears’ can beinterpreted in multiple ways. Yellow refersto the autumnal period in one’s life. So, it isassociated with old age, debility, senility,death and decay. The green leaves turnyellow in autumn season and finally theyfall (‘fall’ is another term for the autumnseason). ‘Yellow tears’, ‘autumnal tears’ aresubjective and poetic expressions. Theyellow tears of Berlcha suggests herimpassioned and concentrated love waitingto be ‘fallen’ at the sight of her son whoreturns to her after a period of fourdecades.

Now, lead the learners to textual activitiesiv, v & vi on Page 16.

Activity iv

Note:

Display the sentence ‘He was followed by thecoachman’ on a chart/blackboard.

Ask the learners to analyse the sentenceand pick out similar sentences from theirEnglish Reader and other sources.

• Discuss the relation between the subjectand the verb in such sentences.


• Help the learners identify the features ofpassive constructions and the contexts inwhich they are used.

• Familiarise the learners with the form,functions and meanings of passivesentences, using a variety of passiveconstructions.

Activity v

Let the learners prepare a list of the namesof a few countries.

Ask them to sit in groups and identify thelanguages and nationalities of the countrieslisted.

Direct the learners to use different sourcessuch as dictionary, encyclopedia, internetetc.

Let them prepare a chart and present itbefore the class.

A list of a few countries, their languagesand nationalities are given below:

Denmark Danish Danish

Finland Finnish Finnish

Spain Spanish Spaniard

Sweden Swedish Swedish

Turkey Turkish Turkish

Australia English Australian

Brazil Portuguese Brazilian

Egypt Arabic Egyptian

Italy Italian Italian

Hungary Hungarian Hungarian

Korea Korean Korean

Russia Russian Russian

China Chinese Chinese

Japan Japanese Japanese

Portugal Portuguese Portuguese

Activity vi

Reported speech

Note:

Here is an activity to introduce reportedspeech. You may find it useful.

• Invite a volunteer to the front of the classand interview him/her for two or threeminutes.

• You may interview him/her about his/her hobbies, interesting experiences etc.

• Let the other learners listen to what isbeing said and write down the questionsand answers.

• Let the learners then present how theinterviewee responded to the interviewer.(This will usually be in the reported orindirect speech.)

• You can sensitise the idea of changes inindirect speech such as change in pronoun,time and tense.

• You may write on the blackboard the textof the reported speech presented by thelearner.

• Refine them, if necessary.

• Ask the learners to identify the changesin pronoun, tense and other words in thesentences being reported.

• Consolidate the major changes.

Module 4


Make sure that the process for reading isfollowed properly.

Hints for Scaffolding Questions (7-8)

7) Here, Berl refers to his wife’s tenderqualities in an affectionate and humorousway. Berl thinks women are usually easilyaffected by tender emotions such as love,sympathy, compassion, sorrow, joy etc.

You may invite the learners’ opinions andarguments on the above statement of Berl.You may also conduct a debate on thestatement.

8) Initiate a discussion in the class on thechanges that happen in the surroundings


and nature in different seasons - how thetrees and leaves wear different colours indifferent seasons, how the sky appears,how the clouds gather before it rains, howthe sky becomes illuminated by lightning,how the sky becomes radiant with starsnumberless, how nature appears in themoonlit night and how the night isgradually transformed into dawn, thedusk into night, the change in the mood ofthe little plants, trees and how the changesaffect the living creatures and the minds ofthe people.

• Ask the learners to write about thechanges they noticed in nature. You mayask the learners to observe nature duringmonsoon and write about the changes theynotice in nature when compared tosummer.

Pause and Reflect 3

People of Lentshin live a life closer to naturewithout being affected by the modern lifestyle. Generate a discussion on ‘Living withnature and being away from nature’.

Discussion points:

• Influence of modern life-style

• Food habits

• Dress style

• Occupation

• Buildings

• Technology

• Entertainment

• Transport

• Pollution

Let the learners express what kind of a lifethey would like to lead.

Module 5


Follow the process of reading.

Do you know?

Sabbath: Sabbath is generally a weekly dayof rest and/or time of worship. The Sabbathis Sunday for most Christians, Saturday forJews and Friday for Muslims. The term‘Sabbath’ derives from the Hebrew wordShabbat meaning ‘to cease’, which was firstused in the Biblical account of the seventhday of Creation.

