WRITING TASK

TEACHER MAN - AFTER READING ACTIVITY

Writing task

Choose ONE of the following options:

a)   Describe in which way Frank McCourt is an unconventional teacher.

b)  Write the review of the book for a bookclub webpage.

c)   Read some reviews published about the book and summarize them for a university magazine.

Teacher Man - chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

-          Find in the text quotes that show he finally enjoys teaching his classes.

-          Does he finally stop worrying about what the other teacher may think of him? Why or why not?

Teacher Man: questions for chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Answer the following questions:

-          In Stuyvesant something changes in his teaching life for the first time. What is it? How does it affect him?

-          His professional life improves, but he can’t be completely happy. What happened in his private life?

Teacher Man, part 2

You can read here the questions for chapters 9 - 11. You have to answer them before our class next Tuesday when we'll discuss them. Enjoy it!

TEACHER MAN  -  Part 2

CHAPTER 9

1.     Explain why he left McKee Vocational and Technical High School and summarize his experience as a university adjunct lecturer.

2.      Why, in your opinion, didn’t he succeed when the told his university students “You have a right to think for yourselves”?

3.      Why did he give up his college career?

4.      What do we know about his family life so far? What is going on at home?

5.      What did he use the parts of a ballpen to explain?

6.      What are the problems underlying behind Hector’s incident?

CHAPTER 10

7.      What is a melting-pot school?  (Seward Park High School)

8.      What are the main problems of the students who attend this kind of schools?

9.      How did McCourt face the problem?

CHAPTER 11

10.  What challenges McCourt in his classes?

11.  Who is Andrew? What’s the connection of this kid with the teacher’s past?

12.  Why did Frank go to the psychologist? Was it positive for him?

13.  In your opinion, what does he think of psychologists after his experience?

14.  Why didn’t Ben Boom Boom react when McCourt made him fall in the classroom?

15.  How many times did he go to Dublin? How different was each occasion from the previous one?

16.  Why was he fired from the last school?

Group 4 - 6.30

Here you have the glossary you have prepared so far.

Glossary prologue - chapter 8

Teacher Man - Let's begin!

TEACHER MAN (Frank McCourt)

Activity 1 - prereading (groups of 4-6 people)

Each group does a different research:

• Search the Internet to find some background information about the social and economic situation of Ireland in the 1930s.
• Look for some information about the situation of the Irish immigrants in America in the 1950's.
• Look for films that deal with the topic of immigration in America. E.g. The Immigrant (1917), West Side  Story (1961), The Godfather (1972), El Norte (1983),  Stand and Deliver (1988), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), etc., and describe the difficulties of those people in the places where they settled down.
• Find out about the education system in the USA. Make sure you include vocational studies.
• Compile a glossary with the new and most interesting vocabulary you'll find while reading the book. 

All the groups must be made on Tuesday next week to make sure you have time to prepare your part and put it together.

Final task:  

Write a summary (max. 200 words) of each research and choose one speaker to present it to the rest of the class . They summaries will be published on the blog too.

The glossary will also be published on the blog in 3 parts, according to the 3 parts of the book, to make sure everybody can use it. 

Deadline for the oral presentations:
- 11th December (Tuesday)
All the material will be immediately posted after the presentation.