All Quiet 9 - Discussion: Row Reading Ch 6 pt 1 thru 117
"We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation."
All Quiet 9 - Discussion - Row Reading Ch 6 Pt 1 thru 117 (also 5 & 6) : Chapter 6 is huge and I've always felt it made sense for the students' reading homework as well as what we can cover in one discussion - to break it up into two parts. At times, I have also gone over Chapter 5 (which was done in group work) as well as this first part of Chapter 6, and while I will include the Student Slide - I do not have my notes for the Chapter 5 part of a Row Discussion. I have also included a version of the Row Reading Slides that has a slide to assign student Rows, remotely. See my page on Class Discussions for more on Row Reading Discussions.
Lesson Overview
As I said above - Chapter 6 is huge and I've divided it up into two parts. It is also possible to do this Row Reading as a combination of Chapter 5 (which the students have done a Group Work on and Part one of Chapter 6) or as more often happened in my class - just the first part of chapter 6. Believe me, there is more than enough to discuss in an entire period. Please see my page on Class Discussions for more on the Row Reading variety. It is worth repeating here that it is crucial to time these discussions. Let each students comment, question, or connection (in this case to The Things They Carried) spark a discussion but you need to let each of these mini-discussions go on only long enough so that you will be able to get to every student in the class. Note: I've included one slide with a quote from The Things They Carried that is very similar to what Paul says in this section about luck. As the teacher, there are also other things that you will want to say for each row (section of reading) - make sure you give yourself enough time - but as often happens - the students get to those points as well with their own remarks. Note - in Row Readings students always find THREE items - a comment, a question, and a connection - in this case the connection is to be to The Things They Carried or one of the other war related texts we've studied.
Here are just some of the ideas, quotes, and themes that will be covered in the Row Reading for the first part of Chapter 6:
How the men use humor to ease the unbearable tension
The mens' battle with the rats (and how it is a metaphor of their own struggle)
The effect of the bombardment on the young recruits
Getting the recruits "to their senses".
How the men become wild animals capable of killing their own father
losing touch with the enemy
Row Reading Slide & one with notes
Row Reading Slides & Teacher Notes
Includes Chapter 5 which the students have done a group work on.
See the instructions above for how this works and why I've included the version with my notes. Remember what I call rows (in a classroom) most people would call columns.
This is for teachers to make their own notes on the section.
Remote Enhancements
This version of the slide show starts with a slide to help the students involved in Remote Learning find what Row they are in. A simple but very effective idea for implementing a Row Reading Discussion when in Remote Learning.
Links
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Audio
Video
All Quiet Chapter 6 - Part 2 - No Man's Land - Solo Work: So for this exercise, what I've done is to pull some together some quotes from this part of the reading along with a few pertinent quotes from The Things They Carried and one Gertrude Stein quote. The students watch an extended scene from the movie showing the horror of trench warfare - and then do a close reading of the quotes - connect them to what they saw and to each other - and try to come up with an overriding thesis - from which they will write a very short essay (a few paragraphs). The quotes are arranged thematically - as on two sides of a trench.
Thoughts on the Lesson
Row reading is such a great way to have a discussion. Every student gets to contribute - sometimes I will ask that in addition to giving the question, comment, or quote - they also give the first response. The trick, from the teacher's perspective has to do with keeping your eye on the time - you want to make sure that every single student is gotten to - and that means gaging how long to talk about whatever the individual student brought up.