Pause and Reflect 4

• There is a touch of gentle humour whenBerl exclaimed, ‘What’s this?’ when he sawa noble man, who was actually his son,kissing his wife.

Ask the learners to identify other instancesof humour from the story.

Now, lead the learners to textual activity vii.

Activity vii

• Ask the learners to reread paragraph 20of the story.

• Let them identify the characters, theirsignificance in the skit and other relevantpoints.

• Let them fix the sequence of events.

• Fix the number of characters anddialogues.

• Let them have an idea about the setting(where the incidents described in theparagraph take place).

• Let them also think about the movementsof the characters on the stage.

• Ask the learners to frame dialoguesaccording to the mood and tone of thecharacters.

•Let the learners write the script of the skitindividually.

•Let them fill in self assessment checkliston skit.

• Ask the learners to sit in groups andrefine the dialogues, stage settings etc. theyhave written.


•Edit the script.

• Let the groups present the skit before theclass.

Note:

Every play whether it is full-length or oneact, requires a director with properdirectorial sense. But a skit is not as seriousas a full-length play. Still it cannot betreated lightly. A teacher has to makemeaningful interventions in spotting theright learner to direct the skit. The focusof the skit should be developing languageskills and performance-based skills.Learners will master language non-consciously and use it naturally andspontaneously without any inhibitions.They may be least conscious of the kind ofconversational English they use. This isthe advantage of enacting skits inclassrooms.

Module 6

Now, lead the learners to textual activitiesviii & ix.

Activity viii

Character sketch of Samuel

• Ask the learners to go through the storyagain.

• Let them identify details of theappearance and character of Samuel.

• You may ask questions like the followingto channelise the thoughts of the learners:

1. What is most striking about Samuel?

2. How has America changed him?

3. Does he still love the old ways ofLentshin?

4. Do you like him? Why?

5. ..............................

6. ..............................

• Let them decide on the beginningsentence of their write up.

•Let the learners write the character sketchindividually.

•Let them fill in self assessment checkliston character sketch.

• Ask the learners to sit in groups andrefine what they have written.

• Let the groups present what they havewritten.

•Edit the character sketch.

Activity ix

Personal Letter

You may ask the following questions tosensitise the learners on the features of apersonal letter.

a) Who writes the letter and from where?

b) Who is the letter addressed to?

c) How does the sender greet the receiver? (salutation)

d) How will you begin the letter?

e) What are the major points you wouldlike to include in the letter?

f) How will you conclude the letter?

g) What leave taking words would youlike to use in the letter? (complementaryclosing)

h) Where will you put Samuel’s name andsignature?

Generate a discussion on these points andconsolidate them.

Let the learners attempt the letterindividually.

Let them fill in the self assessment checkliston letter.

Let them sit in groups and refine the letter.

Let the groups present the letter.

Edit the best out of the group’s presentation.


Module 7Now, lead the learners to textual activitiesx, xi & xii.Activity xStory

Ask the learners to identify the events theywould include in the story. You maychannelise their thoughts on the differentways in which the old parents of Samuelwould have used up the money.

For this, you may ask questions like:

How would you establish that Samuelhas sent the money?

What would his parents do with themoney?

How would it change their life?

How would they receive Samuel whenhe returns?

How would the people of Lentshin react?

Let the learners fix the events sequentiallyin the light of the discussion.

Let the learners work on any one of theevents fixed. (Make sure that almost equalnumber of learners are working on eachevent fixed) by blowing it up thinking interms of where the event takes place, whoare involved in that event, how they think/speak/feel/see/hear/smell/taste etc.

Let them fill in self assessment checklist onstory.

Ask the learners who worked on the sameevent to sit in a group and refine what theyhave written.

Random presentation of the group’sproduct.

Let the learners select the best narrative andedit it.

Activity xi

The last sentence of the story fittinglyestablishes the lines of Neruda quoted inthe beginning of the unit. The conventional

chanting of the rhymes by his motherevokes feelings of living in one’s roots whichis in sharp contrast to his life in Americathat can be equated with living amongstflowers.

Activity xii

Preparation of Brochure

This can be attempted once the unit isfinished. The detailed process of preparinga brochure is given at the end of this unit.

Module 8

Now, lead the learners to the story, ‘TheTattered Blanket’ in the Extended Readingsection of the unit.

