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UNIVERSITATEA „ŞTEFAN CEL MARE” - SUCEAVA

FACULTATEA DE LITERE ŞI ŞTIINŢE ALE COMUNICĂRII

LUCRARE METODICO-ŞTIINŢIFICĂ

PENTRU OBŢINEREAGRADULUI DIDACTIC I

COORDONATOR ŞTIINŢIFIC,

LECTOR. UNIV. DR. GABRIELA RANGU

CANDIDAT,

PROF. HURJUI VIOREL

ŞCOALA GIMNAZIALĂ SATU-MARE – SUCEAVA 

SUCEAVA 2013

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The game of playfulness and

pastiche in the postmodernist world

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Summary

Motivation………………………………………………………………………………....4

1st chapter

The concept of play and its meaning …………………………..…………………………5

2nd chapter

The colors of postmodernism nowadays………………….. ……………………………..15

3rd Chapter

The stage of Canadian literature and Margaret Atwood’s part on it………………………19

4th chapter

Pastiche

Presentation………………………………………………………………………..24

Pastiche in Atwood’s: The handmaid’s tale……………………………………….29

5th chapter

David Lodge and the world:

Seeing the world through the windows of the Ivory tower. ………………………………32

Pastiche in “Campus Novel and not only”…………………………………….…...34

6th Chapter

Language play – or the way we play with words………………………………………….41

The way I plays with words………………………………………………………..46

7th chapter

Teaching through play……………………………………………………………………..49

8th chapter

Humanism – a place where “creativity flourishes and mind is breaking free”…………....54

9th chapter

My personal view about teaching humanistically: ideas about posture, materials and

content…………………………………………………………………………………..…67

10th chapter

The importance of teaching literature……………………………………………………..76

We live through play (conclusions)…………………………………………………..……80

Appendix

Lesson plans………………………………………………………………………………81

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...………113

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Motivation

I have chosen this subject because I was told that I like to play. Being a

professional, I quickly realized that I can use this advantage in my classes, as an English

teacher. By doing that, I’ve noticed a great attitude change at my students. They became

more eager to participate at my classes, more willing to play and to learn through play.

Year by year I have tried new techniques and activities. After judging well on the

perspectives, I realized that this approach, of teaching through play, really makes the

students eager to engage to get involved in more formal activities – by creating a strong

bond between the teacher and the student. What I want to say is that the English class, as a

whole, filled itself with a lot of positive energy. The bond between students and teacher is

a special one, and if I am permitted to say, it can assure the success of all the lessons in a

school year if it is built accordingly. This is one of the main research points in my thesis.

I had the opportunity to teach in many schools. By applying the play as a too, in

order to teach, I had to overcome constraints regarding the difficulties of planning the

activities and other type of constraints. Studying Anglo-Saxon and American

methodologies, I’ve discovered hundreds of books that dealt with the subject of play, each

of them with its pluses and minuses. My intention is to sum up all the things I was

interested about and to put them down on the paper, in order to create for me and, why not,

for others a unity in all the ideas regarding play.

This thesis wants itself as a journey through many realms. First of all, I would like

to travel into the kingdom of literature, studying two great masters that I consider indeed

“Gurus” in playing with words, both of them alive and representing modern type of

writers, who keep up brilliantly with the growing demands of the postmodern readers: The

British writer David Lodge and the Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood. A certain

dimension of play and also a characteristic of children development is the one that has

connections with imitation. That’s why I want to describe the pastiche concept and to find

this used in the representative novels belonging to the already mentioned authors.

A second stop in my journey is humanism, because, from my perspective, teaching

through play is a humanistic way of teaching on account of the degree of freedom that is

usually given to the student. My desire is to present, in few lines, some information

connected with the teaching of literature mainly following an ethical principle, which I

think, can really change some behaviors of the students from our classes.

Last, but not least, I want exemplify through a few lesson plans the theoretical

approaches of play.

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1st chapter

The conceptof play and its meaning in the contemporary society.

We can, as a simple exercise, have a look around. We may take a walk in the park,

we may go to the stadium, we may enter in an internet café or we may just watch children

on the side-walks. The discovery is not-necessary surprising and for some is just something

that they take for granted. All around us there is play.

“Play is so much a part of our lives as human beings that we often fail to reflect on

the range of our play activities and on what those activities mean to us.”(Joe L. Frost,

2011, page 2)

I will not try here to develop an exquisite research on play. Things like that have

been done seriously by researchers that devoted their all lives to study the relationships

between play and how it influences the emotional development of children. My purpose

will evolve around a wish to underline the proper importance of play in the first years of

school and not only. Play is considered by many as an important part from the school

education. But is it really appreciated? I’m focusing my thoughts on the authentic practice

right now, because I’ve seen practically how deep I can influence the children’s attention

and motivation by playing with them. The years of practice as a teachers have been years

of applied research. This kind of endeavor wasn’t necessary scientific, butnon-intentional.

What I wanted so much after every class that I held was to stir my student’s motivation,

attention and creativity. I perceived this fact: the higher the percentage of playing in a

class, the more they emotionally connected with all the notions that were sent to them

through the teaching channel of communication. This is all true, but up to a point. It

depended of course on many factors: of how well I could create a proper playing and

teaching environment, of how imaginative was my pretense, of how original were my

teaching materials and of course, how great I could plan my lessons – for my students not

to get bored or distressed.

By reading about play, about new ways of teaching and about new methods to

introduce into my classes I’ve found a statement belonging to Joe L. Frost:

The remarkable endurance of play and games across centuries, generations,

cultures and countries is quite a story. Both natural and man-made playgrounds change

with geography, time, and necessity. Technology, culture and interest change

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children’s toy choices, but their games, laws and seasons for playing them endure in

modified fashion.

(Joe L. Frost, A history of children’s play and play environments, 2010, page 61)

The same author in collaboration with Sue C. Wortham and Stuart Reifel presents in a

prodigious book, Play and the children development, in the first chapter, a history of the

children’s play. He says like that: “To acknowledge the complexity of play we will see

how the history of play (…) has changed over time” (Joe L. Frost, Play and children

development, 2011, page 4). This is my opinion to, so before shaping a “personal” view

about the structure of play, I will present some perspectives that assemble the thoughts

about the importance of playing until nowadays:

In the cult of Artemis, girls who used to serve for the goddess underwent puberty

initiation rites that involved dancing or other types of activities. The philosophical

discourse of the ancient Greeks explored the meaning of play as part of their attempt to

understand human expression and thought. Plato referred to playing as a medium to perfect

“the knowledge that will be uses later in life” (Frost, 2011, page 5). The way they tried to

understand the human condition was through three routes: Argon, mimesis and chaos.

Argos or conflict represented one way to consider play. The ancient gods were

understood to play with humans on earth; to provide challenges Ancient Greeks created

sport versions of the real conflicts - thus play was the main tool for a competitor in such a

competition. The deep understanding of the relationship between goods and people evolves

round the concept of play. The roots of this relation stay firmly connected with the idea

that life itself, with its uncertainties, is a kind of play with rules, that leads eventually to

satisfactions that cannot be truly explained because there are connected with emotional

addiction of playing it all over again in un uninterrupted circle.

Mimesis included any number of representational forms that stemmed from actions

designed to mimic the gods, possibly by doing what the gods were imagined, such as

dancing, orchestrating human actions (theatre) or religious rites (rituals). So, by all means

we can say that adults were trying to mimic gods and children were trying to mimic their

parents. Considering the fact that the innocence of children, in many religious confessions

is connected with the purity of Gods, we can observe here too, a circle that rotates itself

indefinitely.

Chaos – believing that the divine order can emerge from randomness, this involved

a trust in chance – hence the Games of chances are a third form of play that continues to

this day. (gambling, flipping coins or drawing straws)(Frost, 2011, page 5). It is worth

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mentioning that the play actions of children outside of ritual activities were not recorded.

Some scientists say that randomness is a chance that the universe itself had , because

without it, it was impossible for all our existence “to be”.

The Enlightenment and the Romantic period came with a different focus, on

rational thought rather than a focus on religion and belief. Everything became an aspect of

reflection. The play of children is separated from the adult play. Play is a type of activity

with specific play objectives that were thought to shape the mind and spirit. John Locke,

the 17th century philosopher speculated that each human being is born as an intellectual

blank state, or tabula rasa. He stated that human thoughts result from the experiences we

have, and so, what we know is what we learn.

Locke saw play as a necessary part of childhood, stating that children are players by

nature. He was among the first to specify that playing with toys, carefully supervised by

adults,was desirable for children. Kant’s primary concern was with how we know things.

In his view, for adult human beings, the imagination or free play of the mind is the context

in which knowledge and reason operate. We imagine the things we want; thereby we create

our need for knowledge. Kant also attributed to play the basis for arts and morality.

However, he never linked the idea of play to activities, because, in his view, play goes on

in the head. In the 18th century Schiller identified play as a key part of who we are as

human beings. He wrote specifically about play as an expenditure of exuberant energies.

He said that the human being consumes a lot of energy to meet our physical needs. Any

energy we may have left over is dedicated to play. More important to Schiller were the

aspects of play that took the form of symbolic or dramatic activity and were most

frequently expressed through arts (Frost, 2011, page 7/8). This is very important because

Schiller equalizes, in my opinion, the power of imagination with the notion of play

implying that play has “divine” capabilities; through play we create art, art is a kind of

play.

Friedrich Froeber (1746-1826) was a student of the innovative Swiss educator

Pestalozzi. He showed how children learn naturally from their encounters with real things,

so-called object lessons. He combined all his predecessors’ principles to formulate a play-

based curriculum. He translated beliefs about play into educational practices by means of

play objects that would be manipulated in ways that supposedly lead to educational

insights.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) revisited Schiller’s notion of play as a surplus energy

and converted into a psychological version of Darwin’s idea about adaptation. In his

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modified theory, surplus energy fuels instincts that assist natural selection.(Frost, 2011,

page 8).

The 19th century began with a set of inspirational beliefs about play, highlighting

the importance of play as a source of human creativity and higher thought. At the start of

the 20th century there were disagreements about play’s particular role in development and

education. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) presented a strong point of view. Play was not

central in her view of education. First, the teacher of the “children’s house” prepared a

planned environment, where children freely choose their involvement with Montessori’s

materials. Second, the planned environment in a Montessori school was rich with miniature

or child-size materials. Those objects were designed to help the children master real-work

skills, with objects crafted to their size. Objects in miniature can be seen nowadays in

every child’s room. Their presence there is now seen as something necessary – that is

connected with offering the children all what is required to start imitating the adult’s

world.

Now, concerning the view about play nowadays, we open our debate on play with a

reason extracted from a book appeared in 2010 at Open University press, McGraw and

Hill. The book is called: “The excellence of play” There, the editor, Janet Moyles

introduces a statement mentioned by a practitioner in a reception class in England. She

says like this: “There is still a lack of understanding and knowledge of how children learn

and play: the lack of space, freedom and provision impedes children’s natural

development” (Moyales, 2010, page 24). What strikes me isthe similitude of this truth that

may be found in other practitioners’ mouths, right here, inside the Romanian educational

system. We all sustain the idea that play is, with no means to deny, in the center of the

educational didacticism used in the kindergarten and for the primary school but at a closer

look we find that the early educators develop, as primary objectives, capabilities connected

with literacy and numeracy in, what I would call, a formal non-evolved school

environment. As a matter of fact, we cannot complain, because, at a close scrutiny, we find

that the parents have a similar idea of offering so much attention to Romanian and

Mathematics and of descending the other parts of the curriculum on the second shelf in the

order of importance. It is self-evident that “teaching is perceived by parents, policy makers

and practitioners to be a formal activity – and has been over a century” (idem, page 25).

That’s why the first classes tend to be too formal for the needs of young children….so

“many boys start the system as failures” (idem, Moyales 2010). The one and only way to

solve this dilemma is to think at a playful pedagogy and to “embrace a whole different

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range of deeper learning and teaching practices if we are to serve twenty-first century

young children” (idem, page 25). To put it in a nutshell, this is what this paper wants – to

offer a fresh perspective of the word “play” applicable also to some literary grounds, but

mainly to give a helping hand to those who want other means to use during classes, not

only to impose fear in order to achieve and to instruct.

“Grappling with the concept of play can be analogized to trying to seize bubbles,

for every time there appears to some thing to hold on to, its ephemeral nature

disallows it being grasped.” (Moyales, page 27).

All things considered, it’s our task to “seize some of those bubbles”.

The point at issue here is the way play is viewed, considered and described. An

attempt was made by Mary D. Sheridan, in her 2010 book, Play in early childhood

(Routledge edition).The book is at its third edition, so we have in front of us a book revised

and updated for a contemporary audience and fully evidence-based. The book explains

how children’s play develops and how they develop as they play. Inside of the first chapter

we find great lines about the definition of play, the functions of play, and the types of play

and, of course some pages dedicated to the reader’s own thinking time.Before the first

edition of the book was first written, that is in 1977, the knowledge regarding the needs of

the child weren’t so advanced. They could, at that time, refer only to the nature of the child

development. The author’s observations in the third edition offered an insight “into the

development of real children in real situations - allowing the reader to enrich their

knowledge and validate their own experiences” (Sheridan, 2010, page 10).

As far as I can see, there is a great deal of information that has been said about play.

Why that? In Sheridan’s point of view, there is a great deal of evidence based on the value

of play for children development (idem). That’s why play is recognized in article 31 of the

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. My feeling is that although there

are many books about teaching through play, although the people, the instructors, consider

themselves able to teach through play, still, there is an enormous difference between theory

and practice. We take, as educators, for granted certain things about children development.

What happens exactly? This is a small example. We tend to focus on the child that is able

to do a role play. We don’t know what to do if a child doesn’t engage in a game like that.

What is there to be done as a next step? Should the next step be: trying “to encourage him

to engage in role play or should I provide different play opportunities that may help in the

development of his representational abilities?” (Sheridan, 2010, page 11).

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Sheridan’s idea about the play is defined by a sense of freedom, choice and

control.Usually the boundaries are set and regulated by children themselves. As skilled

educators, we need to provide for the best environment we can in order for the child to

have the possibility to choose form a wide range of possibilities. We have to transform

ourselves from evaluators into coaches. In an ideal educational system, the means of

evaluation are less important than thechild’s path of development. We have to control from

the distance the limits of the children’s games. They need to sense that they are free. A

sense of freedom in the classroom is a necessity nowadays. There is a road that is opened

in the way teaching is organized in kindergarten, with educators that try to send the

toddlers to evolve around the so called learning centers. But the shift changes when the

students are enrolled in the famous grade 0. There aren’t learning centers anymore, or, if

there are, the formalization of activities overtakes everything.

Play is seen as a complex notion. We can see play as a behavior, a process and an

approach to the task. Play, work and drudgery are all engagements. What differentiates

play from the other actions is that the effort from the child – a pleasurable physical and

mental one is done to obtain emotional satisfaction. (Sheridan, 2010, page 14). This raises

another problem. If this emotional satisfaction is transferred somehow to the gown-up that

needs to continue playing in a multitude of different ways: through the games of football,

using a Play-station, so on and so forth. We shall continue with this problem later.

Dictionary definitions present the word play as being “frivolous, fun or light-

hearted” (idem.)

1.Play – source(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/play_1) verb [I]

(ENJOY)

(A1 When you play, especially as a child, you spend time doing an enjoyable and/or

entertaining activity.)

But often the seriousness of some games contradicts this definition. Therefore, as

long the activity is regarded as play, there are some characteristics which are unchangeable

that we have to observe: - first, there is voluntary participation, after that there is a form of

enjoyment; there is a sort of intrinsic motivation, a pretense and a focus on process over

product. (Sheridan, 2010, page 14).

If we want to understand play, we need to find out what out how players see it and

some don’t necessary see it like something “fun” (idem). Activities that take place on the

floor and outside, rather than inside, are seen like play by children. To put it briefly, the

environment has a tremendous importance on the way children judge the nature of the

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activities. Open environments, which have irregular structures, are sources of potential

freedom. All the things which contradict the way the adults do, for example their postures

in an official meeting, sitting in a mannered way on a park in the park or the right angles

of the desks in a classroom environment, can be seen as a source of freedom. The

opposite settings are synonymous with control. Play can be seen as an action of

exploration. Before using a piece of environment, a child has to explore it, to see what bits

can be used or not, what an object does; therefore, much of the activities we can notice in

young infants and not only belong to exploration. (Sheridan, 2010, page 16). So, our

influence on the play may include location and the availability of materials. In her book,

Sheridan says that “children communicate the desire to play using a series of signals”. I’m

convinced that this kind of invitations starting with the simple ones: “Hey, let’s play ball!”

but continuing with the most complex ones are used at all ages, even in adolescence or

with the grown-ups, in the moment when the ego of the child kicks in.

“WhyPeople Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships is a 1964 bestselling

book by psychiatrist Eric Berne. Since its publication it has sold more than five million

copies. The book describes both functional and dysfunctional social interactions.

In the first half of the book, Berne introduces transactional analysis as a way of

interpreting social interactions. He describes three roles or ego states, known as the

Parent, the Adult, and the Child, and postulates that many negative behaviors can be

traced to switching or confusion of these roles.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_%28book%29)

In Berne’s vision, there is a need for social intercourse, because, as he states, there

is a strong need of emotion to be handled over to the infants, because “emotion depravation

can have a fatal outcome”. He derives the conclusion that there is a “stimulus hunger”,

which presents itself as a type of hunger that influences the body with “the most favored

forms of stimuli”(page 3). A similar phenomenon is the on presented in the life of the

adults. Berne calls the phenomenon “sensory deprivation” which, if it is lacking, is seen

capable of “give rise to temporal mental disturbances.”

So, as a small conclusion, “stimulus hanger has the same relationship to the

survival of the human organism as a human hunger (Berne, 1964, page 4)” Using a special

“colloquialism” this idea can be retold in a different way (idem): “”If you are not stroked,

your spinal cord will shrivel up”.As far as I can see, as a child and after that, as an adult,

the human being will continue to push aside the intimacy with the mother, in the same time

“striving for its attainment”while the ego is that of a “child”,.As a parenthesis, what strikes

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me is the primary connection that we all make when referring to an infant. We connect the

infant with the idea of play. So, if during its life, the human being strives for the state of

living the infancy once again, it means that the condition of play is presented all along the

path of life, until death. (when the ego of the child kicks in). Play is something absolutely

necessary because is connected with socialization, with the possibility that it has, to offer

permanently a “stimulus”. The children who do not play do not develop themselves

properly. The children who do not develop themselves do not play. To save autistic

children we have to play with them, so playing can be seen a sort of therapeutic way to

make our children healthier and happier - more eager to live and to be competitive in life.

We must not overlook the fact that Berne’s book is called “Games people play,” so

the question is obvious: What can be understood from the word “game”? But we will

answer to that later. This infantile Stimulus hunger transforms itself through what Berne

says into a “recognition hunger” (idem pag 4)attained by “Stroking” which may be used as

a general term for intimate physical contact. In practice it may take various forms, says

Berne. “Some literally stroke an infant; others hug or pat it, while some people pinch it

playfully. These all have their analogues in conversation so that it seems that one might

predict how an individual would handle a baby by listening to him talk.” (idem)

Stroking is and has to be a part of the interaction that takes place between the

teacher and its students.

From a psychological point of view, an individual “programs time”. One of the

aspects of time programming is the “social programming” Each individual becomes more

and more independent “in his quest for recognition” and it is this difference which makes

the base for different types of social intercourse.“As people become better acquainted”,

more and more “incidents” begin to occur. “A careful scrutiny reveals that they tend to

follow a definite pattern”. These regulations remain latent, but if an illegal move is made

“a symbolic, verbal or legal cry of “Foul” appears”. It should be pointed out that, from

Berne’s perspective:“Games are sequences of interactions based on individual social

programming. Family life and married life as well as life in organizations of various kinds

may be called GAMES.”What I mean here is to say that games are social transactions that

follow patterns which are almost identical in the structures and in the

development.Although it seems a little farfetched, this pattern, from my perspective,

explains very well the basic structure of the play that takes place between infants.

