DOCUMENT RESUME ED 045 543 TE 002 133 AUTHCR Manchel, Frank, Ed.; Clark, Virginia, Ed. TITLE La Mancha Plus Cne--1969; Proceedings of the Annual Model Secondary School Conference (2nd, University of Vermont, May 23-24, 1969). INSTITUTICN Vermont Univ., Eurlington. PUB LATE May 69 NOTE 41p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$2.15 DESCRIPTORS Composition (Literary) ,*Composition Skills (Literary), English Instruction, Film Production, Grade 9, History Instruction, *Instructional Innovation, *Interdisciplinary Approach, Mass Media, Science Education, *Secondary Education, Test Interpretation ABSTRACT This overview of the first year of the La Mancha Project consists of papers on various aspects of the 5-year project to improve the composition instruction in Vermont schools, incorporating workshop and individual student conference techniques, and integratirg writing with other academic studies. The papers include discussions of(1) ninth grade progress at South Burlington High School, with appendices providing the Project outline for the school year,a selected bibliography of materials, and an introductory hitlicgraphy on dialects; (2) results of the Bergman Composition Adequacy Tests; (3) imaginative stimulation of student writing; (4) written communication and the study of history and of science; (5) film making; and (6)writing, English, and the mass media. A critical assessment of the Project with additional plans for the second year, a selected screen education bibliography, lists of directors and the 12 participating Vermont schools, and recommended readings from ninth-grade La Mancha students conclude the report. (See also TE CO2 119.) (JMC) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION reN .4- THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION LC\ POSITION OR POLICY. ,Ca Attu /cliff-- Plus 011C---1969

FRANK MANCHEL AND VIRGINIA CLARK,Editors

PROCEEDINGS 0 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT'S SECOND ANNUAL MODEL SECONDARY SCHOOL CONFERENCE

Burlington, Vermont May 23-24, 1969 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY SAMUEL N. BOGORAD

THE LA MANCHA PROJECT - THE FIRST YEAR BY TIM COMOLLI AND ESTHER URIE 1

BERGMAN'S COMPOSITION ADEQUACY PROFILE BY DAVID HOWELL 8

OF THE LA MANCHA READING SAMPLES, 1968-1969 BY ROBERT W. COCHRAN 10

R.S.V.P. BY ARTHUR DAIGON 13

LA MANCHA AND HISTORY BY LAWRENCE A. FINK 17

SCIENCE LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION BY A. HARRIS STONE 21

FILM MAKING BELONGS TO ALL DISCIPLINES BY TOM DEVINE 24

WRITING, ENGLISH, AND THE MASS MEDIA BY JOHN W. RAGLE 28

REVERSING THE PROCESS BY FRANK MANCHEL 31

SELECTED SCREEN EDUCATION BIBLIOGRAPHY 35

DIRECTORY 35

RECOMMENDED READINGS FROM NINTH GRADE LA MANCHA STUDENTS 36

iii INTRODUCTORY REMARKS by SAMUEL N. BOGORAD Department of English University of Vermont On behalf of the University, and more specifically, on behalf of the De- partment of English, the sponsor of the La Mancha Project, I am happy to welcome you to this conference. The opportunity I've had to read in advance the speeches prepared for the conference and to examine the reports in the Newsletter has made me aware of the broad spectrum of responses you have had to the first year of your La Mancha experience. "The Impossible Dream" is a stirring, even an inspiring, song; the impact of its theme is discernible in much of what you have said about the La Mancha Project. But I would caution you against allowing the potential symbolisms of the name of the project to expand into mere gimmickry. The idealism of the song is one thing; rational discrimination between illusion and delusion is another. The project has, in its first year, had predictable results: some things seem to have worked very well; some things have worked more or less effectively; some things have not worked at all. We can learn a lot from these results. We hope for better results in the next year. We shall not delude ourselves into believing that we can accomplish the impossible in one year, or two, or five. Instead of an impossible dream, may I share a fearful nightmare with you? Your frequent references to "non-verbally-oriented students" apparently they are numerous enough to constitute a recognizably significant bloc frighten me into a vision of the future in which the educational process consists increasingly of showing films to students who can respond to the experience only by making films of their own. Their verbal armory will consist of bestial grunts. This is truly Project Apocalypse. Between it and La Mancha, Armageddon alone will decide the issue. Let us not forget the purpose of La Mancha. Its purpose is not easy acceptance of the non-verbally oriented stu- dent; its purpose is to re-orient such a student so that written communication does not become for him a lost and irretrievable skill. The La Mancha Project is one outgrowth of our English Department's re-orientation vis-à-vis the secondary schools which began a number of years ago, when we decided to close our part of the nationwide gap that had grown between us and our responsibility for producing secondary school teachers of English and the gap between us and our need to be concerned about the secondary school curriculum. We began earlier than most academic English Departments in the country, and with the addition of Dr. Manchel to our staff we are effectively implementing productive relationships between you and the Department. This reconciliation between parties for so long alienated from each other will, I know, have fruitful results. At least it can now be said of the University of Vermont that for teachers of English in the state it is truly a responsible and responsive state university. Again, I bid you welcome. Viva La Mancha! Viva La Manchel! THE LA MANCHA PROJECT THE FIRST YEAR by TIM COMOLLI AND ESTHER URIE Department of English South Burlington High School South Burlington, Vermont

The first year of the La Mancha project at the class and the conference concept. Less suc- South Burlington High School has been a reward- cessful have been our efforts to integrate the social ing one: as the year draws to a close, we have a studies and science programs with the English group of Grade 9 students who are, in our work and our efforts to use the program with a opinion, writing better and enjoying it more than low ability group. they would have done after a regular Grade 9 A few details of these several aspects will give program. That this group is unanimous in its de- an insight into the success or failure in these sire to stay together to be the pilot group for the areas. The pilot class of twenty-four college- Grade 10 program is the strongest accolade the bound students is a lively group who have adapted students can give to their experiences. While the quickly to the workshop approach for writing and literature and vocabulary content of the tradition- for evaluation of each other's efforts. The first al course has had to be curtailed considerably to grouping of the class was done arbitrarily accommodate the new program, it is our im- four students in a unit. As the year progressed, pression that some of the abilities and attitudes studentschangedgroupsvoluntarily often developed by the work in composition have car- seeking special help from someone in another ried over beneficially into the other areas so that group whose reputation for ability in an area had the material associated with the Grade 9 program become known. Sometimes the teacher suggested and the study skills pertinent to this age group changes since he could see benefits for the stu- have been satisfactorily covered. dent from membership in another group. Some The brief course outline and the list of ma- students were skillful in writing concisely, while terials used which are appended to this review of the project will give a factual summary of the others were verbose; a session of working to- work done this year. During the comirg summer gether often proved helpful to both. Some could we will be involved in a review of the project get theme statements or topic sentences arranged plans and with a rewriting of the material so that almost intuitively, while others suffered torture when school opens in September, 1969, we shall in getting the paper oriented. Help was readily have a fairly compact outline of the work for use available from fellow students. Often the groups with most of our Grade 9 classes. This will in- have been broken from four to three or even to corporate material from the social science and two as students have found benefits from working science areas as well as the English program. It more directly with each other. Papers have been is our intent to utilize the materials and the submitted for group analysis with increasing techniques which we have found effective in all readiness, even eagerness; and students have be- our college-bound classes and as far as possible come receptive to criticism. From the first quick in the lower ability groups. We realize that one "This is fabulous!" or "This is awful!" the critical part of the project will need some modification, comments have moved into a "This would be for the teachers of the groups next year will not better if you - - -" and "This is clear because have the time made available this year to the you - - -" approach. pilot class teacher for conferring with students. As the students have become better able to We shall have to plan for more in-class time for evaluate their own writing, thelf, have reflected student conferences. this developing skill in their approach to the As we review the program carried out this literature used for class analysis. They have been year, we find that the most effective parts have able to appreciate the skill of the professional been the workshop, or group, organization of writer, for they have seen his craft in the light

1 of their own struggles to communicate with their studies course, we have had less success than with readers. the two areas just described. The problems innate During the first few - weeks, the workshop tech- in the traditional school schedule have prevented nique, which was a new approach to classroom the pilot composition group from being homo- work for most of the students, may have pro- geneous in the related courses. The cooperating duced some wasted time; however, there were al- teachers in science and social studies have worked ways books at hand which the students were free valiantly and cooperated completely in trying to to use, and many students quickly fell into the incorporate the La Mancha techniques into their pattern of reading or browsing while waiting for classes and in coordinating assignments with the the teacher to be free for conference and guid- work being done in the project class. Yet, because ance. Gradually the material on hand to rewrite, the majority of the students in their classes were to polish, to discuss built up into such volume not grouped as La Mancha students, it was not that there was less time for reading and none to possible to take full advantage of the plans origin- waste. The selection of material for the class ally devised to integrate major writing assign- paper, The Harlequin, and the details of getting ments. Though the frustrations of the cooperating the issue s produced have consumed much time teachers must have been many, they have re- and given many experiences of value to the mem- mained firm supporters and understanding allies. bers of the class responsible for this work. The The experiences of the three departments working staff has been changed from time to time to pro- cooperatively have been helpful in many ways vide as much shared responsibility as possible. even if we were not able to integrate efforts Concentration and attention within the groups completely. We have found that the techniques of and within the newspaper staffs have been ex- interviewing, of writing biographies, of research tremely good. that were being used in the English class were A second essential technique of the project is easily adapted to the social studies and science the conference method of working with the in- programs. The conference techniques have been dividual students. The teacher was given two useful especially in the science area, and the writ- periods a day for conferences and for planning, ing of reviews and of research has been used con- but naturally many of the students were not avail- stantly in the social studies classes. We can an- able during those two periods and their con- ticipate that, with the extension of the La Mancha ferences had to be handled in class time or at techniques to most of Grade 9, more effective other arranged moments. At first, conferences coordination of efforts will be possible. This will were long, possibly a full forty-five minute period. require careful organization and synchronization Later, as the work within the groups became of plans in the three subject areas. more effective, the time could be definitely re- With the emphasis on composition, we had duced, for students began to hand in better or- some concern about how much literature study ganized and more carefully proofread papers. could be incorporated into the freshman program. Conference time has been spent in efforts to The over-all plans for the school call for a fairly sharpen the. focus of the papers, to build strong thorough, formal introduction of the major liter- introductions and conclusions, to discuss ideas ary genres; in addition, we have a unit on mythol- and logic, and to develop some sense of effective ogy and Greek literature and a unit on the Bible wording. In some cases half of the conference as literature which have become part of the Grade time has been spent on mechanics, the individual- 9 curriculum. By adapting techniques to save ized work on problems of punctuation and gram- time, the pilot class teacher has been able to cover mar proving fairly effective. In addition to the almost all of the material of the traditional class. discussion and evaluation of composition, the con- These literary units have been started in formal ference period has been utilized to guide the in- class sessions, and then the students, with care- dividual reading program which has run concur- fully developed study guides, have been left to do rently with the other work. The agreement has much of the reading and evaltiating on their own been that when writing assignments were done, and in their groups. The groups have produced the student was free to read; but there has been organized summaries, character studies, theme careful surveillance that the written work has discussions, etc. There has been less daily quizzing reached a point where the student could do little and classroom discussion, but the final formal more with this composition until he had some testing at the end of each unit has been kept. We teacher guidance. had fully expected to find that students were going With the third facet of the program, the inte- to be extremely critical of the marking pro- gration of writing with the science and social cedures. It was a welcomed note to find that after 2 the first few sets of papers the group did not in- tape provided the impetus needed to motivate quire about the grades that the papers might have students concerned with these areas. As a creative received. By the end of the first month students agent, the recording of the students' own tele- were no longer concerned with grades as such, vision play grabbed their interest and made the and we have received no questioning by parents necessary writing involved "fun" and not merely as to the methods used to determine the grade. a classroom chore. The instructor has found the The system produced students who were not de- machine a valuable tool, for with the direct con- veloping themes around "what the teacher wants" nection of the camera to the TV set, the need for but, rather, involving themselves in their papers. reproducing student papers, with its sometimes The stigma of the grade presented no further prohibitive costs, was eliminated. As soon as the problems during the year, and the evaluation student paper was finished, it could be viewed by given on the report cards was almost entirely a the entire class by photographing it with the TV subjective one determined by the instructor. camera. This system also eliminated much wasted As we evaluate what has occurred as a learn- time on the part of both the student and the in- ing process in the pilot classroom, we find that the structor. The machine has provided many ser- students have benefitted from the group or work- vices which were not anticipated. Setting up shots shop technique and from the conference sessions. for the student film without wasting valuable film We think they are writing better, with a genuine is just one further example of the versatility of interest in and concern for what they are doing. the device. In the future, we expect it to be a tool They have learned to organize themselves and of communication among the La Mancha classes. their materials and to evaluate what they have Perhaps visitations will not be needed as we done much more precisely than with the tradition- simply "swap" tapes of our classes. al techniques. We find that these critical abilities The use of feature length movies in the class- extend into their work with the writings of others room proved to be an extremely effective motiva- their peers and the professional writers. They tor. By having the students read the accompany- have learned to take criticism, even to value it. ing novel before seeing the film, we were able to While several things which would otherwise have combine these media into an effective study of been included in the program have had to be characters, plot, theme, and film aesthetics. The omitted or cut considerably, we will have to de- films provided the motivation for writing analyti- lay judgment as to how important these things cal papers and film reviews, and for much lively are in relation to what has been gained. discussion of the total effectiveness of the film. The organization of the composition work for Specific scenes were shown several times to aid the year, based largely upon the sequence suggest- in the study of the various areas of film produc- ed by James Moffett, has been found to be gen- tion. The analysis of these scenes proved to be erally acceptable starting with autobiography important to the students' further work with film- and interview and moving to research, diction, making of their own. As a primary example, the dialogue, with a stop about mid-way for some viewing and analyzing of the final scenes of formal class work on paragraph development. Lonely Are the Brave led directly to a critical Our present conviction is that in our revision of look at the "cutting" of the students' film. Such plans we will place work on the paragraph earlier, analysis of major film productions has given the for much time can be saved in conferences and in students a number of important criteria for the groups if some basic agreements have been judging of films. It has also furnished them some cached earlier about how paragraphs and com- important basic information concerning film aes- positions are structured. From time to time a thetics and should therefore improve the quality of brief return to a formal treatment of certain as- or standards for evaluation of future films. As out- pects of punctuation is needed to keep the stu- lined in the lesson plans concerning the film pro- dents aware of the need for careful work. duction by the students, much writing was The use of video tape as an effective means of generated by the use of this media. From the instruction has proved to be beneficial throughout writing of film scripts to the plotting of publicity the country, and the use of such equipment in the for their own films, the unit stirred student interest La Mancha classes confirms this finding. After and involvement. Many students have expressed shaky beginnings with many technical problems, an avid interest in making their own films during the machine was put to effective use as a motivat- the coming summer. We will try to give as much ing agent. Various film clips from motion pictures, direction as possible during this time, for we feel ETV special presentations on composition, news that this type of involvement will be important broadcasts, and speeches all captured on video to their overall education and to their work in the