Note:

You can make use of the originalMalayalam version of the story given in theAppendix of this book.

You may ask the learners to first read theEnglish version of the story to a certainpoint and compare it with the Malayalamversion. Learners can read the rest of thestory by themselves and present the storybefore the class by narrating whathappened in the story.

The Tattered Blanket

Hints for Scaffolding Questions

1. The expressions like, ‘his mother makinga futile attempt to get up’, ‘Amma is oftenlike this these days, ‘She doesn’t recogniseanybody’ etc. suggest the pathetic conditionof the mother.

2. The mother in the story probably suffersfrom a kind of amnesia due to dotage.(Illness associated with old age)

3. The son expresses his love for his motherby bringing his face close to her wrinkledcheeks.

4. The sister is mildly critical of her brother’sbehaviour towards their mother. Thesentence, ‘What is the point of telling her


that you haven’t written for years?’ clearlysuggests this.

5. The blanket in the story is a metaphor oflove and care. So, when she asks for ablanket, she expresses her real need for thewarmth and comfort of her son’s love andcare.

6. The son cleverly conceals his guiltyconscience for his apparent disregard forhis mother through this expression. Thereader can feel his psychological relief.

7. The son has become too materialistic tobe obsessed with his mother’s needs. Heseems to remain unmoved by the wholeincident.

8. The story focuses on the estrangedrelationship existing in family life. KamalaDas used ‘The Tattered Blanket’ as ametaphor to show the strained relationshipthat may occur in many a family.

9. (a) This question has the sharpness of arazor’s edge which can butcher theheartlessness of the son towards his mother.

(b) The son becomes dumbfounded at thissharp question.

(c) Let the learners answer the question ontheir own.

Module 9

Vocabulary Activities

Activity 1

a) I am standing at the bus stop on theroadside. Next to the bus stop on the left isthe National Bank with an ATM Counterin the vicinity. Beside the bank there is afactory. It is in front of the village office.Next to the factory is a petrol bunk. Acrossthe street and just opposite to the busstopis the GUP School. Near the school andopposite to the National Bank is a postoffice. The town hall is near the post office.Adjacent to the town hall is a hotel. On theright side of the hotel is a workshop facingthe petrol bunk across the street.

b) Let the learners describe their locality inthe similar fashion.

Activity 2

The aircraft buzzed like a bee high up in thesky.

The boy ran so fast that he panted like a dog.

The man quacked like a duck as he had somedifficulty with his speech.

Jane often hissed like a snake as she got apretty violent temper.

‘Get out or I’ll shoot you,’ he roared like alion.

Activity 3

Irregular verbs

Learners may be asked to prepare a list ofirregular verbs.

Let them read both the stories and identifyregular and irregular verbs. Then ask themto prepare a list of the three forms of thoseverbs by referring to a dictionary.

Module 10

Poem

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913 -February25, 1980) was an American poet, essayistand educator.

Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan.He was taken in by a foster family nextdoor, Sue Ellen Westerfield and WilliamHayden, and grew up in a Japanese ghettonicknamed "Paradise Valley". Witnessingfights and suffering beatings throughouthis childhood, Hayden lived in a housefraught with chronic angers whose effectswould stay with the poet throughout hisadulthood. On top of that, his severe visualproblems prevented him fromparticipating in activities such as sportsin which nearly everyone was involved.


His childhood traumas resulted indebilitating bouts of depression which helater called ‘my dark nights of the soul’.

He was raised as a Baptist, but convertedto the Bahá'í Faith during the early 1940sand is one of the best-known Bahá'í poetsand his religion influenced much of hiswork.

Hayden was elected to the AmericanAcademy of Poets in 1975. From 1976 -1978, Hayden was Consultant in Poetryto the Library of Congress, the positionwhich in 1985 became the Poet LaureateConsultant in Poetry to the Library ofCongress. Hayden's most famous and mostanthologized poem is ‘Those WinterSundays’, which deals with the memoryof fatherly love and loneliness.

Other famed poems include ‘TheWhipping’, ‘Middle Passage’, ‘Runagate’,‘Runagate and Frederick Douglass’.Hayden's was influenced by poets likeKeats, Auden and Yeats. Hayden wrotepolitical poetry as well, including asequence on the Vietnam War.

