All Quiet 7 - The Equation: Men & Horses - Chapter 4
"Like to know what harm they're done. I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war."
All Quiet on the Western Front -The Equation: Men & Horses - Chapters 4 : It is almost like the entire year of critical thinking and making connections and focusing on the text - comes to a head in today's class. This lesson is called the equation because the students have all the parts - they just need to put it together. Though the lesson is designed (usually) as a Ringmaster Teacher - the most crucial part of the class is when the students are asked to examine a single page in the book and put the pieces together: The comparison of the men to the innocent horses - and then later the horses are shown to be innocent victims - much like the poor recruit (and all of the men really) that is shown at the end of the reading. The class ends with a very serious discussion about (and you will have to judge your own students' maturity to handle this discussion) the morality of simply putting the mortally wounded recruit "out of his misery".
Lesson Overview
For the majority of the years that I taught - this lesson was delivered as a Teacher Led (Ringmaster Teacher) Discussion. I still believe that is the way to go. I also believe by preceding this lesson with a Vertext that brings in very specific textual clues to what will happen today (in fact - the the previous lesson's Vertext - I put the clues for today's lesson in Red). I have also included a Vertext Version of this Lesson along with a Group Work version. So how you deliver the very powerful ideas in today's lesson are up to you BUT - I really believe a teacher-led lesson works best - and leads to one of the most important and poignant discussions of the year - the one about the young recruit and Paul and Kat's decision to "put him out of his misery".
For instructions on this lesson please see (for info on these different types of discussion go here):
Teacher Led Discussion: My Lesson Notes
Vertext: The Vertext for Chapter 4 or alternatively the one for Chapters 2-4
Group Work: The actual Group Work itself
Some main points covered in this Lesson (for all three methods)
The literal of what takes place in this chapter
Geese as an echo of freedom
going over the data leading to the big equation
PAGE 57 - letting the students look at the page to discover for themselves how Remarque uses the text to paint a picture of the soldiers and then the horses that beautifully and profoundly meld together (the horses bottoms in the moonlight - the mens' round helmets reflecting that same moon)
the injuring of the horses and Detering's outrage at their innocence
the bombardment is pretty (like the satirical portrayal of war in Candide).
the young recruit
the setting of the graveyard (the men are already dead)
Paul and Kat's decision to put the mortally wounded recruit out of his misery - and how this hearkens back to the idea of the horses.
Lesson Notes Chapter 4 for a Discussion
This is - I am firmly convinced - the way to go with this discussion. The lesson notes also reference the Vertext from the last lesson (especially Chapter 3) and it may be useful to have that fired up and ready to go on your projector.There is so much to cover and when the teacher leads the class they can thoughtfully feel out some of this very sensitive material - especially when you get to the end.
Vertext Chapter 4
This Vertext also includes sections from Chapter 3 that are relevant to the idea of the men and the horses. Rather than putting the Lesson's climactic quote about the imagery of the men and the horses - it gives instructions to the class to find it on the given page. See the last lesson for Vertexts that cover more and different chapters.
Group Work - Men & Horses - Chapter 4
I try to recreate in this Group Work what happens in the discussion. It very well may have been this year that I gave this (it was only one year) that I had to be absent that day. I still believe a class discussion is the best way to handle this material.
Most Recent Quizzes
As always - without a quiz, I believe the teaching is pretty empty. Students need to actually do the reading - and do it on their own. Today's lesson is a great example of this. When they see - about the men and the horses - and they've already read it - and some of them will have marked it up (on their own) - the experience can be transformational.
Remote Enhancements
Of course a discussion works in Remote - but perhaps the Vertext above (for Chapter 4) would work best - especially if enhanced by the Lesson Notes.
Links
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Audio
All Quiet on the Western Front - Mini Lesson on Snow/Rain and the Silent Graves: A 10 minute lesson done after reading Chapter 4 that involves two readings - one from Chapter 4 of All Quiet - the other from James Joyce's "The Dead" - It must be raining or snowing to do this lesson.
All Quiet on the Western Front - Men & Geese - Chapter 5 Group Work: There are things that happen in Chapter 5 of this book that I believe are best handled and discussed in a small group (or alone - if the student didn't do the reading for class). Group Work is the perfect way to allow students to have more nuanced, more intimate discussions (especially since they know their groups so well by this time of the year) than they would in the larger class setting. There is also a version for Remote Learning (with some of the special concerns that type of learning brings) and a shortened version (for nonhonors or a shortened class period).
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
I love this lesson so much! When the students - as a class - look at the page in question - and you see the light bulbs going off in their heads. THEY make the connection. Some of them already made it when they did the reading. The soldiers are just like the horses - they are all innocents, sacrificed to the war.