allwrite - Symphony Space

presents
selected shorts:
a l l
w r i t e !
Resource Guide for the Stories and Poems to Be Read at the First Performance on
January 29, 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
3
“Ringside” by Ron Koertge
6
“Cultural Relativity” by Charles Johnson
12
“It Had Wings” by Allan Gurganus
17
“On Lichtenstein’s ‘Bananas and Grapefruit’” by Deborah Pope
19
“Bato Con Khakis” by Jacinto Jesús Cardona
23
“far-flung family #9” by Helen Phillips
30
“The Waitress” by Robert Coover
34
Appendix
40
Literacy Committee
Teresa Bell – Mid-Manhattan Adult Learning Center (NYC Department of Education);
Mary Esther Malloy – Consultant;
Madeline Cohen, Katherine Minton – Symphony Space
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INTRODUCTION
On the following pages you will find a number of suggested activities and areas of
discussion that the literacy committee has created for your use. The members of the
committee worked on the stories and poems planned for the first performance and the
group critiqued each curriculum idea.
There is no overarching theme this year, although many of these pieces seem to emphasize
transformation, magical and otherwise. Sometimes there are unintended thematic
connections that pop up and surprise you (and us!). As always, some of the suggestions in
a given unit on one particular story or poem are applicable, with minor adjustments, to
some or all of the other pieces. Activities are not geared towards a particular group or level
of ability. It is up to you, if you choose, to adapt the activities to the particular needs of
your students.
Three of the seven pieces in this year’s program are poems, all inspired by paintings which
are included in each poem’s study unit. Two are pretty straightforward; the third is quite
silly and fun. Yet, in all cases, poetry is different from prose in many significant ways.
Therefore, following this introduction, we have included an “About Poetry” section.
As we have in past years, we are including a set of images on postcards to use as writing
prompts. They will be sent to you, your site director or one of your colleagues; we will let
you know where they were sent. In this Guide, there are also some full-page color
reproductions of images that relate directly to a particular story or poem. We hope the
images will inspire some creative writing, as they have done in the past. Some suggested
ways to use them as writing prompts are on the next page, as well as in the “Writing”
sections of many of the units in this guide. But feel free to use them in any way that you
think will be interesting and valuable, as well as to use other images you may have.
We are also including an Appendix at the end of the guide, where you will find some
directions and forms for writing poetry, as well as instructions for creating your own
postcards for classroom use.
We hope you find this guide helpful.
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About Poetry
What is poetry? It is so many things and has been around and evolving for so many
centuries that it’s almost impossible to define. The ideas below (from a variety of sources,)
address some, but not all of poetry’s characteristics. You may find it useful to go over
some of the following ideas with the students and relate them to the poems being read at
All Write! this year, as you review each one.
 Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound,
and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been
known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary.
 The easiest way to recognize poetry is that it usually looks like poetry. While prose is
organized with sentences and paragraphs, poetry is normally organized into lines.
 Poetry, more than prose, communicates through the way the words sound and the way
the poem looks on the page.
 The words in poems are doing several jobs at the same time. They do one thing with
their meaning, and another thing with their sound. Even their meaning may be working
on more than one level.
 Prose normally talks to the logical part of the reader's mind. It explains and describes
things; it makes sense. Poetry does all this too, but it also tends to work at an emotional
or irrational level at the same time. Often, some part of a poem seems to speak directly
to the readers' emotions. It gives readers a peaceful feeling or an eerie feeling,
goosebumps, or it makes them want to cry, even though they may not be sure why they
are reacting this way.
 One way that poems do this is through the use of sound. Poems also tend to suggest
things beyond what they actually say; often what causes the strongest emotions is not
what the poem describes, but what it makes the reader imagine. Some parts of poems
come like dreams from deep places in the mind that even the poet may not understand,
and they touch something similarly deep in the reader.
Figurative Language (or Figures of Speech,) is often used in poetry, as well as in prose.
Figurative language contains images. The writer describes something through the use of
unusual comparisons, for effect, interest, and to make things clearer. The result of using
this technique is the creation of interesting images. Here are two common forms of
figurative language:
 A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind
of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between
them.
 A simile is a comparison between two unlike things that have something in common is
called a simile. A simile always uses the words “like” or “as” to make a comparison.
[See the Appendix for instructions for specific forms of poetry, like haiku.]
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Postcards
The following process may be useful in generating writing based on the postcards.
 Distribute postcards.
 Ask students to describe what they observe about the image in as much detail as
possible
 Give the image a title.
 Then choose from the following possible prompts:
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone
or something in the image.
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone
or something outside the frame of the image.
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image as if it happened a long time ago and
someone is remembering it years later.
o What happened to this place and/or these people right before the moment captured by
this image?
o What’s going to happen next?
Of course, there are many other possible approaches. Have fun!
[Check out the Appendix for instructions on how to create your own postcards for classroom use.]
Review the Actor’s Performance
Discuss, or have the students write about the following questions, as well as any other
thoughts they may have about the performance:
 When you listened to the actor read this story or poem, what feelings were expressed?
 Can you describe what the actor did with his or her voice to express those feelings?
 Did the actor’s performance give you any new thoughts or feelings about the
story/poem?
 Do you have any suggestions for someone reading this story or poem aloud to an
audience in the future?
5
Ringside by Ron Koertge
An amusing and surprising story in poem form about how art can influence life, “Ringside”
sheds light on how careful observation can bring you “inside” a painting. Students may be
inspired to remember a similar seemingly-small incident or interaction that changed their
life, the way the life of the young narrator of “Ringside” was changed by seeing the painting
“Stag at Sharkey’s.”
PRE-READING
Title Prediction
 Tell the class that they are going to hear a poem called “Ringside.”
 What does “ringside” mean? If you have ESOL students, you may have to explain that one meaning of
“ring” is: an enclosed space typically surrounded by seating for spectators, in which a sport, performance, or show takes
place.
 Now what do they think this poem is going to be about? List some of their ideas on the board or a big
piece of paper.
Art Influencing Life
 Ask the students to take a few moments to reflect on their life and whether a song, a movie, a book, a
poem, a painting, or any other kind of art ever changed them in some way. Ask them to raise their
hand if they feel that this did happen in their life. For those who did not raise their hand, ask them if
they can imagine someone’s - anyone’s - life being changed by some piece of music, art, or writing.
 Journaling: Tell students that the following writing assignment is private. They do NOT have to share
unless they want to.
o Ask them to describe the moment they encountered the work of art they remembered or imagined,
and how it changed them or their life.
o Ask if anyone would like to share what they wrote.
ABOUT THE POEM
Looking at Art
 At the end of the unit for this poem you will find a full-page reproduction of “The Picket Fence,” by
George Bellows. This is the painting the teacher shows to the class at the beginning of the poem.
 Show “The Picket Fence” to your class and ask them:
o What’s going on here? What do you see? How does this picture make you feel?
 Read the first stanza of the poem through “And the McKenzie brothers made fists.”
o Compare the reactions to the painting in your class to the reactions by the students in the poem.
Did anyone in your class find anything “creepy” about “The Picket Fence”? Did hearing the poem
make them feel any different about the painting?
o Why did the teacher beam when the narrator expressed his/her opinion?
o Why did the McKenzie brothers make fists?
 Read the next two stanzas through “until I was the fighter in the modest black / trunks.”
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
o There is a full-page reproduction of “Stag at Sharkey’s” following “The Picket Fence.” Show the
students the picture and ask:
 What’s going on here? What do you see? How does this picture make you feel?
o What does the narrator mean when he says “I looked until I was at ringside, / until I was the
fighter in the modest black / trunks”?
 Was he really at that boxing match? Was he really wearing black shorts?
 What would be another way of expressing what the narrator meant? Have you ever felt that
way when you were looking at a picture, watching a movie, reading a book, hearing a song,
etc.?
o From the way it looks in this painting, how is being ringside at this boxing match different from
being a spectator at a basketball, football or other sports event?
o Why do you think the narrator was so fascinated with this picture?
Read the final two stanzas aloud.
o Now reread the line : “I put my head against/his and hit him with my right. . .” How does this relate to
the picture “Stag at Sharkey’s”?
o Why was the narrator surprised when Bobby “winced and went down”?
o Why did the narrator bellow “Stag at Sharkey’s”? What did the painting mean to him, especially at
that moment?
o Why is this an important moment in the narrator’s life? What will most likely change for him/her
after this moment?
o What does “bellowed” mean? What other words could the poet have used instead of “bellowed?”
o Why is using the word “bellowed” in this poem kind of a secret joke by the poet, Ron Koertge?
The Artist
George Bellows (1882 – 1925) painted both “The Picket Fence” and “Stag at Sharkey’s.” As a young man,
he was a talented all-around athlete and was encouraged to become a professional baseball player. But he
was determined to be an artist. A realist painter who focused on bold depictions of urban life, he was a
member of a group of artists known as the “Ashcan School” because they believed in presenting the good,
the bad, and the ugly aspects of society in their art. Among his many great paintings are a number of vivid
portrayals of boxing matches, one of which is “Stag at Sharkey’s”. (You can see a very interesting video
called “The Art of Boxing” about Bellows’s boxing paintings, in which we hear from both a professional
boxer and an art specialist, at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3OmAaasGnA.)
Stag at Sharkey’s
“Stag at Sharkey's” embodies the grittiness and violence of New York City at the beginning of the 20th
century. In 1909, when Bellows completed this painting, prizefighting was illegal in New York. The retired
heavyweight boxer “Sailor” Tom Sharkey ran “stags,” that is, illegal prizefights for all-male audiences, in
the cellar of his saloon at Broadway and 65th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (where Lincoln
Center stands today.) George Bellows’s studio was across the street.
(From: http://www.artbabble.org/video/ima/stag-sharkeys-george-bellows.)
LANGUAGE
The vocabulary in this poem is fairly straightforward. There may be a few words, including “ringside,”
that need to be explained. The poem is written in sentences and could, in fact, be a regular prose story.
But the way it looks on the page tells us that it is a poem. This layout also gives clues to what is really
important from the poet’s point of view, as well as how it should be read aloud. (You may want to review
the “About Poetry” section at the beginning of this Guide.”)
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
Give copies of the poem to individual students or to groups. Ask them to circle any sentence that is
written on more than one line; that is, part of the sentence continues onto a second or third line.
Each student should choose one of the multi-line sentences and write it on a regular piece of paper as
if it were a normal sentence in a story. You may want to model this on the board as follows:
For example, in the poem you see:
The sidewalk leads
Right to the cellar.
Written as a “normal” sentence, it would look like:
The sidewalk leads right to the cellar.