Note:

Robert Hayden’s poem ‘Those WinterSundays’ ends with the key phrase ‘love’saustere and lonely offices’. A hard workingpoor father is being fondly remembered byhis grown up son, in the poem. Those‘cracked hands that ached from labour’ canamply represent the loving old man. Hekindled fire on winter Sundays with thosehands when everybody was shivering inthe blueblack cold. He is a lonely figure whomakes the cold atmosphere prevailing in thehouse warm with his love’s austere offices.Parental love and affection are expressedthrough simple and gentle acts of care andkindness such as kindling the fire andpolishing the shoes without expectingothers to thank him or love him. Even theson was thankless to him which he realisedlater and felt regret for that. The poem is a

regretful son’s belated homage to a lovingfather who did not receive any love orgratitude from his son when he needed it.The poem is about filial ingratitude andparental devotion. This devotion is onlyrealised when the children grow intomaturity. The contrasting pair of cold andwarmth makes the poem more appealingby creating a sensuous picture of how love’sslow burning fire, splinters and breaks theice of indifference and ingratitude.

Process:

You may read the poem aloud two or threetimes.

Let the learners read the poem individuallyand keep track of their reading.

Ask the learners to sit in groups and sharewhat they understood, what they have notunderstood and what they foundinteresting/surprising.

Let them refer to the glossary, if needed.

If any group has problems inunderstanding the poem, megaphone thedoubts to the other groups.

You may explain the problem areas if nogroup can effectively tackle them.

For example, if all groups fail to explain therelevance of the expression 'blueblack cold'you may interact with the groups and askquestions to channelise their thoughts like:

At what time of the day do youexperience the severity of cold the mostduring winter? (early morning/morning/evening/night)

How does the sky look like during earlymornings? (blue/black/blueblack)

How would you describe the coldness youexperience on an early winter morning?

Now, ask the scaffolding questions givenalong side the poem to the whole class.


• Let each learner think of the answers.

• Let them scribble the answers in the spaceprovided in the text itself.

• Allow two or three learners to presenttheir answers.

• If there are questions for which no onecan find an answer, let them sit in groupsand discuss it.

Hints for scaffolding questions

1. The son himself is the speaker.

2. (a) Sunday is supposed to be the day forrest and prayer. Even on those days thefather works hard to keep the home warmand happy.

(b) Sunday which is supposed to be a dayof rest is contrasted here with weekdaywhich is hard and tireless.

3. The first stanza vividly depicts the lifeof toil led by the poet’s father. Theexpression ‘cracked hands that ached fromlabour’ brings out the intensity of toil.

4. The last two lines,

‘What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?’ - showthe son’s deep love for his father.

5. Let the learners respond to the questionand voice their views.

6. The expressions ‘cold splintering’ and‘breaking’ produce auditory images in thepoem.

7. Yes, the last two lines clearly suggesthow deeply the son regrets now.

8. The line ‘no one ever thanked him’indicates the presence of other members ofthe family.

9. The lines,

‘...I’d wake and hear the cold splintering,breaking.

When the rooms were warm...’

Bring out the contrast between cold climateand the warmth of fire.

Activity 1

Visual images: Cracked hands, bankedfires blaze, blueblack cold.

Auditory images: hear the cold splintering,breaking, speaking indifferently.

Tactile Images: the cold splintering, warmrooms.

Note:

Poetic image is a sensuous picture inwords. It is charged with humanemotions. The most commonly used imageis the visual image but every image(auditory, tactile etc.) has some faint visualassociation. For example, the expressions‘banked fires blaze’ or ‘blueblack cold’ inThose Winter Sundays appeal to our senseof sight and touch. The expression ‘coldsplintering’ appeals to our sense of touchand hearing. The expression ‘warm rooms’appeals to our sense of sight and touch.In a way we can say that every poem is initself an image - i.e. A poem may itself bean image composed from a multiplicity ofimages. In short, an image is a picturemade out of words. An epithet, ametaphor or a simile may also create animage. An image may be presented to usin a phrase or in a line or even in a passagethat is purely descriptive.