3 Grade 10 La Mancha curriculum. These films and changed schedules proved to be problems in were not, however, presented without problems providing class sessions which were helpful to scheduling of time so that the complete feature the visitors. We found that a printed program of might be shown within the school day proved im- activities, mailed to the visitors before their ar- possible, and the students were asked to view the rival, proved helpful. Next year a system of stu- film after school. The alternative of showing a dent aids is planned to assist the visitor in his reel a day for three days also presented prob- rounds. The fears that the visitors might affect lems. Booking arrangements for this extended the students' performance were not warranted, period could present serious financial difficulties, for the techniques of the workshop had become and the taking of the better part of a week for such a routine that the students often found it each film did prove costly in terms of the curricu- helpful to solicit the aid of the visiting team on lum requirements. It is hoped that these and some composition difficulty. In future visitations similar problems may be dealt with effectively we will try to include a system of following one by providing an extended block of time for the class throughout the day so that the follow-up English, history, and science classes. In this way lessons taught by the other disciplines may be any project which requires extended time allot- viewed in correct perspective. As we revised our ments could occasionally use the class time of plans for the visitations, we included time for dis- these three disciplines. cussion among the La Mancha instructors. This Staff meetings were held monthly. We found proved to be very helpful to all involved. that much of what was planned during the sum- Evaluation of the program is still subjective, mer months was not applicable when the classes for the results of the Bergman test and of the were in actual operation. For this reason close essay writing are not available to us at the time liaison with social studies and science had to be of writing this review. We have some questions maintained so that the plans in the English cur- about the validity of the Bergman test, for we riculum could be given as much follow-up in the found the mechanics of the test frustratingly am- other disciplines as possible. Although we ex- biguous; students did not find the directions easy perienced some internal difficulties in this area, to follow; there was not adequate time for the we found that this system of teacher interaction teacher to explain directions clearly, and the test was the only secure method of developing a pro- form did not seem to encourage the teacher to gram which might truly be called interdisciplin- assist with directions. We feel that, while the test ary. In the future, learning from the mistakes of measured ingenuity and style, it did not measure this year, we will make a complete and detailed logic or organization. We do not really feel com- summary of meetings at the beginning of the year. fortable about the self-correction feature of this The free-reading program generated much stu- test, especially as the same test is being read- dent interest. It became obvious that students ministered as the second evaluation. We are hope- were reading more than they had ever done ful that other tests will be available for the evalua- and enjoying it. The classroom library was an tion of progress as the project continues. We look instrumental factor in the success of this program. forward to having the report on the essay part of From a library of over 150 titles the students the evaluation. had complete freedom in their choice of reading Originally we had planned to carry the pro- material. With the library in the classroom its-lf, gram in two classes, one a high oollege-bound the instructor found it very easy to suggest specific level and the other a low general level. In spite titles for individuals during conference periods. of good intentions and honest effort, the program Being able to pick up a book which the instructor felt beneficial for the individual and handing it just has not worked with the low level group. We to him to read proved to be a good motivator for feel the failure was inherent in the nature of the increased reading. Picking up a copy of a book group assigned to the pilot teacher rather than in which had been mentioned during a class session the features of the program. With other groups and referring to it directly, noting that it was at this level, it might have worked; however, these available for borrowing without "red tape," particular personalities lacked the self-discipline proved to involve students further in good titles. necessary for group work, and their writing level The success of the program has led us to the is below that which would adapt easily to the realization that budgeting for coming years must projects being attempted. We await with interest include funds for just such classroom libraries. the effort of Champlain Valley Union High Visitations from participating schools presented School to develop a plan for this type of class next a few difficulties. A combination of bad weather year. 4 With one year's experience to build on, we Jan. Research techniques using comparative expect next year to go more smoothly. The roles topics and standard MLA documenta- of those involved in the project have gradually tion. Follow up lessons on interview become somewhat clearer, and we should be able with appropriate documentation for re- to function more effectively. We can now con- search paper. ceive of the Grade 9 program as a year's pattern Feb. Paragraph techniques with various meth- instead of bits and pieces, and we can see how ods of development noted and used. the other areas of study can be fitted into the Lead itructure emphasized again with compositicn-centered program. We expect that concentration on creative writing. the Grade 10 program will be well worked out Mar, Dialects with associated work on the by September so that efforts can be concentrated functional varieties of language. This on putting the program into effect rather than area developed by various writing and upon developing and effecting it concurrently. research assignments. The pilot group will be in its second year and Apr. Dialogue with associated work on tele- should go forward quickly. There is assurance vision, radio, and film uses. Complete from the administration that the Grade 10 group film script written by each student. Work can be scheduled for social studies as a unit; on publicity and allied propaganda. May -JuneReview the complete course placed that will give greater opportunity to blend the in context and further work done on disciplines than was possible this year. Our paragraph development, science program branches into biology and life science at the Grade 10 level, so there will be These areas were constantly supplemented with less opportunity to collaborate in that area, but various other writing assignments. Single period we shall still have the cooperation of she science "deadline papers" were used extensively to am- teachers. plify and provide practical experience for the Meantime the Grade 9 program will be ad- skills taught. Other writing experiences included justed to incorporate as much of La Mancha newspaperarticles;letterwritingtoproject techniques into all classes as the time available schools; critical reviews of films, television, plays and the inclinations of the teachers permit. We and novels; lyrics written for songs composed by shall be doing some inservice work with the fresh- students; directions to explain a process; com- men teachers to help orient them to the program, parative papers; character analysis; various topics and .we shall look to the pilDt project teacher of as assigned by students themselves in the indi- this year for direction. In general, then, the pro- vidual groups; propaganda in the form of written gram has worked well and has produced gratify- TV commercials and speeches; and variouscrea- ing results in student interest and improved writ- tive papers. The preceding list does not take into ing ability, in so far as subjective evaluation can account the various follow-up assignments given determine. We approach the second step with in the history and science sections. courage and with hope for the realization of more "impossible dreams." Appendix 11 Selected Bibliography of Materials Appendix 1 Student Texts: The La Mancha Project has utilized the follow- Ainsworth, Norma, ed. The Gift of Christmas. New ing generalized outline for the composition work York: Schola..fic Book Services, 1965. for this year. The sequential development shown Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: will be revamped during the summer rewriting Scholastic Book Services, 1965. process to provide for a more effective sequence. Dunning, Stephen, ed. Reflections on a Gift of Water- melon Pickle. New York: Scholastic Book Ser- Month Composition Areas Developed vices, 1966. Sept.-Oct.Autobiography developing into biogra- Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: G. phy with emphasis on lead sentence. P. Putnam's Sons, 1954. Lead structure developed with the Mur- Hermans, Mabel. Stories from the Old Testament. ray system. Initial work with various Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1967. types of paragraph uevelopment. Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. New York: Bantam Paperbacks, 1967. Nov.-Dec.Interview techniques with emphasis on Rouse, W. H. D., trans. The Odyssey. New York: the use of transition words and phrases. New American Library, 1937. Writing for effectiveness and reader in- Warriner, John. Aevanced Composition. New York: volvement stressed. Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961.

5 Works, Austin. A Vocabulary Builder (Book Three). Mar.Lonely Are The Brave Cambridge, Mass.: Educators Publishing Service, Apr.Fort Apache 1967. May Intruder In The Dust Rebel Without A Cause Instructor's Texts: June Ackerman, James S. On Teaching the Bible as Recordings: Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1.The Crown of Creation, Jefferson Airplane, English Curriculum Study Series, 1967. RCA. Benedict,Stewart(editor).Famous American 2.Bookends, Simon and Garfunkle, Columbia. Speeches. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 3.Bless Its Pointed Little Head, Jefferson Air- 1965. plane, RCA. Bulfinch, Thomas. Mythology. New York: Dell Pub- 4. Our Changing Language, McGraw-Hill Book lishing Company, 1959. Co. (23843) Chase, Stuart. The Tyranny of Words. New York: 5. Americans Speaking, NCTE. Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1938. 6. The Sounds of Chaucer's English. NCTE. Desser, Maxwell. Using the Library. New York: Col- 7. Woman, Woman, The Union Gap, Columbia. lege Entrance Examination Board Publications, 8.The Bitter and the Sweet, Glenn Yarbrough, 1967. RCA. Ford, Nick Aaron. Language in Uniform. New York: 9.Wonderfulness, Bill Cosby, Warner Bros. The Odyssey Press, 1967. 10. Wings It, Jonathan Winters, Columbia. Frey, Leonard. Readings in Early English Language 11.Here's Jonathan Winters, Jonathan Winters, History. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1966. Verve. Gibson, Walker. The "Speaking Voice" and the Teaching of Composition. Princeton: Commission Mechanical Devices Utilized: on English, College Entrance Examination Board, 1. Video Tape Recording (Ampex VR 5000) 1965. 2. Overhead Projector Gordon, Edward J. Writing and Literature in the 3.8 Track Stereo Tape Player Secondary School. New York: Holt, Rinehart and 4. Standard Record Player Winston, Inc., 1966. 5. 16mm and Super 8mm projectors Harrison, G. B. The Bible for Students of Literature 6. Super 8mm Camera (Kodak Instamatic) and Art. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 7.Full Track Tape Recorder 1964. 8. Cassette Tape Recorder Kuhns, William, and Stanley, Robert. Teaching Pro- 9. Contemporary Composition Kit (Science Re- gram: Exploring the Film. New York: George search Association) Mauna, Publishers, Inc., 1968. 10. Radio transcriptions "The Shadow," Puck the Leavitt, Hart Day. The Writer's Eye. New York: Comic Weekly," "Gangbusters," etc. Bantam Paperbacks, 1968. -and Sohn, David. Stop, Look, and Write! New Appendix III York: Bantam Paperbacks, 1968. Mac Gowan, Kenneth. Behind the Screen. New York: DIALECTS: AN INTRODUCTORY Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1965. BIBLIOGRAPHY Manche!, Frank. Movies and How They Are Made. Allen, Harold B., ed. Readings in Applied English Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1958. Linguistics, 2d ed. New York: Appleton-Century- Moffett, James T. Teaching a Universe of Discourse. Crofts, 1964. (Part III: Linguistic Geography.) Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1968. Evertts, Eldonna L., ed. Dimensions of Dialect. Murray, Donald. A Writer Teaches Writing. New Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1968. English, 1967. (A collection of thirteen articles on Postman, Neil.Television and the Tetrldng of both geographical and social dialects, many of English. New York:Appleton-Century-Crofts, which were first published in Elementary English.) 1961. Francis, W. Nelson. The Structure of American Reed, Carroll. Dialects of American English. New English. New York: The Ronald Press Company, York: World Publishing Company, 1967. 1958. (Chapter 9, "The Dialects of American Rhodin, Eric. Newspapermen: An Introduction to English," by Raven I. McDavid, Jr.) Journalism. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1967. Malmstrom, Jean.Dialects - U.S.A. Champaign, Roberts, Edgar. Writing Themes About Literature. Ill.:National Council of Teachers of English, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. 1963. (Based on Raven I. McDavid's "The Dia- Audio-Visual Materials lects of American English in The Structure of Motion Pictures: American English by W. Nelson Francis, but de- Nov.The Thief of Bagdad signed for secondary school use; contains many Dec.On the Waterfront practical suggestions for classroom application.) Jan. The Sea Hawk -Language in Society. New York: Hayden Book Feb. The Plainsmen Company, Inc., 1965. 6 Mc David, Raven I., Jr., and Green, Donald C. Work- New England. Both are in the Reference Room of book for The Structure of American English by W. the UVM Library. Nelson Francis. New York: The Ronald Press Two very helpful records are Americans Speaking Company, 1966. (Contains many examples of (NCTE) and Our Changing Language (McGraw- questions from the Linguistic Atlas questionnaire.) Hill). Reed, Carroll E. Dialects of American English. New A great deal of material concerning dialects, both York: The World Publishing Company, 1967. geographical and social, is published in professional Shuy, Rage:- W. Discovering American Dialects. journals like American Speech; the May 1968 issue Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of ofElementaryEnglish,forexample,contains English,1967.(An updating of Malmstrom, "Dialect Research and the Needs of Schools," 1963.) "Variations in Standard American English," "De- troit Speech: Careless, Awkward, and Inconsistent, Many of the books listed above contain bibliogra- or Systematic, Graceful, and Regular?," "Some As- phies that will suggest additional reading. pects of the Impact of Linguistics on Language Every teacher who works with dialects should Teaching in Disadvantaged Communities," "The have first-hand knowledge of the Linguistic Atlas of Bilingual Situation in Canada," and "Teaching Chil- New England and of the companion work by Hans dren Who Speak Social Class Dialects." Kurath, Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of compiled by Dr. Virginia Clark, Department of English, UVM

7 BERGMAN'S COMPOSITION ADEQUACY PROFILE by DAVID HOWELL Department o; Psychology University of Vermont

My paper this afternoon will deal with two check on the accuracy of the scoring, and, equally aspects of the results obtained using Bergman's obviously, ninth grade students cannot count, let test. I will first deal with the data we obtained, alone add or subtract. and will then discuss prospects for the use of the In all fairness, I should point out that there test in the future. were schools who took their responsibility serious- The Bergman test was initially administered in' ly, and I wish to thank you. One of the schools the fall of 1968 to a large number of ninth grade was the model school in South Burlington, and students throughout the state. This spring the it was decided to focus on the data from this same test was readministered to the same students school, since it was the most relevant for our under the same testing conditions. For those of purposes. What follows is a discussion of what you who are not familiar with the test, it can be was revealed on close examination of these data. described rather quickly. On the first day the One of the first questions which was asked student was asked to write six short writing concerned the comparability of the two groups samples on preselected topics. The next day, the the La Mancha group and the control group. To student was given a question book, and asked to answer this question, I compared the September fill out a multiple choice questionnaire dealing scores of 33 students in the control group with with the six writing samples. After the student the September scores of 61 students in the La had filled out the questionnaire, the teacher was Mancha group. These figures represent the num- to read him the correct answers and the student ber of students remaining after voiding papers was to mark all wrong items and record the for those students who did not complete all 50 number wrong on his answer sheet. questions on the questionnaire. As had been ex- In the middle of April, several of us met to go pected, there was no difference between the two over the data which had been collected. Our in- groups in terms of the number of errors. The tent was to attempt to assess, through the results Control group had a mean of 29.91 errors, while of the Bergman test, the success of the La Mancha the experimental group had a mean of 31.31 project. Unfortunately, when we received the errors. A Wilcoxon test for independent samples materials, we found that we were unable to deal showed this difference to be insignificant (z = with all, or even most, of them. There were 1.196). several reasons for our difficulty. First of all, most Given that the two groups began at the same of the answer sheets had no indication as to level, it is reasonable to ask if one group im-. whether the student was in the La Mancha f,,,roup proved more than the other over the course of or a control group. In addition, some of the the year. Here again there was no difference. The papers had been graded and some had not. Of control group had a mean improvement of 2.15 those which had been graded, some showed the points, while the La Mancha group improved by number wrong, some showed the number right, 1.00 points. This difference was tested by a Wilcoxon test for independent samples and was and some had no indication of the number right lot significant (z = .970). or wrong. What was even more disturbing was The fact that there was no difference in the that while many papers carried th:3 number wrong amount of improvement prompted me to ask if and the number right, these two figures added to there was in fact any improvement over the year. fifty plus or minus five. On a fifty item question- Here again the answer was negative. A Wilcoxon naire, it is obviously impossible for a student to test for matched samples showed the degree of have 30 questions wrong and 24 questions right, improvement to be nonsignificant for both the and yet this occurred with surprising regularity. control group (z = 1.91) and for the experi- Obviously, the teachers had made no attempt to mental group (z = 1.346).