These games are not necessary fun. They may be very serious. “The essential

characteristic of human play is not that the emotions are spurious, but that are regulated”,

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Berne says in his book. (Berne, 1964, page 6). Social sanctions are serious only if the rules

are broken. There’s no escaping the fact that this definition in very much applicable inside

the educational environment, inside the process that we call play. There are numerous

similitudes between the meaning of the game presented by Berne, although his

significations have a social and psychological origin.

The second half of the book catalogues a series of "mind games in which people

interact through a patterned and predictable series of <transactions> which are

superficially plausible (that is, they may appear normal to bystanders or even to the people

involved), but which actually conceal motivations, include private significance to the

parties involved, and lead to a well-defined predictable outcome, usually

counterproductive. The book uses casual, often humorous phrases such as <See What You

Made Me Do>, <Why Don't You — Yes But,> and <Ain't It Awful> as a way of briefly

describing each game. In reality, the <winner> of a mind game is the person that returns

to the Adult ego-state first.” (www.wikipedia.org)

One example of these games is the one named "Now I've got you, you son of a

bitch," in which A is dealing with B, and A discovers B has made a minor mistake, and

holds up a much larger and more serious issue until the mistake is fixed, basically holding

the entire issue hostage to the minor mistake. The example is where a plumber makes a

mistake on a $300 job by underestimating the price of a $3 part as $1. The customer won't

pay the entire $300 unless and until the plumber absorbs the $2 error instead of just paying

the bill of $302. (idem)

All things considered, what Berne says about the definition of the game is really

important: “A game is an ongoing series of complementary ulterior transactions

progressing to a well-defined predictable outcome. Descriptively, it is a recurring set of

transactions, often repetitious, superficially plausible, with a concealed motivation; or,

more colloquially, a series of moves with a snare, or “gimmick” (Berne, 1964, page 19).

Games are clearly differentiated from the other sets of human interactions by “their two

chef characteristics: (1) their ulterior quality and their payoff” (idem). Their ending is more

than “sensational”, is “dramatic”. “Every game (…) is basically dishonest, and the

outcome has a dramatic, as distinct from merely exciting quality”

Now let us consider that some people think that the game has a pleasurable

outcome and the children desire “to focus on the process, not to the product”. Connecting

the ideas, my feeling is that the children and not only they tend to concentrate on the

development of the action but they always have an outcome in mind when they play any

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kind of game. I believe that every game is an interactional process between the subject in

question and: the environment, the instructors or the other peers, but has always a goal

inside to be accomplished, a mystery to be solved or a treasure to be found. Sometimes, the

purpose of the game is the game itself, because mentally it produces pleasure and we know

that pleasure is addictive.

In a book called The Pleasure Instinct, published in New Jersey and also in Canada

at the same time, the author Gene Wallenstein, tries to discuss about the reason the

pleasure instinct drives us in doing many apparent absolutely normal things – for example

why we crave adventure, want chocolate, seek sex or like music. “Pleasure, like fear and

fire, is a natural force that humans have sought to harness and control since their

beginnings” (Wallenstein, 2002, page 2, mobi edition). The pleasure instinct is an

awesome force that has the ability to drive us to “extraordinary lengths (idem)”. This raises

another problem. Is there a connection between the word play seen as an action, the

predictable outcome of the game, that “pay off” and of course the reason why people

continue to enjoy playing, even when they are grown-ups? The participants in the “play

process” act in a way or another driven by the strong power of pleasure. The moment when

we seek deeply inside the “pay-off” that follows after every game, we discover, under all

the coverings, pure and real pleasure. And there is another aspect of the problem. When

children play, they see, they touch, they sense, they smell. And from here, we can discuss

the very importance of the environment where children play. If the environment is too

tight, old, filled with disinterestedness, the development of the child’s brain is affected.

Even since they are little babies “infants seek out the best kinds of sensory experiences for

promoting normal brain development in their early years of life” (idem, page 4.). These

experiences continue up to the adult’s twenties. Why? “To survive, the synapse between

two cells must be activated consistently. Those synapses that are activated the most”

(idem, page 17) have advantages over less active synapses. In short, this is the way our

brain wires itself and suffers the phenomenon called “pruning”. To cut the story short,

outside, in an open air environment, for example, the senses are all almost to 100% or less,

in this way ensuring a normal brain development. During play, the child walks on the path

of socialization. In a classroom where the teacher’s talking time is over exceeding and

where there are no group or pair activities, the wiring of the brain is affected. When they

play, they learn “increasingly complicated knowledge” regarding survival inside a social

community. The children must be “adroit at reading the social cues of the group; predicting

the consequences of their own behavior and that of others” and all these can be

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accomplished by playing, inside a socially/classroom established game or on a playground

in the school-yard. We can say the conclusion that play has to be an absolutely necessary

brick inside the construction called: the lesson.

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2nd chapter

The colors of postmodernism nowadays

Citizens who lived in the Middle Ages or in tribal societies could pretty much live

undisturbed, without ever knowing along their lives a different culture with the exception

of their own. “If they encounter an individual or a society that was different, then the

strategy was to conquer it military, economically and sexually”, in a word, to convert it and

to change it or to kill it.(Powell, 2007, page 11). Today it is very difficult to get through the

day without facing different realities. You turn the TV, or any other electronic device and

you may listen to a group music singing a blend of “Irish love songs, Indian raga, heavy-

metal” (idem), or you go out wearing a Hawaiian shirt in order to eat a pizza and to drink a

coke. “All the world’s cultures, rituals, races, databanks, myths and musical motifs are

intermixing like a smorgasbord in an earthquake” (idem, page 13). The explosion of the

communication technologies has fragmented the world cultures in small ones, and, of

course there has to be “explorers” to chart this new “Postmodern world”.

Postmodernism is a literary period that emerged in the fifties, as a reaction to the

values and the dogmas of the previous literary movement called modernism. These periods

cannot be separated into discrete units as centuries or presidential terms. There’s no

escaping the fact that postmodernism is a “reaction”. (Literary movements for students,

Gale, 2009, page 615)

The Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, appeared in U.S.A. at Facts on

File in 2006 presents succinctly the definition of the word “postmodernism” “Where

modernist literature was characterized by its commitment to the value of a unified,

coherent work of art employing symbol and myth, exhibiting alienation from ordinary life,

postmodernism celebrates incoherence, discontinuity, parody, popular culture end the

principle of metafiction”. (Dictionary, Quinn, page 330) According to Frederic Jameson,

postmodernism rejects what he calls “the depth model” and its binary oppositions”:

essence vs. appearance, latent vs. manifest content, authenticity vs. inauthenticity, signifier

vs. signifies. (Jameson, The Deconstruction of Expression, page 1078). Though, there is

“no outside the text” (Derrida) and there are no origins or fixed references. (T.R. Quigley).

In the history of postmodernism, the critics have identified two phases:

32

It’s earliest, starting after the second world war and characterized by a tone of play

“a delight in language” and the intellectual puzzle reflected in works like Vladimir

Nabokov’sPale Fire (1962) and the poetry of the New York school (Dictionary, Quinn,

page 331). When referring to these unstable moments in time, we cannot overview the war

for independence in Algeria or the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. At the same time, in

1967 more exactly, Derrida presents himself his first paper, Of Grammatology. After due

consideration, I think that the principles of deconstructions are the central core of

postmodernism. Deconstruction sees the western values and not only as a kind of puzzle.

He takes the elements of the western thought and he shifts those elements in settings never

before possible. First, he takes into consideration the opposition between the speech and

language. The philosophies claimed that speech is a natural form of language and has, by

all means a “position of primacy”. (idem, page 621). He doesn’t say that writing is not

secondary, he argues on the position that speech is a recording of a script, so he raises in

discussion what he calls “centering”. He shows that any text, no matter what kind, can be

read in different ways, and to put it briefly, the meaning of any text is never stable. In his

book, Derrida talks also about the binary oppositions that can be found in western culture.

Taking some disparate elements of a concept and rearranging those elements in a different

way means for me a kind of play.

Let us consider the fact that in this period Kurt Vonnegut published his novels,

Ishmael Reed wrote his poetry, the Marxist critics Fredric Jameson and Terry Eagleton

presented their theories. The second phrase is signaled by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One

Hundred Years of Solitude” where techniques such as magic realism “provided a bridge

between experimentalism and the traditional realistic novel” (idem).

“In a speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1994, the former

president of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel presented, among other references, an

expressive, I would say quite masterly definition of postmodernism: <<… This state of

mind or of the human world is called postmodernism. For me, a symbol of that state is a

Bedouin mounted on a camel and clad in traditional robes under which he is wearing jeans,

with a transistor radio in his hands and an ad for Coca-Cola on the camel’s back>>”

(Literary movements for students, Gale, 2009, page 616)

Postmodernism is self-conscious, experimental and ironic. When children play,

they tend to experiment all the time. Their play territory is filled with pretense. They

explore unknown or known territories all the time but strangely, they have the same open

environment in front of them, and all these happen because there is a permanent movement

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between the scenes (real or pretended) and the characters(old or new). That happens

because the goal of the game has to be attended (in many cases – pleasure) and the brain

hasto keep wiring itself.

Source: http://www.students.sbc.edu/wise06/Home.htm

Carl Andre’s rectangular pile of bricks, Equivalent VIII (1996) can be admired by

anyone at the Tate gallery in London. It is a typical postmodernism object. I think many

people would ask themselves “What is the point of this? /Why is it displayed in a

museum?” (A short introduction to postmodernism, Oxford university press/2003, page

12).Is this really art or is just a heap of bricks pretending to be art? Of course, viewing

this from a strange point of view, typical for the postmodernist movement, where

everything has a catch and nothing is what seems to be, the “institution of the gallery is

what makes is a work of art”. Of course, this minimalist piece is a reaction to all the art

forms in the museum, it is an apparatus built to demonstrate our linear judgments

concerning old modernist art-judging principles.

A typical thought about postmodernism tells that its theories lead to nowhere. The

incredulity toward metanarratives evolves into a new incredulity toward all theorizing as

such, so there is a growing awareness that there is something irrational about theory itself.

All these conclusions are mentioned in a web article written by Robert Miller.

(http://home.vicnet.net.au/~exist/pdf/2001_December.pdf). For the author, postmodernism

is “a state of quandary wherein we lose our grip on reality, ie, on whatever has been

represented hitherto as being reality by this or that theory. If theory slips, reality slips”.

(page 2) “So this would appear to be the postmodernist view; we must theorize although

the theorizing lacks legitimacy and can get nowhere.” (page 3). If there is a futility in

everything, what is the solution then? Robert Miller presents two ways of getting out of the

“whirlpool”. One of them has connections or can be resembled with playing; the first one

in particular.

32

But let us consider for a few moments the way the innocent toddlers start playing.

At first, there is all about exploration. Little babies take a feather in their little hands, they

grasp it, they see it with their small eyes, they analyze it and they try to find it a meaning.

They throw the feather upwards and they watch it falling with the eyes sparkling with

happiness. They enjoy every moment, everything is connected with that feather, and there

is an entire world in it. They don’t use it; they get out from the moment of life where

everything is used, where everything has a purpose. They see the world in that feather.

They contemplate it. They play with it.

Robert Miller’s first escaping possibility is “silence”. He says that first you have to

take a step inward. “This inward step back is a detaching from the thought process. In this

detached observation, or passive contemplation, one is no longer simply thinking or

theorizing. Rather, one is rooted outside the thought process, outside the self-discourse or

the text of reality with which you usually engage…” (idem, page 4). This kind of

contemplation is similar, from my perspective, with the one presented in a previous

paragraph. It is a kind of contemplation that is identical to the love that a Buddhist monk

feels for every living creature that lives on the face of the earth. It’s about admiring the

world through the eyes of a baby. It’s only a feeling of loving the “universe in a grain of

sand” (see Blake).

The second aesthetic turn is “to return to the text in order to <play> freely with

them for our aesthetic purpose”. (idem) These two steps have to develop themselves in this

proper distribution in order to achieve a transformation.

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3rd Chapter

Canadian literature and the involvement of Margaret Atwood in creating it.

First and foremost, I’d like to start with the reason that I’ve chosen a protagonist of

the Canadian literature in order to sustain the idea that play can be one of the main driving

forces in the world of literature. Firstly, I’ll say that Atwood stroke my inner conscience

with the idea of play. Being a theoretician of the novel, she sends all around ideas

regarding the usefulness of every word, every idea or theme that she uses onwards her

writing. What Margret Atwood managed inside the territory of Canadian literature can be

easily resembled with the literary works (and not only) of George Calinescu inside our

Romanian cultural space. For Atwood, writing without a purpose, without the words

bearing a noble goal has no meaning. She says somewhere she would crash with her feet

any literary production that has a flat essence. As I see it, she explores strange worlds

where imaginary realms intersect with real ones. The social significations have layers that

can be unveiled after a careful scrutiny on the wide biographical/national context. She uses

autobiographical mirrors which she flaps over and over to color them in new and engaging

ways. She acts as a child inside a room where the floor is filled with memories, personal,

collective, individual or universal. It would be an “oversight no neglect the wit and humor

of Atwood storytelling, no matter how serious the subject matter is”(Companion to

Margaret Atwood, 2006, page 4). Reighard Nischik “draws attention to techniques of irony

and humor as she traces Atwood development as a social and political critic” (idem, page

22)

Because of her history of colonization, immigration and federation, the literature

productions belonging to Canadian literature in English must be carefully defined.

(Hammill, 2007, page 31). There is a lot of literature pieces written in French too, and in

the languages of Aboriginal groups. These also can be included in what we can call:

Canadian literature.

The first important period when started an inaugural “phase of self-determination in

Canadian history and literature” can be found in the earlier colonial era, when France and

Britain fought for dominance over territories which would become Canada. The second

phase can be traced in the 19th century when Canada was controlled by Britain and

received tides of emigration from Europe. Writers in these two periods were largely

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dependent on European aesthetic conventions although some began to experiment with

form and genre in their attempts to engage with North American subject matter.

“Confederation, in 1867, marks the start of a new phrase of self-determination in Canadian

history and literature, while in 1951, Massey report into the arts in Canada, which launched

the era of cultural nationalism, may be taken as the next landmark.” (Hammill, 2007, page

32). During the second half of the twentieth century, Canadian literary tree blossomed, the

literary productions being extremely prolific and diverse. (idem)

Atwood was born in 1939 in Otawa and grew up in suburban Toronto. As a child

she spends her summer at the family cottage in the wilderness of modern Quebec, where

her father, a forest entomologist, conducted research. For Americans, the fact that she

didn’t spend one full year at school until she was 11 wasn’t surprising, but for Canadians

was. She says ironically that this was the way Canada was depicted in the glossy

magazines. She fought all along to change this “wild west” view about her natal country

right from the beginning of her career. She began to write while she was in high school,

contributing poetry, short stories and cartoons to the university newspaper. The love for

literature was due mainly to her parents who were great readers and who, even if they

didn’t encouraged her to become a writer they gave her all the necessary support and they

never pressed her to get married.“As an undergraduate at the University of Toronto,

Atwood was influenced by one of her teachers, Northorp Frye, who introduced her to the

poetry of William Blake. Impressed with Blake’s use of mythological imagery, Atwood

wrote her first volume of poetry, Double Persephone, which was published in 1961. The

following year Atwood completed her A.M. degree at Radcliffe College, Harvard

University. She returned to Toronto in 1963, where she began collaborating with artist

Charles Patcher, who designed and illustrated several volumes of her poetry. In 1964

Atwood moved to Vancouver, where she taught English for a year at the University of

British Columbia and completed her first novel, The Edible Woman.”(Thomson-Gale -

2004, Feminism in literature, vol5, page 93)

After a year of teaching literature at Sir George Williams University in Montreal,

Atwood moved to Alberta to teach creative writing at the University of Alberta. Her poetry

collection:The circle game (1966) won the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s highest

honor. Atwood public visibility increased significantly with the publication of the poetry

collection Power Politics in 1971. Seeking an escape from increasing media attention,

Atwood left her teaching position at the University of Toronto to move to a farm in Ontario

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with her husband. In 1986 she again received the Governor General Award for the novel

The Handmaid’s Tale.

These are some scattered information about the prodigious career of an

internationally acclaimed novelist, poet, short story writer essayist, critic and author of

children’s books - Margaret Atwood. (see photo) (idem, page 93)

Source: http://maykan.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/b007tjpb_640_360.jpg

There is something that delineates Atwood from other writers from the literary

establishment. She can be in the same time ironic and in the same time she can have a high

degree of seriousness. She gives the impression that she mocks the reader, in a good way,

showing a kind of writing that at the first glance may be simple, but that in the same time

hides numerous hidden messages. “The combination of high seriousness and witty ironic

vision (…) is the hallmark of Atwood literary production” (Companion to Margaret

Atwood, 2006, page 2). There are two leitmotifs that can be unfolded after you read her

works. One of them is the way she interconnects with the nature, with elements of the

environment. One could say that the shade of the wilderness that covers most of her work

is due to the moments when she, as a child, was travelling after her father who used to

collect things from nature because he was engaged in an entomological research. I could

see her literary imagery filled with dark, bleak entities, walking around in a realm where

the roots of the trees were piercing the earth in a savage and eternal way. In Cat’s eyes

there is a persistence of the image of home, which passes through different stages, from

32

“the house” where the sleep takes place in the open air, in the sleeping bags to a house

made from red bricks where the sleep takes place at the beginning on the floor. Eleonora

Rao argues that “<home> is an extension of the nation and national identity and related to

concepts of belonging and homelessness, dislocation and alienation”(Companion to

Margaret Atwood, 2006, page 4). The men belong to “the dark side of the moon” race in

the way they are depicted. Their character is unraveled page by page and at the end we see

that the inner core is rotten in an unexpected way (see Crake). The women are researchers

of their inner core. Their wish to survive gives them the strength to adapt in a way that they

accept any kind of modification of their personality because arriving at the finish line is

their stronger wish (Handmaid tale, The blind assassin, Oryx). The character’s “truth” in

her novels is seen by the critics “as a <shifting construct, or a series of tricks with

mirrors>” (idem, page 7).Atwood deconstructs dualities as male/female as she “researches

for <a third way of being outside of the either/or alternatives which her system resists>”

(idem, page 7).

There are, of course other and other traits of Atwood’s work, but these two only

make up what the critics named: her “Canadiannes”. This is her first leitmotif. Being

surprised that the writers from her own country are ashamed of revealing their origin,

Atwood struggled from the moment she began writing to build an identity for her country

and to change the way the judgments were expressed about the country’s culture. Atwood

remembers about her school days:

“We had no Canadian poetry in high school and not much of anything else

Canadian. In the first four years we studied the Greeks and Romans and

Ancient Egyptians and the Kings of England, and in the fifth we got Canada

in a dull blue book that as mostly about wheat. Once a year a frail old man

[Wilson MacDonald] would turn up and read a poem about a crow; afterward he

would sell his own books … autographing them in his thin spidery handwriting.

That was Canadian poetry.”

“Travels Back”, page 31

She had to delineate the cultural traits of Canada and he had to prevent the world

readers to see Canada as a part of North America In this respect, she had to appeal not only

to the criticism from her country, but to the criticism from around the world. She is

considered by the literary world as a “mythographer of the Canadian imagination” (idem,

page 5).

32

“When I did discover Canadian writing it was a tremendously exciting thing

because it meant that the people in the country were writing and not only that, they

were publishing books, then so could I. So then I read a lot of stuff, and I was lucky

enough to know somebody who had an extensive library of Canadian poetry which

I read from the beginning to end, so by the time I was about 21 I had certainly

found my tradition”

(note: That someone who had an extensive library of Canadian poetry was Northrop Fryre)

(Companion to Margaret Atwood, 2006, page 14)

She travelled a lot in order to advertise her literary work but not only for that. Her

work as an environmentalist and a promoter of the social equality and of human or of

women’ right is widely known. I’ll wind up by saying that she is, in the same time an

international imaginative writer which can be considered her second leitmotif.