(Ref: - The Art of Reading Poetryin Part I ofthe Handbook)

Module 11

Poem

To My Nanny

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (June 6,1799-February 10, 1837) was a Russianauthor of the Romantic era who isconsidered by many to be the greatestRussian poet and the founder of modernRussian literature. Pushkin pioneered the


picture of his nanny who waits eagerlyand anxiously for the boy to turn up. Shecurses the clock because it is too late forthe child to return home. With falteringwrinkled hands she knits but, because ofapparent anxiety, she cannot continue thework. The external landscape with thecrumbling gate, the shadowy road and thelone house deep in the woods create apicture of her inner mindscape hauntedby nameless forebodings and darkanxieties which she, really seems to see.The poet, even as a grown up adult, carriesthe picture of his nanny as he treads withdifficulty the course of his austere fate. Heregards his nanny as the ‘invisiblecompanion of his austere fate’. When wecompare ‘To My Nanny’ with ‘ThoseWinter Sundays’ there emerges a strikingcontrast – unlike the son in the latter poem,the boy in the former is deeply attachedto and greatly thankful to his nanny whois not his mother but a surrogate Mother.

Process:

Refer the process given for the poem ‘ThoseWinter Sundays’.

Hints for scaffolding questions

1. Nanny was probably the sole companionthat the poet had in his childhood.

2. The expressions like ‘dear dotingsweetheart’ and ‘companion of my austerefate’ vividly describe the poet’s intimaterelationship with his nanny.

3. The time on the clock tells her that thechild is late for home and it increases heranxiety.

4. The line ‘In the lone house deep in thewild wood’ helps the reader to visualise thelocation of the house.

5. ‘...Now you seem to see’ can beinterpreted in many ways.

a) Nanny was so anxious that herapprehensions took shape and appeared

use of vernacular speech in his poems andplays, creating a style of story telling -mixing drama, romance and satire -associated with Russian literature ever sinceand greatly influencing later Russianwriters. He also wrote historical fiction.

Pushkin published his first poem at the ageof fifteen and was widely recognised by theliterary establishment by the time of hisgraduation. He gradually becamecommitted to social reform and emerged asa spokesman for literary radicals; in theearly 1820s he clashed with thegovernment, which sent him into exile inSouthern Russia. While under the strictsurveillance of government censors andunable to travel or publish at will, he wrotehis most famous play, the drama BorisGodunov, but could not publish it untilyears later. His novel in verse, EugeneOnegin, was published serially from 1825.

Because of his political views and influenceon generations of Russian rebels, Pushkinwas portrayed by Bolsheviks as anopponent to bourgeois literature andculture and a predecessor of Sovietliterature and poetry. In 1937, the town ofTsarskoe Selo was renamed 'Pushkin' in hishonor.

Critics consider many of his worksmasterpieces, such as the poem ‘The BronzeHorseman’ and the drama ‘The StoneGuest’, a tale of the fall of Don Juan. Hispoetic short drama ‘Mozart and Salieri’ wasthe inspiration for Peter Shaffer's‘Amadeus’. Pushkin himself preferred hisverse novel ‘Eugene Onegin’, which starteda tradition of great Russian novels. Becauseof the difficulty in translation, Pushkin'sverse remains largely unknown to Englishreaders.

‘To My Nanny’ is the poet’s loving tributeto his nanny – the nurse – who was thedear doting sweetheart of his childhood.What the poem contains mainly is the


before her mind’s eye as if they were real.It shows her affection and concern for thechild who is temporarily absent from home.

b) Nanny was so obsessed with darkanxieties that she could not reason them atall. Now the poet is grown up and anxietyno longer haunts Nanny as in the past. So,she can name those ‘nameless forebodings’.

Module 12

Language Activities

Activity 1

Process:

You may divide the class into differentgroups and assign the task of framingquestions to each of the characters in thetwo stories using the question words givenin the Reader.

Assign roles of characters to selectedlearners and let the groups ask thesequestions and the respective members mayanswer them in the form of a role play.

The groups may consolidate the questions.

Hints:

• How often did you think about yourparents while you were in America? (toSamuel)

• Why didn’t you visit them at least once inall these forty years?

• When are you going back to America?

• Are you happy living in America?

• How much money had your son sent toyou? (to Berl)

• Why didn’t you spend it? (to Berl)

• How long have you been in Delhi? (toGopi)

• How often did you visit her? (to Gopi)

• Have you any plan to come back home toyour mother? (to Gopi)

• Are you happy staying with your agedmother looking after her? (to Kamalam)

• Has your brother given you any financialsupport?