8 The above findings can be summarized very caught in a steam a flowed to a drain. At first it briefly by saying that the two groups began the got caught on the wet, muddy drain and then year together, showed little or no improvement, ... It was gone. and finished the year together. For the proponents of the La Mancha project, Assignment D these results may seem rather discouraging. How- It was as if it happened in a split second. He ever, there are two possible interpretations. One looked around and couldn't find me. The baby explanation is that the La Mancha project was didn't feel bad at first. The reason for that is be- not successful, at least in the first year. The second cause he was having fun and didn't need his father possibility, and the one I happen to prefer, is that then. It started to get late and the child desided the Bergman test was not testing what we wanted that he had better find his father. When the child it to test. looked for a while and couldn't find him, he start- There are several reasons why I am inclined ed to cry. He cried and cried because he was lone- toward the latter view. After examining the error some and not one person going by would offer data in detail, I spent a great deal of time read- to help him. It started to get cold and he was still ing the writing samples and examining the mul- crying and still no one would help him. tiple choice answers. The first thing I noticed was that the students were making a great many errors, Assignment A at least as judged against Bergman's scoring key. The leaf falling looks like a fallon tree. It The average number of errors was approximately beautiful color are like a little rain bow, after a thirty, which is only seven and one-half fewer rain strom. In the fall you see many colorful leaves errors than would be expected if the answer sheets fallen down. The sky seem to turn many pretty had been filled out at random. colors. All the leaves fallen make the rainbow As a result of the above finding, I proceeded to bigger, then just one. examine the accuracy of the students' responses The leaves on a mountain, makes a very pretty on the answer sheet. It soon became apparent sight. It fun to count the many different color a that the students appeared unable to understand leaf. the questions. In many instances an answer sheet would contain answers which seemed to bear no Assignment D relationship to what the student had actually A little boy is lost in the park in can't find his written. Whether this lack of relationship should mommy. He began to cry. Everywhere you look, be attributed to carelessness or to inadequate you can see a little boy with a long face. He seem comprehension of what was being asked is im- so lonely, so you going as him what seem to possible to tell. wrong. "I lost my mommy." I next began reading the writing samples them- "Would you like me to help you find her," I selves, and compared my subjective estimate of said. the quality of the sample with the score on Berg- He said, "Oh please help me because I can man's test. I was unable to see any consistent re- not her." lationship. As an example, I would like to read After a long time walking around and around excerpts from two papers chosen more or less we find his mommy. He then stops his crying, and randomly. In my opinion, there is a world of run to his mommy in joyance way. Your thank difference between the two papers, and yet there the mommy and the little boy. is no differentiation in terms of error. Both of these papers (score 34) are from the same On the basis of the preceding discussion, I group at the same school with the same teacher. would recommend that we not use the Bergman test in the future. Since, for the most part, the Assignment A papers were not returned this year in a usable There the pour helpless leaf is struggling to form, I suspect that the same would hold another stay on the branch. In the view was the dark gray year. In addition, I do not feel that the test is suit- clouds and the branches swaying in the wind. The able for our purposes. Whether this is due to care- wind is starting to pick up again and the leaf is lessness on the part of the students, real difficul- off the branch in a second. It fluttered and ty comprehending the directions, or some in- flictered in the wind and finally hit the ground. adequacy of the test itself, is a question I am not The leaf was blown around on the ground with able to answer. I suspect that the major blame, the other leaves for a half an hour. Then it got but certainly not all, attaches to the last alterna- tive.

9 OF THE LA MANCHA READING SAMPLES, 1968-1969 by ROBERT W. COCHRAN Department of English University of Vermont

I am sorely tempted to move that my report be 1 = A mess; probably also very brief without received not even necessarily accepted and being succinct. that we proceed to other business. The temptation We read and scored several dittoed samples arises not because the statistic 3 I present are em- before we embarked on the reading of "live" barr.ssing to the La Mancha Project (quite the papers. reverse is true), but because such favorable sta- No reader read papers from his or her own tistics must appear rigged. If they are in any sense school, of course, but each set of fall or spring unreliable, these findings are unreliable because papers from a given class within a particular of my inexperience and not because of wily school was read by just one reader. Ideally, the manipulation. My open face is my bond; my papers would be read more than once, and ideally naiveté, which I feel confident will emerge as we the papers would be scrambled. But we had just proceed, is the guarantee of my innocence, which one day for the reading, and I spared myself the I offer to you as no small part of this package deal. subsequent task of unscrambling and restoring Let me first explain something of the procedure papers to their original folders for return to the we followed, for the benefit of those not directly schools. involved, in the reading of the papers. On April On April 21, Dr. Manchel, his intern teachers, 19, representatives of 7 of the 10 participating and a representative of a school who was unable schools met with me for the fun and games of to read with us on Saturday dealt with remaining reading papers and munching pizzas (catered folders, again after a briefing by me. I now submit by the Project's worthy director and transported to you the results of the reading. I would be very in his shiny maroon delivery truck). Our effort pleased to receive from you suggestions for further was bent to the evaluation of student 20-minute meaningful breakdowns in these statistics (see essays, written in the fall and in the spring on one table on the facing page). of the topics in a three-choice set used in both fall and spring and scored by us on a 4-point scale. Explanations: My instructions to the readers included these brief Of the 10 schools involved in the Project this suggestions and rough definitions: year, one submitted no papers; one submitted A, Read each paper for a total impression, ignoring only spring samples, with no fall papers to mea- insofar as possible occasional misspellings, omis- sure performance against; one had only a La sions of words, and similar shortcomings. Mancha class and no control group during the B. Do not think precisely of how you would grade year; and two had as "control" groups classes the paper, if the student were a member of one composed of students so obviously inferior in of your own classes. We are interested in a pro- verbal ability as to be meaningless for our pur- fessional job of scoring according to a uniform poses. The sets from those two were read, but the standard. preponderance of 1 scores and the rare exceptions C. On a 4-point scale, as indicated below, decide of 2 scores, with nothing higher, dictated my ex- first of all whether a given paper is an upper- cluding those results from my tabulations. The half or a lower-half performance; then make a schools' reasons for having their students write simple refinement of that grade. A 5-point scale on the suggested topics I do not question, but I is not being used; you will have no convenient see no purpose in the papers' being submitted to fence-straddling grade of "middle 3." 4 = Lively, interesting, sharp in detail us and certainly no justification for regarding 3 = Some spark and verve; some detail these classes as control groups. 2 = Generally "correct," but thin and in- I have placed quotation marks around the word effective "control" on the table simply because the groups

10 La Mancha 3 or 4 3 or 4 Groups Up DownSame Fall Spring School #1 22 3 14 4 11 School #2 6 3 15 10 13 School #3 13 4 5 6 14 School #4 2 4 11 10 7 School #5 8 2 10 5 12 School #6 8 7 7 8 9 School #7 8 8 5 10 9 School #8 16 1 8 11 23 TOTALS 83 32 75 64 98 GRAND TOTAL 190 % OF TOTAL 33.7% 51.6% "Control" Groups School #1 6 11 10 4 6 School #2 3 5 9 2 2 School #3 13 3 11 7. 18 School #4 4 8 8 6 6 Also School #4 4 4 15 4 2 Also School #5 13 6 12 3 4 TOTALS 43 37 65 26 38 GRAND TOTAL 145 % OF TOTAL 17.9% 26.2% were variously named by the schools themselves however, some skewing to the advantage of the and because the measure of control is, itseems desired (and achieved) results must be recog- to me, open to some question. Because I kro,,w nized as a possibility. some of the family names encountered on the class On April 21, in most instances a single reader lists for school #3 (not, I hasten to add, the scored both fall and spring papers written by a school in whose district I reside), I call your particular class in a particular school. B. We must ask ourselves how firm a check on La particular attention to the figures for that school Mancha results we have in the Control groups under both the La Mancha and the Control head- as constituted. Did scheduling of other courses, ings. Certainly this must be a true Controlgroup. for example, necessitate your keeping together Others may be as well. as a La Mancha unit your very best freshmen, with the predictable result that those most able Conclusions: students would inevitably improve, as a group, The evidence before us would seem to offer so lung as the instruction was not so poor as to proof of the effectiveness of the La Mancha ap- actually do violence to the students' natural proach, since in both the first and the fifth columns tendency to grow? the La Mancha students have shown the improve- On the other hand, ment and the attainment of a level of competence A. The La Mancha groups were at some disad- which we seek. The statistics, then, are reassuring vantage if they are indeed composed of the most by any standard of initial response. Still, self- able students in the freshman class, for the stu- satisfaction, always dangerous, must be tempered dent who scores a 4 on his fall writing sample by a few very important considerations: can only hold steady or go down with his spring score. A. Since on April 19 the fall papers from a given B. The "spring" reader might have been less rather school were read by one reader and the spring papers by another reader, the improvement than more lenient than the "fall" reader, although where it occurs may be the product of the again, of course, such an effect on the total re- "spring" reader's being more lenient than the sults should be nullified on balance. "fall" reader. Such a discrepancy should work In conclusion, the results seem to me encourag- both ways, of course, and for Control as well as ing. At the very least, they are not discouraging. La Mancha groups, and therefore should level Let us remember always that we have before us out. Since our members are relatively small, but a single evaluation of each piece of writing,

11 and that any student might have had an off day C.In connection with recommendation B, a reader when composing either of his papers. He might of fall papers should read the spring papers also have had the good fortune of catching one written by the same students whose fall papers she read. The reader would have no recollection reader's fancy in some idiosyncratic fashion. I of individual fall performance by springtime, for would argue, though, that although an able stu- her memory would be dulled and her sanity as- dent may stumble or fall on a given day, it is un- saulted by much paper reading in the interim. likely that a weak student will impress beyond his The only obvious disadvantage of this scheme is true capabilities. English teachers are not noted that the reader knows that we hope to see high for their kindly tolerance toward other people's and higher scores achieved in the spring. students, however many allowances they may D. As the Project moves into its second year and make for their own. its second phase, the record of each student's performance should be kept for each and all of Recommendations: his years in high school, since a one-year period Having offered perhaps enough caveats with is both very short and very problematical to respect to the interpretation to be placed on this serve as a basis for measuring the individual's year's findings, let me, finally, make a few recom- progress and the Project's success. mendations for the future: E.After the fall reading, teachers may wish to let their students (and this should be done for both A. Students should be given a new set of topics on La Mancha and Control groups) know what the which to write in the spring. Many teachers re- assembled readers regarded good writing to be. ported that their students groaned upon being To the objection that sophistication with regard confronted in the spring with the same (by then, to a type of test is no substitute for genuine at least) tired old topics given them in the fall. learning I would counter that this is not really My impression is that the wise student is the a type of test. Students are likely to "give" us student who wrote on one of the three topics in what they think we "want to hear" on an as- the fall and then chose a second of the three in signed topic. If we can demonstrate to them our the spring (as did my own son, I proudly report). preference for honest and affecting writing, we Such a course of action removed all temptation may succeed in encouraging them to write better to recall what one had written previously and and also succeed in some modest way in closing therefore contributed to spontaneity. the generation gap. B.Teachers(preferably La Mancha teachers) I know of one reader who went back to his should be called together for a fall reading of classroom after our April reading, gave his stu- fall papers, as a part of the process of discover- dents our rough definitions of the 4-point scale, ing what is valued and what is to be emphasized and had them evaluate writing by their class- in student writing. Such a plan is especially de- mates on that basis. The students, I understand, sirable in view of the amount of turnover which enjoyed calling, a mess a mess and also profited I know is to occur in teaching assignments. Con- from being let in on the inner workings of a not tinuity is important if not vital to this Project; after all very mysterious process. we should therefore make every effort to initiate a teacher into as many aspects of the Project as I wish to express my special thanks to this possible, and as soon as possible. Then in the year's readers and again to invite suggestions for spring, a second reading this of spring papers improvement. only should be held.

12 R. S. V. P. by ARTHUR DAIMON Department of English Education The University of Connecticut I come today with no theories of rhetoric, no burly of things, people, and events which come formulas for certain success in composition in- to lie on his communicative threshold. struction. I do not bring the usual reassurance that Indeed, one prime purpose of the English pro- student writing can be substantially improved gram is to provide entrée into things, people, and even given enough time to consider what students events into "the way things are," into ideas produce, the proper working atmosphere, lay and issues that are important or potentially im- readers, and electronic aids. I am not convinced portant to the students in our classrooms. We that significant and lasting improvement is at all look to literature for such humanistic enlighten- possible in the kind of picture, TV, film, talking, ment; we acknowledge the contributions of the digest, instant world in which we live. Indeed, popular media film,television,newspapers, arguments could be marshalled suggesting that and magazines to making students aware of even if the miracle of universal writing fluency what is swirling around them in this mad world and coherence were to materialize, it would be, of ours, and where in it they may possibly fit. The in the context of the media revolution and the teacher too contributes his knowledge and in- actual writing needs of students, a futile exercise. sights to help develop this sense of how things are. But "La Mancha" is the name of our conference, All of these reading, viewing, listening, finding- and the vigorous exercise of futility and expecta- out activities provide not only humanizing en- tion of the miraculous are the orders of the day. counters and the occasions for learning certain Let this year's Quixote, then, prepare to skir- skills, but they also provide a reservoir of potential mish with the windmills, digging rusty spur into commentary. Having thus engaged the student's the honey flanks of a tired Rozinante, and keep- attention (he may be furious, intrigued, bitter, ing before his eyes the image of that unattainable curious, disillusioned, ambivalent, or ecstatic), ideal, the pure and lovely lady, Dulcinea del provision for some disciplined response is made. Toboso. To acknowledge that the damsel was, Such response may be expressed as opposition, in truth, a common whore, unworthy of chivalric support, satire, irony, parallels, corollaries, im- obeisance, would, of course, spoil the game. Let plications, or extensions of the issue at hand. I us then maintain the fiction that the ideal does am not suggesting such a clear-cut division of exist and that it can be attained through the doing processes is obvious in the working classroom. of good works. Nevertheless, most teachers would probably agree Those of you who heard me talk about the to the stimulus-response pattern of much of what literature program (Burlington, 1967), or about we do in our classes. the English curriculum (Burlington, 1968), will The student's first response may be gesture. surely be able to anticipate my position vis h vis He may shake his head, smile, gasp in horror, composition (Burlington, 1969). Reading litera- sneer, guffaw, wretch, or wrinkle a brow. His next ture, I had said, should be the occasion for response, ordinarily, is talk informally to his pleasurable exploration and illumination of what friends and to the teacher in class discussion, as is important to human beings. Writing, I would a member of a smaller group in panel discussions, now say, should be the occasion for formulating individually to the teacher, or during the ubiqui- a response to those internal and external happen- tous three-minute talk. ings important to the writer, so that he may, in All of these stimulus response activities are, Donald Murray's words, "transplant it into the for students, extensions of the normal communi- minds of people beyond the range of his voice.'" cative behavior of people. As teachers we have His act of writing must be the most logical and little trouble initiating and sustaining speech ac- appropriate means of responding to the burly- tivities. Listening, given reasonable talk and op- portunities to respond, presents relatively little Donald M. Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing (Boston: difficulty. Certainly our students do much active Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1968), p. 1. speaking and listening, mouths and ears pressed

