DOCUMENT RESUME ED 430 231 CS 216 694 AUTHOR Hamilton, Carole L., Ed.; Kratzke, Peter, Ed. TITLE Short Stories in the Classroom. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-0399-5 PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 219p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 03995-0015: $16.95 members, $22.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *English Instruction; Literature Appreciation; *Reader Text Relationship; Secondary Education; *Short Stories IDENTIFIERS *Response to Literature ABSTRACT Examining how teachers help students respond to short fiction, this book presents 25 essays that look closely at "teachable" short stories by a diverse group of classic and contemporary writers. The approaches shared by the contributors move from readers' first personal connections to a story, through a growing facility with the structure of stories and the perception of their varied cultural contexts, to a refined and discriminating sense of taste in short fiction. After a foreword ("What Is a Short Story and How Do We Teach It?"), essays in the book are: (1) "Shared Weight: Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried'" (Susanne Rubenstein); (2) "Being People Together: Toni Cade Bambara's 'Raymond's Run'" (Janet Ellen Kaufman); (3) "Destruct to Instruct: 'Teaching' Graham Greene's 'The Destructors'" (Sara R. Joranko); (4) "Zora Neale Hurston's 'How It Feels to Be Colored Me': A Writing and Self-Discovery Process" (Judy L. Isaksen); (5) "Forcing Readers to Read Carefully: William Carlos Williams's 'The Use of Force'" (Charles E. May); (6) "'Nothing Much Happens in This Story': Teaching Sarah Orne Jewett's 'A White Heron'" (Janet Gebhart Auten); (7) "How Did I Break My Students of One of Their Biggest Bad Habits as Readers? It Was Easy: Using Alice Walker's 'How Did I Get Away...'" (Kelly Chandler); (8) "Reading between the Lines of Gina Berriault's 'The Stone Boy'" (Carole L. Hamilton); (9) "Led to Condemn: Discovering the Narrative Strategy of Herman Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener'" (James Tackach);(10) "One Great Way to Read Short Stories: Studying Character Deflection in Morley Callaghan's 'All the Years of Her Life'" (Grant Tracey);(11) "Stories about Stories: Teaching Narrative Using William Saroyan's 'My Grandmother Lucy Tells a Story without a Beginning, a Middle, or an End'" (Brenda Dyer);(12) "The Story Looks at Itself: Narration in Virginia Woolf's 'An Unwritten Novel'" (Tamara Grogan); (13) "Structuralism and Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever," (Linda L. Gill); (14) "Creating Independent Analyzers of the Short Story with Rawlings's 'A Mother in Mannville'" (Russell Shipp);(15) "Plato's 'Myth of the Cave' and the Pursuit of Knowledge" (Dennis Young);(16) "Through Cinderella: Four Tools and the Critique of High Culture" (Lawrence Pruyne);(17) "Getting behind Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" (Dianne Fallon);(18) "Expanding the Margins in American Literature Using Armistead Maupin's 'More Tales of the City'" (Barbara Kaplan Bass);(19) "Shuffling the Race Cards: Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif'"(E. Shelley Reid); (20)"Readers, Cultures, and 'Revolutionary' +++++ ED430231 Has Multi-page SFR---Leve1.1 +++++ Literature: Teaching Toni Cade Bambara's 'The Lesson'" (Jennifer Seibel Trainor);(21) "Learning to Listen to Stories: Sherman Alexie's 'Witnesses, Secret and Not'" (Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez); (22) "'Sometimes, Bad Is Bad': Teaching Theodore Dreiser's 'Typhoon' and the American Literary Canon" (Peter Kratzke); (23) "Teaching Flawed Fiction: 'The Most Dangerous Game'" (Tom Hansen);(24) "Reading Louise Erdrich's 'American Horse'" (Pat Onion); and (25) "Opening the Door to Understanding Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'" (Richard E. Mezo). An afterword "Writing by the Flash of the Firefly" and a bibliographic postscript are attached.(RS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Office of Educational Research and Improvement DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as ' received from the person or organization ir._ originating it El Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent 1 official OERI position or policy I i II ' a a _ I )1 71" r)ON .. 