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4th chapter

Pastiche

The concept of pastiche/ a short presentation

Recent years have been devoted by masters of theory and art to the investigation of

a new genre, noticeable, for years, as puzzling and preeminent and in the same time, as

being a main feature of postmodernism

Today, highly engaging manifestations of the genre minor can be found in

architecture, painting and mixed media installations; in film, literature and performance

modes ranging from the operating to rock event; and supposedly trivial discourses such as

advertising. These are some words from the cover of an exceptionally well-written book,

Pastiche, Cultural memory in Art, Film and literature, written by Ingeborg Hoesterey, and

published in Indiana, USA, by Indiana University press, in 2001. She presents in this

unique research a view on the line of history where she puts the pastiche phenomenon and

analyses theway its meaning evolved and where and in what forms can it be identified into

the artistic practice.

In the introduction of this book there are some dictionary entries that try to

comprise in a whole the multiple meanings of the concept. We will present some of the

most important significations here, in order to establish the way in which pastiche can be

judged from different perspectives. That because we will use the identified features later,

in our research:

“Pasticcio – A medley of various ingredients, a hotchpotch, a jumble; pastiche – to

copy or imitate the style of. Oxford English dictionary (1989)

Pastiche – from It. Pasticcio – a literary, artistic or musical work that closely and

usually imitates the style of a previous work… - Webster’s Third New Dictionary,

Unabridged

Pastiche – pâté, … art fake – Metzler Literaturlexikon

One of the most significant features or practices in postmodernism today is

pastiche. – FREDRIC JAMESON (1983)

Pastiche - chopped liver – Garrison Keillor (1997)” (Ingeborg, 2001, page ix)

32

From the start of her book, we can observe the existence of the “twin concepts”,

pasticcio and pastiche. Although there are twin concepts, along the decades there was a

slight difference between the two in the sense that pasticcio referred mainly to the art of

painting, in comparison to pastiche that encompassed lots of meanings.

Although we live now in a period where theory is “the academic daily bread”, it is

surprising that the term “pastiche” continues to be considered something minor that doesn’t

deserve attention. We can add here that the sense of the term is, in general, a negative one.

A passage that has become standard and that caused an empty fieldof theory about the

subject, where only minimalizing judgments grow,is the one mentioned by the prominent

American critic Frederic Jameson. He names the pastiche “as blank parody” (Ingeborg,

2001, page x). It should me mentioned that “the framework of Marxist aestheticism is

dominant in the critic’s theoretical position.” At the other pole there is an opinion that

belongs to the philosopher and the art critic C. Danto. When asked this question: “Is it Art,

Is it Good? And Who says so?”, Danto supplied this answer: “All these days has very little

to do with aesthetic responses; it has more to do with intellectual responses.” For Danto,

something qualifies today as a wok of art when it can make a meaningful contribution to

social and artistic conversations” (idem, the same page). The upshot is that pastiche,

especially in a postmodernist environment, is considered a medium through which the

author conveys the final meaning. Only this meaning is important. The production and

reception of “contemporary visual arts” (the ones influenced by pastiche) are embedded in

a larger theoretical form of postmodernisms (Ingeborg, 2001, page xi). “Metamorphoses of

the multifaceted genre mineur can be found today in architecture, in commercial art, in

popular music ranging from…. to MTV idiom”. What it all boils down to is that

“postmodernism pastiche is about … cultural memory and the merging of horizons past

and present” Artists have just been “re-examining traditions that modernism eclipsed in the

pursuit of the “Shock of the New”” (idem, the same page). Another point we need to

consider is the historical evolution of the meaning. There is only sporadic scholarship

related with this word. “The authorship of the meaning is … clouded in a fog of

attributions (idem, page 1). As far it can be seen, it is clear that the term pasticcio is an

older term. “Literally, “pasticcio” “derived from the Common Romance pasta, denoted in

early modern Italian a pâté of various ingredients, a hodgepodge of meat, vegetables, eggs

and a variety of other possible additions (Battaglia, 1984, page 791)”. In the wake of

Renaissance, the art scene grabbed “paticcio” as a metaphor to describe a scene of painting

of questionable quality. (Ingeborg, 2001, page 2). Hoesterey’s book says that “the growing

32

demand for Renaissance art in Rome and Florence in the sixteen century led to a lively

market, which encouraged many average painters to produce covert imitations of High

Renaissance masters” (idem). These artists would skillfully combine elements from several

originals into a product of their own making. (…) This process of amalgamating stylistic

features in a work of fine art was not entirely new” (idem). Roman artists had been doing it

too, copying classical, often Greek elements into something new with an ancient identity.

The sixteen century practice of creative yet fraudulent practice may also have flourished in

the context of a certain academic discourse, called “The selection theory” based on a

legend about a Helena figure made by the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis, which allegedly

combined most perfect features of several different maidens (idem). (see image)

http://thestudyabroadblog.blogspot.ro/2010/01/zaga-academia.html

The assessment of the contemporary art historian suggests the climate of a growing art

appreciation that stimulated the production of pasticcio (…), tending toward copy rather

than eclectically blended pasticcio (…); brilliantly executed copies (…) meet with a

different reception. Most of the pastiches were executed in the medium of painting,

although sculpture was not excluded.

By the mid-seventeenth century, (…), the Italian scene could look back on a

hundred years of pasticcio production. (Ingeborg, 2001, page 4). It is generally assumed

that the Italian concept travelled to France, where it becomes known as “pastiche”. There,

the term even enters in the dictionaries, for example this entry, from the dictionary:

Histoire de la langue Française, compiled by Ferdinant Brunnot:

32

Quand aux pastiches, ce sont des “Tableaux, qui ne sont ni des originaux, ni des

Copies”,mais des contrefaçons. Leur nom vient de l’italien “pastici, qui veut dire

Pâtez: parce que de même que les choses différentes qui assaisonnait un Pâté

se réduisent a un seul Goût; ainsi les faussetés qui composent un Pastiche, ne

tenant qu’à faire unvérité”.

1667 is the date when numerous reputable dictionaries, including Le Grand Robert (1985),

included the first time the entry of the word “pastiche”. The definition, “neither original

nor copy established the genre as we know it today” (Ingeborg, 2001, page 6). The

meaning of the term then establishes itself as a kind of truth, “une verité”. This truth walks

away from the old signification, creating itself a kind of “unity” of the elements. Another

entry from 1765dipicts the pasticcio like that:

but they are made in the sensibility and manner of another painter, with such

artistry that the most clever have sometimes been deceived

(idem).

This definition focuses on pastiche both as an ingenious, acknowledged copy of

masterwork and as a counterfeit picture.

In his Eléments du the littérature of 1787, Marmontel considers the literary pastiche

“une imitation affectée de la manière et du style d’un écrivan. He points later to a more

positive assessment of pastiche: “A rare talent is one who is high above the pettiness of

that exercise one calls pastiche, may be able to assimilate to the greatness of a writer, to

penetrate his soul and his genius, be it as an homage or because he wants to write in the

master’s genre” (Ingeborg, 2001, page 7). Meanwhile, the fluctuation in the semantics

between negative and positive poles was in full swing in the European music community.

(idem, page 8) Twenty-century musicological discourse by artists and critics tended to use

the term “pastiche” do denote the self-conscious emulation on the part of a major modern

composer of an earlier one or an earlier style. (idem)

Marcel Proust’s Pastiches et mélanges yields an important redefinition of the status

of the genre relevant for criticism today. For Proust, pastiche is about reading, about

“coming to grips of a writer with the works of revered authors.” (idem, page 9). This

meaning constitutes itself an evolved one, leading to the “intertextual play that is

literature” (idem). What is literature, in fact? An author’s text influenced by another

author’s text and son on and so forth. A continuous imitation/reaction to what was before

and an ingenious expectation of what will be after. Despite Proust’s excogitated view, “the

typical understanding of pastiche by literary scholars still adheres to an imitation

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paradigm”. I’ll wind up by saying that “the slippery quality associated with the pastiche

genre is in part due to the structural profile that was there from the outset: imitation of a

masterwork and the “pâté” of components (the Greek-Latin cento). (Ingeborg, 2001, page

9) Vagueness continues to be part of the genre’s history because (…) of so many “cultural

perceptions and conceptual traditions”. (idem)

A glossary of multiple meanings that live on the contested territory of pastiche: (idem,

page 10)

Adaptation – means the modification of artistic material transposed from one genre

to another

Appropriation – refers “the advent of the citational stye (in painting) – more exactly

to the act of borrowing”

Bricolage – the « bricoleur » works with what is on hand, and this tinkering can

produce brilliant results.

Capriccio – manifests itself as a flight of fantasy and sudden whim that surprises a

conventional setting.

Cento – patchwork texts that were produced in antiquity representing borrowings

from famous authors and intended as parodies

Collage– In a collage, the physical identity of the different motifs is preserved in

the overall diversity.

Contrefaçon – adaptation and rewriting of Romance-language Medieval epics into

Middle High German songs;

Fake – modern forgeries which are perfect copies for the art market and that lack

the impurity of pastiche fakes.

Farrago – a confused mixture, a hodgepodge.

Faux (e.g., Faux Faulkner, faux Baroque) – meaning false, untrue – it is used

especially in high-style advertising

Imitation – a dialogue with the classical tradition – conducted by imitating the

author in question

Montage – a single image created from parts that are a representational sign without

trace of its composite nature. (space montage: several different plots strands happen

simultaneously in different places )

Palimpsest – a term to embrace all works derived from earlier works.

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Parody – a work of literature or another art that imitates an existent piece which is

well known to its readers, viewers or listeners with satirical, critical or polemical intention.

Characteristic features of the work are retained but are imitated with contrastive intention

Plagiarism – copyig the language and ideas of another author and presenting them

as one’s original work.

Recycling – the not necessary creative reuse of traditions, motifs and ways of

seeing.

Refiguration – the past form is converted into a sign of the present, while the

present is historicized through its containment within a formal element taken from the past.

Simulacrum - substituting sign of the real for the real itself.

Travesty – satire, often comical, which uses earlier, original material but changes

the stylistic level drastically / presupposes a polemical relationship of the later author to the

canonical work engaged.(Ingeborg, 2001, page 10-15).

Pastiche in Atwood’s: The handmaid’s tale.

The Handmaid’s tale is in the purest sense of word, a dystopia. It depicts the

imaginary world of Gilead, a theocracy built following the laws of so called Christian

environment established on the actual territory of the United States. The main character,

Offred, tells the story while living it, in this way altering the perception of the reader to the

accuracy of the facts which are narrated while it can be sensed that she is transforming

herself. We also refer to the real meaning of the truth because of the used point of view.

We speak here mainly about a first person narrator who tells what she can see and think

with little traces of omniscient narrator. We can see the new society through Offred mind

eyes; therefore we have a limited point of view.

As the type of the novel, we can sincerely say that there are deep roots of the

science fiction rules of writing inside the Handmaid’s tale. We don’t perceive other

worlds, time alterations or different races, but we have the chance of seeing a possible

future human civilization with unexpected settings, a different set of manners and a new

society with strong connections with William Golding’s perspectives upon the fate of

humanity.

32

Together with Offred, the main characters of the novel are: the Commander, an old

man, maybe being very close to decrepitude, Serena Joy who was an evangelist and now

she enjoys the advantages of being a Wife in totalitarian society. In the scene appears

Offglen, a fellow of Offfred and a partner of the daily shopping, Nick, who, as a driver,

establishes a path between the inside and the outside world and Moira, who plays against

the regime, in this way establishing herself as an outcast. While Nick is in a sort of way a

flat character, Moira doesn’t accept the rules of the new world, sees that there is no point

in fighting the game directly and tries to evade, to conceal herself inside the hate that she

feels and to give a punch whenever she can. Therefore, we can definitely say that she is a

rather round character.

Luke is the former husband of Offred. It is as an icon for her because she has the

energy to continue to struggle because of the memories of him and their daughter gives her

strength to endure and to live, to truly live, not to accept what happens with her.

Professor Pieixoto is a person that discovers Offred tapes. He acts as a layer, altering the

perception of the reader and in this way building the impression that not all the truth was

said or that all what was said was not the truth.

The development of the text reminds us of Samuel Richardson style of writing, the

epistolary novel, so we may find here a sort of pastiche. The development of the events is

rather chronological and logical, of course, being filled with intrusive flashbacks that come

into our view as being filled with important meanings to the main character. Although

there are dialogues, the pace of the novel is a steady one with little dialogue that doesn’t

speed up the action.

There is a free indirect speech used all along the novel, but the style is one

belonging to a narrator that wants to have everything in control. Giving impression that we

speak about a detached narrator with a humble tone, sometimes this becomes excited,

ironic, mostly in carnal love scenes, playful, satirical, serious but almost never resentful.

We can find humor and irony all along the novel.

Other examples of pastiche can be found in the occurrences of the passages from

the Bible that explain all the practices that need to have a historical and traditional flavor.

The Bibile is seen throughout the space of the novel as a justification, but itself is locked

and controlled by men, who have the power to understand and interpret, so we can clearly

see here a pastiche that hides itself, a mutiny against the existence of the single truth. All

these things are an apology to the values of postmodernism and an exemplary appreciation

of Derrida’s theory about the non-existence of a single truth. The forms of the words are

32

changed, which is something ordinary for dystopias leading us to believe that the world

can change if we change the Names first. (e.g. Prayavaganza). In contrast to the

officially build up ceremonies where the tone is formal and the words have like a purgatory

effect, the obscenities about Aunt Lydia at the Red Centre are seen like a demonstration

that, once the Word itself it set free, it can “move mountains”. There is a sort of play of

words that takes place between the two worlds, one that is represented by the eye and the

red one, where OffX live. The odds are much in favor of Offred because she plays

scrabble, she masters the Word successfully and in this way she moves the chances in her

favor. Offred retells herself in her story, recreating the person she used to be and

reclaiming herself from Gilead.

Offred is aware that the stories that are told at the Red center have low value of

truth. She realizes that misquotation: “from each, says the slogan, according to her ability;

to each according to his needs” Recited from what the Handmaids believe is St. Paul three

times a day proves ironic, because, of course, is from Marx. What I mean is that a pastiche

can be identified in this satirical reuse of the quotation.

(http://englishwithmorgan.weebly.com/uploads/7/2/6/5/7265563/storytelling.docx.)

32

5th chapter

David Lodge and the world: Seeing the world through the windows of the Ivory

tower.

I’ve chosen to speak about David Lodge because of many reasons. First of all, there

is a strong dose of amusement and hilarity in his works, and, as we all know, playing can

be very joyous sometimes. Besides this, he is, as Atwood, a critic, an establisher of laws,

more exactly. His writing effort leads to the emergence of a new literary genre. His highly

appreciated criticism books prove that he knows the insides of this incredible masonry

which is the world literature. Another point that can be mentioned is the way he intervenes

in the text. He writes his work in a realistic manner, but because of the fact that introduces

in the text a lot of external sources that can be connected to various modes of interpreting

it, he connects his final meanings of his novels to a postmodernist range of vision.

David Lodge, born on 28 January 1935 is an English author and literary critic

widely known all over the world. His best works cover the second half of the 20 th century,

the period when great social and political turmoil. He is best known for his novels that

satirize the academic life, especially for so called “Campus Trilogy”, made up from:

Changing places: A tale of two campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic romance

(1984), and Nice Work (1988). He is known a co-founder of a new genre in literature

called “campus novel” together with his colleague, university teacher and literary author

Malcolm Brabury Lots of people from all over the world enjoy reading his novels because

of the comical element that is presented in them altogether with a great deal of parody and

satire. We can find definitions of the campus novel in certain dictionaries, like The

Routledge History of Literature in English:

In Britain, the academic as novelist tends towards comedy […]. The setting is often

a university or college, the characters often academic or writers. The problems,

however remain the standards concern of love and money, religion (especially in

Lodge, who is arguably the most significant Catholic novelist of his generation), and

success or failure. Where, in early writing, success was seen in social terms, here de

scope is often reduced to academic success, with the result that there is a profoundly

comic questioning of the whole ethos of success, failure, career and private life

extending well beyond the English university system. Both writers (David Lodge and

Malcolm Bradbury) use their experience of travel and other cultures to examine the

32

ambivalence of the attitudes of the newly educated mass readership which has benefit

from the worldwide expansion in education and social awareness. Both are also highly

aware literary critics, particularly strong on modernism and modern critical theory

(Carter and McRae, 2001, page 513).

(article: Comic features in some of David Lodge’s novels, Veronica Šaurová, 2005,

www.wikipedia.com )

“Being born in a Roman Catholic family and attending the Catholic

St.Joseph’s Academy in Blackhearth influenced his early work. He earned a

Master of Arts in 1959 with a thesis on “The Catholic Novel from the Oxford

movement to the present day”. Lodge was brought up as a Catholic and has

described himself as an “agnostic Catholic”. Many of his characters are

Catholic and their Catholicism, and particularly the relationship between

Catholicism and sexuality is a major theme in his works. The British

Museum Is Falling Down (1965), and How Far Can You Go? (1980) both

examine the difficulties faced by orthodox Catholics due to the church’s

prohibition on artificial contraception. Other novels in which Catholicism

plays an important part include: Small World, Paradise News (1991) and

Therapy (1995).”(www.wikipedia.com)

Shortly, his early career starts in 1959, when he and his future wife, Mary Frances

Jacob marry both at the age of 24. “His comic and self-deprecation words relating to this

event can be found in his novels, too.” “It seems extraordinary now. I had no prospects, no

job, little money but it never bothered me. We didn’t really want any children at the point

they came along, but we got on with it” (Lodge, The Practice of Writing, London: Vintage,

2011, page 29-30http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3622739/Bad-reviews-

spoil-my-lunch.html/)

In 1959-1960 Lodge worked in London as an English teacher for the British

Council. In 1960, he got a job as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where he was

preparing his PhD Thesis on the Oxford movement. At Birmingham, Lodge met the

novelist Malcolm Bradbury, who was to become his “closest writer friend”. In August

1964 Lodge and his family went out to the U.S. He had received a scholarship from the

Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship, which compels the recipient to travel at least 3

months out of 12in the U.S. with a car provided by the company. It is self-evident for a lot

of people the fact that there wonderings brought for Lodge the necessary inspiration to

write about the world as a “big campus”

32

From 1967 to 1987 he continued his academic career at the University of

Birmingham, becoming Professor of English Literature in 1967, while writing many more

novels and essays. In 1969, he was an Associate Professor at the University of California,

Berkley, a second American experience important for the development of his work, both

theoretical and fictional. Lodge retired from his post at Birmingham to become a full time

writer. He says of his retirement:

"It was the right time to leave. All my former colleagues say: 'You are well out of

it.' There's a weary disillusion to university life now and that's a shame because, when

I was there, there was excitement, a joie de vivre. Now it has become like a machine,

servicing large numbers of students, and much less attractive and interesting.”

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3622739/Bad-reviews-spoil-my-

lunch.html)

(www.wikipedia.com)

Pastiche in “Campus Novel and not only”

In my short research about Lodge I would like to talk mainly about the joyous

features of some of his works, especially about its” campus novel”. I will mention some

situations where comic language is used or comical situations are created. Then I will

mention some elements that have strong connection with the technique that Lodge uses in

composing his works. Finally I will bring on the stage some information regarding the

pastiche that Lodge uses in his “campus novels”, but not only.

One of the first novels that David Lodge wrote is: The British Museum in Falling

Down (1965). This is a story of a poor Catholic graduate student working on his thesis in

the Reading Room of the British museum. He is very worried that his wife may be

pregnant again, so he becomes involved in a series of adventures that parody the style of

the authors of the modern novels he is studying.(article: Comic features in some of David

Lodge’s novels, Veronica Šaurová, 200, page 5) By all means, the strongest aspect which

makes this novel unique is the use of pastiche in it. The novel reflects the reaction of

ordinary Catholics embodied in the ordinary Catholics couples and their problematic

sexual life troubled with the catholic ban on artificial contraception, the so-called “Safe

Method”. (idem, page 15)

32

Much to his own regret, Adam Appleby awakes every morning with thoughts of all

the unpleasant and stressful aspects of his life "crouched like harpies round his bed...that

he was 25 years of age, and would soon be 26, that he was a post-graduate student

preparing a thesis which he was unlikely to complete in this the third and final year of his

scholarship, that he later was hugely overdrawn, that he was married with three very

young children, that one of them had manifested an alarming rash the previous evening,

that his name was ridiculous, that his leg hurt...that he had forgotten to reserve any books

at the British Museum for this morning's reading, that his leg hurt, that his wife's period

was three days overdue, and that his leg

hurt."http://www.amywelborn.com/lodge/lodge.html.

