Lesson Overview 

I will often skip the quiz today - putting it off to the next class - to give us time for this activity.  Every second counts.

This lesson has been done in different ways over the years - and if I can find the right handouts, I will try to give them all here.  Essentially - the students are given a handout with a set of quotes from Candide, other things we have and will read, and one personal incident.  They will then try and pull those quotes together to try and make some kind of sense of them - either in a small group or in later years as a class.

The tricky part is how do you divide the class up?  There is a lot to consider on these two pages (front and back) of the handout.  Everyone "considers" at a different rate - it would be impossible to go over all of the quotes and make the connections to everything else.  They could spend a day on it.  Instead, since there are essentially three columns of quotes on each side - and six rows (really columns) of seats in my class - I ask each row to take the respective column of quotes (1-2 on side one / 3-5 on side two) and start with those quotes - and then connect it to anything else (either in the same column - or preferably to a quote in a different column.  This simple act of giving out a starting place - really helps make sure that most of the quotes will be covered.  Row 6 of students are usually "Free Agents" and may take whatever columns they wish.

Towards the end of my career - I also started giving these handouts to the students on a 17 x 11 paper - with both pages on one side - so they could more easily make the connections.  Note - when you are printing it out (or copying it) you will need to make those settings so it appears on one large page.

In a fifty minute class (assuming I skip the quiz) I usually give the students 20 minutes to mark up these handouts.  You need to keep after them - watch them write.  THEY SHOULD BE CONSTANTLY WRITING - DRAWING ARROWS - MAKING CONNECTIONS.  If they aren't - remind them.  Constantly.  Tell them to enter a stream of conciousness - there is no wrong or right - because it is all text based (I can't believe we just go to that very fundamental idea of my class).   I also sometimes tell them that these handouts will be collected and they will be graded on how much they wrote down (see - not WHAT they wrote down).  By the end of twenty minutes - their papers should be covered.

While the students are writing their connections and I am hovering over them - urging them on - I also play some songs (some of which have lyrics on the handout) - that are connected to this idea of a search.  I will give the Playlist for what I play below.

When the 20 minutes is up - we come together as a class (some years, the coming together was done in small groups) and I start at the front of the room and ask "What was the favorite connection that you found" (I may say that before we come together so they can think about it)?  Each student then gives their connection and we discuss.  It is almost always a magical class.

The Search Handout with my notes - here are some of my own connections.  As always - I would only bring these up if the students failed to.  I would much rather hear from the students then to give this out myself.

Thoughts on the Lesson 

I love this exercise so much - it brings a seriousness to Candide - a proximity to these teenagers'  lives that is not on first glance obvious.  All of the quotes should be obvious to the teacher as to how they connect with t e exception of one.  It has to do with the seriousness of the ideas in this lesson and at some point I will elaborate.