13 to telephone hot-lines. Decoding pint (it used to ing installed in selected areas, will certainly de- be calling reading) still is regarded as a fairly cide the issue. utilitarian activity. Most students acknowledge its Why writing then? It is difficult to defend writ- importance and do it as a matter of course in their ing for writing's own sake. Writing can be justified normal, that is 1.o say, their out-of-school lives. as it demonstrates its indispensability to students They may read trashy fiction or the most prosaic engaged in the larger processes )f stimulus and exposition, but these lurid tales, rock and roll response to what they see, or come to see, as im- magazines, record labels, menus, advertisements, portant. Only as it serves the larger humanizing and street signs testify to acceptance of reading function of the English program can we lavish the as a normal mode of receiving information and time and energy on shaping the written word. If experiencing pleasure McLuhan notwithstand- it fails to serve the humanizing function, it should ing. not be permitted to steal precious hours from our At this point, writing is traditionally included real work of moving minds. as an appropriate language art which permits a In the novel Herzog, Saul Bellow has unwitting- special kind of ordered and recorded response. ly planted the seeds of a model humanities-based Writing, however, is really a special case in to- writing program. It is almost a pity that Mr. day's schools. It cannot pass the test of sane and Bellow does not teach a composition course in a normal activity care ed on by the population at high school, because he would know just how to large. These days it i3 an activity practiced al- get his students to write. He would do it just as most exclusively in classrooms or by professionals. he gets the almost Everyman, Moses Herzog, to Because it is performed upon. command of the write. The very anti-hero of the novel Herzog teacher, to whom its message is usually directed, experiences several parallel threats to his sanity. and because the message is rarely seen by its most His second marriage has just foundered under logical audience, writing has little communicative particularly ugly circumstances. An important potency for students. Writing is, for most of them, friendship has evaporated in a miasma of intrigue an exotic penitentialritual, endured only to and betrayal. Simultaneous with the crumbling of achieve the long-sought diplomaed salvation. his personal relationships is his failure to arrive I have no sentimental attachment to writing. at some intellectual synthesis, some reconciliation The McLuhanists could be right when they pro- of the myriad of theories and phenomena at play claim writing an antiquarian activity completely in the universe, Herzog teeters at the edge of out of tune with "the way it is." It could be too mental breakdown. that English teacher-training programs should be Caught then between the disintegration of his turning out media managers rather than teachers personal life and a universe which becomes more of literature and composition. If this is true, if incomprehensible as one learns more about it, writing is being perpetuated as ritual activity Herzog writes. He writes: better suited to museum than to classroom, let us ".. songs, psalms, and utterances, putting into abandon it and find some other means of coherent words, what he had often thought, but for the response to the confusions about us. What shall sake of form or something of the sort had al-.7ays it be? Film-making? Psychodrama? Sensitivity suppressed."' "... he wroteendlessly fanatically to the news- training? The Living Theater? Found poetry? papers, to people in public life, to friends, and Computer programmed discourse? relatives, at last to the dead, his own obscure dead, Stephen Dunning too suggests that the near and finally the famous dead. " future will find utilitarian writing gone.' Com- He writes to everyone from the bank robber, puters will pre-empt conventional business cor- Willie Sutton, and the credit manager of Marshall respondence. Multiple choice tests checked by Field's store in Chicago to Spinoza and God. He mechanical readers will soon displace essays. writes to Fred Hoyle, the physicist, to a college Social correspondence is already giving way to professor, to Teilard de Chardin, the theologian, the telephone (anywhere in the United States for to General Eisenhower, to Adlai Stevenson, to an one dollar). Witness the current telephone ad- oil engineer, a police commissioner, a Hindu vertising on television, scoffing at the slow and mystic, the U. S. Public Health Service, The New impersonal letter. Visi-phones, permitting long York Times, to his cousin, aunt, and son, and of distance face-to-face communication, already be- course, to himself. His letter to his mother begins, 2 Stephen Dunning, "Some Pragmatics of Composition," Saul Bellow, Herzog (New York: The Viking Press, Reflections on High School English, ed. Gary Tate (Tulsa: 1964), p. 327. The University of Tulsa, 1966), p. 56. 4/bid., p. 1.

14 "As to why I haven't visited your grave in so mean to respond disproportionately to what is, or long. .".5 To a Public Health Service official who to be consistently inconsistent, or to be preoc- has appeared on television his opening sentence cupied with inner storms. Addressing the slings is "I saw you on television making a damn fool and arrows would constitute therapy, in the sense of yourself... [and] ... I feel free to tell you of Herzog's therapy, but we would want to avoid what I think of your philosophy."' To a Panama Herzog's neurotic symptomology of writing to City civic official: "The size and number of rats the mind's image of the audience rather than to in Panama City when I passed through truly the audience itself. astonished me."° Some of the letters are short, Our slogan then must become "Every student running five or six sentences. Most are rather a Herzog" (not a very stirring slogan, I admit). long, some running several pages. In Donald Murray's terms our instructional task It sc. NI becomes apparent that his writing is is to help the student find and exylore his subjects both symptom and therapy for his imminent which are important to him, subjects to which emotional collapse. It is symptom because, as you he wants to respond. My emphasis would be on have probably guessed, Herzog writes, but almost the exploration of subject, using all appropriate all of his letters go unmailed. He very rarely media for stimulation and response, rather than reaches his intended audience. In a certain sense, on the one medium, writing, and that one a however, Saul Bellow delivers Herzog's mail to candidate for obsolescence. Our only hope for the audience of readers of the novel. Herzog's writing is to make it a logical and needed act for letters can be read by those addressed who are students caught up in the frustrations and in- still alive and can read English. (I don't know if justices, the possibilities and gratifications which God reads novels in His spare time. I hope He are their world. does.) Literature helps to locate subjects, as do news- The therapy for Herzog (and for Bellow, who papers, magazines, films, and television, as do is, I believe, plagued by the same demons) lies in public figures and nagging teachers. Once found Herzog-Bellow's use of the epistolary editorial to and enlarged through discussion and perhaps give shape to and to purge all of those things that further reading, viewing, and listening, writing intrigue him, that puzzle him, that enrage him, may be possible. Let them write their epistolary that move him. For Herzog and Bellow, writing editorials to their parents, to their friends, to their is the most appropriate means of contending with enemies, to their neighbors, to the principal, to the a threatening, demeaning, and ultimately incom- town council, to the mayor, to the governor, to prehensible world, where only occasional revela- the President, to the Pope, to the TV station, to tions and joys are possible. the newspaper, to the Beatles, to Donovan and How does all of this bear on the place of writ- Aretha Franklin, to Nuyen Cao Ky, and Mao ing in the English classroom and on how writing Tse-Tung, to Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, to can be made a logical communicative activity for General Hershey, to James Earl Ray, and Sirhan students? In a sense, we are all Herzogs trying to Sirhan,toStokely Carmichael and Eldridge find ourselves in an increasingly confusing world. Cleaver, to the dead John and Robert Kennedy We are looking for a "synthesis" (Herzog's and Martin Luther King, to Julius Caesar, to favorite word), some more deliberately and skill- Socrates, to Oedipus, to Silas Marner (he'd love fully than others. We are all trying to reconcile an to receive some mail), to The Ancient Mariner, overwhelming number of competing explana- to Willy Loman, to Holden Caulfield, to Satan, tions for what it means to be alive, explanations and to God and to anyone else, in fact or in thatarepsychological,scientific,economic, fiction, living or dead, or not yet born. humanistic, pragmatic, idealistic, religious. Our Having found subject and audience, let them students too are trying to make sense out of their inquire and inform, analyze and compare, attack world, some unconsciously, an increasing num- and defend, complain and rail, sneer and deride, ber very consciously and deliberately. They are, worship and adore. And the teacher must deliver however, receiving very little help from us, as they cast about. the mail, and, whenever possible, wait for a reply. It has been said that adolescence is the time The mail must be delivered, because delivery of socially acceptable neurosis. To be adolescent rescues writing from being the irrelevant act it is, in a sense, to be neurotic, if by neurotic we now seems to most students. Yes, I can hear your questions. How does one 5ibid., p. 11. deliver correspondence to Silas Marner or to ° Ibid., p. 49. 7Ibid., p. 318. Oedipus, or to God not to mention waiting for

15 a response? And even if we knew their addresses, were willing to be convinced one way or the other wouldn't the postage be prohibitive? and would accept written statements from those Obviously, letters can be written and mailed to who had something to say. real people, organizations, corporate entities The students, of course, were outraged and the mayor, the TV station, Dow Chemical, and pleaded for paper and the opportunity to put so or. A student or group of students writing a down in vivid and ringing tents just what they single utter to such an addressee could reasonably thought of the summer school plan and of the expect some sort of response. Very busy public Board. The teacher, playing it cool, was finally personalities, however, are not likely to take time persuaded to take class time to organize what to respond to the polemics of high school students. seemed to be a non-English activity. I don't know Nor will Silas Marner, Oedipus, or Goci turn out at what point the students were let in on the joke to be anything but very delinquent correspond- and what the consequences were for the teacher's ents. credibility, but a magnificent writing occasion Correspondents must be found who will give was created. Writers were communicating for a response to the queries and challenges posed by crucial purpose to the most logical audience via the writer. Here is the opportunity to vary an- the most appropriate medium, and proper em- other usually fixed element in the communicative ployment of the medium could make a difference act. Not only should we vary the audience to in what happened in the real world during the whom we write, but we should vary the voice or very real month of July. the persona of the writer. Students should be pre- Undoubtedly, inventive assignments based on pared to respond to a classmate's epistolary critical analysis of literature, on personal experi- editorial by assuming the persona of the address- ence and opinion, on description, exposition, and ee. Each member of a class pursuing a study of persuasion will always find students ready to violence, for instance, would write a letter respond, satisfied with their subject. These are the editorial. One student might address Martin students who are continually asked by teachers Luther King. Another student would write to to read their works in front of the room as ex- Oedipus, another to God, and so on. The or- amples of assignments well done. But this will not dinarily undeliverable letters would be randomly do for the vast and overwhelming majority of or perhaps deliberately assigned to members of students who avoid the writing chore with alacrity the class or perhaps delivered to students in and go intellectually limp in a demonstration of another class. Each recipient would be responsible cursive resistance when finally confronted by for writing a reasoned reply in the voice of King white composition paper. or Oedipus or God. Adopting the role of another I have deliberately avoided other important personality calls not only for knowledge of his phases of composition instruction. Certainly the particular or possible position, but of the time workshop setting, editing and rewriting, the com- and texture of his discourse. position conference, evaluation by teacher and Some honest and vigorous writing would sure- students, all bear on the making of a composition. ly come of such issue-centered composition direct- These windmills I leave to other Quixotes. ed at and delivered to other-than-teacher audi- Now, if what I have said has any validity, you ences, with the expectation by the writer of real should, at this point, be so stimulated, Ef) eager or simulated response. to complain and rail, sneer and deride, that you The story is told of the almost perfect writing are fairly frantic to get your hands on paper and assignment, an assignment which fulfills our re- pencil to compose a stinging epistolary editorial. quirements for logical need- of the written word You have the persona (indignant English teach- to contend with an important issue. At a recent ers), you have your subject (why all of this just board meeting, an eighth grade class was told by won't work), and now you need a recipient for the teacher, it was decided, in view of the knowl- your issue-centered response. May I suggest that edge explosion, the space race, etc., to study the you address your comments to Professor Manchel, possibility of extending the school year one month who will, I am sure, publish them in booklet form into the summer vacation. Board members were, as a significant contribution to the impromnent however, interested in hearing from all affected of composition instruction. Or, if you must, send parties parents,teachers,and students.It them to me, and I will read them and add them seemed that board memoers were not quite sure to my burgeoning file of vehement letters post- of the merits and demerits of the scheme. They marked "Burlington, Vermont."

16 LA MANCHA AND HISTORY by LAWRENCE A. FINK Department of Education and Child Study Smith College

America in the late 1960's has been labeled Mancha Project and agrees that the improvement a "sick society." The unlicensed social physicians of writing is the responsibility of all teachers and often include in their diagnosis a weakness in all disciplines, then the essay question becomes the teaching of American history. Other practi- the most valid evaluation instrument. La Mancha tioners overreact to some ultra-patriotic presen- aside, heavy reliance on objective test items re- tations of American history and assert that the inforces the student's traditional view of history true history of the United States is a dark one. that it is the memorization of "facts" and that The disillusionment of many of our young people there are right and wrong answers to every ques- comes from many sources an unpopular war, tion or problem. Further, such procedures prevent a violent domestic environment, and a suffocation the students from playing with ideas, from eval- of affluence. To be patriotic in some circles is uating historical evidence, from drawing their own almost to be subversive. A small segment of the conclusions, and from sharpening their skill of student population is sworn to disrupt and de- writing effectively. stroy American society. Our colleges and univer- One should not infer from this position that sities and all symbols of authority are the enemy. effective writing is the primary aim of a good One possible remedy for the current school history course, but it certainly is one of the de- population it is too late for their older brothers sired results to be gained from a year's study of and sisters might be to allow them some lati- man and his experiences. If one can demote the tude in interpreting our past history for them- textbook and cure himself from the obsession of selves. Proper use of primary source materials coverage, then that teacher is on his way to a could be one way of helping our young people better, more relevant, more modern, more effec- come to some conclusions. tive history course. If that teacher can also bring American history is generally taught to our himself to allow his students to read appropriate, young citizens in the fifth grade, in the eighth well selected source materials and further give grade, and again in the eleventh and/or twelfth them the opportunity to write their own inter- grade. Those going on to college are often exposed pretation of man's past, he is then offering a to still another survey and a variety of period or realistic approach to problems that have plagued topical courses. Some differentiation of approach the teaching of history and caused so much dis- and materials as well as close attention to effective illusionment among past student groups. When writing should be made but quite often are not. one takes such dead aim at current practices in American history as taught in American high the history classroom of contemporary America, schools needs vitalizing. Usually it is not the stim- surely a rationale can be expected by the reader. ulating, challenging, and exciting subject it should I hope you will bear with this over-thirty teacher, be. The great majority of American history who has been trained as a historian, as I consider courses are built around a textbook narrative, how thecriticizedsituationdeveloped and written with a national market in mind, requiring attempt to illuminate some of the bright spots of little more than recall of innumerable "facts." the past. More profitable and stimulating would be an Textbooks in American history began to ap- American history course that drew on primary pear in the United States immediately after the sources and on varying and changing interpreta- establishment of the federal union. The primary tions. reasons were nationalism and democracy: there In addition, many social studies teachers use was an immediate move to direct the loyalty of the objective tests in measuring the achievement of youth to the new nation rather than to the state their students or "what they have learned." I or section; and authors, in addition, were also wouldsubmit,psychologistsnotwithstanding, conscious of the Jeffersonian ideal of an educated that there is very little justification for such prac- electorate as necessary for the operation of dem- tice. If one accepts the basic tenets of the La ocracy. In 1827, both Massachusetts and Vermont

17 mandated the teaching of United States history Hall, William James, and Edward L. Thorndike, in all towns within their boundaries. From 1870 and the philosophy of John Dewey, changed on, a growing number of colleges added history pedagogical theory and influenced an ever-grow- to their formal entrance requirements. ing number of methods courses and methods As American education developed during the texts, including those in the teaching of history. nineteenth century, three cycles of teaching the The progressives, demanding social reforms, in- history of the United States were established. fluenced many school leaders. The social sciences Early in the development, the first cycle was politicalscience,economics,sociology placed in the elementary school so that students sought recognition in secondary schools. Normal- would be exposed to the history of their country school professors, school superintendents and before they left the schoolhouse. As students be- principals, and classroom teachers called for cur- gan to remain in school through the eighth grade, riculum reform. a second cycle of American history was included There is a lack in the educational literature of in the curriculum of that grade to expose the clearly focused aims for social studies instruction. students immediately before they left school. The teacher not guilty of adopting the single aim Finally, when high schools expanded in number of transmitting factual data by rote memorization and scope, a third cycle was introduced. As each tends instead to lose focus, in taking account of course was added, none was removed from the a multitude of stated objectives, which in cat- earlier grade levels, so that in most school systems egories of information, understandings,skills, today in the United States, students go through attitudes, and behavior, sometimes number into three cycles of American history before they grad- the hundreds. Moreover, the elementary, junior uate from high school. high, and senior high schools cannot seem to The high school American history course was establish distinctive aims for successive cycles of at first developed in accordance with what was the American history course. written in available textbooks. The books were Henry Johnson has maintained that the con- written by authors and used by teachers with no trolling purpose of the study of American history professional preparation. There were no profes- is the understanding of the social and political sors of history and no major in history was offered world around us through the teaching of develop- in the nation's colleges. The American Historical mental history and the concomitant skill of the Association was founded in 1884 with but nine critical method. Such an objective could never be members. fulfilled within the format of most current class- Meanwhile, history was established as a major room operations. A Charter for the Social Sciences field of study in colleges, and the History Teach- in the Schools, drafted by Charles Beard, identifies er's Magazine appeared in 1909. Professional his- three factors that inescapably condition what is torians began to write textbooks for high school taught in the social sciences: the necessities of courses and teach prospective history teachers. scholarship, the realities of society, and the re- In 1911 David Saville Muzzey wrote a textbook quirements of the teaching and learning process. that shifted the midpoint of high school American Beard analyzed the social understanding for which history from 1783 to 1865. In 1912 James Johnson had called and endorsed Johnson's em- Harvey Robinson published his New History phasis on critical method: "A knowledge of how which advocated less attention to political, con- to acquire knowledge is a permanent possession stitutional, and military aspects of history and which can be used throughout life." more attention to social, cultural, and economic If one accepts these ideas, then it becomes development. In the 1930's textbooks by Faulkner necessary to set about adopting different ap- and Kepner and by F. P. Wirth adopted topical- proaches to the teaching of American history. unit organizations. The content and organization Not only should there be distinctive aims for the of these texts attempted partially to make some successive cycles of American history but differ- provision for the able high school student who entiation should also be made for varying levels had been somewhat forgotten as educators re- of ability; courses for academically able youth sponded to a changing high school population. should include work with source materials and Other factors affecting secondary schools and interpretations the tools and the product of the place of American history in them became the historian. Although the views of Johnson and apparent in the early part of the twentieth cen- Beard were published between 1915 and 1934, tury. Increased enrollments brought many youths their ideas are yet to be heeded by more than a for whom traditional courses were inappropriate handful of teachers and administrators. or inadequate. The new psychology of G. Stanley Many publications, some intended for use in