Adam tries to solve his desperate financial situation through the edition of

unpublished writings of Egbert Merrymarsh, a Catholic writer and hopes to get some

materials needed for this work from his descendant Mrs. Rottingdean (what a comical use

of words!). When her daughter tries to seduce him in the exchange for the manuscript that

could easily make his career, Adam discovers a shocking willingness to agree on this but in

the end his love for Barbara, his commitment to the Catholic Church and above all the

great fear of another unwanted pregnancy did not allow him to do it(Šaurová, 2005, page

16). This event, presented, of course, in exacerbated proportions to create hilarious effects

represents a bridge to the outside world, a connection between the self from the novel and

the others, under a mask of mutual understanding and of a willing to develop a close

affinity with the reader.

What marks this novel as a one of a kind is the style that Lodge utilizes. Many of

the texts represent parodies of the popular modern authors. Practically, the main character

strangely lives too close to the literature space; hence the message may be for those that

live inside the “Ivory Tower” to step out in order to create a sort of equilibrium.

Adam is burdened so much by his problems that he suffers from hallucinations as a

consequence of the ever-present stressful thoughts. (…). For example, this scene at the

beginning of the Chapter Three when Adam is asked to show his Reading Room Ticket

because of the annual check and this leads the nervous breakdown and hallucinations:

`Iwanttorenewmyreadingroomticket,' gabbled A. `Over there.' `But I've just been

over there. He sent me to you. ... `What do you want exactly?' he asked. `I want to

renew my Reading Room Ticket,' said A patiently. `Do you want to renew it? You

mean you have a ticket already?' ... `May I see it?' ... `It's out of date,' observed the

man. `That's why I want to renew it!' A exclaimed. ... `Could I have my reading ticket

32

now?' said A, after some minutes had passed. `Over there.' `But you just said you

were responsible for renewing annual tickets!' protested A. `Ah, but that was when I

was sitting over there,' said the first man. `We've changed places now. We do that

from time to time.'

(Šaurová, 2005, page 20).

This passage represents, of course a pastiche from Kafka. The character is caught at

a juncture. There is a blurry frontier between livings inside the boundaries of a novel,

where all the laws are changed according to some regulations belonging to the “Cheshire

Cat”, and the real life, where wives get pregnant if you obey the rules of the Catholic

dogma.

Adam lives the live of the heroes of the books he has studied during the preparation

of his thesis. <“So all of us, you see, are really enacting events that have already been

written about in some novel or another. Of course, most people don’t realize this - they

fondly imagine that their little lives are unique…Just as well, too, because when you do

tumble to it, the effect is very disturbing”> (idem, page 31). This is a very interesting

perspective. Here we sense the powerlessness of an author who is at the crossroads. Still,

he doesn’t know that his muse is where he wouldn’t expect it to be - inside the circle where

he lives every day, inside the campus. Barbara’s final monologue is homage to Molly

Bloom’s interior monologue in Ulysses. (…). The four passages containing one undivided

sentence is definitely imitating Joyce’s style. It depends on the reader to identify all the

pastiches which can be found inside of the many passages from the book. There are

passages containing pastiches of the example Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Franz

Kafka, D.H. Lawrence, C.P. Snow or Virginia Woolf (idem, page 22)

Changing Places is the first campus novel with serious undercurrents. The subtitle

is “A tale of Two Campuses”. The title and all the literary allusions that can be found

inside bring into our mind Charles Dickens’ A tale of Two cities. It tells the story of the

six-months academic exchange between fictional universities located in Rummidge

(modeled on The University of Birmingham in England), and Plotinus, in the state of

Euphoria (modeled on Berkeley in California). The title of the novel sends us signals

regarding the plot, but can be also perceived as a reference to two types of practice and

criticism of the literary discourse, traditionalism, on one side and modernism, on the other

side (Crihana Alina, 2003, page 1).

32

The two academics that take part in the exchange are both aged 40, but don’t have

anything else in common (or they seem so), because of the different academic systems in

their native countries. At the first glance, we have the possibility to observe that Lodge’s

travelling routes have brought him enough experience to share with the others the different

perspectives that can be found inside two very different socio-cultural spaces.“Lodge uses

his experience of travel and other cultures to examine the ambivalence of the attitudes of

the newly educated mass readership which has benefit from a worldwide expansion in

education and social awareness” (Barnolipi journal, vol.II, issue V, February 2013, page

76). The English campus was first mentioned in Kingsley Adam’s Lucky Jim. This sort of

writing brought into public consciousness a new setting – a minor English provincial

university - and a new kind of hero, the iconoclastic young man with good academic

qualification but a market lack of sympathy for the traditional claims and attitudes of high

culture (Raileanu, 2011, page2). Why should the campus world mark such an interest for

the readers from all over the world? Because there is always a curiosity what lies in the

“Ivory Tower”. Ordinary people have always been interested in the way “the professors”

behave. Because, from the exterior, everybody thinks that this kind of people are behaving

eccentrically, with fixed modes of behavior and with wrong perceptions about what

happens in the real world and how the ordinary “workers” manage “to get around to

living”. Lifting up the veil and showing that inside the tower there are the same sort of

passions and the same foggy Gods it’s a surprise for the reader from outside the system. It

makes the outsiders believe that they can be super-humans if they would like to bother to

have the will do so.

“The English participant, Philip Swallow,is a very conventional and conformist

British academic, and somehow in awe of the American way of life. By contrast, the

American, Morris Zapp, is a top-ranking American professor who only agrees to go to

Rummidge because his wife agrees to postpone long-threatened divorce proceedings on

condition that he moves out of the marital home for six months. David Lodge has stated

that the character of Morris Zapp was inspired by the literary critic Stanley Fish.In the

US, Stanley Fish is one of the big punchers of the academic world, a renowned intellectual

showman and top-dollar prof. In Britain, he will always be better known as Morris Zapp,

one of the most memorable characters of David Lodge's campus novels, especially

Changing Places (1975) and Small World (1984). In the first of these, Zapp, a ruthlessly

professional professor from California, sets out to be the world's greatest Jane Austen

expert (though he rather dislikes her writing). In the second, he becomes even more famous

32

and successful by learning all the party tricks of French literary theory. Charming,

intelligent and unstoppable, fuelled by egomania (though Lodge gives him private anxieties

to make him sympathetic), he is openly disdainful of his muddle-headed, shabbily dressed

British counterparts, who are apparently incapable of publishing the necessary paradigm-

shattering books. Lodge was happy for it to be known that Morris Zapp was Stanley Fish,

and one imagines that Fish would have been happy enough too. For Zapp's real-life

counterpart has always been a sharp publicity seeker, and has prospered as an intellectual

controversialist.”

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/aug/04/classics.highereducation

As the exchange progresses, however, both Swallow and Zapp find that they fit in

surprisingly well to their new environments. They even consider to remaining

permanently. The book ends with the two couples convened in a New York hotel room to

decide their fates.

“In Changing Places Lodge employ both third person and first person narratives.

Sometimes the narrative moves easily from the mode of the third person omniscient point

of view to a character’s own pungent stream of thought. The third chapter is entirely in

epistolary form; while in the fourth chapter excerpts carry the plot forward. The last

chapter of Changing Places is in dramatic form. The novel’s most obvious features are the

wit and economy of language, and the rapidity and inventiveness with which the story

proceeds. Lodge plays with modes of narrative in a carnivalesque spirit (…).The novel is

full of literary references, alluding to Swift, T.S. Elliot, Nietzsche, Mark Twain and Blake”

(Barnolipi journal, page 78).

Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) is a humorous “campus novel”, a

sequel to Changing places.After pondering about it, the critics say that it is Lodge’s most

conventionally realistic novel since Out of shelter. But the realism is self-consciously

sustained. There is a wealth of intertextual references, mainly to Victorian fiction, and the

book has the oppositional structure of some of his early novels. This book is firmly rooted

in contemporary history. It suggests a carefully considered return to the conventions of

Victorian realism (idem, page 82).The book begins in April, 1979 at a small academic

conference at the University of Rummidge. It is the first conference that Persse

McGarrigle, an innocent young Irishman academic has attended. He teaches at the fictional

University College, Limerick, after having been mistakenly interviewed because the

administration sent the interview invitation to him instead of someone else with the same

last name. Several important characters are introduced. Of course, some of them are reused

32

from the previous book of the sequel, but some are new. We all know Phillip Swallow or

the American professor Morris Zapp. Now we have the chance to know the retired

Cambridge professor Sybil Maiden and the beautiful Angelica Pabst, with whom

McGrrigle falls immediately in love. Much of the rest of the book is his quest to find and

win her.

After the opening in dismal Rummidge, the story takes off, in very sense and

become global. The story moves forward with rapid movement and quick alternations of

scene that characterize Lodge’s comic fiction. (Barnolipi, 2013, page 80). From the point

of view of containing pastiche elements, Ingeborg Hoesterey and other critics make

reference to the way the novel pastiches Arthurian romance, the quest, the character Perrse

as Parzival, poetry by T.S. Eliot and other pieced of world literature such as Tasso’s

“Gerusalemme liberate. Hoestrey identify cento pastiche as present in this academic novel”

(Pastiche, Ingeborg, 2001, page 102).

Persse/Percival is only one of the several Arthurian motifs in Small World. Zapp

falls, almost fatally, into the clutches of Fluvia Morgana, an Italian Marxist Professor of

cultural studies, who is very rich and sexually insatiable; she is a latter-version of Morgan

le Fay of the Arthurian cycles, mentioned in Aristo as Morgana. Arthur Kingfisher, the

distinguished elderl doyen of literary critics, is important, and easily identified with the

Fisher king, familiar to readers of Eliot’s The Waste Land. Morgana, Kingfisher and

several other seniors academics are all in pursuit of Small World’s version of the Holy

Grail, the UNESCO Chair of Literary Criticism, a highly paid and prestigious appointment

with no particular duties. (Barnolipi, 2013, page 81)

Nice work (1988) won the Sunday Express Book of Year Award in 1988 and was

also shortlisted for Booker Prize. In 1989 it was made in four-part BBC television series.

The book describes encounters between Robyn Penrose, a feminist university teacher

specializing in the industrial novel and women’s writing, and Vic Wilcox, the manager of

an engineering firm. The relationship that develops between the unlikely pair reveals the

weaknesses in each character. Robin’s academic position is precarious because of the

budget cuts. Vic has to deal with industrial politics at his firm (www.wikipedia.com).

Nice work is not such an amusing book because she lacks some of the carnivalesque

stylistic procedures met in the other book, but it doesn’t lose its sense of humor, although

the problems discussed inside seem more complex. The world from the Ivory Tower is

strongly connected with a world belonging to businesses and production. The plot is indeed

a pastiche of the industrial novel, the critics say that it pastiches North and South by

32

Elizabeth Gaskell. Wanting to offer a different kind of perspective, he blocks the irony and

he scrutinizes the interior lives of the characters. In a nutshell, the novel wants itself a

novel filled with ideas that discuss the effects of the industrialization, for example,

“building a bridge between the Tower and the capitalist world from outside”

32

6th Chapter

Language play – or the way we play with words

November 6, 2012 marks 88 years since the world was first introduced to one of the

most famous characters in children’s literature, Winnie-the-Pooh. When We Were Very

Young, A. A. Milne’s first collection of children’s poems was published on this day in

1924, and was written for his three-year-old son, Christopher Robin.

When We Were Very Young became a bestseller, but it wasn’t until the publication

of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926, and The House at Pooh Corner in 1928, that Mr Edward

Bear, as Pooh was first called, rose to fame. Over the years, Milne’s books have been

translated into many languages, including Latin (Winnie ille Pu is the only book in Latin to

have made the New York Times Best Seller List), and since publication, they have never

been out of print. The popularity of the Winnie-the-Pooh series is down to the characters,

and the way in which Milne depicts them. The language he uses gives each character its

own personality, its own voice, and its own set of unique traits, which have, I believe,

ensured the lasting legacy of Winnie-the-Pooh.

As Christopher Robin’s favorite toy, Winnie-the-Pooh is the protagonist of the

series, and the subject of many of Milne’s poems. He is charmingly dim-witted, and refers

to himself as ‘a Bear of Very Little Brain’, and if the situation allows, ‘a Bear of No Brain

at All’. That said, he is aware that the other characters are more intelligent, and often

thinks of them in terms of what they know and the words they use.

(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/11/winnie-the-pooh/). There are numerous

examples along these books where the author plays with language. I will remind us only

the way the word elephant is produced: “heffalumb” (Crystal, 1998, page 29). What is

language play? Why is it produced?

I will try to sum up some details regarding the way we play with language from a

book very dear to me that David Crystal has written in 1998, Language play. Later on, I

will refer to the language that Lodge and Atwood use in their novels taking into account

the inklings from this brilliant book.

“In this exhilarating and often hilarious book, David Crystal examines why we

devote so much time and energy to language games, how professionals make a

career of them, and how young children instinctively take to them. Crystal makes

32

a simple argument-that since playing with language is so natural, a natural

way to learn language is to play with it-while he discusses puns, crosswords,

lipograms, comic alphabets, rhymes, funny voices taken from dialect and popular

culture, limericks, anagrams, scat singing, and much more.”

(http://books.google.ro/books/about/Language_Play.html?

id=yTgi2Kn5VBIC&redir_esc=y)

The language which is used inside Winnie the pooh books, and later in the cartoon

series, and in all the book sequels takes us into a realm where we all notice that is possible

to play with language, to manipulate it. What we all do? We take some linguistic feature,

for example a word, phrase or sentence and we make it to do what does not normally do.

Playing with language has become a habit of everyone. We don’t have to master all the

grammatical rules or to know the techniques of the language deeply. We do it for fun.

When we play with language, we break into pieces all the rules regarding the appropriate

laws that a language needs to function. From a clear-headed perspective, what a language

is used for? Of course, everyone would say that with the help of the language, people

communicate. On the communication channels they sent knowledge; concepts, facts,

opinions or emotions. (Crystal, 1998, page 1)

Why we use language? The Oxford dictionary would say that the reason would be

for “an expression of though.” Chambers says that language represents an expression of

thoughts and feelings. Crystal mentions something about a meeting between two people

that start a conversation about the moment when their cats meet: something dramatic

happens, a “cat-frontation” that produces a “cat-astrophe.” Judging from the standards of

comedy, these hilarious words can be judged in a scale starting from pathetic leading to

brilliant. It’s absolutely alluring how the change of lines transforms into a “ping-pong”

punning. But what kind of knowledge is it conveyed through the mentioned words?Really,

nothing.In this sort of verbal interaction, the rules of the literal discourse have been

suspended. Everyone delights in showing off in a verbal way. All these things being

mentioned, we may say that –language play- doesn’t lack rules. The most striking are the

special ways of speaking (we make mention here about face expressions) – to show that a

utterance is intended as a piece of word-play.(Crystal, 1998, page 4)

Also, the part of the word which is the focus of the pun is pronounced more

carefully - the speaker looks smug. There is a “never” rule too. A pun cannot be repeated

in a single sentence.

32

The pun seems not to be restricted to particular ages, professions or educational

backgrounds. David Crystal specifies here a pun that has been repeated in different

contexts by people of all ages so the puns seem not to be restricted to particular ages,

professions or educational backgrounds. (idem, page 5): the sight of a chair with a single

arm: “armful, out of arm’s way”.

To wind up, everyone has been and will be in some kind of play. People who don’t

practice another form of language play always favor another: puzzles, panel games of

poetry. It is part of a normal condition to play or to enjoy others in play. We have as

example the car plates in U.S.A. and not only. Because of the fact that there is an arbitrary

number and letter combination, certain funny plates can send us information regarding the

owner. A doctor may have a plate like this: YRUILL, an ophthalmologist IC2020 (idem,

page 7).

Playing with language is so common, that we may affirm that “it is a

communicative breakdown or even pathology when people avoid playing with language

(idem, page 8)”

Everyone who uses language play may enter on a scale of propensity: some may

master this way of playing but most of us are amateurs. Who can be named in this way? Of

course, the ones that haven’t had any formal training in doing that. Their language play is

unregulated and archaic and it is always possible that a piece of their words will fall flat.

With amateurs, everyone is equal, once they have acquired adult’s levels of fluency. This

ability grows gradually – we all have had lots of practice with all the ludic practice that we

all went through in childhood. It is understandable that some people are cleverer than

others when it comes to language play, but it is possible to train ourselves to achieve a very

high level of the skill. (idem, page 9). Crystal names the ones that really like playing with

language, those that have developed an obsession from this, linguists. The professionals

are the ones that have made a way of living from mastering the rules of the language and

from using the language skills to the delight of the others. In this small chapter I will speak

about the amateurs because I think most of us are falling in this category, including

students and even some of the teachers.

When it comes to language play, in order to engage ourselves into it, we can alter

every aspect of the language system: the vocabulary, the grammar, the pronunciation and

the writing system. We can play with the vowels and the consonants in the interest to affect

the pitch or to speed any rhythm of speech or the range of the vocal effect. To put the story

short, a piece of language is effective only if we first recognize the rules of the language

32

for what they are and can sense that are being broken. For instance, playing with spelling

has a memorable effect. The aura of childhood surrounding Winnie-the-Pooh is partly

conveyed by such spellings as: picknicks, piglit, missige, rabbits friends, took aker wood.

There is an affected spelling with the names of some characters/titles like : Count Smorlork

or Pickwick papers.(idem, page 10).

It should be pointed out that making a joke relied on people recognizing a miss-

spelling in a word such as diarrhea is pointless because not many people can spell it. Of

course, few people are aware of the contrasts between American and Canadian accent.

(idem, page 11)

From the point of view of creating puns or any kind of language game, Robert

Graves says that “any poet has to master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend

or break them” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves). This is not necessary the

veracity – because we all had the chance of observing a conversation that deviates happily

from the stable linguistic grounds. As for the deviation, it is indispensable for one or two

territories to remain stable. If the linguistic game consumes the sound effects, the grammar

and vocabulary tend to be stable (idem).

Some jokes don’t bend any kind of linguistic rules and manage to keep their

funniness. It is understandable that there are jokes that have a linguistic basis, for instance

jokes that play with the grammatical structure of a sentence or with the meaning of words:

Teacher: Where are you from, Julie?

Julie: Wales Miss.

Teacher: What part?

Julie: All of me.

(idem, page 13)

Being created to entertain, a joke will make you laugh, of course. But sometimes,

telling jokes may resemble with the participation at a duel. The children, especially, are

hugely enjoying themselves when they read joke books or swap jokes with each-other.

Many jokes have the same origin. They are being reformulated, and so each teller puts its

mark on the joke he says. No one has the time or patience to check through a pair of joke

books to see just how many items are in common. Joke creation is not a specialist or a

professional matter. The ability to see links is part of a normal process of language

learning. We all practice it widely since childhood (idem).

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Some jokes work if you can “hear” them internally. We can mention here jokes that

are based on regional and class dialects:

A New Yorker was being shown Trafalgar Square by an upper-class Englishman,

and was impressed by all the pigeons. “Gee!”, he exclaimed, “Look at all dem

boids!” “Not boids”, said the Englishman snootily, “you should call them birds”.

“Well, replied the American, they sure choips like boids.” (idem, page 20)

The representation of dialect speech for comic effect has a long history; it is well

illustrated in many nineteen century novels; the most representative author that used this is

Charles Dickens. Not all the effects transcribed in the pages of such books are genuine

dialect features – often the transcriptions merely represent what happens when people

speak quickly – for instance, the sound at the end of a word that blends with the sound at

the beginning of the next. Let’s consider the case of the Australian: Let stalk! (idem, page

23) The humor relies entirely on the ingenuity of the transcribed words and on the

translation equivalent in standard English. This is reflected in: Gorra layt (Midlands,

England) from Have you got a light? There are translations from one dialect into another:

(from English to Australian:)

Baa, baa black sheep

Have you got any wool

Yes, mate!, Too right!

Three bags full

One for the shearer

And one for the boss

And one for your pullover

To stop you getting cross.