• Is Gopi your only sibling?

Activity 2

Process:

Ask the learners to analyse the givensentences and identify the words whichconnect two clauses in them.

Let them also find out which word in thefirst clause is connected with these words.

Ask them to categorise these words aswords connecting places, persons ,time andthings.

Let them also find out the different relativepronouns used in different contexts.

Hints:

i. which /that

ii who

iii. whose

iv. where

v. who/whom

vi. when

vii. why

viii. where

Activity 3

Process:

Lead the learners’ attention to the sentencequoted in the Reader.

Let them find out how two clauses arecombined using the structure so...that.

Make them aware that the first clause statessomething and the second clause describesits result. In the case of the sentence quotedin the Reader, ‘There names were verystrange’ shows a state and ‘Berl and Berlchacould never remember them’ shows theresult of that state.


Let them analyse and find out how thesetwo clauses are combined using so...that.

Now, lead them to the exercises given inActivity 3.

Hints:

i. He is so talented that everyone admires him.

ii. The question was so difficult that all failedto answer it.

iii. The tea was so hot that I couldn’t drink it.

Activity 4

Process:

As in Activity 3 let them analyse thesentence quoted and find out how twonegative sentences are combined usingneither...nor and how such a singlesentence can be split in two. This will helpthem to know about how writers make useof syntactical variations.

Hints:

i. Asha did not attend the wedding. Herhusband did not attend the wedding.

ii. Salim is not a dancer. He is not amusician.

iii. The member of the Panchayat did notvisit the place. The MLA did not visit theplace.

Activity 5

Process:

Here again as in Activity 3 & 4, learnersare made aware of how the syntacticalstructure of a sentence can be altered tobreak monotony and establish stylisticfeatures of the writer.

Hints:

A. i. Shouting ‘Help, help,’ he ran into thehall.

ii. Unexpectedly Susan dropped the glass.

iii. Stretching her hands she walkedtowards the child.

B. Process:

Let the learners identify verbs from thestories and find out how many of them canbe used as nouns by adding the suffix‘-ment’.

Hints:

The following is a list of some verbs andthe corresponding noun forms.

Verb Noun

Amuse Amusement

Appoint Appointment

Better Betterment

Bewilder Bewilderment

Bombard Bombardment

Develop Development

Embody Embodiment

Judge Judgment

Manage Management

Nourish Nourishment

Punish Punishment

Refine Refinement

Activity 6

Process:

Learners are aware of the features of ‘verb’and so you may ask the learners to identifythe verbs in the sentences of the givenpassage.

Next, ask them to pick out the word/wordsthat precede the verb.

Let them also find out the relationshipbetween these words and the verb.

When analysed, it was understood thatthese words are either persons, places orthings that do the action or persons, placesor things that are in a particular state.

When there are more than one word actingas the subject of a sentence, the learnerscan be asked to identify the key/headwordof the group. For this, you may hide/delete


Activity 7

Process:

As the learners have identified the subjectand the keyword in it, they may be awareof how words are added around aheadword to modify its meaning.

Now, you may lead them to expand orelaborate the subjects they have identifiedin the passage.

Hints:

• Room

A room

A tiny room

A dark tiny room

A very dark tiny room

Activity 8

Process:

Let the learners be made aware of thepossibility of adding words before and afterthe headword.

Hints:

• Building

The new building / the new concrete building

The new building by the side of the road

The new building I plan to buy

• Tree

A big tree

A big tree in front of the temple

A big tree in front of the old temple

Activity 9

Let the learners revisit the passage inActivity 6 and pick out the verbs in each ofthe sentences. They are: ‘heard’, ‘hadarrived’, ‘came’, ‘began to help’, ‘was’, ‘lit’,‘went’, ‘had covered’, ‘took’ and ‘warned’.

The learners have already identified someof the features of the subjects.

You may ask the learners to split a sentencein two as two meaningful parts.

They already know that a sentence can besplit meaningfully as ‘subject’ and‘predicate’.

You may ask the learners questions like:

a word each from the group and ask the learners to identify the deletion of which wordresults in losing the sense of the group of words.

Let the learners pick out the subject in each sentence in the passage and identify thenumber of words and keywords in them.