18 secondary schools, made selected source ma- as for good, of that greatest of all human inven- terials available to teachers and students. The tions, language. Children should be taught that words are indispensable but also can be fatal volume by Nevins and Comanager, The Heritage the only begetters of all civilization, all science, all of America, and Commager's Documents of consister.cy of high purpose, all angelic goodness, American History are representative of many and the only begetters at the same time of all publications that testify to some continuing con- superstition, all collective madness and stupidity, viction that primary sources have a role in history all worse-than-bestial diabolism, all the dismal teaching. Few teachers, however, could spare historical succession of crimes in the name of God, time from textbook teaching for such luxuries. King, Nation, Party, Dogma. Never before, thanks Development of an American history course to the techniques of mass communication, have so appropriate to the abilities and needs of able many listeners been so completely at the mercy thatdifferentiate of so few speakers. Never have misused words studentsrequires principles those hideously efficient tools of all the tyrants, elementary from advanced history. The most war-mongers, persecutors, and heresy-hunters comprehensive treatment of this subject appears been so widely and so disastrously influents.:: as in Chapter IV of Henry Johnson's Teaching of they are today. Generals, clergymen, advertisers, History. Johnson, drawing to some extent on and the rulers of totalitarian states all have good Charles Seignobos, describes advanced history as reasons for disliking the idea of universal education "thought about human experience." History con- in the rational use of language. To the military, cerns relationships, generalizations, abstractions, clerical,propagandist, and authoritarian mind and thus ranges into the realm of ideas. Along such training seems (and rightly seems) profound- with these considerations goes the understanding ly subversive. To those who think that liberty is a good thing, and who hope that it may some day and application of historical method and the con- become possible for more people to realize more comitantskillsof investigation and writing. of their desirable potentialities in a society fit for Johnson's view of advanced history is accepted free, fully human individuals to live in, a thorough by Ernest Horn and is alluded to by Edgar B. education in the nature of language, in its uses and Wesley and Stanley P. Wronski. The question abuses, seems indispensable. Whether in fact the appears to be totally neglected in other methods mounting pressures of over-population and over- books. organization in a world still enthusiastically dedi- Except for Mary Sheldon Barnes' method and cated to nationalistic idolatry will permit this kind the source publications and problems organiza- of subversive linguistic education to be adopted by tions that appeared more than half a century ago, even the more democratic nations remains to be teachers until recently had little access to re- seen. sources for implementing Johnson's ideas. As if Whether one is dealing with very capable or in answer to the needs of the "deprived" history less able youngsters, another resource that has students of our nation, the paperback revolution been with us for several decades is finally being has opened possibilities for appropriate programs. accepted as a valid classroom and learning tool. The student who has been trained to work in The use of the Hollywood feature films as well as the historical method literally falls on his face specially prepared educational films is receiving if there has not been a parallel training in effective wider and wider acceptance in the public schools writing. As Francis Bacon wrote,"Readinf, and colleges. maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and Traditional teachers have for too long a time writing an exact man." The student who is unable looked at the use of films in the classroom as the to be "exact" in his analysis and conclusions on lesson plan of the lazy or ill-prepared teacher. the written page is not fulfilling the promise of Colleges have for quite a while now pointed with his training. The principles of clear thinking and pride at this film series or that on their campus logical writing are necessities that must be in- but were very quick to label these activities as cluded "in the bag" of every successful student of extra-curricular. Slowly the realization has come history. The use of words, both spoken and upon American educators that students can be written, must be mastered by every student to the film literate while they may be functionally illiter- limit of his own individual excellence. To quote ate when it comes to the printed word. This cur- Aldous Huxley in the Spring 1962 Daedalus: rent student generation has been raised with the Even on the verbal level, where they are most electronic baby-sitter, that is, the family television at home, educators have done a good deal less set. than they might reasonably have been expected to Much is said about this student generation do in explaining to young people the nature, the that is derogatory, but in the view of the writer limitations, the huge potentialities for evil as well it is clearly the most moral generation in the his-

19 tory of our country. This is the first generation Itis time that teachers, administrators and that has been wholly committed when it comes curriculum experts recognize the great impact to the questions of war and race. They argue that television and films have made on con- against the hypocrisy of a nation with such lofty temporary American youth and borrow a page ideals as ennunciated in the American Creed and from the book of the various mass media. In- Fourth of July oratory that nevertheless lets the corporating the film into the history or social Vietnam War drag on, allows the inequality studies classroom need not be restricted to con- gap to exist and widen between white and black, temporary and social issues. The publishers are and spends billions of dollars annually to get to flooding the market with "multi-media materials." the moon while many Americans suffer the It is up to the classroom teachers, who are the ravages of hunger. only ones in the final analysis who can get the job One of the reasons that these young people done, to begin to restructure their approach to have become so committed in these areas and so the teaching of their subject. The questions and restless is this visual literacy mentioned above. answer daily recitation, the lecturing, and the The Vietnamese War is fought in their living answering of the questions at the end of chapters rooms at 6:30 every evening with Chet Huntley are no longer enough. This essentially is what or Walter Cronkite narrating. The racial revolu- the students are telling us in their sometimes tion is reported into their homes with equal aggravating and immature way but they are regularity. CBS and NBC both do in-depth more immature and less sophisticated than we documentaries on Hunger in America. who teach and profess or are they?

20 SCIENCE LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION by A. HARRIS STONE Department of Science Southern Connecticut State College

A Position deal almost entirely with the realities of the nat- The science teacher is indeed fortunate to have ural universe. Thus, it is fitting to suggest that a basis in reality on which to develop learners science courses find their operational basis, direc- who can observe, abstract, and evolve idea: He tion, and execution almost entirely in the learner's is even more fortunate since the reality of the cognitive domain. There is usually minimal in- physical world offers a direct opportunity for the teraction between the affective domain and a development of communication skills. No con- learner's enterprises in the science classroom. tent field offers a better chance to communicate This phenomenon is the outcome of years of cognate data and its implications, since science attitude development among laymen; science is content can be directly measured and qualified. reflected as a solely objective pursuit. The fact Yet, though the task of communications skill de- that the cognate functions of learning are para- velopment should be relatively easy,science mount in the sciences has conditioned teachers to teachers have not met success in their attempts use highly structured process tasks in the devel- to achieve it. The idea that, before writingor opment and execution of curriculum design. communicating can be accomplished, the author Through process task assignment, the teacher is must have something to say seems obvious. But able to structure activities for learners whichare perhaps the major stumbling block in developing highly logical and readily analyzed. Clearly, there writing and communicative skills with secondary is a general prejudice in the American school school science students is the fact that the obvious structure which favors cognate development. But is often difficult to achieve. this bias is both advantageous and problematic to The structure of secondary school science the science teacher and alternately to the science courses may be the deterrent to development of learner. The philosophers of science caution that communicative skills, for, in structures where the the popular view of science has already de- prime responsibility for learning is assumed by humanized science at considerable loss topro- the teacher, the learner is ata loss to have some- spective learners and "understanders" of science. thing to communicate about. To this point, Ipro- The school structure, which in science educa- pose that major changes in course designs, teacher tion prejudicially emphasizes the cognate domain attitudes, and philosophic directionsare pre- and its development, de-emphasizes and mini- cursers to the development of communicative mizes the affective domain. Further, communicat- skills. At least one problem presents itself clearly; ing is both a cognate and an affective enterprise. in order to develop effective communicationin ( Almost simultaneously, the secondary school science, the participating learner must have either almost ignores the psychomotor domaincom- 1) a cognitive position from which he is intrinsic- pletely.) However gloomy this picturemay be, ally motivated to communicate hard data and it is through efforts such as the La Mancha project information to others, or that sensitive, aware teacherscan redirect the 2) the learner must be in a position where he nature of learning and restructure the philosophic wishes to ask a series of questions inan attempt basis of the schools. to delineate a problem. A Criticism Either of then situations provides the need to The goal of science educators is at least two- communicate, but neither can be expected to fold. It is primarily to promote learning of the occur with any degree of regularity unless the physical and biological characteristics and inter- learner assumes the major responsibilities and actions of the environment. It is also tocom- efforts of learning. municate, both internally and externally, (1) the There are, in fact, discernible differences be- hard data, (2) the dissonances, and (3) the affec- tween science courses and most other courses in tive domain attitudes whichare outcomes of the secondary school curriculum. Sciencecourses cognate learning. Toward these ends existing 21 curricula of most schools can now accomplish, writing projects unless the curriculum is de- with varying degrees of effectiveness, the first pendent on individual learning? goal. The second part of the goal is far more 3. Can Jacher directed and controlled learning difficult to accomplish for several reasons. First, produce students who have something to com- there has never been a continuous and well de- municate about? signed effort toward the development of com- 4. Does currently available :.esearch offer any municative skills in science learners. Second, the foundations on which individual learning can nature of science courses usually dictates that be supported? most communication within the structure of a 5.Is there any reason to believe that individual- course be confined to class notes and stultifying ized learning will produce more able communi- laboratory reports. Indeed, the classical labora- cators? tory makes a mockery of any efforts to report Project participants are requested to consider ideas in the learner's view of reality. Most reports the communication techniques suggested in the are done in preconceived form with data and following two categories. The first group of tech- findings supplied in accord with "what the in- nique suggestions are directed at teacher com- structor wants." Thus, the outcome of the highly munications, the second group toward students. structured, unidirectional laboratory is a report that is boring to both writer and reader. Labora- Teachers' Modes of Communicating tory reports are frequently reduced to the intel- Example I lectually dishonest task of "fudging up" the data 10th grade to fit teacher expectations. Very few teachers find Biology it humorous that many reports of this kind are A. Content The internal structures and func- done during the Spanish class just prior to the tions of a given laboratory animal. period when they are due. The learners, however, B.Behavioral Objective Atthe conclusion of do find it humorous. They may see in it the basis the presentation( s), the learner should be for criticism of an entire educational structure. able to dissect a given animal and describe the To rectify this problem, we need only ban labora- functions and relationships of the internal tory reports. But that does not solve the problem organs. of how to develop the art of communication in the C. Two Alternative Modes of Communicating 1."Talk" description of the task (accom- science learner. Fortunately, the science learner panied by textbook, chalk board, ditto is precisely the same individual as the English sheet supportive information). learner, the math learner, the history learner, and 2.Video tape description of the task with the language learner. And so another advantage close camera angle examples of important accrues to the teacher of science. techniques and information (accompanied by ... same as #1). An Active Approach D. Participants please suggest expected learner responses (both positive and negative)to Positions and Criticisms may be developed to each mode of presentation. the point where the reader can rightfully expect meaningful examples of how to change existing Estimate of Learners' Estimate of Learners' structures. Toward this end, let us first examine Positive Reactions Negative Reactions some questions on which a science curriculum is Mode 1 1. 1. based, and second, look at some alternative modes "Talk" 2. 2. of communicating ideas. Approach 3. 3. Project participants are asked to reflect on the Mode 2 1. 1. following questions with the view of preparing "Video Tape"2. 2. for a dialogue at the conference. Approach 3. 3. 1.If, as pointed out in the Position of this paper, Example II the nature of a science curriculum is a govern- 1 1 th or 12th grade ing factor in the development of communica- A Physical Science tive skills, what then is the basis on which the A. ContentThe nature and philosophy of author suggests that "classical" general science science (as an operational activity of men) courses preclude meaningful communication and the charactenstics of scientists. by junior high school and senior high school B.Behavioral Objectives At the conclusion of students? the learning activities the student should be 2.Is it, in fact, correct to suggest that science able to describe a scientist and answer ques- teachers cannot participate in the direction of tions about scientists (without dependence on 22 the clichés that are so common in the lay- Task 2. Ask a 12th grade student who is doing well man's view). in any science course to assist you in designing a C. Modes of Communications video tape. His task is to outline and sequence the topic you choose for presentation. Ask another stu- 1.Lecture by the teacher and assigned read- dent to edit the design of the first student. Is it ad- ings. visable to bring both students together to resolve 2.Discussion and assigned readings. differences in the design as seen by each student? 3. A simulation game (the game "Noble Record outcome of this task: Prize" is suggested; you may want to play it with your colleagues and students). Summary: Students' Modes of Communicating The many modes of communicating are as (Stimulated by teacher) pertinent to the tasks of science teachers as to Task I. As teacher, it is your goal to have students those of any other teachers. Though the science learn the fundamentals of hypothesis construction. teacher has many advantages in the fact that Give groups of three players a checker board and two science is directly and clearly a cognitive domain identifiable markers or coins for each player. Present enterprise, the task of developing communicative a task such as, "cooperatively make up a game with skills is no easier than the same task faced by a set of rules which gives each player a chance to teachers of other subjects. It is clear that the capture the other player's pieces." major factor in accomplishing this task is the Record outcome of this task: teacher's attitude to the structure of learning.