Ask students to consider why the poet would break up the sentences the way he did. Have them read
the sentence as they wrote it (that is, in one straight line.) Then read it again as it is written in the
poem. Discuss why the poet wanted to have phrases such as “this picture . . .” or “until I was the
fighter. . .” or “and ran” begin new lines.
Now ask student to write an original sentence – about anything (e.g. Milk is good for you. My sister’s
hair is so long she can sit on it. I really want to go to the World Series. Etc., etc.)
Ask them to write their original sentence again. But this time ask them to write one part of the
sentence on one line and the rest of the sentence on another line.
Have them share with a neighbor and talk about why they made the break in the sentence where they
did. What is the effect?
With a copy of “Ringside” in front of them, ask for volunteers to read it aloud noting the impact of
the line breaks.
WRITING
The McKenzie Brothers
From the poem we can tell that there is some kind of back story between the narrator and the McKenzie
brothers. This history between them has something to do with why the brothers made a fist at the narrator
in the first stanza of the poem, and why Bobby McKenzie bloodied the narrator’s nose in the fourth
stanza.
 Choose one of the following topics to create a story:
o What is the back story between the McKenzie brothers and the narrator? (You can give the
narrator a name if you want.) Describe the narrator. Describe the McKenzie brothers. What is
their relationship? How did it get that way? Include an interaction they had before the time
described in the poem.
o Tell the story described in the poem from Bobby McKenzie’s point of view.
o Imagine that the narrator and Bobby McKenzie meet by chance a week after the time described in
the poem. No one else is around. What happens?
o Imagine that it’s now 15 or more years later. The narrator and the McKenzie brothers are now
adults. They may even have children of their own. The narrator and one or both of the McKenzie
brothers find themselves together for some reason (e.g. class reunion, PTA meeting, they work at
the same place, or chance encounter.) What happens?
Art and Life
The painting “Stag at Sharkey’s” functioned as a turning point in the life of the narrator of the poem.
Somehow that painting gave him the courage and the know-how to overcome the bully, Bobby McKenzie.
8
“Stag at Sharkey’s” became his battle cry, the way some people will yell “Geronimo!” (referring to a
famous fearless Indian chief,) before jumping out of an airplane (or into a swimming pool.)

Think of a work of art. It could be a painting, a book, a film, a photograph, a TV show, a song, a
dance, a poem, etc., that was a turning point for you, someone you know, or a made-up person.
o Tell us something about the person.
o Describe the work of art and/or give the title.
o Describe how the person came in contact with this work of art.
o Why did it mean so much to them?
o In what way did it change their life? Give an example.
o What feeling did they get each time they encountered it again or even said the name of it aloud or
to themselves?
“The Picket Fence” and “Stag at Sharkey’s”
At the end of this unit are two full page reproductions of paintings by George Bellows. They show the
wide range of subjects and interests that Bellows had as an artist and as a person. These two images are
also included in the packet of postcards sent to you or one of your colleagues. If any of your students
would like to use either one of these images as a writing prompt, they can respond to one of these ideas
(or any other idea they have.)
 Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone or something in
the image.
 Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone or something
outside the frame of the image.
 Tell the story of what’s happening in this image as if it happened a long time ago and someone is
remembering it years later.
 What happened to this place, thing, and/or these people right before the moment captured by this
image?
 What’s going to happen next?
9
The Picket Fence, by George Bellows
10
Stag at Sharkey’s, by George Bellows
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Cultural Relativity by Charles Johnson
“Cultural Relativity” is a modern-day fairy tale that puts a twist on The Frog Prince story.
Charles Johnson’s tale of enchantment and an unexpectedly broken spell might well be
called, “The Prince Frog”. Set on a contemporary college campus, Felicia’s and Fortunata’s
seemingly perfect romance stumbles on “one small problem,” and with this curious
“problem,” Felicia must grapple with issues of cultural insensitivity. We hope this tale
sparks interesting conversations among your students and inspires writings about love,
culture and the age-old search for Mr. or Ms. Right.
PRE-READING
Culture
 Write the word “culture” on the board. Ask students to discuss the meaning of this word. Can they
offer examples of their own or others’ “culture”?
 Write the following definition on the board: Culture: the beliefs, customs, practices, and social
behavior of a particular nation or people. Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.Discuss. Discuss this definition. What
beliefs, celebrations, foods or customs define your culture? Ask each student to make a list of aspects
of his or her own “culture”. Share.
Cultural Relativity
 Write “Cultural Relativity” on the board. Ask students to guess at what this might mean. Write up the
following definition: the idea that we should not judge the behavior of others using the standards of
our own culture, and that each culture must be analyzed on its own terms. Encarta® World English
Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Discuss this idea with students.
 Ask students to free write for 5 to 10 minutes on either of the following questions:
o Have you ever felt that others judged you or your family for your beliefs, practices, clothing etc
because they did not understand them?
o What beliefs, clothing, food, celebrations, etc. do you see others believing, wearing, eating, etc. that
you feel you do not understand and would like to know more about?
Title Prediction
 Tell students that you are going to read a story called, “Cultural Relativity.” What do they think this
story will be about?
Genre Activity
 Ask students to describe what a fairy tale is. Make a list of fairy tales with your students: the Princess
and the Pea, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty
etc. (Be sure to offer students from other countries/cultures an opportunity to share fairy taleequivalents from their own backgrounds). Are fairy tales just for children? Why or why not?
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ABOUT THE STORY
Controlled Reading
 Read the first paragraph as a class. Have students guess what Felicia’s “one small problem” might be.
 You can read the rest of the story aloud or students can read it. OR – you can leave the ending for the
performance, and let it be a surprise. You decide what will work best for your students.
About The Story
 Do you like the story? Why or why not?
 What do you think of the ending? Does it remind you of anything? Why on earth did Felicia’s “Prince”
turn into a frog?
 Describe Felicia. Who is she and what is she like? What is she studying at college? What does her
name mean?
 Describe Fortunata. Where is he from? Why is he studying at Felicia’s college? What is his social status
at home? What does his name mean?
 Clarify references to Michael Jordan (world famous basketball player) and Kwame Nkrumah (PanAfrican activist, later first president of Ghana).
 How have Felicia and her friends struggled to find “Mr. Right”? In what ways does Fortunata appear
to be ‘Mr. Right”?
 Do you think Felicia is in love with Fortunata? Or merely enchanted by him? What is the difference?
 What is Felicia’s “one small problem” mentioned in the first paragraph of the story?
 Have you seen the Eddie Murphy movie, “Coming to America”? What did you think of it? If you have
not seen it, what can you surmise it is about?
 What is the custom in Fortunata’s country regarding kissing?
 What other sexual customs from Fortunata’s culture are Felicia and Fortunata following?
 How does she research “kissing”? What does she learn about “kissing”?
 To what does “soup coolers” refer?
 What happens when she kisses him?
 What do you make of his final line, (“Don’t be silly”) in response to her saying, “I don’t suppose we
can break off the engagement, can we?”
 Have you ever heard of a frog turning into a prince? What’s the story? What do you remember? What
is the meaning of a “prince” turning into a frog here? (See information on “The Frog Prince” at the
end of this unit.)
What do you think?
 Is Fortunata your idea of “Mr. Right?”
 What does it mean to say a culture is “sexually frank”. Do you think the dominate culture in the US is
sexually frank?
 Re-read Fortunata’s proposal. What little agreement does he tack on to the end? Would you ever agree
to such a thing?
 After he proposes and she accepts, she then throws “her arms around him…acting on what she
believed was instinct, she brought her lips close to his.” Do you believe kissing is an instinct? Or is it
something we learn? Does everyone practice kissing according to this story?
 In Fortunata’s country “people worked hard to avoid the damaging aspects of Westernization.” What
does this mean? How does “Westernization” often affect a traditional culture?
 Felicia says she has always been fascinated by and respectful of the differences in cultures. She says
each culture “must be understood from within.” What does this mean? Do you agree or disagree?
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

