trabajo de titulación 2012 eduardo soto.pdf

8/9/2019 Trabajo de Titulacin 2012 Eduardo Soto.pdf

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Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje

Facultad de Filosofa y Educacin

Sivilizationand society: an elective workshop for junior high

school students based on Mark TwainsAdventures of

Huckleberry Finn

TRABAJO DE TITULACIN

PARA OPTAR AL TTULO DE PROFESOR DE INGLS

Y AL GRADO DE LICENCIADO EN EDUCACIN

Estudiante: Eduardo Enrique Soto Gonzlez

Profesor gua: Sr. Pablo A. Villa Moreno

Segundo semestre 2012


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Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje

Facultad de Filosofa y Educacin

Sivilizationand society: an elective workshop for junior high

school students based on Mark TwainsAdventures of

Huckleberry Finn

TRABAJO DE TITULACIN

PARA OPTAR AL TTULO DE PROFESOR DE INGLS

Y AL GRADO DE LICENCIADO EN EDUCACIN

Estudiante: Eduardo Enrique Soto GonzlezProfesor gua: Sr. Pablo A. Villa Moreno

Segundo semestre 2012


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3.2 Course syllabus 31

3.3 Daily lesson plans 34

4. Works cited 84


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Introduction

More times than not, I have heard Chilean students state that they do not see the

point of learning English because they will never go abroad anyway. Although it might

be true that the student will never have the chance of leaving the country (but still, you

never know), it is not at all unlikely that the student may meet, during the course of his or

her life, a tourist that happens to be a native speaker of English or, on the contrary, a

foreign visitor whose mother tongue is neither Spanish nor English but at least masters the

latter. Very much like Muhammads old saying, if the student does not come to English,

the language will have to go to the student, in this case in the form of an ordinary, social

interaction that inevitably will call for the use of English as a means of communication.Nevertheless, students reluctant attitude towards learning the language is only one among

the various factors that should be considered when talking about English teaching in

Chilean classroom settings. Another relevant factor, the significant number of Chilean

students who do not understand what they read in Spanish, let alone in English is

evidenced in their poor results in reading comprehension tests. Also, literature in Chilean

schools has been traditionally presented to students mainly as an imposition in the form of a

list of books that must be read during the semester, thus giving little space to the choice of

books according to the students interests or needs. As a consequence, students motivation

decreases as they are forced to read something they do not have a like for and/or they are

not interested in.

In general, there appears to be too much focus on literature as being nothing but the

goal. I, rather, propose that literature should be looked at, rather than as the objective that is

only attained after a list of books are read at school, as the means by which students will

not only learn English, but also discover new realities and gain new perspectives on life. In

other words, literature should be viewed as a voyage in which the literary work is the

vehicle by which the student will be transported from her or his own reality to another one;

a voyage that does not actually end when the reader has finished reading the work.


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founded a tradition of American original works of literature characterized by questioning

and rebellion, and whose protagonists are loners and anti-heroes amidst a symbolic quest

such as Herman Melvilles Moby Dick, Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass, Edgar Allan

Poes stories, Emily Dickinsons poems, Henry David Thoreaus Waldenand Ralph Waldo

Emersons essays. In fact, Ernest Hemingway in his 1935 Green Hills of Africa regards

Twains novel as the book from which [a]ll modern American literature comes ()and

(...) the best () we've had [and from which a]ll American writing comes ()There was

nothing before. There has been nothing as good since. (23)

Great turns of phrase stick in our minds, Lindstromberg asserts, and research

into memory suggests that rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, allegory and certain other expressive

devices may never have a firmer grip on us than when we are young (Ibid). Literature, in

other words, may be better grasped and better understood during the adolescence and

particularly foreign literature may swell learners ability to express themselves with clarity

and effect (Ibid).


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Theoretical framework

First and foremost, it seems pertinent to provide explanations of key concepts,

definitions and ideas such as literature, and the importance of teaching it during

adolescence, and Young Adult Literature as a subcategory of literature to be used in

classroom settings, which altogether will enhance the understanding of the theoretical

framework of this pedagogical proposal whose aim is to provide ideas that can be applied

when teaching the English language through Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn, but also through any other literary work that may share similarities to the story and its

characters.

Because it redefined the concept, it seems appropriate to define literature

from early conceptions. Then, the discussion will focus on literature for young adults, a

subcategory for which Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a seminal work, without which

J. D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye to name only one example would not have

existed.

When it first appeared, the novel represented a transgression of what was

being done in literature and none of its critics would have imagined, not even in their

wildest dreams, that the novel would not only continue to be read in the XXI century but

also would be used to teach English in non-English speaking countries as well as to develop

critical thinking in non-native speakers of the language from the most remote countries.