Kel Richard’s Nursery Rhymes (1992) (idem, page 23)

Because I use them extensively when I teach, I would like to mention what Crystal

says about funny sounds or voices. In a conversational language play, this type of voice

may sound “funny” or “stupid”. Such sound voices become a kind of vocal trade-mark

which delights friends and infuriates parents. It may become a habit among the members of

any close-knit group. A university lecturer may open the door and greet a colleague with

the well-known: What’s up, doc? (idem, page 25)

Putting on funny voices represents just one aspect of the general fascination of what

is called phonetic play. Why do we like to make noises? Grabbing attention over a great

distance may be one reason. A frog noise may be useless - it could be done instinctively.

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Why? There is no escaping he fact that children copy the sounds of guns, horns or passing

vehicles and they do that in a realistic way (idem, page 26). If we want to be rude, we

express a raspberry, or a so called Bronx cheer - made by putting the top of the tongue

between tightly closed lips and forcing air out. If we desperately want something from a

person whom we are intimate, we make cute mock puppy whining. (idem, page 27)

Many people will play with voices borrowed from any source that they think that

their listeners will recognize. Characters from Muppets show or Star Wars are usually

chosen. In this case recognition is everything. There can be an anti-effect if we choose an

unfamiliar voice. Adopting bizarre voices seems to be a highly distinctive way of

achieving social report among the members of a group. It could be a simple way of

bonding. Some people or characters are blessed with funny voices, because theirs sound

funny and that’s all there is to it. A comedy star like Peter Sellers has a funny voice. The

voices behind characters like Goofy or Scooby doo made them famous.

Playful practice

I play with words in a different way. I’ve discovered the appealing that some songs

or poems have for children as starters at the beginning of the lesson and I use those

extensively. They open my classes in a funny way not to mention that the majority of the

songs I usually play with them demand physical actions, too. There is the well-known

series Super simple song which has millions of views on YouTube. And there are other

songs, which are always, for example:Yellow submarine or I am a music man or others. I

will present in the following rows some lines from the songs that the children love so

much:

One little finger (three times), tap tap tap

Put your finger up, put your finger down, put it on your head, HEAD!

In this moment the children usually shout with me and learn the word because we

all point to that specific body part. We continue doing that and, surprisingly, a large

amount of words is repeated and learned in 10 minutes at the beginning of the class. The

numbers are repeated in the same funny way: I usually demand for the children to hold

their fists us with the tips of the fingers facing the body. When we start singing:

1;2;3;4;5;6;7; they have to raise a finger up each one at the time. The song has different

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rhythms, a slow one and a fast one, so the fun is always assured. At the higher classes I use

songs in fashion, for example: I’ll never be alone. It is a great song which can be used as

an ice-breaker but also, the future verbal form can prove itself useful to teach that specific

form or to open a debate about: Ways of expressing future.

This sort of activity that I do at the beginning it is one that involves everybody, so

by doing it I create a sense of communion between them. It is very engaging to see that, if

one child it doesn’t behave properly, if he or she only mumbles or pretend to sing, the

others quarrel him/her and in this way that child feels that he is pushed from behind. I

personally think and I’m accompanied by Guy Cook, in his book, Language play, language

learning, published at Oxford University press in 2000 that we tend to overlook the

importance of the language input that the children receive at a very young age, language

that is not necessary used and analyzed at a morphological or syntacticlevel. Numerous

studies have been made on the language that demands a reaction from the child, especially

linguistically. But even in the moment when the children listen carefully, he develops

language abilities. It is my sincere belief that someone can fully learn a language only by

listening to it every day, by watching TV or listening to the radio. I observed that my

students noticed that. When I ask them: How do you know that?They usually reply

something like: I don’t know, I probably heard it from TV or from a song? To sum up,

what I want to say is that I always give me enough time in my classes to offer the children

the possibility to listen to a song or to read a poem or to watch a short sequence from a

movie. This thing usually arouses their curiosity and raises their level of knowledge

regarding different types of music genres or different authors. One song which my students

had to listen was: Bed of roses, by Bon Jovi. Surprisingly, some liked it, and some not.

I believe that the stage from the lesson that is usually called: Presentation of the

new words has a great importance and that’s why I devised a system for the children to

learn the phonetic symbols using simple memo techniques that proved themselves useful. I

will speak of some symbols and I will demonstrate that I’ve transformed in a hilarious way

their seriousness that is not usually easily accepted by students:

The phonetic sound: [ʤ] looks like the D3 vitamin

[ʃ]looks like a snake that hisses the Romanian letter “ş”

[ð] looks like an egg “beaten” on its head

[ə]looks like a regular e which has just has an accident and

everything that can say it’s an [ ă ]

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We have to add that when Mr. [t] meets the snake [ʃ], he asked :“Ce-i acesta?”, and that

point on, the moment of the meeting [ʃʈ] souns like “ci”. Sometimes the students are asked

to ingurgitate the vitamin ʤ (D3), which the students sometimes take together with

calcium pills.

Through a simple amusing way even my students from the first grade and not only

are able to memorize letters belonging to the phonetic alphabet and to develop their

pronunciation accordingly. In time, they will automatize the letters and reading a phonetic

pronunciation will become something very easy for the students to do.

At a kindergarten level I usually associate drawing and singing. I start with a line

and continue with another and another and afterwards I ask the children: Who wants to

guess what I’ve just drawn here? If they don’t guess from the first time, I offer some

clues: Ithas feathers! (I explain what feathers are), It can swim in the water! After they

guess the word I usually sing the word with them using different songs:

It is a duck (three times), Mac (three times), What a nice duck!

There are many videos on Youtube that can be used as a very nice material to

present new items of vocabulary to the children or to reinforce some type of information.

Movement can be used in order to teach the youngsters how to count. Sometimes I dance

with my students by holding our hands up, by moving hands up and down and stepping

forward or backwards and counting in the same time. The famous song: “The wheels of the

bus” is a very precious tool to teach different items of vocabulary that refer to actions or to

plural of the nouns. It is a song that makes all the class move and be joyful and participant

to the activities.

Sometimes I use drawing to consolidate the previously learnt knowledge. The

discussion with the children can be lead in a way to have strong connections with the

taught material. For example, at the o grade we all listen or watch a film with: “Old

McDonald had a farm”. To take advantage of this listening moment, I draw afterwards

some of the animals on the blackboard. It is important to draw the images myself because

the children feel the effort and they try to do this type of effort to, they don’t have the

tendency to refuse any type of engagement. Afterwards we can use the realia which exist in

every classroom and which can be very useful when we teach about domestic animals, for

example. We can continue learning about the parts of the body when we have a toy animal

in our arms and we may easily continue our activities by impersonating ourselves in

shepherd or farmers.

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At the end of an activity there are moments when the students, together with their

teacher, have to consolidate the new elements of vocabulary. While doing this, the students

get used with some of the pronunciation and make invaluable connections with old words

and expressions previously learnt. Usually I use repetition as a method, which proves itself

as an old-fashioned and monotonous type of activity while the students get bored easily.

But if I change the tone and the pitch of my voice, things may change very easily. I start to

impersonate different types of characters - acting for example as a robot who takes over the

teacher’s personality, or as a ghost that scratches the children’s windows during the dark

nights.

8th chapter

Teaching through play

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In the first chapter, after studying multiple definitions of play, I’ve created a

structure of the concept, taking into account the common aspects of play from the

specialized literature. Children play to develop their brain pruning or to be able to cope

with the requirements of society. The belief that play has to occupy a central position in the

learning process is held by the majority of theorists that deal with the problem of creating

the national curriculum. I’ve noticed that the commitment to a national curriculum based

on play as the central core is more rhetoric than reality. This thing happens because there

are some unknown things in the teacher’s practice; let’s say a lack of understanding

between the teachers ’theories about play and the way they apply the theories in reality. “It

is unclear how teacher’s theories influence their practice”. (Theaching through play,

Bennet,Wood&Rogers, 1996, page 31)

In the book Teaching through playI’ve discovered a concept map that represents

examples of teacher’s opinions about play that are still valuable as a shared discourse by

many of us. The theories represent six key interconnected areas which show how learning,

the nature of play,the role of the teacher,curriculum organization and planning, the

assessment of children’s learning andthe constraints which mediate theories and practices

are defined and linked. But first of all, there,in fig1.there can be found some benefits of

teaching through play, like there are presented in the book with the same name at the page

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Key area one: Play and learning

There is a common opinion that play is vital to enhance learning especially in the

first years. The teachers’ theories all evolve around ideas regarding the closeness of the

children’s interest in play or the conditions that it provides to assure a suitable climate for

learning at a higher quality. When the students learn through play, they feel a sense of

ownership because it is obviously that learning is more relevant if it is self-initiated.

Because of the degree of involvement both physically and mentally, children are more

likely to remember what they have done in play. There are no fears and the children won’t

erect barriers because play is natural – the children are themselves.

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Fig.1

Learning develops without difficulties taking into account that play is

developmentally appropriate - childrenknow intuitively what they need and meet those

needs through play. In formal activities children don’t have the opportunities to explore

and experiment, but by playing they have it, so learning is enhances. One important aspect

here is connected with discipline. Usually, children experience less frustration in play,

which reduce discipline. Finally, I may add that children cannot fail in play as there are no

rights and wrongsproblems (idem, page 33).

Key area two: Control, ownership and the role of the teacher

The majorities of the teachers share the view that the most valuable aspect of child-

initiated activity is in enabling children to make choices and decisions, to exercise control

over their own learning and, as a result, experience a sense of “ownership”. The majority

of the teachers believe that there is a strong link between ownership with self-confidence,

motivation and the development of self-esteem and a positive self-concept. In my view,

this happens because the children follow their own ideas and through that they are

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motivated to learn. Through play children learn how to learn, a precursor to later, more-

formal learning. The majority of the teachers believe that the best policy when dealing with

play is non-interventionist one, though not as totally lasses-faire. Teachers are seen to have

three main roles in play: provider, observer and participant. (idem, page 37)

The teacher as a provider – creates a “stimulating environment” and ensures that

there’s a balance and variety in all the activities that are on offer. What is there to be

mentioned is the lack of planning regarding the possible learning intentions and outcomes

that some activities may have. Some teachers think that planning is not necessary taking

into account the spontaneous and intrinsic nature of play.

The teacher as an observer – is considered to be an important tool for assessment and

diagnosis in early childhood education and not only. “It provides <a window> to child

mind and allows the teacher’s to understand <what is going on inside their heads>” (idem,

page 38)

The teacher as a participant

Studies have been made which have linked poor quality play to the lack of adult

involvement. There are different sets of opinions regarding the nature of the involvement

of the teacher’s in the children’s play. Some say that they need to be “collaborative” – this

requiring to get down on the child’s level and to enter in his world. By contrast a “didactic

role” requires to take control and to put the teacher in a responsible role. A “supportive

role” refers to valuing children’s ideas, listening to the child, offering freedom and

accepting “what they can do”. In some teacher’s vision the educator has to be “chameleon-

like”, constantly changing from one role to another, ensuring of the appropriate use of

materials and “keeping the play on the right track, so it is not always a totally lasses-faire,

unstructured activity” (idem, page 39)

Key area 3: Play in the curriculum, learning intentions and outcomes

The teacher’s opinions about play and learning are translated into practice through

the structure of curriculum. This obviously includes planning, organization, the learning

environment and intentions for learning. Although playing games presupposes the freedom

of children’s choices, in reality they are dictated by curriculum organization, by the

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presentation of activities and by provision of resources. There are three main approaches to

planning for play:

1.the high/scope curriculum – the children are allowed to plan, carry out their plans and

then review what they have done at the end of the lesson

2 .the teacher selects a range of activities – both work and play and rotates the children

through these during the day. This is usually my sort of planning. Rotating the activities

maintains the feeling of freedom and of surprise in the same time.

3. the children are allowed to choose play activities when they finish their work

The key element in this sort of planning is to go with the flow of unplanned developments.

The teachers usually plan for play in a general way, precisely defined outcomes

being out of the question (idem, page 45). At lower levels, I would add. We need to come

up with rigorously planned activities at higher levels. We cannot afford of walking too

much into the moors of freedom play. There are other things that we can do. We can offer

the children the possibility to choose from a range of activities, giving them the right to

choose from them. If they don’t like a poem or song we can always change it. When they

discuss freely, the teachers has to act as a resource or prompter or a mischievous

participant, leading the students on the right path. Our freedom as English teachers comes

from the liberty of doing what we want with the condition of using the language.

Key area 4: Assessing and interpreting children’s learning through play.

Because play is related to children’s need and interests, the teachers often say that it

reveals their social, emotional and intellectual development. There is a broad consensus

that play has a revelatory function and is a good way of showing “where the children are”

(idem, page 46). Play also reveals “the unity of children’s thinking” which is not

necessarily subject specific and is more in line with their broad, developmental aims. Thus

the teachers view play as providing contexts for assessment where they can ascertain a

child’s developmental stage and their “readiness” to learn in more formal contexts (idem,

the same page). Teacher’s say that in their play, children reveal behaviors of their “inner

needs” and interpreting these behaviors enables teachers to gain a full picture of “the whole

child”.

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Key area 5: Constraints

When I say that many teachers adopt a traditional way of teaching when they teach

day by day (with the exception of inspections) I think about the perspective which I had at

the beginning of my teaching career but also I remind myself of the discussions which I

often have with my colleagues. Teachers prefer formal activities because there are some

constraints which they have to overcome in order to teach using play. First would be the

demands from the National Curriculum emphasize formal learning and teacher-directed

activities with clearly defined learning intentions. There is also a need for accountability to

parents and other professionals in order to demonstrate curriculum coverage and provide

evidence of outcomes and the children’s level of attainment. (Theaching through play,

Bennet,Wood&Rogers, 1996, page 50)

The low ratio of adults to children and large classes also militate against a play-

based curriculum. The teachers talk about the complexities of combining child-initiated

and teacher-initiated activities in these circumstances. They also mention the problem of

appropriate resources, space and the limitations if the environments, both indoors and

outdoors, in which they work. Another mediating factor that remains important is the

distinction which the teachers make between play and work. Both are continuing to be

valued differently when considering the benefits for children’s learning. (idem, page 51)

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9th chapter

Humanism – a place where “creativity flourishes and mind is breaking free”.

Humanism is a group of philosophies and ethical perspectives which emphasize the

value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers

individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or

faith (fideism). The term humanism can be ambiguously diverse, and there has been a

persistent confusion between several related uses of the term because different intellectual

movements have identified with it over time. In philosophy and social science, humanism

refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of a "human nature" (contrasted with anti-

humanism). In modern times, many humanist movements have become strongly aligned

with secularism, with the term Humanism often used as a byword for non-theistic beliefs

about ideas such as meaning and purpose, however early humanists were often religious,

such as Ulrich von Hutten who was a strong supporter of Martin Luther and the

Reformation.(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism )

Personally, I think that the term has secularist core, but that the religious

connections are not to be pushed aside, but there are to be used only when the other means

of education don’t produce an expected result.

Before the word was associated with secularism, German historian and philologist

Georg Voigt used humanism in 1856 to describe the movement that flourished in the

Italian Renaissance to revive classical learning; this definition won wide acceptance.

During the Renaissance period in Western Europe, humanist movements attempted to

demonstrate the benefit of gaining learning from classical, pre-Christian sources in and of

themselves, or for secular ends such as political science and rhetoric. The word "humanist"

derives from the 15th-century Italian term umanista describing a teacher or scholar of

classical Greek and Latin literature and the ethical philosophy behind it, including the

approach to the humanities.

During the French Revolution, and soon after in Germany (by the Left Hegelians),

humanism began to refer to philosophies and morality centred on human kind, without

attention to any notions of the divine. Religious humanism developed as more liberal

religious organisations evolved in more humanistic directions. Religious humanism

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integrates humanist ethical philosophy with the rituals and beliefs of some religions,

although religious humanism still centres on human needs, interests, and abilities.

As the ethical movement began using the word in the 1930s, the term "humanism"

became increasingly associated with philosophical naturalism, and with secularism and the

secularisation of society. The first Humanist Manifesto, formalised at the University of

Chicago in 1933, identified secular humanism as an ideology that espouses reason, ethics,

and justice, while specifically rejecting supernatural and religious ideas as a basis of

morality and decision-making. The International Humanist and Ethical Union and other

organizations describe it simply as 'Humanism', capitalized and without qualification.

To my mind, humanism is a term that refers itself to a way of perceiving the world

and the nature of human relationships. This term can encompass the technical ability of the

teachers to handle in a better way the connection between the one who is educated and the

educator. This term, as far as I am concerned, bears a strong connection with educating the

youngsters taking into account their moral background based on a real appreciation of the

implication of every choice that a child is making. Why a humanist approach is really

necessary? What happens in today’s world, inside the communicative processes that take

place under postmodernist clouds?

In today’s world all discourse changed. Increased apathy, in particular among

students – towards politics and civic society, all kind of violence in the public space

resulted in a “renewed interest in the moral task of education” (idem, page 13). Education

was invited to renew its pedagogical task and to compensate challenges. As a consequence

of that, some aims belonging to the citizenship education were formulated. They referred

to “active participation and social integration” (page 14). We notice nowadays a lack of

common values and norms. Those values and norms need to be defined in order to impose

a god direction to all society. We are very uncertain about the norms that exist today

because we are undecided about their value. Or course, from a postmodern view, this has a

good side, too. Our values today promote such a great personal autonomy in comparison to

the past. Humanism says that there is a perspective upon the way we construct norms

together – because we have to live and to accept who we are and to construct social life

and society. A humanism perspective about the society will always focus both on

autonomy and society.

The tension between autonomy and social involvement is the core of humanism

(idem, page 4).A humanist perspective will deal will this problem of lacking the values and

norms. There are different approaches that have to be followed and all for a good end, the

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society well-being.For Wiel Wengelers, in order to link autonomy and individuality,

everyone, and that including the members of the educational stage must focus “on

meaning making, diversity, bridging and embedding morality development inside the”

(Linking autonomy any humanity, Sense publishers 2008, page 4) interactional processes

from our society.

If we talk about norms and values, first we have to decide what those are. “Moral

values are options based on the idea what is good and bad. They refer to the concepts of

<good life>. Moral values are not personal preferences based on taste, but are more or less

explicit and fully developed ideas about a person relates to his or her life and social and

natural environment. Moral values are effectively related to behavior - they are personal

choices and are situated on the cultural level. (…). Moral values give a personal meaning

to life” (Wengelers, 2008, page 10). On the other hand norms are encapsulated in rules.

They are “standards which are based on values, and are highly context dependent and have

the attributes of agreements. Norms are developed within every group in society, for

example in a family, a sport team, a school class, a local community, a worldwide

organization, in a country or in the United Nations” (idem, the same page). What I want to

add I that the citizenship education is a set of rules that has to do with norms, but for an

active and lived citizenship moral values are important. Moral values give the person a

drive to contribute in making norms or to accept norms (idem, page 17).Wengelers

presents to us 3 clusters of educational objectives that were composed from a set of values

by parents, teachers and students after a 10 years research. These are the objectives:

1. Disciplining, where the objectives include obedience, good manners and self-

discipline;

2. Autonomy, where the objectives include forming a personal opinion and learning to

handle criticism;

3. Socialconcern, where the objectives include empathy, showing respect for people

with different views and solidarity with others;(Wengelers, 2008, page 15)

It is remarkable that parents, teachers and students alike, indicate that the cluster of

discipline is more easily realized than the cluster of autonomy and social concern. (idem,

page 16)

All these objectives can be connected to different pedagogical and didactical

practices. Methodically, discipline can be accomplished through the transfer of values and

the regulation of behavior, autonomy can be achieved through independent learning and

developing critical thinking in a neutral way, and social concern can be attained through

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cooperative learning, developing critical thinking through social inquiry and dialogue.

(idem, page 16)

What do the students think about these classifications of values? Students think that

is the teacher’s task to discipline the students, “preferable the other students.” (idem, page

17). They all like to develop their autonomy, which is very important for them. Social

involvement is less important to them. They like to broaden their horizon. They want to get

involved in political realities. They have the opinion that teachers should not interfere too

much with their identity development. In their pedagogical relations, teachers must find a

balance between on the one hand providing space and keeping their distance and on the

other hand supporting students in their identity development (idem, page 17).

How can educational practices accomplish the objectives presented above?