What are her thoughts as she makes up her mind to kiss him? Have you ever felt desire or longing
override your judgment? If you were Felicia, would you have done the same thing and kissed
Fortunata?
Do you think Fortunata does or does not know the reason behind the “no-kissing” prohibition?
Examine the evidence in the story.
What does it mean to be enchanted by someone? To be “under someone’s spell”? Is it the same as
being in love?
Research Activity
 Encourage your students to use a Search Engine on the internet. (A helpful tool that sifts through the
seemingly endless information found in cyberspace and offers a quick digest to the researcher. www.google.com is one of the
more popular search engines these days. )
 Go to the library if no computers are available on site. Have students break up into three research
teams:
o Kissing,
o The Frog Prince, and
o Pygmalion and Galatea.
 Have students brainstorm phrases that might help them find information they need: why people kiss,
history of kissing, kissing culture, etc. Have them work in teams and report back on what they find.
Discuss their findings in light of the story.
LANGUAGE
Discuss the following words. Refer to the story and consider each word’s meaning as it is used within the
story:
Catnip
Mantra
Sistah
Technology
Folkways
Westernization
Revolutionize
Instinct
Antiquity
Precious stones
Culturally insensitive
Amphetaminelike substance
Anthropology
Ecstasy
Lip lock
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WRITING
What Happens Next?
What happens after the once-Prince, now-Frog says, “Don’t be silly.” Write your own ending to this story.
The Prince Frog/ Princess Frog
Have you ever been enchanted by someone? Been “under someone’s spell”? What happened? Did it turn
out to be true love, or did your prince or princess turn out to be a frog? Have students work in small
groups to draft a fictional account of a “prince” or “princess” who turns into a Frog when the spell is
broken.
Lover’s High
Begin your own story with one of the following lines from “Cultural Relativity”.
“…when two people fall in love their brains produce an amphetamine-like substance…, that is responsible for what
we call “lover’s high.”
“…if I can’t have you, then I don’t want anyone. I just won’t marry, ever.”
“…you promise not to change your mind? No matter what happens?”
“…she placed her hands on both sides of his head, pulled him closer, puckered up, and bestowed … the most
soulful, moist, and meaningful lip lock she had ever delivered in her life.”
Cultural Insensitivity
Write a tale of love or friendship between two people from different cultures. What happens? What role
does culture play in their attraction or in any difficulties they experience?
Using the Postcards
There are a number of postcards in the packet sent to you or one of your colleagues that have obvious
connections to fairy tales, myths or other magical / non-realistic situations, like the ones pictured above,
among others.
 Students can write a story or poem inspired by one of these images. They can explain how the moment
in the image came to be, what the relationship is between the two characters (human or non-human,)
and how things turn out.
 The images here give the impression of being from some long ago time, as in “once upon a time.”
If students wish, they can set the same story they thought of when looking at one of these pictures,
but set it in 2014-15, giving it a modern twist.
THE FROG PRINCE
Once upon a time, a beautiful princess was playing with a golden ball, her very favorite plaything, by a
deep pool of water. The ball slipped out of her hands and fell into the water. She cried as she watched it
sink deeper and deeper into the pool. All of a sudden, a frog appeared by her side. “What will you give
me if I get your ball for you?”
“Anything you want,” cried the princess, “jewels, pearls, even my crown!”
“I don’t want any of those things,” said the frog. “All I want is to be your companion, sit by you at your
table, eat off your golden plate, drink out of your golden cup, and sleep in your bed.”
The princess promised to do all these things, but didn’t mean it. As soon as the frog returned her ball, she
ran back to the castle, leaving him behind.
That night at dinner, there was a knock at the door. The princess went to see who it was. It was the frog.
She slammed the door in his face and ran back into the dining room. Her father, the king saw that she was
upset and asked her what the matter was. She told him the story of how the frog had gotten her golden
ball in exchange for a promise to be her companion. The king said she must keep her promise. So,
reluctantly, she let the frog into the castle. He sat next to her and she fed him from her plate. When it was
time to go to bed, she brought him to her bedroom and set him down in the corner farthest from the bed.
But he hopped over to the bed and insisted on being placed on her pillow.
[Note from Madeline Cohen: Now here a strange thing happens. Of everybody I asked what happens next, all said, the
princess kisses the frog and he turns into a prince. But in every version of the story I could find, the following (which is an
abbreviated ending), is what happens:]
With this, she became enraged and picked the frog up and threw him against the wall. When he fell to the
floor, he no longer was a frog, but a handsome prince. He told her that a witch had put a spell on him.
And then they get married.
[Note #2 from Madeline Cohen: I thought the story ended with the kiss, like the ending of “Cultural
Relativity”. And, somehow, in the collective unconscious, it does. That’s what makes “Cultural Relativity”
funny. There are a lot of fairy tales that end with a transforming kiss: “Beauty and the Beast”, “Sleeping
Beauty”, “Snow White”. Here’s an explanation from the internet:]
The kiss, which is now an established part of our popular culture, was introduced by Edgar
Taylor in his English translation of the tale in 1823. He apparently believed in a more passive and
romantic princess who breaks spells without a fit of temper. He actually had the frog sleep with
the princess for three nights before the spell was broken without violence. This passivity
eventually became a romantic kiss. Kissing the frog is now the best known element of the tale and
referenced quite often in pop culture.
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It Had Wings by Allan Gurganus, from Book, Publisher
An angel drops from the sky. A widow sees the angel fall and hurries out to meet it. Allan
Gurganus tells this tale of the meeting of two worlds in vivid, tight, clipped sentences,
making the supernatural feel almost down-to-earth. We hope your students enjoy this
engaging story and are inspired to write their own other-worldly tales.
PRE-READING
Title prediction
 Tell students that you will be reading a short story called, “It Had Wings.” What might this story be
about? Brainstorm a list of things that have wings.
 Tell students that something falls from the sky in this story. What might fall? Brainstorm a list of
things that could possibly fall from the sky.
Discuss
 In your life, has anything unexpected ever fallen from the sky?
 Who are the characters in this story? About one we are told, “She moves so slow because: arthritis: It
criticizes every step.” About the other we are told, “His temperature’s a hundred and fifty, easy – but
for him, this seems somehow normal.” Based solely on the information in these two sentences, ask
students to make guesses as to who the characters in this story might be.
Controlled reading
 Read the first paragraph together. What do we learn about the widow? What do we learn about
whatever it is that has fallen from the sky?
 Read the second paragraph. What else do we learn about the widow? What else do we learn about
whatever it is that has fallen from the sky?
 Read the third and fourth paragraphs. What more have we learned about what has fallen from the sky?
ABOUT THE STORY
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Describe in detail all we learn about the widow’s life. Who is she? Where does she live? What has been
her work? How many children does she have? Where are they now? How does she feel about her
daughters-in-laws? How is her health?
What details do we learn about the angel? Look closely at the text. What must his skin feel like, for
instance? (“Her wrist brushes angel skin. Which pulls the way an ice tray begs whatever touches it.”)
Find descriptive details in the story.
How does the widow respond to finding an angel in her yard? List everything.
What happens between the widow and the angel? How does he help her and how does she help him?
What does it mean when the author writes, “Her grief fattens him like vitamins.”?
What does the widow ask the angel? How does he respond? What does he mean?
What does she do and say when she thinks he may take her up with him?
How does he fly off? Reread the paragraph and go through his departure step by step.
Why doesn’t she tell her neighbor?
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What do you think?
 Do you like this story? Why or Why not?
 What would you do if an angel landed in your backyard? What would you ask the angel? What pain or
grief would you offer to fatten the angel and heal yourself?
 What do you think of the angel’s response to her question? Reread and discuss. What would you ask
by way of follow up question? List your questions.
 “Folks keep so much of the best stuff quiet, don’t they. Do you think this is true? If you were her,
would you have told others or not?
 Reread the end of the story. Her arthritis comes back, but she is changed nonetheless. How is the
widow different? The author asks us to guess why the old woman’s chin is now lifted. “Why does she
breathe as if to show exactly how it’s done? Why should both her shoulders, usually quite bent, brace
so square just now?” What do you think? What do you think of the final words of the story “She is
guarding the world./ Only nobody knows.”
LANGUAGE
Sentences
Allan Gurganus frequently writes in short phrases and sentences. Choose a paragraph and underline any
particularly short or incomplete sentences. Do you like this style of writing? Why or why not? Why do you
think Gurganus tells this story in this rather clipped style?
Vocabulary
Read through the story and underline words whose meaning you don’t know, but would like to know.
Guess at the meaning from the surrounding context. Discuss.
WRITING
Writing prompts involving the angel and the widow: discuss and brainstorm ideas. Then write,
share and revise!
 What if an angel dropped into your life one otherwise normal day? What happens? What grief or pain
would you heal? What else might happen in your meeting of an angel?
 What if an angel dropped into your mother’s/father’s/grandmother’s/friend’s life one otherwise
normal day? What happens?
 What is the angel’s version of the meeting with the widow?
 Why did the angel fall? What happened right before? How did the angel get injured?
 Write up the angel’s words: “We’re just another army. We all look alike – we didn’t before. It’s not
what you expect. We miss the other. Don’t count on the next. Notice things here. We are just another
army.” What has happened in the realm of angels? What has changed? What do angels miss about the
other?
 Where does the angel fly off to? What happens next for the angel? How does the angel report on or
think about the experience?
 “She is guarding the world.” From what? Is she ever put to the test?
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Using the postcards
The images above are from the packet of 30+ postcards that were sent to you or one of your colleagues.
Students can use one or more of these postcards to inspire a story or poem. Here are a few ideas:
 What is going on in the mind of any of these characters?
 What would happen if a character in one of the first two pictures on the left met a woman in one of
the last two pictures on the right?
 Something surprising is going to happen to one of the characters in these images. Describe what
happens.
On Lichtenstein’s “Bananas and Grapefruit” by Deborah Pope
If you love language (and even if you don’t!) you are in for some fun with this one.
Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s “Bananas and Grapefruit”, Deborah Pope has written a
delightful poem that bounces along from start (“plump slump / slug plug”) to finish
(“sweet part/ eat / art”). We hope students enjoy this rhyming romp and are inspired to
create their own playful poems.
PRE-READING
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Tell your students that you will be showing them a reproduction of a painting from a well-known
artist, (“Bananas and Grapefruit,” by Roy Lichtenstein; full page reproduction on the page after this
unit.) As students look at the painting, ask them to describe what they see and share what they think
about this painting. Do they like it? Why or why not?!
Tell students that this painter was part of the pop art movement that emerged in the 1950s and ‘60s.
What do they think “pop art” might be? What does “pop” mean? What is “pop music”? How is pop
music different from a classical music form such as opera? Pop art drew inspiration from comic book
illustrations, advertisements and other “popular” forms. You might show students a reproduction of a
“high art” still life alongside “Bananas and Grapefruit.” (See “Still Life with Fruit,” by Jan de Heem,
from the 17th C, following the “Bananas and Grapefruit,” at the end of the unit.) Ask what they notice
is similar or different, which they prefer, and why we would describe one as pop art.
Write “Bananas and Grapefruit” on the board. Ask students to brainstorm 20 words that come to
mind. Keep this list.
Rhyme – Ask students to give examples of rhymes. Come up with rhymes for at least 10 of the words
from the brainstorm. Keep this list.
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ABOUT THE POEM
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Reading: Ask students to sit back and relax. Tell them you are going to read a poem inspired by this
painting. After you read the poem, invite comments. Did students like the poem? Why or why not?
Did they understand it? Why or why not? Did it seem to be about the painting?
Read the poem out loud a second time. Ask students to listen carefully for rhyming words – it doesn’t
matter if they understand the words or not. Ask students to raise a hand when they hear a rhyme.
In small groups, have students work on parts of the poem (or the entirety if appropriate). Ask students
to identify one (or more) places in the poem where they can make a connection to the painting: “sealed
in/ unpeeled skin” = could refer to either the grapefruit or bananas, for instance.
The poem ends with the words “eat / art”. Why might the poet have closed the poem like this? What
might it mean to “eat art”?
Ask students if they consider this a “Pop Poem”? What are some other examples of “popular poetry”?
Would rap be considered pop poetry, for instance?
Have each small group prepare a reading of the poem (or their section). Perform readings and have
fun!
LANGUAGE
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As a class, look at the unusual shape of the poem on the paper. Why might the poet have put the
words on the page like this? How does the shape of the poem on the page influence how you read the
poem? Do you like the way the author has arranged the words? Why or why not?
In pairs, read the poem and underline words that rhyme.
Discuss words whose meaning you don’t know – and note that some of these are made-up words:
jujubeezes, gulppulp. Discuss how meaning changes with some of the unusual pairings: fruit suit,
squeazy teases. Ask students to consider whether or not they can enjoy the poem without knowing
exactly what every word means.
WRITING
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Ask students to underline their favorite words in the poem. Have them call out these words as you
write them up on the board. For each word listed, brainstorm 3 to 5 rhyming words, including any
nonsense words that come to mind. Refer back to the pre-reading brainstorm lists as well. After all
this brainstorming, assign students different clusters of the words written on the board. Have each
student write down his or her words, one word per index card. Depending on the size of the class
work together as a large group or divide up into small groups. Use the cards to make new poems. Lay
them out on desks or even the floor. Encourage students to experiment with how they arrange the
cards. Read the new poems to each other.
Instead of bananas and grapefruit, bring in some other fruit pairings, such as mangoes and grapes,
oranges and kiwi, or plums and papaya. Or bring vegetables such as broccoli and carrots, or any food
pairing. Place the fruit or veggies in front of the students. Ask students to brainstorm words that come
to mind. Use these words to write poems or stories. Compare writing and enjoy a tasty snack.
Pop Art- Bring in magazines and comic books. Ask students to flip through and cut out anything they
like particularly. Glue the cut -outs onto construction paper and make collages. They can use their
own collages or swap and write poems or stories off these original pop art inspirations.
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Bananas and Grapefruit, Roy Lichtenstein, 1972
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Still Life, Jan de Heem, 17th C
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Bato Con Khakis by Jacinto Jesús Cardona
Jacinto Jesús Cardona is a San Antonio, Texas poet who teaches at Incarnate
Word High School. “Bato Con Khakis” talks about Chicano culture in South
Texas through the eyes of a self-confessed nerdish character who admires and
compares himself to the “cool bato”. Through simple study, discussion, and
related writing, students can explore the evolution of other cultures who have
emigrated to the United States, how they see themselves as compared to the
dominant culture, what they keep of their own, and what they adapt in order to
progress and, at times, fit in.
PRE-READING
Title prediction
 Start by writing “bato” on the board and ask if anyone in the class knows what it means. If no one
does, either write the word “dude” and ask the same question – or come back to this word.
 Then write the word “khakis” and ask students to pronounce the word and describe what it is referring
to.
 Also ask: Who do you expect to be wearing khakis or what impression do you get of a person who is
wearing khakis?
 Then write “Bato con Khakis” on the board. Ask what “con” means here. If no one speaks Spanish,
ask them what they think it means in the context of this phrase (“with”). Ask the students what the
title could possibly be suggesting or referring to and what else is likely to be mentioned in the poem.
Adapting to new cultures
 Ask how many people grew up somewhere else besides New York City and keep a list of these places
on chart paper. For those who have always lived in New York City ask if they have ever changed
neighborhoods or whether they feel at home in their neighborhood.
 Ask students to write down customs, language, or values that are specific to who they are.
 Then, ask them to write down two or three examples of other customs, language, or values that they
have come across in their lives that they either like, admire, or aspire to adapting as part of their own
lives. Have students share what they wrote in small groups.
What clothes say about us
 Ask each student to write down four or five words that describe either the way they usually dress or
the way they dress on certain occasions. In addition to the physical description words – of clothing for
instance – ask them to write other statements about how the way they dress suggests what they feel
about themselves or what they think other people would think they think about themselves based on
their outside appearance.
 Now give each student or small group of students an image of a person, a character, dressed in a
distinctive way. (Here’s one link that might get you started finding these images.) Ask them to come
up with both a physical description, as well as words or phrases that the particular image suggests
about the person’s attitude about him- or herself, or his or her attitude about life. Check and save
what students have written and request to share some of the more thoughtful student responses.
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Bato con Khakis portrait
The poem, “Bato con Khakis,” was inspired by a painting of the same name by César A. Martinez. A full
page copy of this painting is on the last page of this unit. Show this picture to the class and discuss what
kind of person they think this is a picture of. How do they think this person feels about himself?
ABOUT THE POEM
Controlled reading
 Type out each line of the poem so each line is on a separate piece of paper and number them 1 - 14.
Each student gets one line.
 Ask students, one by one, to read the line they have in order. After each line reading, ask listening
students to either paraphrase or explain the essence of each line. Write down each response on chart
paper or on the board.
 Now pass out a copy of each of the four stanzas of the poem to four different students. Have each
one, in order, read their stanza. Ask the group after each stanza whether anything else comes to mind
that didn’t in the line by line reading.
 Now ask a student to read the entire poem from beginning to end. Alternatively, you, the teacher, can
do the reading.
Questions
 Who is the narrator? Male, female, age, background, how do you know?
 What is a bato?
 Is being a bato positive?
 How does the narrator’s mother feel about batos? (or how does he think she feels?)
 Why does the bato wear khakis?
 What does the narrator mean by “thin belt exuding attitude”?
 How is the narrator different from the bato?
 Why does he say that ‘Bato is not a household word’?
 What does the narrator ultimately admire about the bato?
 Who or what are the “bluebonnets”? (Bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas. But could they also
stand for something else in this poem?)
 Look at a map of the United States, focusing on Texas. What country borders Texas? Based on this
geography, who do students think primarily lives in South Texas? (Find statistics here.)
 Do you think that the narrator’s idea of a bato – “too bold” – will stay the same in the future? Why or
why not?
 What if the narrator did see himself as a bato (like in the painting by Cesar A. Martinez) how would
this change what he felt or commented about himself?
 Do you think batos are leaders in their communities? How? Explain.
 Does a bato have to be from South Texas?
 Would a bato ever live anywhere but South Texas? Why or why not?
 Do you think the word bato will always be understood the same way in the future? Explain. How
about the image of someone wearing khakis? Discuss how styles, attitudes, and language, including
slang, change over time.
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The structure, punctuation and sounds of a poem
Have a discussion with the students about the structure, punctuation, and sounds in the poem. (Note: you
may want to review the “About Poetry” section in the introduction of this guide.)
Ask them:
 What do you see?
 What could you say about the poet’s choices and placement of words?
 How many lines are in the poem?
 How long is each line?
 Are there sentences?
 Is there punctuation?
o If so where?
 Does anything rhyme?
 Does any word ‘sound’ like what it is?
 How does the poet use the senses: touch, sight, smell, hearing, or texture?
 Do you notice any particular vowels or consonant/vowel combinations that the poet seems to like and
use frequently in the poem?
 How is the ‘story’ in the poem told?
 Is there a sequence: does it move forward or backward in time?
 Is there more than one voice in the poem?
 From whose perspective is the ‘story’ of the poem told?
 Are there contrasting attitudes and images in the poem?
Keep a record of their responses.
LANGUAGE
Vocabulary
bato
khakis
bold
blood
city bus
thin belt exuding attitude
limber
blue vest
laid-back
dark shades
alas
bifocals
cool
gelato
bookish
hub
blooming
bluebonnets
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Write all of the above vocabulary on the board or on chart paper.
Solicit the meaning – in the context of the poem – of each word or phrase from the students, as a
synonym, phrase, or brief explanation.
Once you are fairly certain everyone knows what each of the words means, ask students to work in
pairs or trios to divide the list into two categories: physical description and emotional/personality
description.
Descriptions
 Go back to the lists solicited from the students in the PRE-READING section regarding where they
grew up or their current neighborhood.
 Ask each small group (2-4 people) to come up with a few recognized ‘types’ (both male and female)
from their neighborhood. Have them discuss whether the ‘characters’ they are thinking of are looked
up to, and to write down all of the different feelings others in the neighborhood might have –
especially ambivalent feelings – about these male and female characters.
 Once the small groups are engaged and getting their ideas flowing, suggest that each group decide on
one female and one male character (their favorite or most interesting.) Ask them to write the name of
each character at the top of a page and to divide the page into two columns: one for physical
description and the other for emotional or personality description.
 Have a person from each group share their characters and their lists with the rest of the class.
Symbolism
Discuss the idea of symbolism with the students – how an image, a word, or an expression can represent
meanings beneath and beyond the words themselves. Have students focus on the symbolic meaning of a
number of the images from the poem. For instance:
Bato con khakis
Household word
The city bus
Thin belt exuding attitude
Looking limber in a blue vest
Laid-back
Dark shades
Bifocals kid
Cool bato
I could spell gelato
Bookish
The Hub of South Texas
Blooming
Bluebonnets
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Ask them if they can think of what the expressions refer to in the South Texas context.
If this poem were set in New York City, what words or expressions might the poet have used for the
same concepts? (Example: “the city bus” might become “the F train.”)
Students who are from other parts of the U.S. or other parts of the world, can “translate” the symbols
in this poem to the corresponding words or phrases in the context of their native culture.
Give each student this list and have them think about it and come up with their ideas individually then
have each one share something they came up with.
WRITING
Local Character
 Ask the students to choose either one of the male or female neighborhood characters from the
LANGUAGE / Discussion activity, or one of the images they described in the PRE-READING / What
clothes say about us activity.
 Write a poem that includes two perspectives or two ‘voices’ about this character in the same poem.
This could be in the form of a dialogue, or a combination of internal (unspoken thoughts) and external
(comments that somebody else would hear) dialogue.
“My Bato con Khakis”
On the following page, you will find a form that follows the structure of the poem, but with key words and
phrases replaced by lines. If you have ever played the game “Mad Libs,” this will look familiar. The aim is
to fill in the blanks with the appropriate part of speech that also recalls the feelings and ideas from “Bato
con Khakis.”
 You can model this by having the whole class contribute to one version of the poem.
 Then, depending on your class’s level, you can distribute copies of the form to individuals or small
groups so that they can create their own poem.
 When they have completed the form, they should come up with a title and put it at the top of the page.
 Share the results.
DRAMA
Bringing characters to life
Have an individual student, a pair of students, or a small group of students create a scene around a
neighborhood character or type, to be practiced and presented to the rest of the class. Here are a few
variations on this idea:
1. One student could either pantomime the attitude, life, reality, or general ‘story’ of the character, or
present the character’s story in the form of a monologue.
2. A pair of students could either be the two voices in a dialogue – one the voice of the character and the
other the voice of an admirer; or one student could be the narrator while the other student
pantomimes the character.
3. A small group of students could pick one member to act as the character. They could interact with
other people in the neighborhood – who could also be ‘types’ that the main character might find in his
or her environment. Alternatively, there could be a chorus of voices that respond to and comment on
the character as he or she either stands off to the side or walks by – thus creating a scene.
The “real” bato vs. the “wannabe” bato
In the poem, Cardona draws a picture of two characters: a cool guy who looks like the painting, wearing
shades and hip clothes; and another person who dreams of being that cool guy, but is very different.
 Have students go back to their description and writing about the characters in the WRITING / Local
Character activity, and choose one of the characters.
 Have them work with a partner to now create two characters – one who comments on the other. They
should write down who the characters are, what they say about themselves and each other, and their
thoughts in the form of a story, a poem, or a dialogue.
 As one of the two partners reads the piece aloud, the other partner pantomimes the action or attitude
of each character.
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________________________________
(Title)
1. Too _________________________ for my _________________________’s blood,
(adjective)
(family member)
2. __________________________ was not a household word.
(slang word for a cool, admired character)
3. ______________________, but to be a ______________________ con/with _________________
(exclamation)
(same slang word for a cool, admired character)
(piece of clothing)
4. waiting to ____________________________________________________,
(one or more words to describe an action that would occur in your neighbourhood)
5. my ___________________
(adjective)
___________________ exuding _______________________,
(piece of clothing)
(a “quality” like courage, etc.)
6. looking ________________________ in a/an ___________________ _______________________,
(adjective)
(color)
(different piece of clothing)
7. ________________________ in my _____________________ ____________________________.
(adjective)
(adjective)
(different piece of clothing or an accessory)
8. _________________________! I’m the ___________________________________________;
(Exclamation of unhappiness)
(phrase communicating how others may see you)
9. _______________________ ______________________________________ I am not,
(Adjective)
(same slang word from line 2 for a cool, admired character)
10. but I could ________________________ ________________________.
(verb)
(noun)
11. Could I be the _________________________ ______________________________ ?
(adjective)
(same slang word for a cool, admired character)
12. ___________________________________________________________________
(Copy line 3 here)
13. deep in the ___________________________ of _______________________________,
(another word for “hub” or “center”)
(name or “nickname” of your neighborhood)
14. _________________________ among __________________________________________.
(verb ending in “ing”)
(admired people, plants, animals, or things in your neighborhood)
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Bato con Khakis, by César A. Martinez, 1982
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far-flung family #9 by Helen Phillips
Helen Phillips’ and yet they were happy is a book of very short stories, each only 350 words –
or two pages – long. The stories are grouped by theme: “the floods,” “the fights,” “the
failures,” “the far-flung families,” and many more. Each little story captures a feeling; it’s
like a snapshot in words. In “far-flung family #9,” (the last of the far-flung family stories,)
the author uses almost all the exact same words from paragraph one in paragraph two to
illustrate how ephemeral happiness is.
PRE-READING
Title Discussion
 Discuss what “far-flung” means. (1. Covering a very large area. 2. Located in a very distant place.)
 Brainstorm words and ideas that the phrase “far-flung family” might mean. (Explain that the story is
titled “far-flung family #9” because there are 8 other stories called “far-flung family” in this book.)
 Ask if anyone in the class has a far-flung family – in either sense of the word.
Comfort in the Morning
 Ask the class to name things that bring them comfort or comfort them. Encourage them to be
specific by relating their ideas to one or more of the five senses, and/or a time of day. Examples: The
smell of Mom baking bread, breathing the air after a snowstorm, feeling my wedding ring on my
finger, getting under the blankets after a long day, the sound of children laughing, etc. Make a list.
 Read the first line of the story, “Once, long ago, there were many things that brought comfort in the
morning:”
 Ask the class why they think the line starts with “Once, long ago. . .”
 Ask the class if any of the things that gave them comfort once, no longer do or, in fact, now make
them uneasy or unhappy. This may veer into the “too personal,” so you may want to frame the
discussion in more theoretical terms, like “ can you imagine something that brought someone comfort
once no longer bringing comfort – or even doing the opposite? Why might that happen? ” Discuss.
ABOUT THE STORY
Something Unusual
 Read the first two paragraphs of “far-flung family #9.” Students can read on their own, work in
groups, or you, the teacher, can read the paragraphs aloud.
 Ask:
o What stands out about these two paragraphs?
o What is the same? What is different?
o What do you think: is it believable that these very same things can bring comfort and bring
“uneasiness?”
 Brainstorm what might make this happen. Choose one of the things mentioned as bringing comfort.
 Ask:
o What might be the back story of this bed, for example, that made it go from comforting to creating
uneasiness?
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Who is speaking?
 Read the last two paragraphs. We read “I”, “us,” “his soul,” and “someone.”
 Whom do the students think these words refer to? Who is telling the story? Is the “someone” in the
last paragraph always the same person each time the word is used? Could it be two people? Many
people?
 What words are clues to who these people are?
 Dialogue
o Have students write out (or you can write it out on a big pad or the blackboard) the last paragraph
as a dialogue; each statement within a pair of quotation marks (there are nine,) should be written
on a new line. Leave out anything that is NOT within quotation marks. So the first few lines
should look like this:
‘You should not be so melancholy.’
‘It’s true. I should not be so melancholy.’
“You are not easy.’
Etc.
o Assign each line to a different student. Going in order, have the students read their line aloud.
o Now ask two volunteers read this as if it’s a conversation.
A. ‘You should not be so melancholy.’
B. ‘It’s true. I should not be so melancholy.’
A. ‘You are not easy.’
B. ‘It is frightening to be a wife.’
Etc.
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After listening to the two readings of the same lines, ask the class again who they think these people
are. If it’s two people, who are they? If each line is said by a different person, who are these people?
Where are they?
Discuss the effect of hearing the dialogue compared to reading it. Is it easier to figure out who the people
are and what is going on between them after hearing it aloud?
A snapshot in words
 Ask the class how this story makes them feel. What is the mood you are left with?
 What did the author do to make you feel this way?
Language
Vocabulary
You may want to review some of the less common words used in this story before reading it, such as:
clover
encrusted
lichen
ajar
whirring
broach
uneasiness
melancholy
Idioms
 Idioms are words or phrases that cannot be taken literally. In other words, when used in everyday
language, they have a meaning other than the basic one you would find in the dictionary. Some
examples are:
I have the blues.
It’s raining cats and dogs.
High as a kite.
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Every language has its own idioms. Ask the class to share other idioms they can think of.
The idiom “For crying out loud,” is used twice in the last paragraph. Say this phrase aloud with lots of
feeling and see if all students understand what it means. Can they think of some other phrases used in
a similar situation?
WRITING
Change
 The author lists 16 things in the first paragraph that “brought comfort in the morning.” The same 16
things now “bring uneasiness in the morning.” Some of the things mentioned are actual “things,” like
“a small wooden bed,” or “a strand of yellow beads,” while others have more to do with the senses or
the environment, like “a heavy rain falling,” or “the distant sound of a man’s voice . . .”
 Choose one of these things and write it at the top of the page.
 Then make up a back story (or poem) of how that thing, sound, smell, or situation went from bringing
comfort to bringing uneasiness. The story or poem can be related to the rest of “far-flung family #9”
and the people speaking in paragraph #4, OR it can be completely unrelated.
Mr. and Mrs. Someone
 Review the conversation in paragraph 4.
 Imagine that the people saying these things are a couple. How old are they? How long have they been
married? Do they have children? Where do they live? What do they do for a living or with their time?
How do they feel about each other? What does each of them want most?
 Something has happened that changed this relationship. You, the writer, are a “fly on the wall,” able
to observe everything that goes on with these people. In your imagination, what happened that
changed their relationship? How long ago did this happen?
 Now write a conversation between the two people after this change occurred. It can be right after, the
next morning, or ten years later. Set the mood by bringing in one or more of the five senses (sight,
sound, smell, taste, touch.) Include a particular time of day for this conversation.
Using a phrase in new story
Choose one of the quotes from paragraph 4. Make up a story in which someone says that line somewhere in
the story.
Using the postcards
 Included in the packet of postcards sent to you (or one of your colleagues) are images related to this
story: pictures of light in the woods, rain coming down, gravestones, a red jewelry box, people
cooking, etc. Give one image to each student or to a group, and ask them to write a story or poem
using one of these prompts:
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone or something
in the image.
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image from the point of view of someone or something
outside the frame of the image.
o Tell the story of what’s happening in this image as if it happened a long time ago and someone is
remembering it years later.
o What happened to this place, thing, and/or these people right before the moment captured by this
image?
o What’s going to happen next?
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DRAMA
Subtext
 Subtext literally means “under the text (or the words.)” In literature and drama it means “the
underlying personality of a dramatic character or the underlying intention of something said as implied
or indicated by a script or text and interpreted by an actor in performance. For example, “How nice to see
you!” she said while thinking “I’d rather see a rattlesnake!” Subtext can make reading a story or a play more
interesting and multidimensional when you imagine what’s going on in each character’s mind.
 Ask for volunteers (two for each reading) to read these lines with one of the subtexts that follow.
Note: the readers must read every word as written, regardless of the subtext.
Character A: Hi, how are you?
Character B: Fine thanks. How are you?
Subtext #1:
Subtext #2:
Subtext #3:
Subtext #4:



A and B are very happy to see each other.
A and B hate each other.
B is afraid of A.
A wants to be friends with B. B is not interested.
Feel free to make up additional subtexts.
You can also try this with lines from “far-flung family #9”.
Character A:
Character B:
I’d rather not go to bed sad, if you don’t mind.
I don’t mind.
Subtext #1:
Subtext #2:
A wants to break up with B, and B will do anything to stay together with A.
B wants to break up with A; and A wants to keep the relationship together.
Feel free to add more lines from the story and to make up additional subtexts.
From “page to stage”
 If any of the students have written dialogues as part of their pieces, the class can employ the same
activities described in the “Subtext” section.
 Have the author cast students as characters in their story. These students will read the lines of
dialogue (and nothing else,) as the character. The writer(s) can give the actors directions for how they
should move or sound, such as “stand with your backs to each other,” or “one person whispers, while
the other one yells.” They can also direct them in terms of subtext – how is each person feeling inside;
or what are they really thinking?
 Discuss the experience.
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“The Waitress” by Robert Coover
Robert Coover is an American author and professor emeritus in the Literary Arts program
at Brown University. Like “Cultural Relativity,” “The Waitress” is a modern day fairy tale
(with both humor and a feminist twist) in which a world-weary waitress suddenly realizes
that a bag lady has just granted a wish that the waitress has absentmindedly said out loud.
Based on the fairy tale, “The Three Wishes,” each granted wish in and of itself is a magical
occurrence yet the form the wishes take are very mundane and initially difficult to
recognize. Potentially, students can be encouraged to think of everyday events as takeoff
points for writing their own ‘magical’ stories, as well as considering the adage “Be careful
what you wish for!”
PRE-READING
Background
There are many versions of “The Three Wishes” fairy tale from many parts of the world. Students may
have ones from their own cultures to share. On the last page of this unit, you will find a very simplified
example of a common European version of this story, one that is referenced in “The Waitress.”
Reviewing this story first may help students understand and enjoy “The Waitress” more fully. It’s your
call!
Imagining the Whole from a Part
 Tell students they are going work on a story called “The Waitress.”
 Put students in four groups. Give each group one of the following sections from the story:
1. “‘If a goat wandered in, they’d ogle the goat and say the same stupid things,’ she complains to the
old bag lady near the cash register, to whom she has offered a free bowl of hot soup. ‘I’m sick of it.
I wish nobody could ever look at me.’ The bag lady turns out to be a fairy godmother in disguise,
and, in thanks for the soup, she raises her spoon like a wand and grants the waitress her wish, so
that when she tries to hand the taxi-driver his check, his head swivels sharply on his bovine neck.”
2.
“At the diner, her boss, head twisting away, hands her a few small bills and tells her she’s become
a literal pain in the neck, the customers are complaining, she’ll have to go – which brings to mind
all those cautionary admonitions about being careful what you wish for. So, jobless, she heads to a
bar to get as drunk as she can on her cheapskate boss’s payoff, wishing she could find someone to
tell her troubles to who wouldn’t turn away. Outside the bar, she comes upon a guy who does
keep looking at her, a beardy panhandler, slumped against the building clutching a brown paper
bag and a tin cup. Has the spell worn off?”
3. “She may have used up two wishes already and, if so, has essentially wasted them both, but, if the
legends are true, she still has a third. If she finds the bag lady, she’ll have to be careful, given the
old dear’s wicked sense of humor. Wishing to live forever, for example, might be a nightmarishly
bad choice. No need to wish for beauty if no one can see her, and perfect health’s no good if she’s
condemned to poverty. So she decides to wish for fabulous wealth, and to keep on repeating it, so
as not to blurt out something stupid and end up like that couple who wished their noses into
sausages.”
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4. “She checks the streets near the diner where she first saw her, wishing her money wish over and
over, but the bag lady is nowhere to be seen. Finally, she gives up and heads instead to a liquor
store to use up her last couple of bills in the best way possible, passing a bank where, by chance a
robbery is taking place. The heads of the thieves snap aside so violently when they rush out of the
door toward her that they stumble and drop what they’re carrying, spilling it out on the street.