11o CN) 0C/D edited by caroleL.Hamilton8- peterKratzhe BE T C PY AVAILABLE 2 Short Stories in the Classroom 3 NCTE Editorial Board: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Bobbi Fisher, Xin Liu Gale, Sarah Hudelson, Bill McBride, Gerald R. Og lan, Helen Poole, Karen Smith, Chair, ex officio, Peter Feely, ex officio 4 Short Stories in the Classroom Edited by Carole L. Hamilton Cary Academy Cary, North Carolina Peter Kratzke American Thought and Language Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 5 "Letter to Mama" on pages 133-35 is reprinted from More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. Copyright ©1980 by Harper Collins Publishers. Staff Editor: Kurt Austin Interior Design: Doug Burnett Cover Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf NCTE Stock Number: 03995-3050 ©1999 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a fo- rum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Short stories in the classroom/edited by Carole L. Hamilton and Peter Kratzke. P. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8141-0399-5 (pbk.) 1. Short stories, AmericanStudy and teaching. 2. Short stories, AmericanHistory and criticism. I. Hamilton, Carole L., 1951 . II. Kratzke, Peter, 1960 . PS374.S5S48 1999 813'.0109'0071dc21 99-20716 CIP To our students, who teach us more than they know The novelist may juggle about with chronology and throw narrative overboard; all the time his characters have the reader by the hand, there is a consistency of relationship throughout the experience that cannot and does not convey the quality of human life, where contact is more like the flash of fireflies, in and out, now here, now there, in darkness. Short-story writers see by the light of the flash; theirs is the art of the only thing one can be sure ofthe present moment. Nadine Gordimer, "The Flash of Fireflies" vii Contents Foreword: What Is a Short Story, and How Do We Teach It? xi I. Making It Personal 1 1. Shared Weight: Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" 5 Susanne Rubenstein 2. Being People Together: Toni Cade Bambara's "Raymond's Run" 10 Janet Ellen Kaufman 3. Destruct to Instruct: "Teaching" Graham Greene's "The Destructors" 18 Sara R. Joranko 4. Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me": A Writing and Self-Discovery Process 22 Judy L. Isaksen II. Seeing What Is Really There 31 5. Forcing Readers to Read Carefully: William Carlos Williams's "The Use of Force" 33 Charles E. May 6. "Nothing Much Happens in This Story": Teaching Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron" 42 Janet Gebhart Auten 7. How Did I Break My Students of One of Their Biggest Bad Habits as Readers? It Was Easy: Using Alice Walker's "How Did I Get Away..." 48 Kelly Chandler 8. Reading between the Lines of Gina Berriault's "The Stone Boy" 54 Carole L. Hamilton 9. Led to Condemn: Discovering the Narrative Strategy of Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" 59 James Tackach viii Contents III. Perceiving the Story's Underlying Structure 65 10. One Great Way to Read Short Stories: Studying Character Deflection in Morley Callaghan's "All the Years of Her Life" 67 Grant Tracey 11. Stories about Stories: Teaching Narrative Using William Saroyan's "My Grandmother Lucy Tells a Story without a Beginning, a Middle, or an End" 72 Brenda Dyer 12. The Story Looks at Itself: Narration in Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel" 78 Tamara Grogan 13. Structuralism and Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever" 85 Linda L. Gill IV. Encountering Other Perspectives 95 14. Creating Independent Analyzers of the Short Story with Rawlings's "A Mother in Mannville" 97 Russell Shipp 15. Plato's "Myth of the Cave" and the Pursuit of Knowledge 108 Dennis Young 16. Through Cinderella: Four Tools and the Critique of High Culture 113 Lawrence Pruyne 17. Getting behind Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" 118 Dianne Fallon V. Discerning the Story's Cultural Perspective 127 18. Expanding the Margins in American Literature Using Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City 131 Barbara Kaplan Bass 19. Shuffling the Race Cards: Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" 139 E. Shelley Reid 20. Readers, Cultures, and "Revolutionary" Literature: Teaching Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" 145 Jennifer Seibel Trainor Contents ix 21. Learning to Listen to Stories: Sherman Alexie's "Witnesses, Secret and Not" 153 Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez VI. Refining Taste 163 22. "Sometimes, Bad Is Bad": Teaching Theodore Dreiser's "Typhoon" and the American Literary Canon 167 Peter Kratzke 23. Teaching Flawed Fiction: "The Most Dangerous Game" 172 Tom Hansen 24. Reading Louise Erdrich's "American Horse" 179 Pat Onion 25. Opening the Door to Understanding Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" 185 Richard E.