23 FILM-MAKING BELONGS TO ALL DISCIPLINES by TOM DEVINE Champlain Valley Union High School Hinesburg, Vermont The practical goals and courses of action for In order for these objectives to be achieved, advancing film education in elementary and the teacher needs to take into consideration the secondary schools are four-fold: materials and facilities available. Speaking from (1) To provide the simplest kind of guide to experience, it is well to take an inventory of film- the various aspects of film production, (2) to making equipment that is owned by students or enable future film-makers to become acquainted their families. Most of the equipment that we now with the different departments in film-making so use at Champlain Valley is now owned by the that they may see where their talents lie, (3) to school department. encourage the spirit of creativity and craftsman- Where should one begin? There are many ship, and (4) to show the relationship between approaches to filmmaking that may be used. You film and the other forms of communication. can work with an entire class, in small groups, The process of showing, discussing, teaching, or with individuals. The first ingredient of any and making films has had many positive results film is an idea. Some teachers believe that the this year. At Champlain Valley Union High ideas perceived by students should be verbalized School film-making has started to explode other and scripted. If a student is verbally able to ex- curricula, and now other classes (English, social press himself, it might indeed be helpful for him studies, art, and science) are accepting film term to outline his idea to story-treatment to scenario papers or film projects as independent study con- to a precise shooting script. For the less verbal tracts. That is, students may elect to produce a or less print-oriented student, writing could be a short film in lieu of a term paper or a research problem, and the project would never get off the project for independent study. ground. In this case the student should not be Film-making appeals to students because it is asked to conceptualize his ideas verbally but something that they can make their own. A stu- should be allowed to develop them on film. dent aim-maker can quite literally, by means of The story board usually is used as a means of the lens of a camera, frame his own world and transmitting the idea for a film onto paper. As re-order his own environment. a technique in the conception of a frame-by-frame As educators we have realized the impact that development of a film, a student may by means media have had on the curriculum; and with the of sketches or photographs taken with a Polaroid excellent, inexpensive, amateur filmmaking equip- camera translate his ideas into concrete form. ment that is now available, and with filmmaking The next step is to bring to realization the being recognized as a bonafide educational ac- ideas of the filmmaker, and this brings us to the tivity, we must start to take advantage of the film actual shooting and editing of film. Each situation as a tool of education. must produce the formula for achieving the foot- There is no magic formula or packaged film age desired. It is important for the successful film- program that is available for mass consumption. ing of any sequence for the filmmaker to concern Each teacher must decide for himself what the himself with the continuity, the shooting location, objectives for the program and for the students and the equipment; what lenses, film speed, shoot- will be. In whatever discipline filmmaking is be- ing apparatus, etc. ing employed, the over-all objectives should be As in the art classroom a student is trainee in (1) to develop new sensitivity to visual language techniques so that he may create as an individual, through the making of films, (2) to foster greater so, too, the filmmaker must prepare himself for personal sensitivity to the world we live in by the final act of individualistic creation. examining it through the lens of a camera, (3) If it is possible, students should be given the to expand the students' knowledge of the media, opportunity to view and discuss experimental and (4) to stimulate creativity. films made by such filmmakers as Andy Warhol 24 and Norman McLaren. Films by experimental machines. "How" one tapes has variations also. filmmakers will demonstrate as wide a variety of Sounds may be taped at various speeds, sounds techniques as possible to stimulate students. may be superimposed on one another, or sounds After viewing and discussing experimental may be arranged in sequence to symbolize a cer- films, allow the students a chance to produce tain aspect of life. something of their own. The following examples Specific assignments that may be given for illustrate possible assignments that would be starters are: given to beginning students: 1.Taping normal conversation interviewing 1.Using 100 feet of film, begin practicing the people on a controversial topic and then edit- various techniques such as wipe, lap dissolve, ing the tape into a finished product. fade in, fade out, etc. 2.Taping the sounds that people make laugh- 2. Take a shot that is correctly exposed. ing, talking, breathing, crying, snoring, walk- 3.Shoot one stop over-exposed. ing, running, skipping, etc. 4.Shoot one stop under-exposed. 3.Using sounds to tell a story placing sounds 5.Shoot a scene exposed for background. in sequence for meaning: the alarm clock, the shower, noises in the kitchen, the school bus, 6.Shoot a scene for foreground. the bell at school, noise of students passing 7.Shoot a scene for backlight, etc. from class to class, sounds in class, the cafe- The list can be as long or as sophisticated as teria, classes, bells, bus, T.V., dinner dishes, the teacher wants to make it, depending upon the dishwasher running, TV clicked off, brush- ing teeth, getting into bed, snoring... the needs of the students. 4.Using sounds tocreate certain moods or When the teacher and the students view the themes. rushes, it is easy to see concrete results of what 5.Music can be edited to create certain moods. has been learned. After shooting (and usually re- shooting), the student is ready to edit. It is very Films may have sound tracks that require difficult to teach editing as it is an activity that simple narration, sound effects, or a musical ac- must be done by the individual. A teacher may companiment. We see here once again the possi- assist students and instruct them, but it has to be bilities of involving students and personnel from on a one-to-one basis. It is best to instruct students various disciplines. in cutting and then let them find their own way. All educators would agree that it is what is A must on the recommended reading lists of learned and not what is produced that is im- young filmmakers and teachers should be a book portant. We should not be interested in producing on how to edit. Two books that students have the next great epic, or in working for the sole found useful are How to Edit (Focal Press, purpose of final screening or film festival. We $2.50) and the Kodak book on editing. should be working to get students involved in An interestirg exercise in editing is to give each seeing film as a mode of expression. member of a class three or four hundred feet of English, science, history, art indeed, any of processed film which the students are to reduce the disciplines could integrate filmmaking into to one hundred feet. Processed news footage their course of study. In all of these areas there usually can be obtained at no cost from local are three basic kinds of film that students can television stations. It is amazing to see what produce: documentary, narrative, and animation. studentsusingidenticalfootagewillcreate The documentary is perhaps the most popular through the process of editing. with young filmmakers. They can film documen- Sound can be very important in filmmaking. taries for social studies classes, using cut-outs Composing and editing sound tracks are useful from magazines and then filming them. A tape ways of developing sensitivity to sound. Syn- recorder then can be used to provide the narra- cronous sound tracks at the elementary or the tion. In the chemistry or the biology classes stu- secondary level are prohibitive because of the dents can film actual experiments. The "how to technical complexity involved and because of the do it film" has many possibilities in a variety of cost. Nevertheless, students do have a number of classes. For students who are not print oriented, avenues open to them. The tape recorder, if used it is a way in which they may become totally in- with imagination, will enable students to become volved in the learning process. quite creative with sound. The only limitation in- The type of film that students see on television volved here is the potential and creativity of the and in the movies is the narrative. It is the form user. The "what" a student tapes can be anything that they usually will try to imitate. This form that produces sound from human beings to is more demanding as it does require an idea 25 that has been transformed to story form and then pensive, requiring only a camera with single scripted. The transformation of an idea to a visual frame capabilities, some lights and the material story board requires skill and extensive work. The to be animated, imagination, and film stock. shooting of a narrative also requires preparation, Ultimately the finished documentary, narra- for the work is precise and demanding. This is tive, or animated film will require an audience. where the story board becomes so important and Filmmakers are anxious to have their work valuable a tool to the filmmaker. It is here also screened. Film festivals on the .:nigh school level that we see that the student film is a creative pro- are becoming very popular. The Forensic and cess involving time, skill, and work and that it Debate Tournament held annually at the Uni- does differ from the "home movie" type of en- versity of Vermont has made it possible this deavor. year for young filmmakers to have their films The third type of film is animation, and it re- screened at this state festival. quires separate techniques and skills. This type Many instructors feel that the film should be of film is one of the easiest to produce and may a personal and private matter between the in- be made inexpensively. Students in elementary as structor and the pupil. Others screen films only well as secondary schools can experience a great in groups concerned, while a few schools have amount of success with the animated film. Sim- public showings of various nature, going all the plified animation is within the grasp of any stu- way to the ultimate, the student film festival. dent who is able to take pictures one at a time. Concern has also been expressed about the Using the animated camera, the following effect of filmmaking, film study, and competition types of exercises can be easily animated: in general on the psyche of the student. It is felt 1.Teachers can start their classes by making that there are no more dangers encountered in "scratch" films; the students simply scratch on these areas than in any of the other creative and leader, and when it is projected on the screen academic competitive situations to which a stu- the scratches form patterns of light and design. dent is exposed in his school years. 2. A one-day magic marker "happening" is an- Many critics and educators express concern other type of project that is easily done with over the place of film education and filmmaking students of all ages. You can remove all the in the curriculum. Miss Pauline Kael, noted film emulsion from junk stock or simply provide critic, takes the view of today's youngsters and clear leader for your classes. Allow the stu- urges keeping film outside the curriculum: dents to draw on the film with paint, magic marker, or crayon. (Warning! Make sure It's only a movie. What beautiful words. At the projectionist cleans the gate on the pro- movies, you're left gloriously alone. You say it jector after a film like this has been screened.) stinks and nobody's shocked. That's something you can't do with a Dickens novel or a Beethoven 3. The collage film is easy to produce, using bits symphony or even a poem by Browning and be- of junk stock that can be decorated by scratch- cause you can't, because they're all preselected and ing or painting. The students then re-splice the prejudged and geared for greatness, you don't film to form a new one. talk about them with the other kids the way you 4.Cutouts or photographs can be mounted on do about movies.i cardboard and moved from place to place to simulate movement. While I do not agree with Miss Kael, I certain- 5. Models made of clay, can be easily re-arranged ly can appreciate her concerns. Filmmaking or and are easy to use in an animated sequence. film study should not be restricted to a particular Figures made out of papier macho are also class within a structured grade setup. Filmmaking easy to use in an animated film because they does work within the school, and it is a process can be moved about quickly and easily between that students as well as teachers find exciting and shots. valuable. We are now faced with the problem of 6.Flipcards can consist of a series of drawings proving that it works. or sketches that are made on flexible cards. One of the problems confronting teachers is As the student flips through the cards, the that we are desperate for sources and resources. drawings appear to move. The flip cards can We need information, training, and equipment. be filmed individually for a couple of frames, In-service programs are certainly an important or the camera can simply film the effect of measure for preparing filmmaking teachers. One manual manipulation of the flipcards. of the tragedies in our present system is that There are many books available that describe Pauline Kael, "It's Only a Movie." Film Study in Higher the simple operations of animation. The nice Education,by David C.Stewart,(Washington, D.C.: thing about this technique is that it is very inex- American Council on Education, 1966), p. 133. 26 teachers know primarily one type of film the who offer solutions could go on forever. It is a "educational film." We need to broaden this fact that film is the "now" medium, and if we are scope. As the teacher of writing must write if he going to be a valuable part of "what's happening" is going to be truly effective with his students, so, we must take advantage of and let our students too, the film teacher must make films if he is going become involved with the phenomenon of our to work efficiently with students in this creative times the moving image. As ever/ teacher is process. concerned with print as a mode of communica- Discussion and debate about the shortage of tion, every teacher must come to regard film as facts and the surplus of generalizations by those an equally important method of communication.

27 WRITING, ENGLISH, AND THE MASS MEDIA by JOHN W. RAGLE Hartford, Vermont, High School and Dartmouth College What I am to concern myself with here is, I and objectivity the kind of objectivity which take it, the teaching of writing in the context of assures that the writer is aware of an audience the English class and, by extension, in the other than himself. This "quick, warm synthesis" broader context of the humanities. Let me say implies also a vitality born of discipline informed at the outset that the more often teachers of Eng- and tempered by the imagination. In the limited lish join with teachers of other disciplines to see space of his little essay, Professor Morison says and present mankind whole, not as a fragmented, much and implies more that is of direct value disjointed, compartmentalized freak of nature, to the aspiring writer or the teacher of writ- the better their students will listen and compre- ing. I can but commend to you its pages. Now, hend. Let there be open doors between class- having succumbed to the temptation to proffer rooms, not isolation chambers, no matter how my recipe for effective writing, let me move more exciting the teaching that takes place in them. directly '9 our particular concern here today. Let there be a common current running through Surely there can be no question, in this day, all our efforts. Then we may view the process of of the place of mass media in the teaching of composition as it relates to learning and to life, writing in particular and English in general. If as well as to our field. we hope to find our students and touch their lives, The art of effectively putting down ideas upon we must go "where it is" to television, and paper is, first of all, a disciplined art. Professor radio, and the motion picture; to the mass circula- Robert Cochran, in the proceedings of this con- tion magazines; to the paper-back bookstands; ference a year ago, described it succinctly: and to the newspapers. Witness how in their free The salient points are, I think, organization time in school, the students will cluster around continuity and logical progression disciplined the magazine racks in the library (if they are thought operating in conceit with an athletic, a permitted access to it!). Listen to their conversa- lively intelligence. tions between classes. If Michelangelo is the topic In these respects, Donald Murray, another of of discussion in class, is it not likely that some your distinguished consultants, underscores, first, will have seen "The Agony and the Ecstasy" on the experience of seeing: "Before anything else, the Late Show? I recently tried to sell one of my the writing course is the practice of perception;" sections on buying individual copies of B. F. and then the experience of form: "The writer Skinner's Walden II for reading and discussion. the artist brings order to disorder.... The I muffed it; my ploy drew the kind of response artist doesn't so much admire form as he hungers which destroys a project at birth. But after class for it." one boy asked me if I had read Ray Bradbury's The most cogent, the most persuasive brief Fahrenheit 451. He himself hadn't he had exposition of the art of writing that I know is an seen the movie but he knew it was available essay by Samuel Eliot Morison entitled "History in book form. And he obviously knew what kind as a Literary Art" (from Land and Sea, Alfred of fodder I was looking for, and why. I bought A. Knopf, 1953). On the surface, it is intended the book and read it. For his class it turned out for graduate students of history; in fact, how- to be a far more powerful motivation and chal- ever, it speaks directly to all who aspire to write lenge than my original choice. well, at the same time strongly implying a sig- In our humanities course at Springfield (which nificant fact which La Mancha seeks to empha- integrates the study of English, history, music and size the close relevance of the composition art) we used, while I was there, the motion pic- process to all of the disciplines. ture versions of "The Caine Mutiny," "High I am paraphrasing the advice which Morison Noon," "The Ox-Bow Incident," and "On the gives to young historians when I say that effective Waterfront," among others. The response of the composition reflects a "quick, warm synthesis" various classes was never the same, but it was between perceiving, planning and writing. This always intense and important. Impressed upon synthesis results, he points out, in clarity, vigor, my memory is the discussion which erupted fol- 28 lowing a showing of "All the King's Men." It munication is not building up ideas into a mean- ingful whole, but maintaining a line of constantly lasted for three days, throughout six class periods, entertaining banter. The building of structured and concerned the question whether the end thought can easily come to seem a tedious exercise justifies the means. This wasn't at all the focus in futility to the average student. we had had in mind when we chose the film. But debate raged until the students had somehow re- It is important at this juncture to ask why we solved, each in his own way, at least some of are. so concerned with the teaching of composi- their queries and doubts. tion. Why was the La Mancha Project conceived? Life, Look, or Newsweek on student unrest; A private foundation, we are told, approached Teen, Time or The National Observer on drugs various people at the University of Vermont "to or violence; Playboy on Marshall McLuhan or explore ways in which writing could be im- the New Left; The Beatles with "Revolution," proved." Why writing? Why in the midst of a cul- The Rascals and "People Gotta Be Free," Spanky ture attuned to mass communications media, to and Our Gang with "Give a Damn," Simon and "the facile flow of one-dimensional ideas through Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan on man's in- the media?" humanity to man these are where student con- May it not be precisely to ignite the kind of cern can be tapped. The English teacher looking thinking which will recognize that even in the for something to happen, to spring up and take media, perhaps especially in the media, since they over and move ideas in the classroom, must ac- are so central, thinking is not, indeed, always knowledge this. Further, he must look and listen linear and to appreciate the difference between himself to what the students are seeing and hear- when it is and when it is not? To develop taste ing and do so with an open mind. What is it and to insure discretion? that I have already said, and quoted others as It cannot be that we wish to produce genera- saying? The good writer must first perceive? So, tions which have learned to write only so that too, the good teacher must perceive and try to they may understand the media, generations understand whatever it is that has the eye and which can write but not read. Indeed, we could ear of his students. not even hope to such an end. Writers, to write Is not all this pretty obvious almost cliché well, must write for intelligent readers, such (no matter how many teachers may currently be readers as will demand and recognize structure, demonstrating an unwillingness or inability to control, and vigor. Writers must themselves be act upon it)? One cannot question the eloquence good readers, sensitive to the power of ordered and the appeal of the mass media for his students thought, of imagination, and of language. The and, therefore, their significance for his class- aim in English classrooms must not be either/or: room. either the class that is "with it," vibrating to the Yet there is something about it all that bothers media; or the class that is laboring with "Anti- me. It was articulated well, and in good time, gone," or The Canterbury Tales, or "A Few Lines at the La Mancha conference just one year ago Written Above Tintern Abbey," or Tom Sawyer, by Professor Robert Daniels. I want to bring his or Moby Dick. words back sharply into focus now, for they key- The reading of the classics, according to note my thesis today (and I am heading toward r..:Amuel Eliot Morison, will break down pro- one, I hope) concerning composition, the teach- vincialism, refresh the spirit, and provide a better ing of English, and the mass media. philosophical insight into the ways of mankind The teaching of structured writing and the than will many, more current writings. It will, as structured thinking which it conveys has never well, sharpen one's sense of the language of order, been easy. It is not made any easier by the recent of precision, of imagination. Nor can the ap- technological developments in mass communica- proach be either/or. The student must learn, on tion, radio and especially TV, which have massive- the one hand, to perceive the past through his ly shifted the main area of public discourse from insight into the present; on the other, to weigh the written and structured word, to the linear and guide his life today in part through knovAedge stream of speech. All the efforts teachers are mak- of the past. He must value order and clarity ing to teach structured communication can be and are, I fear, being undermined by the facile flow of wherever he finds them and decry confusion and one-dimensional ideas through the media. The unreason wherever he encounters them. challenge is removed for the thinker to structure This brings me toward the end of my disserta- his thoughts, and the audience is locked into the tion and closer to my theses (they are plural one line of discourse unless it loses interest and now, I perceive) concerning the teaching of com- turns the tabe off. Hence the premium in co position, the La Mancha Project, and the English 29 curriculum. Let me define my final object in terms Meanwhile, do not play down our heritage in of three questions from among those raised by literature, but draw upon it judiciously. Esther Urie in relation to this Project last year Join in common interest with workers in other ( somewhat inreverseorder,and somewhat fields, the humanities, the social sciences, the edited) : sciences, the practical arts but in a defined a. How should the directors of the pilot program and considered way. At Springfield's Riverside coordinate their efforts with those of the co- Junior High School, vocational arts students have, operating schools ( and, indeed, from teacher as a project, constructed duck decoys. In English toteacherwithinSouth Burlington High class they researched for models. In mathematics School itself)? they worked out the complicated dimensions in- b. How does one incorporate into the English volved in the design and the laminations. Back curriculum a 50% to 60% emphasis upon in English again, they wrote up their plans. Then composition and still include most of the con- they built their decoys in the shop. Finally they tent that has traditionally been taught? painted them, in accordance with their initial re- c.Is it the aim of La Mancha to develop com- search, in the Art Room. This is integrated learn- position and related skills only, or to have con- ing, and organizational and composition skills cern as well for the development of human have their place at the core of it. values? lf, indeed, you follow through in extending La Mancha from grade nine through grade On the first point, the matter of effectively co- twelve, allocate and limit. Shun redundancy like ordinating efforts throughout the program, let me the plague. There is ample space into which to offer this observation on the basis of my under- fit much that we have traditionally considered standing of the way in which the Project has within the purview of English, much that we as evolved thus far. The aim is to reach young individual teachers love. But we cannot do all at people at a variety of levels of academic ability, once and we must not do it over and over. We in a variety of communities, through a variety of look to improve writing. Let us but concentrate departments and of teachers within those depart- on that, and much that is literary, present and ments. past, much that speaks to our students, of today By all means, then, plan and produce a specific and yesterday, will immediately put itself forward. and exciting package; then, nrize the experience, Finally, it must surely be that our focus upon the insight, and the individual resources of the composition implies more than mere irritation various teachers involved in the program. Make with the present level of writing skills in our absolutely clear the rationale and arm it well; society. It all goes back, does it not, to a recogni- then, encourage the imaginative and invective tion of the deep and compelling need for human adaptation of it by each chosen teacher in terms understanding on virtuallyeverylevel,of of his understanding, his strengths, and his terrain. virtually every kind? Does not such understand- Do not spread yourself too thin or populate ing rest upon a willingness and an ability to descry the curriculum too thickly. I think I see signs of order and distinguish relationships, then to em- La Mancha trying to be all things at once. The ploy order and clarify relationships; to perceive danger is, of course, that by so doing it may be- and to select motivations, ideas, alternatives; to come in the long run nothing. Through an em- respect and with care to utilize the language; to phasis upon composition lies one excellent path hono the minds of others by speaking to them to the crucial goals toward which the study of with an awareness of their humanity? English points, toward the intellectual discipline In my view the way for La Mancha lies clear. and the human insight that the study of English It pursues a development of communication skills can comprehend. together with a respect for these skills a respect Most emphatically, resort to the media but based upon sensitivity to the needs, the hang-ups, selectively. Leave time to examine and to relate. and the potentialities of humankind.