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What is literature?

According to the definition provided by Ruth Robbins, Julian Wolfreys, and

Kenneth Womack in their book Key Concepts in Literary Theory, literature, at its most

neutral, and broadest, signifies textual manifestations of writing and refers to the

production of literary works and to specific bodies of poetry or prose. However, such

definition does not actually constitute a useful instrument to the goals of the project. In fact,

it will concentrate, rather, on the nature of literary language. According to these authors,

literature language distances itself from the quotidian kind of language as () certain

aspects of it [literary language] and the way in which it functions () draws attention to its

departures from everyday utterances. The term literature has been also used with a

larger sense, according to M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, to designate any

other writings (including philosophy, history, and even scientific works addressed to a

general audience) that are especially distinguished in form, expression, and emotional

power, that being the reason for calling literary the philosophical writings of Plato and

William James, the historical writings of Edward Gibbon, and the psychoanalytic lectures

of Sigmund Freud, among others (178). Also, in a sense closer to the Latin original,

literature is applied to all written works, regardless of their type or quality, an all-inclusive use that is particularly recurrent when referring to the sum of works that deal with

a specific subject matter. Abrams and Harpham cites, as example of this larger sense of the

term, a letter that the Chairman of the Division of Literature at a major American university

that includes a College of Agriculture received, which reads: Dear Sir, Kindly send me all

your literature concerning the use of cow manure as a fertilizer.

The difficulty to determine what it is literature and what it is not has been a highly

debated issue that actually dates from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a

time when, Terry Eagleton argues in the introduction to his work Literary Theory: An

introduction, no clear distinction was made between the factual and the non-factual. Indeed,

the term novel was indistinctively employed to refer to both true and fictional events;

novels and news reports were not classified as either clearly factual or clearly fictional


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because, back in the 1500s and 1600s, such categorizations taken for granted in our days

did not even exist. (1-2)

Russian critic Roman Jakobson defies, according to Eagleton, our conception of

literature by referring to it as a kind of writing which represents an organized violence

committed on ordinary speech. Emphasizing the transforming and intensifying power

literature has on ordinary language, Eagleton poses the example of someone murmuring to

him the phrase Thou still unravished bride of quietness, the first verse of John Keatss

Ode on a Grecian Urn, as he waits at a bus stop to illustrate the point that you can tell

literary language from non-literary language because of the texture, rhythm and resonance

of your words [which] are in excess of their abstract able meaning or, as the linguists

might more technically put it, there is a disproportion between the signifiers and the

signifieds. (2).

According to Eagleton, the idea advanced by Jakobson that literary language

represents a kind of linguistic violence onto ordinary speech and that the former thus differs

from the latter because it is characterized by a set of departures from a norm, carries an

implication: one must be able to identify the rule from which deviation diverges to

distinguish literature from what it is not.

To illustrate his point, he poses as example the divergence between what ordinary

speech is for Oxford philosophers and what it is for dockers from Glasgow as the language

employed by the two social groups differs from each other when it comes to writing a love

letter or when it comes to talking to the local vicar. As a consequence, he disregards the

belief that there exists a common currency shared uniformly by all members of a society

and concludes that a single normal language is nothing but an illusion, advancing the idea

of the density of the constitution of speeches. Any actual language, he sustains, is a highly

complex range of discourses, differentiated according to class, region, gender, status and so

on, which can by no means be neatly unified into a single, homogeneous linguistic

community. (4).


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Literature may well be defined in terms of a multiplicity of connections between

signifiers and signifieds. Michael P. Spikes commentary on the work by Paul de Man

gives ideas of what he conceives of irony. For him, it always implies the existence of

conflicting layers of meaning, which are interconnected and mutually undo each other. He

also emphasizes the simultaneity by which an ironic utterance double-talks (21). In plain

words, every utterance has the potentiality of duplicity, in terms of its meaning. All

language is potentially ironic, de Man concludes, highlighting the loss of control of ones

intention whenever delivering a message.

Ways of speech, however, may vary according to several different factors, ranging

from geographical location to social categories. Adventures of Huckleberry Finnserves as a

fine example since the language employed by the characters, full of grammatical errors and

misspellings, is intended by the author to reflect the actual way of speaking of people of the

timein this case, American people during slavery timesand not, as critics have argued,

to offend in any way black people with its language, especially with the use of the n-

word.


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What is YAL?