Education must not and foremost pay attention to knowledge and skills, but also “to the

development of a personal identity – for giving meaning to life.” Education should

challenge students to think about the values and norms and their own moral development.

Of course, students should relate to this process of reflection to important value systems.

Relevant knowledge must be transmitted, but it is more important that attention is given to

moral development of people: to their values and social norms, their process of giving

meaning to life and their skills for thinking about values, to communicate about them, to

act accordingly and to reflect on this action (idem, page 19).

Education should challenge students to relate to the world around them and to the

global world; to learning how to assess differences and being able to deal with and to

appreciate those differences. Students should be given the opportunity to explore domains

in the curriculum and to further develop their values in these domains. Students develop

their personal values in a dialogue with the values that are woven into the subject matter.

By interacting with other people or with other materials, students develop skills for moral

reasoning, moral action and reflection on that action. Students should perceive education as

a moral practice in which they are challenged to further develop their own vales and

getting engaged with values. Of course, the process of developing norms is dialogical in

the sense for agreements, of course, contradiction will remain but the intention is to give

voice to everybody, to accept differences and to find ways to live together and to jointly

build communities. Whereas dominant educational thinking first emphasized the

knowledge paradigm, now emphasizes using skills to acquire knowledge. The challenge

for education and educational activities is to incorporate values in which students are able

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to work in a reflective and dialogical way on the developments on values and norms, on

sense making and humanizing their own and the global world… (page 20).

We must take into account the fact that the supreme test in education is putting all

theory into practice. The first thing that we have to talk about when referring to practice is

the way the teachers act. All things considered, from my point of view, having a proper

attitude is more important then everything. “The teacher has to change the professional

self-image and pedagogical presence” and take the challenge of the involved change.

(idem, page35)

“Over a period of 2500 years ago, the humanistic tradition has been offering

various models of <humanity at its best>” In the classical discourses of the East as well as

of the West, this ideal “comprised central virtues of wisdom, justice, humanness, peace and

harmony” (…).

Nowadays, it seems that there is a wide agreement that humanism consists of a

cosmopolitan worldview and ethical code that posits the enhancement of human

development, well-being and dignity as the ultimate end of all human thought and action. It

further entails a commitment to form “a pluralist and just democratic social order” (idem,

page 36). The goals of education have changed too. There is a battle that still continues.

Unlike authoritarian educational traditions, which condoned physical or psychological

humiliation of unruly students, humanistic education is above all committed to a social and

intellectual oppression, physical punishment and dishonor. Based on the humanistic stance

that people’s unique dignity lies in their critical reason, moral sensitivity, creative

imagination, autonomous will and unique personality, it is essential for humanistic

education to prioritize the values of human dignity – including freedom of thought, moral

autonomy and personal authenticity –over (…) any set of values (idem, page 36).

This change has to begin with the teachers. Their professional identity as well as

their modes of pedagogical presence has to change (idem). In the years that we all live we

can notice an increase of all the possibilities and opportunities to depersonalize and

transform people into fanatic soldiers, submissive workers and addicted consumers (idem,

page 37). The defense against these trends have to be conducted by: educators, academics

and intellectuals who will organize themselves as an elite in service of the society and

undertake to develop “immunization” to protect the young children. The teachers need to

be real agents of social transformation and <active shapers> of educational messages. All

things considered, instrumental manipulation and ideological “normalization” have

become the dominant modes of interaction and communication. The teachers, in keeping

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with their original humanistic ideal have to become real “experts in <training the young in

the art of living>” (idem, page 37). Educators should establish an infrastructure of

knowledge and values to serve “as an overarching frame of reference for the practice of

education. While such educators, who know where they’re coming from and wither they

are heading – cultured, autonomous, and professional educators – may encounter some

resistance by the establishment, they will also reaffirm their dignity and prestige”(idem).

In order for teachers to have an educative effect on their students, they must adopt

unique modes of being, expression and communication (idem, page 37). There are three

qualities that render the teacher’s presence educative: - the first is interpersonal trust,

which is essential for any educational success; this means winning the student’s trust,

making them feel that the teachers’ are on their side, that are truly concerned with their

growth and well-being. Without trust, the teacher is perceived as a stranger, as an

oppressive enemy who must be tolerated, but never listened or truly learned from. When

students trust the teacher as a person – when they have faith in her honest caring and

concern for their dignity, growth and well-being – an infrastructure is being laid down –

will and openness, empathy and mutual respect (including concern by the students for the

teacher’s own well-being), for a true pedagogical and meaningful educational work..

This trust must not be won through cheap tricks of fraternization or flattery. It’s

about a friendly good morning, extra-curricular activities, caring for the student and her

family, noticing changes in appearance or mood, reading body language and facial

gestures, offering help beyond strictly academic tasks - in short, authentic manifestations

of basic humanity and pedagogical caring (idem, page 38).

The second trait is cultural idealism: the awareness, on the one hand, that some

good and precious things are “worth getting up in the morning”, worth making and effort

to achieve and enjoy. (…). It’s very easy to lapse into vulgarity and barbarism, into an

egocentric and hedonistic attitude of total contempt for accepted norms of thinking, talking

and behaving. But when true passion is really felt, it suddenly becomes important to find

out what is true, what is the best way to stating a claim which is right, what is really

beautiful, how to build a society and how to take responsibility for my own life and turn it

into something precious, interesting and worthy. (idem, page 39)

These types of states cannot be “triggered” by <sober thought of scholarly

lectures>. In order to make it happen, the teachers have to be present for their students as

culture <freaks>: to share with them, in words or gestures, their excitement, impressions,

interpretations, anger, enthusiasm, joy, gladness, acts of commission and of omission vis-à-

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vis cultural creations and social events (idem, page 39). In my opinion, this kind of

enthusiasm may trigger these traits in students.

The third characteristic of the educator’s personality is practicing what you preach.

In daily and public conduct, the educator personifies the qualities that dignify any person.

Such an educator is most effective educationally when not trying to educate at all: He is

simply “there”(idem). His personality is revealed best in times of crisis – for example

when a student is physically or verbally violent. It is then that the educator’s personality

comes to light, when he or she manages to steer the situation towards solutions without

“great sacrifices”, articulating standards of right and wrong, but under no circumstances

demeaning to the teacher or offending the dignity of everyone involved. (idem, page 39).

On the following pages there are some examples of activities that can easily be defined as

humanistic because of their structure, content, and teaching objectives:

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Source: Instant Discussions, Richard MacAndrew, Thomson Heinle, 2003, page 4

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9th chapter

My personal view about teaching humanistically: ideas about posture,

materials and content

My experience as a teacher has brought me restlessness. This is the word I was

looking for because it reflect very well the way teaching influenced me almost ten years. I

became like that because I realized, year by year, semester by semester, and month by

month that I have chosen a job that is similar in a way with sailing on waters that you can’t

be sure to know 100%. Teaching represents a challenge that I like taking every day. It

represents hours and minutes which are so exciting and tiring, full of surprises but in the

same time filled with joyful moments when you realize that the diamonds are starting to

shine because of you.

I have chosen to research, to conclude and to express ideas about playing because I

think playing represents the corner stone of my teaching. I embraced humanism as a way

of teaching because I think it became unknowingly, my inner teaching core. In this chapter

I will try to develop and to tell about all my wonderful teaching moments and about

everything I consider I have done to make those moments worthy to be shared as positive

experiences.

First and foremost I would like to talk about the appropriate teaching posture which

in my case was clearly affected about humanism and about the way this doctrine

influenced the world in general and teaching in particular. The way we present ourselves in

front of our students is extremely important. The style of the teacher can influence

decisively the student motivation and the way he/she is willing to search along with you, to

discover, to share with the others and to enjoy the revelation. For me as a teacher it became

very important the way I greet my students. This is far more essential than the way they

greet me. A first impression is essential because it can open the perspectives for a

successful lesson. Smiling, but in the same time preserving a vertical and formal posture is

a correct way to enter in a classroom. It would be advisable to interact with a pupil, no

matter whom and to try to bring that child back from a reverie, or to make him or her not to

frown. A good way of doing this is to ask him if something wrong or a better way is to try

to send to that person non-verbally a message of understanding or another type of face

message, taking account, of course of the situation. I try to surprise my students.

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Sometimes I don’t say anything, I keep my face down and when I reach the teacher’s desk

then I raise up my head with a tricky figure on my face. Many combinations of this kind

can be made. The teacher may involve in solving a problem or another, maybe connected,

for instance with a previous class. A tutor’s teacher’s role is quite applicable in this sort of

standpoint.This sort of role doesn’t have to be viewed from a technical point of view. The

teacher is a person, who, from my perspective, shares love with his children and uses love

as pedagogy, as it is explained in the book with the same name, written by Tim Loreman,

in 2011. In a classroom where the teacher uses as his main great weapon love, there has to

be kindness and empathy, there has to be loyalty produced by intimacy and bonding and

there has to be forgiveness. Love, as Tim Loreman mentions, involves acceptance and

community. Passion infuses all the aspects of love and it doesn’t “stand alone, rather it is

evident to which the other elements of loving pedagogy identified above are

enthusiastically pursued” (Loreman, 2011, page 14).A great deal has been said in

thousands methodology books about the way the teacher has to interact with his students.

This is extremely important, because the way we get involved in our teaching creates or

not the conditions for the teaching to take place. Scrivener affirms that the educational

process doesn’t need to beunder the spell from “jug-and-mug”explanation type approach.

“Giving people opportunities to do things themselves may be much more important”. But

in order to do that you need to create for the students the proper environment for learning

to take place. They need to be willing to get involved. Explanations from the teacher are

important, but language learners, especially, “seems not to benefit very much from long

explanations”. Scrivener says that “classroom working styles may involve standing and

talking to students, but a “teaching style that predominantly uses this technique is likely to

be appropriate” (Scrivener, Learning Teaching, page 19) Classroom working styles has to

involve a number of different modes and not just an upfront lecture from the teacher.

(idem, the same page). I will present my point of view too because I think it’s worthy to be

shared and judged as a positive experience. It is understandable that we can communicate

verbally and non-verbally in the classroom.

The students sense the positive energy that a teacher has and most of them are

willing to accept it. The teacher has to be able to exorcise all the negative influences that

have modified his/her temper in a way or another and has to be ready to enter into the

classroom using love as his main pedagogical tool. Using kindness and empathy as

instruments in a pedagogy of love leads to positive change and creates the right

environment for learning. What is kindness? There are many sources that are arguably

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containers of this sort of feeling. The main is the religion. However “is seemingly also an

a-religious value with atheist philosophers (…) citing kindness as being a curative in the

realm of human relationship” (Loreman, 2011, page 14). Empathy has been described as

“ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of self and others. It is a sophisticated

ability involving attunement, decentering and introspection: an act of thoughtful, heartfelt

imagination” (Arnold, 2006, page7).

Having mentioning what kindness is in adopting a pedagogy of love, it is now time

to turn to the pragmatic question of how one might use kindness in a teaching and learning

situation, and what this might look like in practice. I think that most of us assume that we

are always kind in the relation with others. However, there is falseness in this assumption

because I’ve noticed that there is a gap between what the people say and what they do in

connection with the way we treat others. For example, someone might push into line at the

supermarket, or not offer an elderly passenger a seat on the bus. While we might argue that

these are the sorts of acts that we would not engage in, clearly people do engage in them,

even though those people presumably also tend to think of themselves as generally kind. If

we accept this argument, then, we can see that in some cases there is a gap between

perceptions of ourselves as kind and the reality of daily actions (idem, page 17) This

happens because we tend to respond to moral situations based on intuition rather than

reasoned moral judgments.Tim Loreman’s book explores ways in which a person might

bridge the gap between ideals on the one hand and actions on the other. He suggests that a

goal setting and self-directed change might be beneficial in these circumstances. First of

all, one has to contemplate (to be aware) of the differences between one’s current self and

one’s ideal self. A focus on specific thoughts, actions and events is important here. A

second measure will focus on setting goals for which one expects success. Self-directed

goals tend to produce higher levels of success expectation. It is worth mentioning here that

if the goals are too threatening to the self, they will not be attained. One must feel

comfortable. In this way, changes to the self as a result of the goal pursuit can be

considered and made. Goals must be measurable so that one has a target to aim for, and

also so that one can evaluate the extent of success. Those who retain control of the process

are more likely to be alert to environmental influences and also how changes to behavior

can be enacted. (idem, page 18)

Once the educators are taking the lead in teaching with an attitude of kindness,

attention can then be turned to fostering this kindness in students. A number of strategies

exist, although the great part of the specialized literature is focused almost exclusively on

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developing kindness in younger children. The strategies presented can be extended to all

students, regardless of age, and indeed many of the strategies suggested are directly

applicable to students of all ages. (idem, page 21)

There are two main perspectives worthy of consideration when contemplating how

to produce kindness in students. The first perspective is an environmental perspective, and

the second one is an individual-interactional perspective. The first one involves the

manipulation of an educational environment in ways that facilitate the development of

kindness. One of the most important classroom resources that we can use is literature. This

highlights and supports secure attachment and positive interactions“between young

children and their significant adults and highlights kindness serves to build foundations of

trust whereby prosocial behaviors such as sharing, helping, comforting and caring are

acknowledged and valued.” (idem, page 21) Literature, of course, is only one type of

resource that can be used to foster kindness. A class hamster, for example, must be cared

for, loved and treated with respect and dignity. Further examples include puppets and

dress-ups that allow children to dress up and role-play acts of kindness. Anyway, teachers

will need to review their classroom resources on a case-by-case base in order to ensure that

ideas about kindness are adequately represented in the materials used by students. (idem)

Classroom arrangements are handy and can be used to promote kindness. For example,

students may be grouped in ways that promote interactions with one another and staff.

Desks in rows can inhibit communication, and a careful consideration of how students can

be seated so as to communicate with one another in healthy and productive ways can be

beneficial in the promotion of kindness (idem, page 22). Of course, not all the seated

arrangements are ideal for all types of activities. Teachers can implement a number of

classroom procedures that place students in situations where they can develop kindness.

One example is that of a peer tutoring. This involves a peer with expertise in a certain area

teaching a peer without that expertise. Aside from the environmental perspective, there is

an individual interactional one. This refers to encouraging kindness in individual students,

and promoting kind acts occurring in the course of every day interactions between

students. An important feature of this approach is what Tim Loreman calls developmental

discipline. This involves students taking an active role in classroom governance, including

the devising of rules and helping one another to follow those rules.

Examples of teacher lead kindness activities:

-Making a kindness list. Led by the teacher, the students generate a list of altruistic events

they have noticed. This might be turned into a class bulletin board updated regularly.

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-Using pictures or videos of kind actions to generate a class or individual discussions on

what is it to be kind.

-Noticing and pointing out instances where students exhibit kindness.

Examples of student lead kindness activities:

-Cooperative group work activities where students must reach a common goal by helping

each-other and each performing a role.

-Self-monitoring of kind acts conducted by themselves and noticing the kindness of others

in concrete ways

-Generation and monitoring of classroom rules through class meetings where fairness and

compassions are emphasized.(idem, page 25)

Whereas kindness can be fostered through a deliberate process of identifying and

addressing gaps between ideal situation and a current reality, empathy is perhaps better

developed through immersion in emphatic contexts in combination with a raised

consciousness as to the value of listening and the impact this can have on our

understanding of, and engagement with, others. Empathy is best developed with others.

Individualism limits our capacity for empathy. It is worth pursuing even if utopian states of

empathy are impossible to achieve. Arnold (2005, page7) describes what he calls

“emphatic intelligence”, in a following way:

-ability to differentiate self-states from other states; (despite the unity that comes with

advanced states of empathy, two people are, in the end, different entities)

-an ability to engage in reflective and analogic processing to understand and mobilize a

dynamic between thinking and feeling in self and others; (an interaction between thinking

and feeling is essential for learning to occur).

-an ability to be enthusiastic, engaging, actively empathic, intelligently caring and

professional expert;

-a commitment to the well-being and development of self and others; (idem, page 26)

There are four strategies for the development of empathy; these can be uses in creating an

empathic classroom that all the teachers want.

-play; (defined broadly to include engagement in role-play scenarios; problem solving

simulations; cooperative activities, games, and tasks).

-Listening; (one is a compassionate active listening to others in all its many forms, the

second type is listening to oneself in order to uncover our own biases and

misunderstandings).

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-Offering options; (recognizing the helpfulness of being exposed to multiple perspectives

on the same problem or topic).

-Shifting paradigms;(this involves a conscious and deliberate effort to shift thinking in

order to accept the point of view of another)(Loreman, 2011, page 28).

There aren’t many teachers that can’t handle explanations. Almost all of us need to

explain the knowledge. We are explainers, but we don’t have to be only that. We have to

get involved, and that means we have to study methodology and we have to try to apply it.

So we need to try to apply in our classes many types of teaching ways. But beside that, we

need to share the power, to share the control. We have to let our students to decide about

their learning. In this way we built in them self-confidence. It’s about that type of self-

confidence that immediately changes them. Scrivener says that we need to be enablers.

This refers to that type of teacher that: “is confident enough to share control with the

learners, or perhaps to hand it over to them entirely. Decisions made in her classroom may

be often shared and negotiated. In many cases she takes the lead from her students, seeing

herself as someone whose job is to create the conditions that enable the students to learn

for themselves. Sometimes this will involve her in less traditional teaching; she may

become a guide or a counselor, or a “resource” of information when needed. (Scrivener,

page 22)

The way we dress and act in school and at home, in society or inside our families is

a trademark that allows our success or failure. I deeply believe in simplicity and in a

formal style. I don’t think a connection can be made when the teacher has an extravagant

or an expensive and formal way of getting dressed. Then, the gap between the teacher and

his/her students enlarges.In the last few decades, the perception upon teachers changed

dramatically. They are not seen as specials anymore. Their intelligence is not considered

unlimited. They are not seen as sources of information anymore. This was in a past –and

represented a power source that the teacher was able to use easily in his advantage. Now

the teacher has to regain his position in class not only as a content expert, a lecturer an

assigner or a grader, but also as an activity designer, as an actor or director, as an active

listener, as a case designer/organizer, as a coach, as a consultant, as a coordinator, as a

discussion facilitator, as a formative evaluator, as a negotiator, as a nondirective facilitator,

as a prescriptive advisor, as a process observer, as a questioner, as a resource manager, as a

resource person or as a role model. A teacher nowadays “designs activities such as role

plays, group projects, simulations”, triggers tapes and problems for students to solve. A

modern teacher “listens to the content and feeling of what students are saying to get

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beneath the surface” of the issues they are raising. An appreciated teacher “uses dramatic

techniques in class to illustrate points/to set up role-plays to help students simulate the

application or implication”of important content points in class. It is absolutely necessary

to a teacher to directly observe “students in various tasks while giving them advice,

encouragement, and feedback to become more effective”. A successful teacher “works

with students to help them explore appropriate ways to resolve a problem and manages

and oversees multiple student projects and course activities”. A skillful teacher uses

discussion to review important information, “to stimulate creative and critical thinking

about content or to explore the broader implications of information”. A teacher who

considers himself a good evaluator provides students with timely feedback on an ongoing

basis about their strengths and weakness on course assignments and activities. A key point

here is negotiation. A good negotiator “explores with students options for how course

requirements, assignments and goals can be achieved”.“The goal is to find ways to meet

teacher and student needs and to resolve differences”. In a modern classroom, the teacher

“encourages students to think for themselves, to develop their own solutions, to take

initiative and accept responsibility for their learning” A well-trained teacher pulls together

and effective uses available resources to teach a course (projector, laptop, cd-player, TV

set, a network of computers, etc.) Finally, an experienced teacher “sets an appropriate

example for ways to think about course content, how to solve problems and to apply skill”

(Teaching with style, 2002, page 30-34).

The status of the teacher has fallen in the last decade, so the way we conduct

ourselves socially can help raising awareness about our social preeminence and also may

prove a solid point in transforming the community in a better and healthier one. In consider

myself a student that studies teaching in every one of my classes. I had in the past many

family difficulties; I had a great turmoil because of hard events, but I’ve learned that a

positive attitude is fundamental because it is a prerequisite for all the other techniques. In

the past I was focused on external obstacles that prevent them from reaching my goals, but

I’ve realized that mainly internal obstacles block my progress such as fears or negativity.

