In Our Time 4 - 'I want to go with you' - "The Dr. & the Dr.'s Wife"
"I know where there's black squirrels, Daddy."
I want to go with you - Group Work for "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" : This is such a perfect follow-up to "Indian Camp" and our discussion about that story. With that story, it is pretty unclear why the Doctor would take his very young son to such a potentially (and actually as it turns out) tragic medical procedure. The story, "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" does a great job of explaining the "why". As always (or at least I'd like to believe), I try to have the students find out that reason for themselves by doing a very close dive into the text of Hemingway's story - along with bringing in what we talked about with "Indian Camp".
Lesson Overview
Begin with the quiz - sometimes the Extra Credit question will have to do with a biographical handout that I gave the students in addition to their fictional reading (the theme of fact and fiction that began in the first lesson continues). In this case, the biographical material related to this story is found in the opening of the Group Work handout, so the extra credit is just about the reading.
Please see the actual Group Work below for precisely what's in it and my page on Group Work for more of the "why" do it. Here are some of the points that the Group Work goes over. After they are done they begin the Group Work. Please see my page on Group Works for more - but the usual procedure applies - one person writes (that should be switched from lesson to lesson). They are due at the end of the period. It is intense and designed to utilize their group knowledge and differing perspectives.
Some main points of the Group Work
Similarities (with narration and style) to "Indian Camp"
The moral issue of "taking" the logs
The mother's disrespect for the Doctor's profession (ah - "Indian Camp")
Nick "rescuing his father"
The title - it's about the relationship between the husband and wife
How this story - makes "Indian Camp" even more powerful
Group Work
Most Recent Handouts
This is a two sided Group Work. The handout contains biographical material as well as the next novel that we will be reading in class. See my page on Group Work for more and the above Lesson Overview for more specifics on the Group Work. Here is my opening to the Group Work: "Like many of Hemingway's stories, "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" at first appears to have very little action or plot in it. It seems to simply be the story of a Doctor who needs to get a log cut up, and who subsequently gives in to the two men who are supposed to be doing the work for him. But there is more here than meets the eye."
Quiz
Most Recent Quiz
The reading quiz - like most my quizzes - is designed simply to see if the students did the reading - not, if they understood it. As always, I ask the students to first answer if they did the reading or not - if they didn't - they are expected to not guess.
"The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" etext
I try to leave enough room in the margins for students to take extensive notes. If possible, I preferred that students had their own copy of the novel that they could write in. The work, published before 1930, is in the Public Domain.
In Our Time - online copy
This is a complete copy of the book - found at the Internet Archive , complete with the Interchapters. The book was originally posted by the Harold B. Lee Library. The work, published before 1930, is in the Public Domain.
Remote Enhancements
Group Works can be done wonderfully using remote "rooms".
"The End of Something" - A Class Reading & Discussion
There is a big leap in time - with Nick - between "The Dr. and the Dr.'s Wife" and this story. He is a teenager - and if the last two stories were about the child, Nick and his parents - this story is about Nick starting to become an adult - and his first heartbreak. Perhaps that's one of the reasons that this story - over the years that I taught it - won so many of my students over - not only to the story, but to Hemingway as a writer and this book in particular. Often, students are working on other projects (Dante for instance) and to reduce the homework - we will read this story aloud in class - and then talk about it when we finish. Students will have their copies of In Our Time in front of them or the printed out story (found below) and take notes. Once again, proving that this book is much more than a collection of unrelated stories - this story is the foundation for what is to come next: "The End of Something".
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
One of my former students, Nora Sharp, won an essay contest writing about this short story. A brilliant student - she pointed out that though this is told from Nick's perspective - the story is all about the Doctor and his Wife and the push and pull that exists between them. That of course is a great follow-up to "Indian Camp" where the class left that story being bewildered as to why the Doctor would take his son to such an event.