YAL, an acronym for Young Adult Literature, is a kind of literature whose aim is,

ideally, to be used in classroom context. In her essay, "Developing a love of reading: why

young adult literature is important?" Mary Owen states that YAL offers teenagers

something that adult literature does not and gives some distinguishing features of YAL. For

example, she asserts that it is created especially for young adults, hoping to give them a

more mature understanding of self and the world. (11)

The stories pertaining to YAL category tend to focus on the experiences of an

teenager protagonist, of some age from twelve to eighteen, whose views are reflected andinterpreted in a story that is written through his/her own eyes. Owen adds that YAL does

not always provide the answers, but rather portrays a young person in search of them

(Ibid). The importance of YAL lies in its help to young readers in their process of coming

of agea transitional phase from carefree childhood to responsible adulthoodto achieve

psychological growth or maturity by means of exploration and exploitation of themes such

as the search for identity as young adults quest may lead to feelings such as isolation,

confusion and rebellion.

Interestingly, another feature of adolescence is the co-existence of two opposing or

conflicting phenomena: an adolescent who seeks independence and freedom in the process

of exploration of the unknown world around him/her, at the same time, depends on and

turns to adults for security, economic and emotional support. In the meantime, they look for

peer support in her/his process of struggling for autonomy, which will lead her/him into

discovering their abilities and, eventually and ideally, themselves.

Thus, the idea of having central characters of ages similar to those of readers is for

them to develop an awareness of how other teenagers learn to move on from painful and

threatening situations (Owen, 12). In plain words, Young Adult Literature aims at being

relevant to adolescents by serving as a reflection of their own concerns, issues and attitudes.


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The state of the American novel before Samuel L. Clemens

Before the nineteenth century, specifically in 1783, when the establishment of the

United States as a country was something recent, prose literature that which, unlike

poetry, lacks rhythmic structure but favors a natural flow of the speech emerged in the

form of published sermons, controversial and didactic essays, travelers experiences, and

newspaper stories; there was no such a thing as a novel writer, let alone a native school of

novel writers. From 1800 onwards, living standards began to improve, especially in the

New England states of north-east, and what first was a tendency ended up becoming a

habit: giving books as presents. This, in turn, contributed to the encouragement of writing

fiction, even though at the beginning mostly in the form of sketches and short stories

(Washington Irvings work being the most prominent in this respect).

The first to become a major novelist in American literature was James Fenimore

Cooper (1789-1851). After The Spy (1821), his first novel, which was a story set in

American War of Independence, the Leatherstocking series, which deal with life in the

backwoods and around the Red Indian frontiers, was published (The Pioners [1823], The

Last of the Mohicans [1826], The Prairie[1827] and The Deerslayer[1841]) Belonging to

an earlier generation of writers, Cooper is often remembered as writer of numerous sea-

stories and historical novels in a rather Romantic tone.

Differing a lot in style and themes, the work by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) is

characterized by romanticism and allegories and by its setting mainly in the New England

territory. Among his novels, the most important is perhaps The Scarlet Letter (1850),

whose story is set in the Massachusetts of the 17th

century and focuses on the hardships of

Hester Prynne, a woman who gives birth to a daughter after having committed adultery in a

Puritan taboo-laden society. Strongly influenced by Hawthorne was Herman Melville

(1819-1891), a neighbor of his for a long time. The popularity of M elvilles tales of the sea

many being autobiographical was actually high among American readers; Moby Dick

(1851), regarded as one of the greatest works in the history of American literature, is said to


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be a landmark of American literature as it blended various literary styles including a

fictional adventure story, historical aspects and even scientific issues.

Before the emergence of Mark Twain, American writers had made their mark

(paradoxically) more as poets (namely, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

Walt Whitman) and as philosopher essayists (Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo

Emerson) than as storytellers or novelists. The greatness ofAdventures of Huckleberry Finn

lies in its authors capacity to create an appropriate symbol for the nation that was

flourishing, by permitting a teenager to tell a story in his own simple, direct and fluent

language in a way no other author had done it before: Twain disregarded British English as

the only suitable idiom to be employed in serious literature.


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His life and writings

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri on

November 30th

, 1835. Infused with the frontier spirit and dreams of easy wealth, his father,

a Virginian, spent most of his time searching restlessly for quick profits from land

speculation. Following his father death (1847), Clemens became first a journeyman printer

in the Middle West and then a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. A strong influence, life

on the river provided him with the pseudonym Mark Twain, which stems from the

leadsmens signal By the mark, twain meaning that the water was two fathoms deep,

that is to say, deep enough for safe passage; it also gave him material for several of his

books, including the raft scenes ofAdventures of Huckleberry Finnand the material for his

autobiographicalLife on the Mississippi (1883).