When I found myself in control over the internal obstacles and when I overcame those, I

found better ways to cope with the external ones as well. Every teacher that has this kind of

difficulties has to “take a few moments to check of (and write down) a preliminary list of

obstacles that prevents him/her to enjoy work as an educator.” (Totally positive teaching,

2004, page 22) I used to believe there was nothing I could do about my emotions. This

kind of thinking happens to many teachers. I’ve found that I could look for positives, I

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could create positives through positive actions, I could develop empathy, I could alter my

goals and make them attainable, I could use prayer, meditation and exercise. Not in the last

position is the help that I got it from people I respected. These are some advices from book

dear to my heart: Totally positive teaching which I recommend it to all the ones who want

to become educators or better educators.

The teacher has to be generous but up to a point. His generosity has to be combined

with anoptimisticway of teaching. He has to understand, to forgive but a limit is always

necessary. It is understandable that discipline problems may rise, but they have to be dealt

with quickly using some indispensable tools, like compassion, empathy, optimism,

positivism, altruism and others. WE have to look in the student’s eyes and we have to say

to them: “I know you are a good person, I hope next time you will respect your prestige!”

From my discussions with my students, they often told me that enthusiasm is one of the

qualities of their best teacher. One way of teaching and enhancing learning is to have fun.

This attitude has numerous dividends. One of them is that, when students misbehave, the

others from the class make the ones who misbehave to stop talking. This is a way of

meeting mutual needs, because one of the most invaluable requirements that a students has

is the one of having fun. In my teaching years I’ve noticed that if I bring passion, burning

interest or talent into the classroom, my classes change and I can arouse children interest in

the subject without problems or difficulties. I am passionate about literature, I have the

ability to sing, let’s say nicely and I am also deeply interested in technology, biology,

about UFOs or in history, I’ve tried to use all these elements in my classes. I always start

my elementary classes with a song and with some dancing. My students say that I

sometimes mumble songs when I interact with them. I try to connect the information from

my lessons with my own knowledge to make them more attractive. I consider that I have to

create a special bonding with my students. I’ve already mentioned how important empathy

and kindness are. Last but not least I will like to mention that keeping our promise is

extremely important because it brings trust between us and our students.

Another important point at issue here is about we organize our materials. It seems

to me that the ones who direct the Romanian education system have lost the connection

with the importance for the students to have approachable and updated textbooks and

auxiliaries. Of course, together with textbooks, educational software is invaluable. It can be

used to enrich children’s knowledge in ways never thought possible before. In this moment

I can say that 99% of the English textbooks that are approved for the elementary and pre-

intermediate levels are updated and out of the context. I wonder why such a textbook, like

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Spark, from Express publishing, or New Headway from Oxford, which is one of the best-

sellers around the world aren’t approved yet.

There is nothing more meaningful inside of a lesson than the use of the blackboard.

The old fashion board has remained in many universities a fundamental instrument of

teaching that can be used in a purposeful way with the newer technological ones. Last but

not least, I want to add that the stage of feed-back from a lesson – is extremely important

for the knowledge to be reinforced, to be consolidated.

Beside the materials or the teaching posture, what I what to add is that teaching, the

way we present the knowledge to our kids is fundamental. There are many ways of

teaching vocabulary, reading, speaking or listening that indeed produce the necessary

changes in our children’s intellect. It is extremely important to respect the children’s

language levels and even to teach differentiate, with different tasks specially build

according to the students’ language mastery. I wouldn’t say that the use of mother tongue

is strictly forbidden. Sometimes is necessary from the point of view that it can represent a

way of bonding with the students. Using the mother tongue creates a special kind of

bonding, because words sent to the world dressed in the children’s own language bear also

an invisible emotional bearing.

The element of surprise has to be present in majority of our classes. There is

nothing more involving inside a lesson than a short contest when the students may get

maximum marks if they respond to a special question. The visual aspect of teaching has to

be taken into consideration if we want for our classroom activities to be successful.

Different schemata, pictures or grids, all sorts of flashcards have to be used to maintain the

interest of the children at a high level. If one weighs the pros and the cons he may say that

there are many ways of making the lessons attractive. The thing is to work on this aspect.

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10th chapter

The importance of teaching literature

What I’d like to talk about in this chapter focuses on teaching literature and making

students enjoy reading. First of all, I want to express the fact that reading, and especially

reading literature has numerous significations. One of them is connected with reading for

pleasure. When we read for our own enjoyment, the way we judge the text falls onto a non-

intentional perspective. This perspective comes and disappears fast from our minds

because we chose that. We are left with the remains that can be usually connected with

colorful feelings; usually simple ones that don’t necessary enrich our lives in such a great

amount. As far as I am concerned, we have to add a supplementary dimension to reading.

We can call it reading for a purpose, and one of the strongest one has connection with

ethics. Teaching literature in school, and working on it needs to be connected with the

ethics factor, because, it’s my contention that literature changes personalities and shapes

characters, and does not only that. It corrects wrong patterns of behavior and offers

multiple perspectives upon many aspects that tend to corrupt the vision that we have about

life in general. This raises another problem. We cannot seize the purpose in reading any

text if we don’t engage the students emotionally. There’s no escaping the fact that the

emotional or intellectual drive makes a reader to want to read more. Maryanne Wolf, in

Proust and the squid (HarperCollins, 2007, page 321) emphasis on the cognitive aspects as

she shows how a child develops to become a proficient reader:

As every teacher knows, emotional engagement is often the tipping point between

leaping into the reading life or remaining in a childhood bag where reading is

endured only as a means to other ends. An enormously important influence on the

development of comprehension in childhood is what happens after we remember,

predict and infer: We feel, we identify, and in the process we understand more fully

and can’t wait to turn the page.

She continues to speak about emotional engagement at page 133:

After all the letters and decoding rules are learned, after the subterranean life of

words is grasped, after various comprehension processes are beginning to be

deployed, the elicitation of feelings can bring children into a lifelong, head-on love

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affair with reading and develop their ability to become fluent comprehending

readers.

We use literaturefor the purpose of making the students speak English. We use it as a tool

because we want to develop their reading capabilities. But children require “opportunities

to explore books emotionally and intellectually, not just use them to learn to read”. “The

intertwining of emotion and intellect are, in essence, what drive literary engagement”.

(Barone, 2011, page 3). That’s why we have to give students time to read for themselves,

or just to read aloud or to re-read certain text just for the fun of reading them. There are

many reasons for reading:

-Reading to learn to read - young children and adults engage in this type of reading. We

have to provide them with books that are suitable for their reading level because we want

them for their reading to be challenging but not tiring, so the input level has to be slightly

above their real level. Personally I provided books to children having a suitable vocabulary

according to their knowledge level, for example from Penguin publishing house.

-I agree with reading for pleasure - because students need to read just for the joy of

entering an imaginative world, provided the books the student read have a suitable content

from an ethical point of view.

-Some read to enjoy vicarious experiences. This reason for reading allows readers to

discover what it was like to participate in a historical event, to live in a different

environment or to survive hardships. Through that, readers are able to take on the persona

of a character to better understand an event beyond their personal realm. It is not possible

for adults or children to live everything directly, so books offer some opportunities. That’s

why, some read to develop background knowledge.

Most of the time we read to understand, and that happens when we read non-fiction texts,

but not only then

-Reading to understand who we are. By exploring how characters solve dilemmas, readers

can reflect how they might respond to similar circumstances and thus come to know

themselves better.

-Reading for ponder. Adults and children read to explore ideas and beliefs - for instance,

the beliefs of a culture or a community – to compare them with their own.

-Reading to appreciate. Adults and children read to appreciate the quality of a book or the

art within. They reread a favorite phrase or explore an illustration from the pleasure they

derive from it.

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-Reading to engage in conversation. Reading opens opportunities for adults and children to

exchange ideas. They argue about a character or why he or she did something. They judge

his/her action ethically.

Personally I think that ethics deal with the way we should live our lives. To have a

powerful ethical perspective means to be capable to discern between right and wrong. I

wouldn’t say that this is a difficult task, although the philosophers will contradict me right

now. I am convinced that we do the right thing when our decisions affect positively a

greater number of people. I know it is something utopic, but I think that God can be a role-

model because He does the right thing for everyone. There are hard questions to be

answered when we talk about ethics. For example, how does one balances self-interest

with the concern for others? Under what conditions we are morally responsible and why?

How is ethical understanding influenced by cultural assumptions? by gender? Are moral

claims universal, absolute, pluralistic or relative? How can one mediate between

competing ethical positions? It is obviously that all these questions are difficult and

attractive, but I think also without a clear answer. They need to be studied, they have to be

discussed and they haveto occupy a special shelf in our minds. The special mission of

answering to them comes from a great endeavor – and which one can be more suitable then

the one with literature. We must not overlook the fact that literature represents ethical

issues and poses moral questions. It does that through the literary Canon. The literary

canon represents highly appreciated books that academics say that are valuable. These

books and not only these have to be searched throughout and have to be discussed in detail.

Children books can offer unexpected perspectives about live and we have to count on them

to teach our students facts of life, to instruct and raise them mentally. But how do we do

that? In what way does literature represent ethical issues or pose moral questions? Does it

do this through content; for instance, through the events a narrative recounts or through a

narrator’s commentary? Through transmission of values? Do the moral possibilities reside

in literature’s ability to give a reader accessto other minds, cultures or viewpoints? For an

analytical mind, the answers are simple. It is clearly that it poses moral content or moral

questions through content. But the content itself is made from many points of view and it’s

up to the reader to decide the road that he will walk on. When we teach literature, as

professional readers, we can lead our students on the right tracks. (Teaching literature - a

companion, 2003, page 70-77)

32

When I was a child and not only then I had the habit of rereading books. I’ve

discovered in time that after I had finished with the plot I had the time to watch to other

aspects of the book. I remember my first book taken from my village library. I have read it

many times noticing every time another element that was connected with the pot. It was a

picture book. I learnt by reading it the way the illustrator visualized the story. I pondered

the meanings shared in the illustrations and I appreciated the connections between the

illustrations and text. However, it took multiple readings of this single book to absorb these

nuances. (Children’s literature in the classroom, 2011, page 2)

When we have reading activities and we study literature texts, it’s very important to

ask our students to read and reread everything, if three times or four times at least twice.

We don’t necessary need to develop the well-known techniques of reading for gist or for

specific information. Sometimes reading is just for the pleasure of it.

32

We live through play (conclusions)

What I have discovered in this research is, surprisingly, unexpected. I always

thought that the teachers have to be cold-blooded professionals that needed to apply

techniques in order to have success. BUT this is not so. If we don’t descend ourselves at

the level of the children and if we don’t look at them emphatically and filled with kindness,

we don’t have any chance to truly play with them and to understand their playing because

they will not open up to ourselves as educators. What it all boils down to is the necessity of

applying a methodology connected with love. Loving them is the primordial condition for

truly teaching them and having effective results. I don’t necessary speak about the abilities

to conjugate the verbs and to be able to translate: antidisestablishmentarianism. I speak

about enjoying these activities passionately and enthusiastically. We can do anything if we

can produce the change inside their mentalities, inside their perspective on the world. We

can transform the boringness of each activity that we organize with our students. There is

something extraordinary in each word that we write on the blackboard or each poem that

we say to the children. The important aspect is to teach it through play, if it is possible and

to get into contact with that child. If your student doesn’t feel your soul, there cannot be

created the ideal conditions for the learning to take place. Everything would transform

itself into a monotonous routine, difficult for the teachers but disastrous for the students.

To sum up, this is what the paper wants to say to the children but also to their

educators: To read, to learn from everything, to play and to care about each-other. It is very

important for each one to realize the true blessing of being into a classroom, of having the

privilege to know the other. When I say these I refer to the classroom as a whole of

positive energy, a sacred place where a piece of God takes shape every time something

new is discovered or discussed..

These are tools from heaven: teaching through play, using a methodology based on

love, using literature in order to educate and enjoying every little aspect from all around us.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

32

Albert Einstein

Appendix

Lesson plans

LESSON PLAN nr.1

TEACHER: Hurjui Viorel

CLASS: 3rd grade

LEVEL: 1st year of study

NO. OF HOURS PER WEEK: 2

NO. OF STUDENTS: 24

TEXTBOOK: I am special, ED&P

DATE: 26.05.2008

LESSON:I can’t find my shirt

TOPIC: Clothes

VOCABULARY:

basic clothes

the prepositions of place

get up, wake up, to wear, to brush, to find, to like-to hate

STRUCTURES: I hate getting up

FUNCTIONS: talking about wearing clothes

AIMS: The students will learn:

Vocabulary related to clothes

Expressing what do they wear in different circumstances

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the lesson, my students will be able to:

differentiate between different items of clothing

show where the things are using the proper prepositions of place

describe somebody’s clothes

32

TEACHING AIDS:

BB

PPT presentation

computer with speakers

ASSUMPTIONS:

I assume that students have already learnt the items of clothing and are eager to practice.

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS:

Students might feel tired because the ending of the school-year approaches

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Warmer

Aims:

o To create a pleasant atmospere for learning

Procedure Interaction Timing

Ss greet T

T asks questions:

Who is missing today?

What is your lesson for today?

The teacher gives to the SS some handouts with the lirics of

a song. The teacher asks the SS to sing together the song

“You are my sunshine”

Ss sing.

T-Ss

T-Ss

4’

Activity 2: Checking homework

Aim:

o to check the understanding of previous lesson (the items of clothing from the lesson I can’t

find my shirt, page 40)

Procedure Interaction Timing

32

T checks everybody’s homework. The nicest pieces of drawing

are displayed on a board.

Ss read and check

T-S 5’

Activity 3: Reading activity

Aim:

o to practise reading properly the words connected with clothes

Procedure Interaction Timing

The teacher asks the SS to pay attention because a presentation

with the learnt clothes will follow and they’ll have to guess the

name of each piece of clothing.

T reads the text of the exercise 4

T verifies if the SS know the meaning of the word to wear.

T reminds the SS about the present continuous tense.

The SS have to read individually each sentence, to guess the

name of each boy or girl and to correct the sentence

T-Ss

S-Ss

10’

Activity 4: Speaking activity

Aims:

o to provide further practice of the studied vocabulary

o to encourage Ss to participate in a fun-filled activity

Procedure Interaction Timing

T ask the SS to describe what are Mickey and Minnie wearing,

that being the task from exercise 5 page

The T asks the SS to say what is Mickey wearing. Each

sentence is written at the BB. The ”mistakes hunters” will

correct the sentences if necesarry

T-Ss

Ss

T-S

Pair work

6

Activity 5: Writing activity

Aim:

o to revise using the prepositions of place

32

o to further practise the using of items of clothing

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks SS to look at the exercise 7 from page 41. They have to say

where the items of clothing are in the room .

The T asks the SS to use the colour of the clothes, if necessary.

T-Ss

Ss

T-S

10

Activity 6: Reading for pleasure

Aim:

o to practise reading

Procedure Interaction Timing

T reads the poem from page 41

Ss read in turns.

T explains unknown vocabulary.

T-Ss

S

T-Ss

5’

Activity 7: Assigning homework

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks SS to continue the the description of the image from exercise 7

With as many sentences they can.

T-Ss 6’

32

Lesson Plan nr.2

GRADE: 8th

LEVEL: Intermediate, 4th year of study

TEXT BOOK: Snapshot - intermediate, Ed.Longman

NO. OF STUDENTS: 13

TOPIC : Nepal Trek.

LESSON AIMS:

- To develop Ss' ability to use language in real life situations

- To activate language functions: expressing permission (asking for, giving, refusing)

- To develop Ss' listening-comprehension abilities

- To revise and practice grammar: Past Tense Simple vs Present Prefect Tense.

OBJECTIVES: By the end of the lesson the Ss will be able to:

- Use correctly the new words and phrases

- Employ correctly the revised grammar topic

- Create their own situations and deal with new circumstances in a conversation

TIME: 50 min

32

SKILLS INVOLVED : speaking, writi ng, listening

AIDS : textbook, worksheets, class cassette, pictures

STAGES:

- Activity 1:Warm-up ( 5min)

Teacher's activity: T enters the classroom, greets the Ss, asks them how they are, if there

are any Ss missing. T remembers the task for the day, ex.5 pg.16 from the textbook and

asks Ss to review it quickly to make sure there were no problems with solving it at home. T

corrects the mistakes, if any.

Students 'activity: Ss greet the T, answer the questions and in turn read the exercise.

Class management: whole-class activity

Skills: speaking, reading

- Activity 2: …(5min)

Teacher's activity: T hands in worksheets where Ss have to use correctly the Past Tense

Simple and Present Prefect Tense by arranging the words in the bubbles.

Students'activity:Ss solve the task.

Class management:whole-class activity

Skills:writing

- Activity 3:Answer the questions! ( 5min )

Teacher's activity: T gives Ss cards with questions in the Past Tense Simple or Present

Perfect Simple and instructs Ss to put down as many sentences as they can. The group with

the most correct sentences wins. T explains that there is a time limit,5 min.

Students’ activity: In groups, Ss put down the sentences.

Class management: group-work

Skills: writing

32

- Activity 4: Pre-listening: prediction (5 min )

Teacher's activity: T asks Ss questions about the characters in the picture, their location,

state of mind etc. and without reading the text asks them to imagine what the story may be

about.

Students' activity: Ss answer the questions and try to predict the story based on the image.

Class management: whole-class activity

Skills: speaking,

- Activity 5: While listening (7min)

Teacher's activity: T makes groups and gives each a card instructing Ss to write down

phrases that indicate asking for, giving, refusing permission while listening to the tape

together with focusing on the unknown words, if any. T asks Ss to think of a suitable title

for the lesson. T plays the tape.

Students' activity: Ss pay attention and listen to the tape. In groups, Ss solve their task.

Class management: group-work

Skills: listening, writing

- Activity 6:Post listening (5min)

Teacher's activity: T asks Ss questions to check understanding and puts down whatever

unknown words Ss may have difficulties comprehending. If necessary, T plays the tape

again. T instructs Ss to focus on the phrases concerning permission. T elicits answers

concerning the most suitable title.

Students' activity: Ss answer T's questions and solve the task.

Class management: whole-class activity

Skills: speaking, writing

32

- Activity 7:

Secondary practice: Make your own conversation! (10min)

Teacher's activity: T makes groups and gives each one a picture showing a particular

instance and some prompts to illustrate asking for, giving, refusing permission. T instructs

Ss to make up suitable conversations using the phrases identified in the previous text..

Students' activity: In groups, Ss solve their task. They correct each other’s mistakes, if any.

Class management: group-work

Skills: writing, speaking

- Feedback: (5min)

Teacher's activity: T gives Ss a worksheet in order to further practice the asking for,

giving, refusing permission patterns. Ss have to complete the conversations.

Students' activity: Ss write down the sentences and read them aloud.

Class management: group-work

Skills: writing, reading

- Assigning homework (3min)

T asks Ss to put down similar conversations concerning asking for, giving, refusing

permission ( ex.14/pg.18)

32

LESSON PLAN nr.3

TEACHER: Hurjui Viorel

CLASS: 6rd grade

LEVEL: 3rd year of study

NO. OF HOURS PER WEEK: 2

NO. OF STUDENTS: 19

TEXTBOOK: Snaphot elementary, level 3, ed.Macmillan

DATE: 29.11.2011

LESSON:Fast rewind

TOPIC: Countries and locations/rules/describing your home

VOCABULARY:

Countries/nationalities

Must/mustn’t

Can/can’t

There is/there are

Prepositions of place

STRUCTURES: What+do+your+............ +looks+like?

32

FUNCTIONS: talking about countries and languages

AIMS: The students will consolidate:

Vocabulary related to countries and nationalities

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the lesson, my students will be able to:

Use the forms of the verb to be in different communicative situations

Use the affirmative/negative/interrogative forms of the present tense simple in different

contexts

Use the modal verbs can and must in different exercises

Differentiate between can and must taking into account the speaker’s attitude

TEACHING AIDS:

BB

PPT presentation

computer with speakers

ASSUMPTIONS:

I assume that students aren’t very eager to find out that they will again have to

remember about any grammar rules, so I have to keep them positive and enthusiastic!