30 REVERSING THE PROCESS by FRANK MANCHEL Department of English University of Vermont

Three important facts have emerged from the and the value of frequent lesson plans and study initial year of the La Mancha Project. First, the guides to stimulate discussion about composition. incredible inefficiency of the existing educational "That's fine," they say, "but what's so new system. Second, the demonstrated ability of en- about the teaching of writing? We've been using thusiastic and competent teachers to reform that Professor Don Murray's workshop methods and system. And third, the undeniable necessity to Dr. James Moffett's sequential approach for study mass media in the schools. years." Maybe so. But when I go into these No one needs to describe to professional teach- teachers' classrooms, talk with their students and ers the mess in our classrooms. We have lived too question how often they write each week, meet long with programs designed to comfort the lazy, in small groups to read each other's papers, get to placate the spineless, and to shelter the in- to choose their own topics, discuss the techniques competent. For too long we 'nave excused this of writing in history and science classes; select educational sham by worshipping the idol of their own books, see full-length feature films, and precedent, by deceiving ourselves that tradition so on ad infinitum, their usual responses are "Not was synonymous with truth. Fortunately, this very often ... rarely ...never!" mental mediocrity is coming to an end. We are Maybe what we're doing here in the state of at last realizing, as Emerson pointed out decades Vermont is not new or refreshing. Maybe the ago, that "Education dwarfs those who conform thousands of college freshmen who enter the Uni- to its standards." versity of Vermont have forgotten how they were If the warning buzzer has sounded for the long- taught to write, or maybe the hundreds of high awe'ted reforms, it is, in part, because of the school classrooms I visit each year are not valid dedication and skill of the La Mancha teachers. examples of what teachers are doing in today's They have succeeded in spite of insufferable dehumanized educational environment. Maybe scheduling problems, extremely limited funds, and so! unbelievably complacent colleagues. If next year, No matter. Our main thrust is not to prove how many more ninth grade, college-bound students revolutionary we are. Nor is it to show how mean- are involved in writing workshops, inter-disciplin- ingful changes can be achieved by moderate, able ary curricula, and mass media studies, it is be- and determined individuals who choose to remain cause a handful of people, scorned and scarred, in the school system rather than escape from it. are still reaching for the unreachable stars. I2stead, the La Mancha Project is concerned with Even so, many teachers I meet still question studying the process of writing, especially the the value of this romantic quest to improve the areas of composing and communicating. Starting teaching of writing in the schools. They sceptical- with the assumption that the most important in- ly ask, "Just what's so new or so good about the gredient in studying student writing is the student La Mancha Project?" I try to explain the value himself, each of us is trying to discover not only of our three annual state conferences Septem- how we can be more effective in helping adoles- ber, January and April during which we bring cents to express themselves better, but also how high school teachers and students together to dis- we can make the work more enjoyable for every- cuss curricular matters; the value of composition one. workshops at the University of Vermont where With such vague and non-behavioral objec- we pay teachers to study evaluation techniques tives, it is not hard to understand why the pro- for use in their classrooms; the value of having gram has a number of critical weaknesses. Our both a state literary magazine and a state news- communications operation is badly constructed paper to publish students' writings; the value of and articulated. Our methods of evaluation leave a state newsletter for teachers to improve their much to be desired. Schools find it difficult to own writing skills while at the same time prov;41- implement some of our materials. And many ing an exchange for information about writing; English departments are unable to co-ordinate

31 their classes with their counterparts in the physical 3.High school departments maintain their in- and social sciences. It would appear to those out- dividuality; otherwise they have nothing of side our world that we are indeed madmen hope- value to offer us except servitude. All that we lessly fighting windmills which, as in another ask is that our materials and methods be tried, romantic setting the arrogant De Guiche told and that the schools inform us of the results, Cyrano, "may swing round their huge arms and coupled with the reasons why. 4. One person in each school, designated as co- cast you down into the mire." ordinator, maintains continuous communica- But this is only a possibility. Another possi- tion both with the staff and the La Mancha bility suggested by Cyrano is that we might go director. "up . among the stars." Fortunately, there is 5. When the approaches prove successful, the reason for optimism in our work. By not deluding schools implement them intheir curricula the schools or ourselves that there were any ready- next year for all students at that grade level made solutions, we have had to re-examine what and in that program. For example, depart- we have been doing, and we have re-learned some ments should now be planning a ninth grade essential propositions about writing in general and college-bound curriculum which includes field program organization in particular. First, it has trips, in-class reading libraries, motion picture become clear to all of us that writing is essentially screenings and discussions, class publications, a process of weaving many varied strands into a peer-group paper conferences, and inter-dis- finished work. It cannot be taught or learned ciplinary writing assignments. quickly. It cannot be structured the same way In essence, our investigations so far have helped with each individual, let alone with each class us to discover a great deal about our needs, about and school. And no one involved with the process our relations with other human beings, and about can succeed without patience, skill, and motiva- ourselves. In each instance, we have witnessed tion. Still further, the learner benefits more from the tremendous influence of the mass media not encouragement than from negative comments. only in our lives but also in our culture. Con- Too often,critics and colleagues forgetthis. sequently, the La Mancha Project, in 1969-1970, Second, no one writes just for the sake of writing. is turning its attention towards more meaningful Hopefully, he has something to say. His subject ways of using films, books, drama, radio, ; matter consists of ideas, facts, and opinions, vision, speech, tape recorders, magazines, news- shaped by language and syntax. To a large degree, papers, and recordings in the teaching of writing. that subject matter is the basis of a significant Our main concern now is how to relate the academic program and those who administer the teaching of writing to the student's thoughts and schools need to provide a suitable setting which experiences, how to encourage adolescents to will improve, not impede, the learning process. examine and to understand themselves through Third, the writer needs both imagination and writing and working with the mass media. In discipline to communicate effectively with his effect, we are reversing the existing educational intended audience. He must, in effect, be stimulat- system. Instead of prescribing, we are searching; ed by the unlimitable possibilities that are open instead of limiting, we are extending; instead of to him and then helped to discriminate between talking, we are acting. To repeat, the essential what he thinks he sees and what he actually sees. problem for us is how the student adjusts himself Fourth, the teaching of writing requires that we to the world in which he lives. And following the ourselves be willing to learn: learn not only about teachings of the distinguished scholar Jean Piaget, the writing process but also about the art of teach- we are not ashamed of the concept of adjustment. ing. There is no place in our program for those Its meaning denotes stopping and starting, win- who have already decided that there is nothing ning and losing, comprehending and gaining new worth discovering. knowledge. As Piaget explains it: We have also realized that our work is most Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an effective when the following organizational plan object, to know an event, is not simply to look at is carefully followed: and make a mental copy, or image, of it. To know 1.Teachers from the various disciplines set aside an object is to act on it. To know is to modify, to a predetermined time each month for the transform the object, and to understand the process entire school year to plan, discuss, and evalu- of this transformation, and as a consequence to ate the program. understand the way the object is constructed. An 2.Administrators give the teachers money, time, operation is thus the essence of knowledge; it is an and responsibility for attending La Mancha interiorized action which modifies the object of conferences and evaluation sessions. knowledge.

32 It is our hope, therefore, that through the study but also how these media function and develop. of the process of communication, we will become The overall objective is critical thought. At the more knowledgeable about theteaching of writ- same time, students will be encouraged to explore ing. Furthermore, we believe that a knowledge film-making, television production, and news- of the various comminication processes will help paper publishing. The SBHS curriculum will also interested individuals to discover for themselves explore these areas, only the emphasis will be what they think and feel about the mass media, more on drama, speech, television, and motion and why they accept or reject one work of art pictures. In each school, including those in the rather than another. Project that will try these materials in other cur- So much for next year's major theme. Unless ricula, the students, across departmental bound- we understand the emphasis on examiningthe aries, will be communicating their feelings, their processes of mass media, we willfail before the ideas, and their standards. What they say, how school year begins in September. Let me focus they express it, and what it means for education now on some other relevant mattersfor 1969- form the nucleus of this year's La Mancha 1970: such concerns as the need for standards, Project. the two new programs to be developed this sum- Let me illustrate just one way in which we are mer, and the individual school responsibilities. going about our work for the next year: film Basic to any study we conduct is the tacit study in the schools. agreement that we are not going to vulgarize the Recognizing that some of the formidable prob- curriculum. It is one thing to want to teach about lems connected with screen education a re- mass media and something else to know how. sponsibility that also includes the study of tele- Students, for example, spend thousands of hours vision areaccessibility and availability of watching television, and we need to exercise judg- equipment and materials not only for instructors ment in deciding what is worthwhile discussing. but also for individual students, the La Mancha Watching movies is also a valuable experience as teachers are implementing many of the major is listening to recordings or reading newspapers, findings of the recently concluded Project in but not when they are used as escapes from the Educational Communication of Teachers College, more important job of critical discussions and Columbia University, under the able direction inquiry. Therefore, we encourage, not discourage, of Dr. I quis Forsdale. The TC project, for ex- teachers to use discrimination in their selection ample, established that an important solution to of classroom materials. availability was the 8mm cartridge projector, Another difficulty with the teaching of mass which allows individuals as well as groups to media is faat many people unwittingly accept the examine closely and repeatedly particular motion current pop fallacy, "anyone born later in history pictures. While the value of close reading has al- knows more than his predecessors." It is not our ways been a part of any worthwhile academic intention to replace the study of the past with the enterprise, it has rot always been possible with study of the popular and the present. We intend, movies. Now, with the 8mm cartridge projectors, instead, to combine the best of both worlds be- films can be carefully and continually scrutinized. cause they share a common heritage and thus Consequently, the La Mancha Project, in co- similar human experiences and difficulties. To operation with several Vermont high schools, is put it another way, our study of the mass media beginning to build a collection of important silent rests on the principle that acknowledges both the films in cartridges, and five Fairchild Mark IV- psychological needs of the young and the logical RV projectors have been ordered for a number demands of the material. We do not intend to of learning centers in the state. Included are films compromise either our educational principles or by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin. Douglas our responsibility to provide sound leadership. Fairbanks, Sr., W. S. Hart, Edwin S. Porter, As a result, we are preparing two mass media George Melies and Mack Sennett. Students and programs for 1969-1910: one for ninth-grade teachers will be able to use these motion pictures general students at Champlain Valley Union High both as a source for serious study and for enjoy- School; one for tenth-grade college-bound stu- ment. dents at South Burlington High school. Both We are using a number of sources for ordering courses will be based on a sound educational such films, almost all of which are listed in 8mm foundation, not on an emotional one. CVU's Film Directory (Comprehensive Service Corpora- curriculum, for example, will emphasize not only tion, 250 West 64th Street, New York, 10023). the various kinds of mass media that influence an Since the Fairchild cartridge holds approxi- individual's opinions, attitudes, and judgements, mately twenty-five minutes of film, it will be most