After reading their section, the group should discuss it and talk about what they think the rest of the
story will be about.
They should choose one statement that they actually read in their section and write it down.
Then, they should make up three other statements that they could imagine reading in other parts of the
story.
Mix up the four statements (one real and three made up) and write them down on an index card.
When everyone is finished doing this, each group reads their four statements aloud to the rest of the
class.
The listeners vote for which statement they think really came from the story. Count the votes for each
statement and then reveal which statement is truly from the story.
Save the index cards for a later writing activity; retype the made-up lines and hand them randomly to
individuals or groups of students who will then be asked to build a story around that line.
ABOUT THE STORY
Have the students read the story to themselves, have selected students read sections aloud, or you, the
teacher, read the story aloud to the class.
 After reading each paragraph, ask “What do you think will happen next?” And/or “What do you think
the motive for X or Y is?”
 Once the story has been read through to the end, discuss the following questions:
o Who are the characters in the story?
o Where are they? What other places are scenes from the story besides the initial location?
o What time of year is it? How do you know?
o What does the waitress look like? And/or how old do you think she is? How do you know?
o How much time passes from the beginning of the story to the end? What are the clues?
o Why does everyone ‘turn away’ from her (the waitress)?
o Why doesn’t the panhandler look away?
o What was advantageous about everyone looking away from the waitress? (think of a few benefits
as per what happens in the story)
o What were some of the disadvantages of everyone looking away?
o What were the waitress’ three wishes?
o What reasoning did she use to come to each of these wishes?
o Does she see the bag lady every time she gets a wish?
o If the bag lady were to return and grant the waitress a new wish what do you think she would wish
for? Why?
o What if the taxi driver had spoken to the waitress differently from the beginning, would the story
be different? How?
o What if each of the characters were different in some way than they are in the story, how would
the outcome and the events change?
o Could you identify with the waitress? How?
o Could you identify with any of the other characters? Which ones? Why?
o If the waitress could live “happily ever after” what would her life be like?
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Truth in Fairy Tales
 After all students have read or heard the story, hand out copies and have every person copy down a
line or two from the story that particularly ‘grabbed’ them because it either evoked a strong feeling of
understanding or empathy or because it directly relates to something they have experienced.
 Create a chart with a spot for each of the eight paragraphs in the story and ask students to identify
which of the paragraphs the lines they copied down are from.
 Then, group students by similar part of the story and ask them to share with each other the lines they
picked and to explain why.
 Either during or after the small group discussion ask each group to write down a summary or a list of
what they felt the chosen lines in their group had in common. Ask one person from each group to
explain or present the most important part of what their group talked about.
LANGUAGE
Vocabulary
There is a lot of colorful and colloquial vocabulary in this story. Here are some of the more challenging
(and funny!) words and phrases you might want to discuss:
patoot
wallowing
jowls
ogled
fairy godmother
wand
swivels
bovine
whisk
yipping
stroll
choral waves
thrill
mannequins
icily
literal
cautionary admonitions
cheapskate
payoff
beardy
panhandler
backside
toddling
beggar
raffle
ample
braille
going nowhere
essentially
legends
nightmarishly
condemned
fabulous
blurt out
sausages
snap aside
stumble
sirens
old bird
loot
recklessly
pinched
grimy
floating
wailing
underclothes
knots
snoozing
grunts
raw cash
appreciative
ducking
dodging
squatting
laughs sourly
wrestle
‘happily ever after’
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