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS:

Students might feel tired because the semester is about to end in a couple of weeks

32

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Warmer

Aims:

o To create a pleasant atmospere for learning

Procedure Interaction Timing

The Ss.. greet the T.

The T asks questions:

Who is missing today?

What was your homework for today?

The teacher asks the SS to sing together the song

“walking, walking”

Ss sing.

The SS are asked to walk around the room

T-Ss

T-Ss

4’

Activity 2: Checking homework

Aim:

o to check the understanding of previous lesson (the Ss. had to solve exercises ½ from the page

19

Procedure Interaction Timing

T checks everybody’s homework.The T. verifies the way the Ss.

have learned the new vocabulary elements.

T-S 8’

32

The T. asks the Ss. to read the lesson paying attention to the

right pitch and intonation.

Activity 3: Listening activity

Aim:

o to practise listening

Procedure Interaction Timing

The teacher asks the SS to pay attention and to watch carefully

the text from the page 56. Before listening the first time they

have to keep in mind that they have to make a list at the end

with the names of all the children. Their task before listening

the second time is to make a list to all the countries they listen

to. Their task before listening the third time is to make a list to

all the language names they listen to.

The conclusions are drawn when the T. completes a chart with

all the mentioned elements on the BB.

Tne T. intervenes by presenting the meaning in mother tongue

of some problematic items of vocabulary.

T-Ss

S-Ss

10’

The name

of the child

country language Where do they

live ?

32

Activity 4: Speaking activity

Aims:

o to provide further practice of the studied vocabulary

o to encourage Ss to participate in a fun-filled activity

Procedure Interaction Timing

The T asks the Ss. to solve exercise 2/3 from page 56/57

They have to ask and answer questions using a wh-?

question together with the interrogative form of the

present simple.

*(The Subject is at the third person singular).

T-Ss

Ss

T-S

Pair work

6

Activity 5: Writing activity

Aim:

o to diferentiate beween city and town

o to use the different items of vocabulary in different communicative situations

Procedure Interaction Timing

Teacher asks SS. to read the texts and to solve exercise 3 from

page 56. The SS have to complete the blank squares with the

letters A, B or C.

T-Ss

Ss

T-S

Individual

work

6

32

Activity 6: Reading activity

Aim:

o to practise reading

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks the Ss. to pay attention to the reading of the text from

exercise one from page 58. The T elicite the meaning of some

words form the context. When reading, they have to pronounce

the words with the proper intonation.

The new items of vocabulary are presented in a funny way.

T-Ss

S

T-Ss

11’

Activity 7: Assigning homework

Procedure Interaction Timing

The Ss. have to solve exercise 2 from page 58, by completing the

squares with the right letter.

T-Ss 5’

32

Lesson Plan nr.4

School: Şcoala cu clasele I-VIII Satu-Mare

Teacher: Hurjui Viorel

Class: The fourth grade

Level: the first year of study

Textbook: Way ahead, level 2

No.of SS 19

Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing

Unit: Unit 11 Lesson 1 Where do you come from?

The aim of the lesson

To teach about countries and nationalities

To revise can

Objectives:

O1. To ask and answer using the modal verb can in affirmative/negative/interrogative

forms

O2.To use in different communicative situations the interrogative form of the present tense

simple

O3. To read properly using the right pitch and intonation

32

O4. To introduce himself/herself according to the country of origin and to the native

language

Lesson Stages:

1. Lead-in

2. The review of the previously learnt material

3. Consolidation

4. Vocabulary presentation

5. Vocabulary practice

6. Feed-back activity (Homework assignment )

32

32

Stages Time&

Objectives

Teacher’s and Student’s activity Interacti

on

Focus Teaching

aids

Warmer / Lead-

in

The review of

the previously

learnt material

Consolidation

O1

O2

O3

The teacher and the students prepare the

materials for the lesson. The teacher asks

for absences and for the names of the one

who haven’t written their homework.

The teacher asks the SS. to make sentences

having in mind the actions that are done by

the teacher.

The teacher sings loudly, speaks quietly,

runs quickly and walks slowly.

The Ss. writes the sentences on the BB. The

mistakes hunters are summoned when

necessary.

The teacher checks the Ss. homework.

The T pays attention and corrects the Ss.

pronunciation according to the rules.

The SS. are introduced with some exercises

from the software of the textbook. The

exercises deal with the modal verb can

The teacher gives to the SS some working

sheets with some exercises in which they

have to use the affirmative, the negative and

the interrogative of the modal verb can.

The SS work individually and in pairs to

solve the exercises

The SS are invited to watch a video from

Real English (www.real-english.com). They

watch the video first, then a request is

introduced to watch it a second time and to

lockstep

individu

al work

individu

al work

Pair-

work

greetings

vocabular

y

Reading

pronunciat

ion

vocabular

y

Black-

board

32

Lesson Plan nr.5

School: Şcoala cu clasele I-VIII Satu-Mare

Teacher: Hurjui Viorel

Class: The third grade

Level: the first year of study

Textbook: Way ahead

No.of SS 29

Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing

Unit: Unit 13, Lesson 2 Please sit down

The aim of the lesson

- to teach about basic actions

Objectives:

O1. To use the vocabulary in different communicative situations

O2. To act accordingly to the given tasks

O3. To differentiate between there is and there are

O4. To read accordingly to the right pitch and intonation

O5. To express time correctly

32

Lesson Stages:

1. Warmer

2. The review of the previously learnt material

3. Vocabulary consolidation

4. Game

5. Writing activity

6. Evaluation

6. Homework assignment

Stages Time& Teacher’s and Student’s activity Interacti Focus Teaching

32

Objectives on aids

1.Warmer

2. The review

of the

previously

learnt material

Vocabulary

consolidation

O1

O2

The T and the SS prepare their materials for

the lesson.

The T asks the children to sing the song:

Head and shoulders, the third song from the

received hand-outs . The SS. sing along.

The T. writes down the absences.

Te teachers checks for the SS’s homework.

The mistakes hunters are summoned when

necessary.

The teacher uses some flashcards to revise

the vocabulary referring to actions

The T acts as a controller and gives

commands the SS to act accordingly to the

learnt verbs.

The Ss are asked then to walk around the

classroom and to act as teachers and to give

commands to their colleagues. The actions

are corrected when necessary

The Ss are asked to play the game Sue says.

The ones who don’t act accordingly are out

from the game. The ones who remain

standing are the winners.

lockstep

T->SS

S->S

Individu

al work

lockstep

Vocabular

y

reading

actions

imperative

SS’s

notebook

s

32

game

Writing activity

Evaluation

Homework

assignment

O5

O5

The SS are asked to make up sentences

using the images from exercise 1 form page

78. The SS have to write the sentences on

the BB. The mistakes hunters are

summoned when necessary

The SS receive a hand-out. They have to

work in pairs and to choose the right image

for exercise 1 and the right sentence for the

second sentence.

They are asked to watch a video material

with deals with expressing time.

Then the Ss. have to say what’s the time

from a clock brought by the teacher. The

SS have to ask others to say what the time

is.

As their homework, they have to solve

exercise 1 a 2 from pagnde 79

individu

al work

pair-

work

writing

The BB

A

bedroom

clock

The

computer

LESSON PLAN nr. 6

32

TEACHER: Hurjui Viorel

CLASS: 6rd grade

LEVEL: 3rd year of study *(they started learning English from the 4th grade!)

NO. OF HOURS PER WEEK: 2

NO. OF STUDENTS: 19

TEXTBOOK: Snaphot elementary, level 3, ed.Macmillan

DATE: 29.11.2011

LESSON:Fast rewind

TOPIC: Countries and locations/rules/describing your home

VOCABULARY:

Countries/nationalities

Must/mustn’t

Can/can’t

There is/there are

Prepositions of place

STRUCTURES: What+do+your+............ +looks+like?

FUNCTIONS: talking about countries and languages

AIMS: The students will consolidate:

Vocabulary related -to countries and nationalities

OBJECTIVES

32

By the end of the lesson, my students will be able to:

Use the forms of the verb to be in different communicative situations

Use the affirmative/negative/interrogative forms of the present tense simple in different

contexts

Use the modal verbs can and must in different exercises

Differentiate between can and must taking into account the speaker’s attitude

TEACHING AIDS:

BB

PPT presentation

computer with speakers

ASSUMPTIONS:

I assume that students aren’t very eager to find out that they will again have to

remember about any grammar rules, so I have to keep them positive and enthusiastic!

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS:

Students might feel tired because the semester is about to end in a couple of weeks.

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Warmer

Aims:

o To create a pleasant atmospere for learning

o

Procedure Interaction Timing

32

The Ss.. greet the T.

The T asks questions:

Who is missing today?

What was your homework for today?

The teacher asks the SS to sing together the song

“ Five little monkeys”

Ss sing.

The SS are asked to walk around the room.

T-Ss

T-Ss

7’

Activity 2: Checking homework

Aim:

o to check the understanding of previous lesson (the Ss. had to solve exercises ½ from the page

19)

Procedure Interaction Timing

T checks everybody’s homework.The T. verifies the way the Ss.

have learned the new vocabulary elements.

The teacher asks some SS to remind to the class the rules of

the verbs must and can

The T.asks then the SS. To solve exercise 4 and 5 as for their

classroom activity in order to consolitate the previously learnt

knowledge.

TS

S SS

Lockstep

Individual

work

8’

10’

Activity 3: Grammar activity

32

Aim:

o to practice grammar and vocabulary

Procedure Interaction Timing

The teacher asks the SS to pay attention because they are

going to receive some handouts in which they will have to

solve some exercises regarding the learnt grammar problems.

The teacher asks SS to solve the exercises in 3 groups. *(Wild wolfs/red

dragons and dirty snakes )

Two students are asked to monitor the other students

If some exercises are remained to be solved , they will

be left as a homework. Prizez are given for the team that has the most

correct anwers.

T-Ss

S-Ss

Group work

25’

LESSON PLAN nr.7

32

TEACHER: Hurjui Viorel

CLASS: 7rd grade A/B

LEVEL: 3rd year of study / they have an hour per week

NO. OF HOURS PER WEEK: 1!

NO. OF STUDENTS: 18

TEXTBOOK: English together, level 2, ed.Longman

DATE: 29.11.2011

LESSON:Astronauts

TOPIC: describing things/was/were/past tense/that/What did?

VOCABULARY:

Food

Kitchen tools

What was/who was

STRUCTURES: What/where.......did?

FUNCTIONS: talking about nature/unique objects

AIMS: The students will consolidate:

Vocabulary related -to food

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the lesson, my students will be able to:

Use the forms of the verb to be at the past tense in different communicative situations

Use the new elements of the vocabulary in different communicative situations

Use this/that/these/those

Use different irregular verbs in different communicative situations

TEACHING AIDS:

BB

PPT presentation

ASSUMPTIONS:

32

I assume that students aren’t very eager to find out that they will again they have to read and translate , so I

have to keep them positive and enthusiastic!

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS:

Students might feel tired because the semester is about to end in a couple of weeks

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Warmer

Aims:

o To create a pleasant atmospere for learning

Procedure Interaction Timing

The Ss.. greet the T. The T asks questions:

Who is missing today?

What was your homework for today?

The teacher asks the SS to sing together the song

“I am a music man”

Ss sing. The SS are asked to walk around the room.

T-Ss

T-Ss

7’

Activity 2: Checking homework

Aim:

o to check the understanding of previous lesson (the Ss. had to solve exercises8/9 from the

page 16)

Procedure Interaction Timing

T. checks everybody’s homework.The T. verifies the way the Ss.

have learned the new vocabulary elements. For the teacher:

TS

S SS

Lockstep

Individual

work

8’

10’

Activity 3. Speaking and listening activity

Procedure Interaction Timing

The teacher elicits some new words from the lesson. Those words wchich

Are quite difficult they are translated by the teacher on the BB.

TS

S SS

32

lockstep

5

Activity 4. Speaking and vocabulary developing activity

Procedure Interaction Timing

The teacher gives to the SS. A drawing in which they have to draw

Whatever they think it is fit to go into a spaceship. The object may be funny.

The T. offers the SS. his help and in this way acts as a resourcer.

T-Ss

S-Ss

lockstep

5’

New lesson / listening activity InteractionTiming

For the teacher:

As their homework the SS are asked to find in their new lesson examples of irregular

verbs and to search for their forms and definitions in the dictionary.

T-Ss

S-Ss

15’

TEACHER DAY TIME GRADE

32

Lesson plan nr. 8

Textbook: Shine 2

Lesson: I’ve just been sick (Present Perfect simple)

Stage: Lead in Aim: By the end of this stage the children will be ready to engage

enthusiastically in the activities requested by the new lesson.

Developed skill: singing; listening

The students are requested to listen to a song from the book: Singing

grammar, song called “Josephine”. The students are given a handout with the

lyrics. First, they are asked to listen to the song and to read the text. Then, they

are asked to say if they have any problems with the vocabulary. If there are

any, the teacher elicits the meaning of the new words. Then, while the Ss. are

listening the second time, they are also asked to sing the song.

At the end of the activity the teacher asked the Ss. to connect the tense that is

mainly used in the lyrics with the previous grammar lesson. The Ss. recognize

the present perfect.

Interaction: lockstep/individual work

Comments:

Time: ……………. minutes

Stage: The review of the

previously learnt

material

Aim: By the end of this activity the children will be able to check and correct

the homework received in the previous class.

Developed skill: reading grammar production

Method: grammar production

The Ss. are asked to read the way they have solved the exercises they have

received last time as their homework. The forms of the present perfect are

HURJUI VIOREL MAY, 25TH , 2011 9.00-9.50 THE SEVENTH GRADE

32

elicited from the Ss. by the teacher. If there are problems with the new words,

there will be presented on the Bb.

Comments:

Time: ……………. minutes

bStage: Practice

activity

Aim: By the end of this activity the Ss. will be able to use the present perfect

in new communicative situations.

Developed skill: reading.

Method: grammar production

The Ss. are divided in 4 groups. They are asked to solve exercises 3 and 4 that

remained unsolved from the handout that was given to them last time.

The teacher acts as a resource and helps whenever is necessary.

Interaction: lockstep, group work

Comments:

Time: ……………. minutes

Stage: Grammar

activation

production

Aim: By the end of this activity the Ss. will be able to use the present in new

communicative situations.

Developed skill: reading/writing

Method: grammar production

The Ss. are asked to solve the exercises from the units 20 and 21 (Present

perfect) from the educational software “Grammar time 3”

Interaction: individual work.

Used materials: a laptop/a projector/speakers

Comments:

Time: ……………. minutes

Stage: I’ve just been Aim: By the end of this activity the Ss. will be able to read the new lesson

32

sick.

Engage

Study

Activate

with the right pitch and intonation.

Developed skill: reading/listening

Method: vocabulary presentation

The Ss. are asked to pay attention and to listen carefully the new text: “I’ve

just been sick.” Before listening, they have to be attentive to some guiding

questions:

Who eats fish?

Who has just eaten eggs on toast?

Who feels sick?

Who advises Dave that he should see a doctor?

After they listen to the text and answer to the guiding questions the T. elicits

the meaning of the new words and asks the SS to listen to the text again.

In the end they have to solve the exercise from the end of the lesson if there is

time. If not, the exercise is given as homework.

Interaction: lockstep, group work.

Comments:

Time: ……………. Minutes If there is time !

Bibliography:

Primary sources:

Selected Bibliography

32

Atwood,Margaret.AliasGrace.New York:AnchorBooks, 1996.

---.Bodily Harm.TorontoMcClelland,1981.

---.Cat'sEye.New York: Doubleday,1988.

---.LadyOracle.Toronto:McClelland,1979.

---.Surfacing.New York: Simon&Schuster, 1972.

---.TheEdible Woman.Toronto:McClelland,1973.

---.TheHandmaid'sTale.Toronto: McClelland-BantamInc,1985.

---.TheRobber Bride.NewYork:Doubleday, 1993.

Lodge, David. Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1978.

---. Nice Work: A Novel. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1989.

---. Small World: An Academic Romance. London: Secker & Warburg, 1984.

Secondary sources:

1.Wiel Veugelers (eds.), 2011. Education and Humanism, Linking Autonomy and

Humanity, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam/ Boston/ Taipei

2.Tony Davis, 1997. Humanism. ROUTLEDGE, London and New York

3.Amy Wall and Regina Wall, 2005. The complete idiot’s guide to Critical Reading,

Alpha, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

4.Abraham H. Masow, 1970. Motivation and Personality, HarperCollinsPublishers

5.Martin Travers (eds.), 2000. European Literature from Romanticism to

Postmodernism, CONTINUUM, London and New York

6.Gill Plain and Susan Sellers (eds.), 2007. A History of Feminist Literary Criticism,

Cambridge University press

7.Joe L. Frost, 2010. A history of children’s play and play environments, Routledge

8.Joe L. Frost, Play and children development, 2011. Pearson College Division

9.Janet Moyles (eds.), 2010. The excellence of play, Open University press, McGraw and

32

Hill

10.Mary D. Sheridan, 2010. Play in early childhood, Routledge edition

11.Eric Berne, 1964.Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, Tantor

ebooks

12Gene Wallenstein, 2002 .The Pleasure Instinct, John Wiley&Sons, Hoboken, New

Jersey

13.Project Editor: Ira Mark Milne, 2009.Literary Movements for Students, Second

Edition, Gale, Cengage Learning

14. Jim Powell, 2007. Postmodernism for beginners, Steerforth Press

15. Edward Quinn,2006The Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Facts on File

16. FrederickJameson, The Deconstruction of Expression in Harrison & Wood, eds., Art

in Theory, 2003. pp. 1074-1080

17.Christopher Butler, 2003, Postmodernism, A very short introduction, Oxford

University press

18. Coral Ann Howells, (ed.) 2006.The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood,

Cambridge University Press

19. Faye Hammill, 2007. Canadian Literature, Edinburgh University Press

20.Gale Critical Companion, 2004. Feminism in literature,Thomson-Gale

21. Ingeborg Hoesterey, 2001. Pastiche, Cultural memory in Art, Film and literature,

Indiana University Press

22. Veronica Šaurová, 2005. Comic features in some of David Lodge’s novels, Available:

http://is.muni.cz/th/75293/ff_b/Bakalarska_diplomova_prace.pdf visited on July, 3rd 2013, 8.00 pm

23.Crihana Alina, 2003. Strategii transtextuale în romanele lui David Lodge, Available:

http://www.uab.ro/reviste_recunoscute/philologica/philologica_2003_tom2/27.crihana_alina.pdf visited on July, 5th, 2013, 10.00 pm

24. Barnolipi journal, vol.II, issue V, February 2013, Available:

32

http://www.barnolipi.com/attachments/File/Barnolipi/2_13_Anindya.pdf visited on July, 8th, 2013, 9.00 am

25.Brânduşa PrepeliţăRaileanu, 2011. Campus novels in an age of the global campus:

Aspects of the self/other dialogue in the campus novels, Available:

http://limbimoderne.ase.ro/publicatii/youth-on-the-move/pdf/20%20PrepelitaRaileanu.pdf visited on July, 11th, 10.00 am

26. David Crystal, 2003. Language play, The University of Chicago Press

27.Kel Richard, 1992. Father Koala's nursery rhymes, Ashton Scholastic, Sydney

28.Guy Cook, 2000. Language play, language learning Oxford University press

29. Bennet,Wood&Rogers, (eds.) 1996. Theaching through play, Open University Press

30. Richard MacAndrew, 2003.Instant Discussions, Thomson Heinle

31.Tim Loreman, 2011. Love as pedagogy, The Netherlands, Sense Publishers,

32.JimScrivener, 2011. Learning Teaching, Macmillan

33.Arnold P. Goldstein, Gérald Y. Michaels, 1985. Empathy, L. Erlbaum Associates

34. Antony F. Grasha, 2002.Teaching with style, Alliance Publishers

35. Joseph Ciaccio, 2004. Totally positive teaching,Association for supervision and

curriculum development

36. Maryanne Wolf, 2007. Proust and the squid, HarperCollins

37. Tanya Agathocleous (eds), 2003. Teaching literature - a companion, Palgrave

Macmillan

38. Diane M. Barone, 2011.Children’s literature in the classroom, The Guilford press

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