33 useful for short movies. Full-length features will common. It is not to say that we are throwing be serialized, i.e., put into a series of cartridges. out writing for filming. It is to say that by relat- Because the Mark IV-RV projector requires ing one to the other, the student may see more no special lighting conditions, skill, or room clearly the differences inherent in each. In short, orientation, students are able to operate the ma- teaching a person to be sensitive to one art is a chine after several minutes' instruction. Each beginning in teaching him to 13: sensitive to all cartridge will be labeled and shelved in a special arts. reserve section either in the library or a designat- Finally, there is the problem of each school's ed learning center. As we continue in this area, responsibility for next year. Here it is mainly a critical commentaries on each film plus relevant belief in one's ability to accept the challenge of books, articles and still-shots will be added to the change. The La Mancha teacher needs to ac- resource areas. knowledge that somehow his success in the proj- Students will also make their own films, many ect will depend to a large degree upon the extent of which will be subsidized by the Project. In this of his commitment. He must acknowledge that connection, we have purchased and made avail- there is a need to close the shocking gap between able to the cooperating schools cameras, projec- the world and the classroom; he must realize that tors, and editing equipment. Explicitly and im- in spite of the present crisis of belief that extends plicitly, the La Mancha Project is trying to pro- from the sunken earth to the majestic heavens, an vide a film study program which creates oppor- effective teacher can make a difference. He must tunities for individual development in such im- understand that what he does with his students in portant areas as taste and creativity. relation to mass media study has a relevancy not The relation to writing should be clear. By only for writing but also for helping develop a studying films closely, the student has another better world. And he must believe that no matter source for ideas in his written work. By having how great the challenge, it must be met. to organize, develop and translate his ideas into This then is what the La Mancha Project means a finished film or report, he is going through an- for 1969-1970. It will not be any easier than in other example of how one must discipline his t years. The world has not changed dramatic- imagination in order to communicate effectively ally and we be but mortal men. Nevertheless, as with an audience. By editing his rough cut of the George Bernard Shaw once said and as Robert film, the student is learning the value of re-ex- Kennedy reminded us anew, "Some men see the amining and re-working his raw material. This is world as it is and say why; others dream of things not to say that film production and writing are ex- that never were and say why not?" actly similar. It is to say that they have a lot in

34 SELECTED SCREEN EDUCATION BIBLIOGRAPHY Babcock, David. The Hero: A Film Study Unit. Manchel, Frank. Movies and How They are Made. Chelmsford, Mass.: Screen Studies, Inc., 1968. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Paperback. 1968. Callenbach, Ernest. Our Modern Art: The Movies. When Pictures Began to Move. Englewood Cliffs: Chicago: Center for the Study of Liberal Educa- Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. tion for Adults, 1955. Paperback. When Movies Began to Speak. Englewood Cliffs: Culkin, John, S. J. Film Study in the High School, Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1969. Catholic High School Quarterly Bulletin (October McNany, Emile G., with Robert Williams. The Film 1965 Issue). Paperback. Viewer's Handbook. Glen Rock, New Jersey: Films Incorporated. 1968 Waltham Conference on Paulist Press, 1965. Paperback. Screen Education: Recommendations. Paperback. Ostrach, Herbert F. Youth in Contemporary Society. Fischer, Edward. The Screen Arts: A Guide for Film Chelmsford, Mass.: Screen Studies Inc., 1968. and Television Appreciation. New York: Sheed Paperback. and Ward, 1960. Peters, J. M. L. Teaching About the Film. New Fulton, A. R. Motion Pictures. Norman: University York: Columbia University Press, 1961. of Oklahoma Press, 1960. Scheuer, Steven H. (editor). Movies on T.V. New Hodgkinson, Anthony. Screen Education: Teaching a Critical Approach to Cinema and Television. York: Bantam Books, Revised Edition, 1968. New York: UNESCO, 1964. Paperback. Paperback. Kuhns, William and Robert Stanley. Teaching Pro- Scheuer, Steven H. and John Culkin, S. J. How to gram: Exploring the Film. Dayton, Ohio: Geo. A. Look at a Movie: An Introductory Guide to the Pflaum, 1968. Paperback. Art of the Film. New York: Dell, 1969. Paper- back. Kitses, Jim with Ann Mercer. Talking About the Cinema. London: The British Film Institute, 1966. Sheridan, Marion, et al. Motion Pictures and the Paperback. Teaching of English. New York: Appleton-Cen- Lindgren, Ernest. The Art of the Film. New York: tury-Crofts, 1965. Paperback. Macmillan Company, 1963. Sohn, David. A Film Study and the English Teacher. Mac Cann, Richard Dyer (editor). Film. and Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Audio Visual New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964. Paper- Center, 1968. Paperback. back. Stewart, David C. Film Study in Higher Education. Mallery, David. The School and the Art of Motion Washington: American Council of Education, Pictures. Boston: National Association of Inde- 1966. Paperback pendent Schools, 1966. Paperback. Film in the Life of the School. Boston: National Sullivan, Sister Bede. Movies: The Universal Lan- Association of Independent Schools, 1968. Paper- guage. South Bend, Indiana: Fides Press, 1967. back. Paperback.

DIRECTORY Director Literary Magazine Editor Professor Frank Manchel, Department of English, Mrs. Gladys Coburn, English Department, Burl- University of Vermont ington High School Executive Secretary Newspaper Editor Mrs. Evelyn C. Kyle, Department of English, Miss Mary Joslyn, English Department, Burling- University of Vermont ton High School Newsletter Editor Conference Program Chairman Professor Littleton Long, Department of English, Miss Lucille White, English Department, Burling- University of Vermont ton High School Evaluation Director Composition Workshop Director Professor David C. Howell, Department of Psy- Professor Robert W. Cochran, Department of chology, University of Vermont English, University of Vermont

35 Language Study Director Radio and Television Director Professor Virginia P. Clark, Department of Eng- Mr. Timothy Como lli, English Department, South lish, University of Vermont Burlington High School Film Director Curriculum Consultant Mr. Tom Devine, English Department, Champlain Miss Esther Urie, English Delartment, South Valley Union High School Burlington High School Drama Director Mr. Ernest Cabrera, English Department, South Burlington High School PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS FOR 1969-1970 Burlington High School Rice Memorial High School Coordinator: Miss Lucille White Coordinator: Mr. William Dunn and Sister English: Miss Heather Scofield Dolores Burke History: Miss Mildred Akins English: Mr. William Dunn Science: Miss Diane Davis History: Mr. Robert Kryger Champlain Valley Union High School Science: Sister Carmen Proulx Coordinator: Mr. Thomas M. Devine Rutland High School English: Mrs. A. Dayton, Miss C. Greenwood Coordinator: Mrs. Madeline Flynn History: Mr. Tom Hart English: Mr. Eugene Poplawski Science: Mr. Robert Pepper History: Mr. Hugh Short Edmunds Junior High School Science: Miss Jean Berger, Mr. Alan Kousen Coordinator: Mr. John B. Herrick English: Mrs. Marion Sargent South Burlington High School History Coordinator: Miss Esther Urie Science English: Mr. Ernest Cabera Fair Haven High School History: Mr. Miles Heller, Mr. Jeff Taft Coordinator: Mrs. Stacy Sheldon Science: Mr. Tom Irwin English: Mr. Edward Darling History: Mr. Roy Quinn Spaulding High School Science: Mr. Robert Kanerva Coordinator: Mr. Frank Wilbur English: Mrs. Laura McWilliams Hartford Union High School History: Mr. Joseph Maio la Coordinator: Mrs. Susan Carpenter Science: Mr. David Sweeney English: Mrs. Susan Carpenter History: Mr. Thomas Jurras Vergennes High School Science: Mr. Robert Leicester Coordinator: Mr. Stanley Spencer Lyman C. Hunt Junior High School English: Mr. Stanley Spencer Coordinator: Mr. Robert Ayers History: Mr. Artemis Ward English: Mr. Robert Ayers Science: Mr. Stanislaus Reczek History Science The University of Vermont Middlebury Union High School Coordinator: Dr. Frank Manchel Coordinator: Mr. Philip Buley English History Science

RECOMMENDED READINGS FROM NINTH GRADE LA MANCHA STUDENTS Adamson, Joy. Born Free. New York: Bantam Barnhart, Clarence L.(editor). The Thorndike- Paperbacks, 1967. Barnhart Handy Dictionary. New York: Bantam Forever Free. New York: Bantam Paperbacks, Paperbacks, 1967. 1967. Ardrey, Robert. African Genesis. New York: Dell Bennett, George (editor). Great Tales of Action and Publishing Co., 1967. Adventure. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1967. Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Bantam Books, Blish, James. Star Trek 2. New York: Bantam Paper- May, 1965. backs, 1 it=8. 36 Boulle, Pierre. The Bridge Over the River Kwai. New Harrington, Michael. The Other America. New York: Bantam Books, 1968. York: Penguin Books, 1966. Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. New York: Pocket Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Books, 1968. Scribner Library, 1957. -For Whcm the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Bumford, Sheila. The Incredible Journey. New York: Scribner's Sons, 1940. Bantam Books, 1965. -The Old Man and The Sea. Nev York: Charles -The Incredible Journey. New York: Bantam Scribner's Sons, 1952. Books, 1968. Carson, John F. Hotshot. New York: Mayflower Henry, 0. Surprises. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Books (Dell), 1966. 1966. Hersey, John. A Bell for Adano. New York: Bantam Castillo, Careos (editor). Dictionary. New York: Books, 1965. Washington Square Press, 1968. -A Single Pebble. New York: Bantam Books, 1968. Chesterton, K. G. The Amazing Adventures of Hewes, Henry (editor). Famous American Plays of Father Brown. New York: Dell Publishing Co., the 1940's. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1960. 1967. Clark, Glenwood G. Thomas Edison. New York: Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. New York: Pocket Berkley, August, 1966. Book, 1967. Hilton, James. Goodbye, Mr. Chips. New York: Colman, Hi la. Julie Builds Her Castle. New York: Bantam Bk. Jcs, 1963. Dell Publishing Co., 1966. -Goodbye, Mr. Chips. New York: Bantam Paper- Crane, Milton(editor).Great American Short backs, 1968. Stories. New York: Bantam Classic, 1966. Homer. The Odyssey. New York: A Mentor Classic, Curie; Eve. Madame Curie. New York: Cardinal 1937. Pocket Books, February, 1964. Hoopes, Ned E. (editor). Edge of Awareness. New Curtis, Michael. The Great Political Theories. New York: Dell Paperbacks, 1968. York: Avon Books, 1967. Hudson, W. Green Mansions. New York: Bantam Dooley, Dr. Thomas A. The Edge of Tomorrow. Books, 1965. New York: Signet Publishing Co., July, 1961. Isherwood, Christopher(editor).Great English Drew, Elizabeth. Poetry. New York: Dell Publishing Short Stories. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Co., 1967. 1964. Dunning, Stephen (editor). Reflections on a Gift of James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York: Watermelon Pickle. New York: Scholastic Book Dell Books, 1967. Services, 1967. Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. New York: Edmonds, Walter D. Drums Along the Mohawk. Dell Publishing Co., 1968. New York: Bantam Books, 1963. Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Ban- Fast, Howard. April Morning. New York: Bantam tam Paperbacks, 1966. Books, 1968. Kozeika, Paul (editor). 15 American One-Act Plays. Feigenbaum, Lawrence (editor). Four Complete New York: Washington Square Press, 1968 English Novels. New York: Globe Book Co., Lancaster, Bruce. The American Heritage Book of 1960. the Revolution. New York: Dell Paperbacks, 1967. Felson, Henry Gregor. Road Rocket. New York: Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Bantam Books, 1963. Popular Library, 1962. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Levi, Peter (editor) Yeutushenko. Baltimore: Pen- Scribner's, 1925. guin Books, 1967. Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Lyons, Dorothy. Golden Sovereign. New York: Pocket Books, 1968. Scholastic Book Services, 1966. Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. New York: Maugham, W. Somerset. Of Human Bondage. New Avon Books, 1968. York: Doubleday & Co., 1968. Fuller, Edmund (editor). Four Novels for Apprecia- Mersand, Joseph (editor). Great American Short tion. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Biographies. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1960. 1966. Funk, Wilfred. 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabu- -Three Comedies of American Family Life. New lary. New York: Washington Square Press, 1968. York: Washington Square Press, 1968. Gibson, William. The Miracle Worker. New York: Michener, James A. The Bridge of Toko-Ri. New Bantam Books, Lie., 1960. York: Bantam Publishing Co., 1966. -The Miracle Worker. Bantam Paperbacks. New Morris, Malcolm (editor). Short Story International. York, 1957. New York: Short Story International, 1963.

37 Murphy, Nell (editor). Animal Stories. New York: -The Moon is Down. New York: Viking Press, Dell Publishing Co., 1965. 1966. -The Pearl. New York: Bantam Paperbacks, 1966. Nathan, Robert. Portrait of Jennie. New York: -The Red Pony. New York: Bantam Paperbacks, Popular Library Eagle Books, 1962. 1966. Nevins, Allan. A Pocket History of the United States. Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are New York: Washington Square Press, 1968. Dead. New York: Evergreen Black Cat Paper- Niebling, Richard (editor). A Journey of Poems. backs, 1968. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1967. Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Shield Ring. New York: Dell O'Connor, Frank. The Lonely Voice. New York: A Publishing Co., 1966. Bantam Book, 1968. Taggard, Ernestine (editor). Twenty Grand Ameri- O'Hara, Mary. My Friend Flicka. New York: May- can Short Stories. New York: Bantam Paper- flower Books, 1967. backs, 1968. Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. New York: Scribner Library, 1959. Ballantine Books, 1968. Peake, Mervyn. Gormenghast. New York: Balantine -The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine Books, Books, 1968. 1966. -Titus Alone. New York: Ballentine Books, 1968. Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. New York: Scholastic -Titus Groan. New York: Ballentine Books, 1968. Book Services, 1967. Peterson, Houston (editor). Great Essays. New Trapp, Maria. The Sound of Music. New York: Dell York: Washington Square Press, 1967. Publishing Co., 1967. Priestly, J. B. (editor). 4 English Biographies. New Trumbull, Robert. The Raft. New York: Willow York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1961. Books, 1968. Rankin, William. The Man Who Rode the Thunder. Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. New York: New York: Pyramid Paperbacks, 1965. A Dell Book, 1967. Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. New York: Wash- Richter, Conrad. The Light in the Forest. New York: ington Square Press, 1964. Bantam Books, 1953. Untermeyer, Louis(editor). Story Poems. New Rockowitz, Murray (editor). Family. New York: York: Pocket Book edition, Washington Square Scholastic Book Services, 1967. Press, Inc., C 1957. Roth, Henry. Call It Sleep. New York: Avon Books, Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days. New 1968. York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1966. Salinger, J. D. Franny and Zooey. New York: Ban- Warren, Robert Penn (editor). Short Story Master- tam Books, 1965. pieces. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1954. Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Dell -All the King's Men. New York: Bantam Publish- Publishing Co., 1954. ing Co., 1968. Schaefer, Jack. Shane. New York: Bantam Books, -and Albert Erskine (editors). Six Centuries of 1966. Great Poetry. New York: Dell, 1968. -Shane. New York: Bantam Paperbacks, 1963. White, T. H. The Once and Future King. New York: Berkley Publishing, 1966. Seldes, George (editor). The Great Quotations. -The Sword in the Stone. New York: Dell Publish- New York: Pocket Books, 1968. ing, 1963. Serling, Rod. Stories from the Twilight Zone. New Whitney, A. Phyllis. A Long Time Coming. New York: A Bantam Book, 1964. York: Dell Publishing, 1966. Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. New Wibberly, Leonard. The Epics of Everest. New York: Washington Square Press, 1965. York: Dell Paperbacks, 1966. Shefter, Harry. 6 Minutes a Day to Perfect Spelling. Wicker, Tom. Report of the National Advisory Com- New York: Washington Square Press, 1968. mission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Scholastic Books, 1968. Book Services, 1967. Wilder, Thornton. Three Plays by Thornton Wilder. Speare, Edmund M. (editor). Short Stories. New New York: Bantam Paperbacks, Inc., 1966. York: Washington Square Press, 1968. -The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York: Washing- Stegner, Wallace and Mary (editors). Great Ameri- ton Square Press, 1967. can Short Stories. New York: Dell Publishing Co., -The Eighth Day. New York: Popular Library, Inc., 1967. 1967. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Williams, Edwin B.(editor). Latin and English Bantam Books, 1967. Dictionary. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1966. -The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Bantam Com- Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel. New York: pany, 1966. Scribner Library, 1957.

38