Give students the above list of vocabulary from the story and ask them to sort the words by part of
speech (i.e. adjective noun verb adverb). The students can work together in small groups as the
teacher circulates – letting them know what to reconsider.
After a few minutes the teacher can conduct a whole-class creation of the final list and talk about how
the students knew the difference between parts of speech. This discussion can include a reminder of
what each part of speech does as well as creating examples of how a particular word or words can be
used as different parts of speech depending on the context or depending on the form of the word.
Once students are clear about the meaning of the words they can be asked to come up with as many
synonyms (or antonyms) as they can think of.
Similes and Metaphors
 The teacher can conduct a discussion of what similes and metaphors are, and what the difference is
between them. (There is a section on this in the “About Poetry” section of the Introduction to the
Guide.)
 Talk about why a writer would choose to use them, as well as what similes and metaphors used in
“The Waitress” do for the story.
o Examples of similes:
 “like a wand”;
 “as if he were something she’d won in a lotto”
o Examples of metaphors:
 “old bird”
 “bovine neck”
 “the Braile thing”
Other Figurative/Descriptive Language
 Pick particularly descriptive lines or passages such as: “wishes” “goat” “bag lady – fairy godmother”
“robbery” “shopping bags dancing” “literal pain in the neck” “blind” “panhandler” “the drivers can’t
see her” and “choral waves,” and any others you choose.
 In the context of the story, ask students to replace the descriptive words or phrases with other
descriptive words or phrases. This can be done as a group or by giving the same or different
descriptive lines to small groups of students to work on and report out at the end.
WRITING
Early Guesses Can Become Stories
The made-up lines that the students wrote on index cards (in PRE-READING/ Imagining the Whole
from a Part) can be re-typed and the single lines can be passed out randomly for either individual students
or pairs of students to build their own ‘magical story’ around.
Add Magic to Your Life!
 Students can re-visit what they most responded to or identified with in the ABOUT THE STORY/Truth
in Fairy Tales activity and write a description of what they were thinking about in their own
experience.
 These descriptions can be shared with a small group of students to expand upon adding written
elements of fantasy and symbolic details in the margins or between the lines.
 When the small group has exhausted their imaginations, the story can be returned to the original writer
to re-write and further expand upon, smooth out, or make their own selection of what will be included
in their final story.