Hints:

Subject No. of words Keyword

The neighbours 2 neighbours

They 1 they

The good old women 4 women

The tiny dark room 4 room

Old Berlcha 2 Berlcha

Berl and his son 4 Berl and his son

A cold white snow 4 snow

The young son 3 son

Old Berl 2 Berl


a) Can a group of words function as subjectin a sentence?

b) When there are more than one words ina subject, how will you identify theheadword? What category of word does theheadword usually belong to?

c) What is the function of the other wordsin a subject?

d) Which category of word immediatelyfollows the subject?

Let the learners sum up the points givenalong with Activity 9.

Activity 10

Process:

Divide the learners into groups of 5-6. Letthem go through the passage and find outhow the words (in bold) change accordingto the subject.

Let them analyse the change in verb formaccording to the singular-plural differenceof subject.

You may ask questions like:

a) What changes did you notice in the verbform when the subject is singular and whenit is plural?

b) Is this applicable to all singular andplural subjects?

c) What difference do you notice in the verbform when the subject of a sentence is ‘you’and when the subject is ‘I’ ?

Let the learners sum up the points given inActivity 10.

Activity 11

Let the learners rewrite the passage inActivity 10 using the past form of the verbs.

Hints:

Old Berl and Berlcha were Jews living inPoland. They led a happy life. Samuel, theironly son, lived in America. He had been there

since the age of fifteen. He was a baker andhad become a millionaire over the years.

Activity 12

Hints:

You may either give a version of theexchange as follows or present a better one.

You: We own a huge building in ourhometown.

Friend: We had a palatial building in ourvillage.

You: Ours is the most known family in thearea and we are the most influential peoplethere.

Friend: My grandfather was the ruler of thelocality. The members of our family wereheld in high esteem.

Activity 13

Process:

Exhibit the passage on the BB/a chart.

The errors in the passage are notunderlined. So you may ask the learnersfirst to identify them.

As all the errors in the passage aremorphological in nature and are alreadyfamiliar to the learners, it would be easyfor them to identify the errors.

Now, initiate a discussion on the words tobe substituted in place of the errors.

If the learners are not able to identify theerrors, you may call their attention to theerroneous word and ask them whetherthey find the use of the word odd or out ofplace.

After this if they cannot think of a substituteyou may provide them 2 or 3 options tochoose the suitable substitution.

Hints:

Mr and Mrs Suhail go to the market onSunday mornings. Mr. Suhail dislikes theseshopping trips. During these trips he


usually sits in the car reading the Sundaypapers. He is one who likes to read and hehates travelling. The other day Mrs Suhailsaid that she would have to learn driving tospare him from his Sunday trips. She alsosaid that it (was) had been her fault tomarry a man who cared the least for her.

Textual Activity xii

Preparing a Brochure

As an end product of this unit, learners areexpected to prepare a brochure on thefeatures of their locality highlighting theimportant natural resources, places ofcultural and historical importance,institutions and people.

Process:

Let the learners be grouped according tothe different localities they represent. Toprepare a brochure on the features of theirlocality, first they need to decide what alldetails they have to include in the brochure.For this you may ask questions like:

a) What do you know of the history ofyour place?

b) What are the most striking things thatattracted you in your village?

c) Aren’t there rivers, streams, hills,woods, rocks etc. in your place?

d) What is the major vocation of thepeople of the locality?

e) Who are the known persons of yourlocality?

f) Who do people like most in your village?

g) Aren’t there people like agriculturallabourers, fish mongers, newspaper boys,social activists, soldiers, teachers, lawyers,doctors, engineers and other professionalswhom everyone likes?

h) How will you collect details of all these?

i) Who will you approach to gatherinformation from?

j) Do you think you have to develop toolslike questionnaire, observation scheduleetc. for collecting data?

k) Can’t you make use of photographs ofplaces, persons and institutions of yourlocality?

In the light of the discussion, let themdecide what all things they have to includein the brochure.

Encourage them to think of attractivecaptions and titles.

Let the groups design the format of thebrochure.

Ask them to word process and make use ofpictures and background to make thebrochure attractive.

Let them publish the brochure and circulateit in the school and locality.

A sample brochure is given overleaf.Familiarise such brochures. You may findbrochures in the Internet also.


Documents

PART II THROUGH THE UNITS - Webs 01... · short stories in English, Gimpel the Fool, was published in 1957. His stories and novels reflect the world of the East European Jews he grew