Embedded Files
"And when that happens, I know it. A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying towards heaven."
"A Christmas Memory" Reading & Homecoming : When I first started teaching - the second or third year (I guess it could have been the first), I decided to teach Truman Capote's nonfiction novel - In Cold Blood. We were reading it in the fall - and our unit ended just before Winter Break. Well, I felt that Capote's novel was way too bleak a way to end our time right before the holidays. So, I thought about it - and having just heard his long short story "A Christmas Memory" read on PBS - I decided it would be the perfect (and connected!) way to say goodbye to the old year. I think it went well - and in June - some of my students who were graduating asked me if they could come the following year - to hear me read the story for the next class. And so, a tradition was born. I only taught In Cold Blood for one year - but I read "A Christmas Memory" every year (but one) that I taught.
Every year, former students were invited. Some years I had 100 former students - some years there were 10 or 15. It didn't matter - they were really all there - every year. When a student leaves, they become a part of the class - the way I teach - the points that are brought up - the empathy that I learned. I was so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful students. One student that came back every year (often with his wonderful brother, Alif) was Fard Muhammad. He took photos, he helped me get ready, and he inspired me more than he'll ever know. The video that is linked below - is in fact - shot and edited by Fard. And so this lesson - as well as this page are dedicated to him and his incredible energy and zest for everything that is the best of the world we make.
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Well - the lesson is to find a copy of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" and read it to your students. I also happened to invite former students to come back for the reading. I would time the reading so it would occur during one of my World Literature classes - one with a prep beforehand, and I would have a little reception for my former students to catch up on what was happening with their lives.
I ended up doing it so long that my former students started to bring their children - and some years we had to move to the library because my little classroom couldn't hold all of the people. I talk about this lesson in the description at the top of the page - but here is a little more.
Reading "A Christmas Memory" with current and former students allowed everyone to see how what we learn continues and reverberates. When you are in high school - it is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees - and the reason for why we do the things, in class, that we do. It was great for my current students to talk to the ones who had been through the same thing - or even just to see them there coming back - for - I'm not sure - nostalgia, appreciation, a sense of camaraderie for what we had been through together.
Every year I read the story I would cry. Some years more than others. The year my kite loving mother died - that was tough (and wonderful). The last year I did the "big" reading - my daughter came (then in college) - and when I got to the line that Capote's elderly cousin says about him being so big now - and he used to be so small. Well, my daughter was right in front of me when I read that line - I took her hand - and I cried beautiful tears of recognition.
I also gave my students a card - and I will try to include the oldest (that I can find) and the last one that I gave to them. I signed everyone by hand - because, as I'd like to think about the reading itself - it was an act of love.
A Christmas Memory Reading (2017)
A Christmas Memory Reading (2017)
This is the final year that I did the reading for former students as well as my current ones. There were a few more years after that - but the Pandemic and other changes made it impossible (though a few students always found out when the reading was and would show up). As I said in the introduction - this was shot and edited by my dear friend and former student Fard Muhammad - and it, in my opinion, captures the reading and the moment in time perfectly. Maybe that's why it mostly ended (I always did the reading for my World Literature Classes - even remotely during the Pandemic). The reading, the people, everything came together in a way that it never could again.
A Christmas Memory Cards
A Christmas Memory Cards
There are probably cards older than this - and I'll take a look. The cover of this one has an illustration from The Christmas Truce of 1914 - which we had just finished in class before this reading.
"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote (2009 reading)
"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote (2009 reading)
A reading that I did and recorded the audio for in 2009. Sometimes - oftentimes - the words are enough.
Here is the description from Amazon: "Selected from across Capote's writing life, they range from nostalgic portraits of childhood to more unsettling works that reveal the darkness beneath the festive glitter. In the Deep South of Capote's youth, a young boy, Buddy, and his beloved maiden 'aunt' Sook forage for pecans and whiskey to bake into fruitcakes, make kites - too broke to buy gifts - and rise before dawn to prepare feasts for a ragged assembly of guests; it is Sook who teaches Buddy the true meaning of good will. In other stories, an unlikely festive miracle, of sorts, occurs at a local drugstore; a lonely woman has a troubling encounter in wintry New York. Brimming with feeling, these sparkling tales convey both the wonder and the chill of Christmas time."
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
I actually did this remotely and I do believe it held the classes attention.
The Jewish Giant - A Radio Documentary and Lesson in Empathy: It's a radio documentary that first appeared on NPR - put out by Sound Portraits, and it is one of the most moving things that I've ever heard. The documentary tells the story of Eddie Carmel - a man who was born with a condition that rendered him one of the tallest people to ever live. He gain a special level of celebrity when he was photographed by Diane Arbus - and his picture (with his "midget appearing" parents in Life Magazine and across the country. But the documentary focuses on who he was.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
What can I say? For me this was the highlight of the year. Not only seeing old students - not only reading this beautiful piece of literature - but hearing about my students lives - the present and the future were always as much there as was the past (but that was nice too!)
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