Selected final stories can be read aloud to the whole class. Feedback can be in the form of writing. As
their classmates listen or after the reading is finished listening students can be asked to write questions
or suggestions. The teacher can collect these and decide which ones might be helpful to the writer and
pass them on to him or her.
Words can be Jumping-off Points
Have each student pick one of the words or expressions presented in ABOUT THE STORY/Similes and
Metaphors and write a new story, one that starts or ends differently than the original story, or is different
in some other way. Their chosen word or expression must be in the story somewhere.
What if?
Students can write “what if” versions of the story such as:
 What if the bag lady came back and granted a fourth wish?
 What if the taxi driver had said something very different to the waitress at the beginning?
 What if each of the characters were different in some way than they had been in the original story?
 What if the story were written from the point of view of one of the other characters instead of the
waitress?
Be careful what you wish for . . . lest it come true
This often-quoted phrase is used in “The Waitress,” after her boss fires her. Discuss the meaning with the
class. Then ask them to imagine someone wishing for something, getting it, and then discovering
unforeseen and unpleasant consequences to that wish being fulfilled.
Using the postcards
 In the packet of postcards that were sent to you or one of your colleagues, there are a number of
images that seem to be from fairy tales. Using these, or any of the others, ask the students to imagine
one of the following
1. The scene depicted in the postcard is the result of a wish come true. What was the wish? Who
wished it? How did it happen?
2. Someone or something in the image (or outside the frame of the image) wants something and
hopes that someone or something else can make their wish come true.
3. Magic causes a change for someone or something in the image. Describe what happens.
 There are also pictures of waitresses. Students might like to write the (wacky?) back story of one of
them!
DRAMA
Three Wishes
 Ask each student to write three wishes down on an index card (without adding their name).
 Collect and shuffle all the cards.
 Divide the class into groups of four and give each group four cards.
 The group of four can then mix and match – after reading all of the cards – and pick their favorite
three wishes to be made into a scene.
 Here’s the challenge: they need to imagine the unusual form each wish would take and/or the unusual
way each wish was granted, as in “The Waitress.” (Example: she wishes for fabulous wealth, but does
she just get a bag of money? No, she stumbles into a bank robbery where the robbers drop the money
because of the “can’t look at her” spell.)
 They should then build a scene around their choices which can include dialogue, be entirely in
pantomime, or a combination of both.
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

Then they should practice and be prepared to present to the class.
As an extra challenge the teacher can suggest that the audience will be trying to guess what the three
wishes are and the actors/writers should think of how to present the wishes in a less obvious way to
make the guessing more interesting.
The Three Wishes
A woodcutter went to the forest to cut some wood. Just as he was about to cut a huge old oak tree down
with his axe, out jumped a fairy who begged him to spare the tree. Amazed, the man agreed. As a reward,
the fairy promised to grant him three wishes.
For some reason – forgetfulness or magic – the man forgot all about this incident. When he got home, he
was very hungry. But his wife had not yet started supper. Out loud, he said “I wish I had a big sausage!”
Immediately, a big plate of sausages appeared at his feet, which, of course, reminded him of his
conversation with the fairy. He told his wife the story. Furious at him, because he had wasted a wish on
something so stupid as a sausage, she said, “You fool! I wish those sausages were attached to your nose.”
That’s right – instantly, the sausages were stuck tight to his nose and no amount of force could remove
them.
So, reluctantly, the woodcutter had to use his last wish to get the sausages off his nose, ending up with
only a few sausages, and nothing else
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APPENDIX
In this appendix, you will find directions for creating several kinds of poetry, as well as how to create your
own postcards.
Poetry
You may find poetry a rich area of inspiration for your students. Creating one poem with the whole class
as a preparatory activity or as a final project may be a good way to get students comfortable with exploring
the form. As with everything in this resource guide, you are free to add, subtract, adapt, and change any
idea in any way that you think will be effective in your class or with your students. Have fun!
Haiku
Here are some guidelines for writing haiku:

Haiku are short, imagistic poems about the things that make one feel connected to nature. In
Japanese, haiku traditionally have seventeen short syllables divided into three lines of five, seven,
and five syllables. Evidently, this is very easy to do in the Japanese language. It’s harder in
English. Therefore, we recommend flexibility regarding the traditional structure. Aim, instead, for
three fairly short lines with the middle line longer than the first and third lines (short – long –
short).

A haiku should share a moment of awareness with the reader. The emphasis is on creating an
image, not describing how you, the writer, feel about it.

Haiku are written in the present tense, as if they are happening right now. They should not cover a
lengthy time span. A haiku freezes one moment in time the way a snapshot does.

Most, though not all, haiku reflect nature or one of the four seasons.

Here are a few haiku. Have a student read each one aloud and discuss it in terms of the guidelines
listed above.
No sky
no earth - but still
snowflakes fall
First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father's face.
A giant firefly:
that way, this way, that way, this and it passes by.
The crow has flown away:
swaying in the evening sun,
a leafless tree.
I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.
He's on the porch,
to escape the wife and kids-how hot it is!
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Suggested Activity
The Seasons
 Write the name of the four seasons at the top of the board.
 Brainstorm a list of words under each that the class associates with that season.
 Tell each student to choose a word from any of the lists. This will be their kigo (a kigo is a
word that anchors the haiku in a particular season.)
 Ask them to imagine a picture in their mind that includes the word they’ve chosen.
 Tell them to write a haiku
o in three lines, with the middle line longer
o in the present tense
o with their chosen word in the poem somewhere
o that communicates the picture in their mind.
(For new learners, have them say their poem as you write it down.)
 Share the haiku. See if the listeners can guess which season the poet was focusing on.
Cinquaines
A “Cinquaine” (“sink-wain”) is a five-line poem created as follows:
1) the first line is a noun, the subject of your poem
2) the second line is 2 present participles (“ing” verbs) related to your noun
3) the third line is 3 adjectives related to your noun
4) the fourth line is a 4-word phrase describing your feelings about the noun
5) the fifth line is a noun that is a synonym of or related to the first noun
Example:
Weekend
Relaxing, playing
Free, open, fun
No work to do
Party!
On the next page is a form for writing a cinquaine that may make it easier for your students.
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______________________
NOUN
______________________
_____________________
“ING” VERB
“ING” VERB
______________________
_____________________
ADJECTIVE
ADJECTIVE
__________________
ADJECTIVE
_________________________________________________________________
4-WORD PHRASE
______________________
NOUN #2
5W Poems
The five Ws are: Who, What, Where, When, Why. When you write down a phrase for each
“W,”you can have a nice poem or very short story. Example:
Sarah
Walked the dogs,
Across the softball field,
After lunch,
Because all their legs wanted to move.
On the next page is a form the students can use to write a 5W poem.
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______________________________________________________________________________
(Who)
______________________________________________________________________________
(What)
______________________________________________________________________________
(Where)
______________________________________________________________________________
(When)
______________________________________________________________________________
(Why)
There are many other kinds of poetry, and plenty of poetry doesn’t follow a “form.” But we hope
that these three examples provide a good jumping-off point.
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HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN POSTCARDS FOR USE AS WRITING
PROMPTS
As we have discovered over the years, interesting images have proved to be great writing prompts
from anyone, but certainly for the All Write! students. Each year, Symphony Space provides a pack
of images to participating classes. Sometimes the images are directly related to one or more of the
pieces being read at the first All Write! performance. Other times they are related in a less specific,
more thematic way. And sometimes they’re totally unrelated, but simply great evocative pictures.
Furthermore, we have found that postcards are very user-friendly. Everyone can have one of their
own, or small groups can share one in interesting ways. You can decorate your room with them, etc.
If you have found postcards to be a good resource in your class, you might want to create your own
for other projects you may be doing.
Here are some guidelines for making them on the computer. Note the following:
 These directions are for a PC. I don’t know if they would be the same for a Mac.
 If you don’t have a color printer, don’t worry. Black and white images are just as powerful.
 Card stock is sturdier than paper. But if you don’t have card stock, use plain paper.
 Warning: I will try to make this as simple as possible. But you may find that some of these
directions just don’t seem to work. In that case, ask for help, preferably from a very young
person.

Finding images
o Come up with the idea(s) of what you want the images to be of, e.g. family, transportation,
love, crowded streets, deserted roads, etc. You can also have a specific artist or
photographer, whose work you think would be appropriate, in mind. Google your theme or
your artist’s name.
o Generally, on the page that comes up, there will be an entry that says “Images for deserted
roads” (or whatever you have googled.) Click on this. In addition, there is a black tool bar
near the top of the screen that has the words “you,” “search,” “images,” among others. Click
on “images” for pages of examples.
o Before you go any further, open two blank Word documents, one for horizontal pictures
and the other for vertical pictures. Keep them separate.
o Browse through the images. If you like one, left click on it. That will enlarge it in another
screen.
o With your cursor on the image, right click. A drop-down menu will appear.
o Click on “copy.”
o Go to your Word document. Put your cursor on the page. Right click and click on “paste.”
The picture will appear on the page.
o Continue doing this until you have as many images as you want/need.

Formatting the page
o Vertical pictures (also known as “portrait orientation.”)
 Left click on “edit” near the top left of the screen.
 On the drop-down menu, left click on “select all.”
 Left click on “file” near the top left of the screen.
44
 On the drop-down menu, left click on “page set-up.” A page set-up box will appear.
 Set the top, bottom, left and right margins at .5”
 Click “OK” at the bottom of the page set-up box.
o For the horizontal (or landscape orientation,) pictures, the process is the same, except that
after you click on “page set-up,” click on the box with an “A” in it that says “Landscape.”

Formatting the pictures
o Now you need to make your images postcard-sized.
 With your cursor on the first image, left click on it. You will see that it is now outlined
in black, with tiny squares in the corners and in the middle of each side..
 Put your cursor on one of the corners. You will see a double-ended arrow pointing
diagonally.
 Hold down the left button of your mouse as you slowly move the mouse toward the
middle of the image. Stop when the image appears to be a bit smaller than ¼ the size of
the page. You will be aiming to fit four images on each page with white space on all four
sides of each image.
 Reduce all the images to approximately the size of the first one. You can always adjust
them. (If, when you’re doing any of this, an image disappears, click on “edit,” and then
on “undo. . .” The picture should reappear.)
 When you have reduced them, go back to your first image. Left click outside the picture
and press your space bar a couple of times.
 Put your cursor on the next picture, hold down the left button and drag the picture to
the right of the first one. This sometimes takes a couple of tries.
 Once you have your top two pictures on the page, left click to the right of the second
picture. If it looks like there’s still some space to the right of the second picture, put
your cursor between the two pictures and press the space bar until the second picture is
at the right-hand margin. If the picture goes off the page, press the backspace button
once or twice and it will come back up.
 Now, put your cursor to the right of the second picture and press “enter” on the
keyboard 2-3 times.
 Press “delete” until the next picture appears under the first one. If it never does, it may
be that all the pictures are a bit too big and you have to decrease their size. (If this
process sounds tedious . . . .it is.)
 When the third picture is positioned under the first picture, repeat the process to get
picture #4 under picture #2. At this point, you will be using a combination of space bar,
delete, and adjusting the size of the pictures.
o Finally, using a paper cutter or a scissors, cut out your postcards. A white margin, even if it’s
not the same on all four sides, is fine.
I hope this works for you. It may be frustrating at first. But I bet you will get the hang of it after a
while.
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