When in San Francisco, Clemens met other writers, notably Artemus Ward and Bret

Harte, who both encouraged his literary efforts, and received recognition for his series of

humorous sketches, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1867). Soon after,

a tour of the Mediterranean and Near East, depicted in Innocents Abroad(1869), revealed a

remarkable American irreverence for the classic and the antique.

1870 saw Clemens marriage to Olivia Langdon and his their subsequent

settlement in Hartford, Connecticut. In the ensuing years, he published travel narratives

such as Roughing It (1872) and A Tramp Abroad (1880) along with historical narratives

whose setting is England during the reign of Edward VI, (The Prince and the Pauper,

1882) and the days of the legendary King Arthur (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs

Court, 1889). It was precisely during these days, when Clemens began attending to the

background of his early life, that he produced the most notable of his works: The

Adventures of Tom Sawyerin 1876 andAdventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.

His flow of creativity was, nevertheless, hindered by external events: his speculation

in a publishing venture and his unsuccessful investment in a typesetting machine resulted in

his bankruptcy in 1894. Forced to undertake extensive lecture tours to pay off his debts, he


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takes on a pessimistic attitude, which is reflected on his successive works, while Tom

Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) did not enjoy the success his

previous works had.

Towards the end of his life, Twain received degrees from both Oxford and Yale

universities in recognition of his work as a writer whose personality was unique among the

American letters, but at the same time, who was a typical reflection of his country and age.

He dies in 1910 at the age of 74.


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The adventures that were had before Hucks

SinceAdventures of Huckleberry Finnstarts off where its predecessor Tom Sawyer

ends, and despite what Huck himself says at the beginning (You dont know about me,

without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), it seems

nonetheless pertinent to briefly delineate the course of the latter work before discussing

Huck Finn.

Troublesome and highly imaginative, Tom Sawyer and his self-righteous brother

Sid live together with their soft-hearted Aunt Polly in the little town of St. Petersburg,

Missouri, on the margins of the Mississippi. After Sid tells on Tom for having playedtruant, the latter is being made to whitewash the garden fence as punishment; cleverly, he

manages to make his friends believe the job is such a privilege and ends up inducing them

to do it.

After quarreling with his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, Tom decides to become a

pirate or a Robin Hood. With Huck Finn, a good-hearted but irresponsible young vagabond,

Tom visits a graveyard at midnight to swing a dead cat (on the advice of his friend, as a

cure for warts). When in there, they witness the murder of the town doctor who is stabbed

by Injun Joe, who, in turn, places the knife in the hands of drunken Muff Potter.

Rejected by Becky and scolded by Aunt Polly, Tom together with Huck and Joe

Harper look for shelter on nearby Jacksons Island. The townsmen, in the belief the three

boys have died in the river, arrange a funeral service, in the middle of which the corpses

are discovered to be listening from the church gallery.

Following his return to school, Tom comes to terms with his aunt Polly as well aswith Becky and ends up being a sort of hero during the trial Muff Potter because of his

revelation of Injun Joes guilt. After attending a school picnic, Tom and Becky get lost for a

couple of days in a cave and run into the runaway murderer. As a consequence of the half-

breed being found dead, his treasure is distributed between Tom and Huck.


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Having just won such wealth, Huck gives up his life as a happy roamer and is

adopted by Widow Douglas.


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Context of the novels composition and publication

After finishing Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain regretted not having written it as a first

person narrative, something he confessed in a letter to his friend Howells: By & by I shall

take a boy of twelve & run him on through life (in the first person) but not Tom Sawyerhe

would not be a good character for it.

In the summer of 1876, Twain began working on his upcoming work, Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn. In a matter of months, he had around four hundred pages and Huck Finn,

the village outcast and Toms vagabond companion, as the main character and first person

narrator. As a result of his lack of enthusiasm, Twain ignored the manuscript for some timeonly to resume it in 1880. Three years later, he completed the work which was eventually

published in England in December 1884.

Adventures of Huck Finnproved a hit and during the Twains lifetime it was the

most lucrative of all his books. Before publication, forty thousand copies were subscribed

and a number of editions were published not only in the United States but also abroad. One

century after its first appearance, in the early 1960s, the book was selling more quickly in

both de luxe and inexpensive paperback editions than it had in its initial ones. As a way of

capitalizing on the novels success, television producers and two motion picture companies

competed for the filming of new versions.

Even though scholars and literary critics took several decades to recognize the value

of Huckleberry Finn, there are more critics praising it than discrediting it in recent years.

Nobel Prize winner, poet and critic, T. S. Eliot, deemed the book a major classic: Twain at

least inHuckleberry Finnreveals himself to be one of those writers of whom there are not a

great many in any literature, who have discovered a new way of writing, valid not only for

themselves, but for others. (Notes on Mark Twain's The adventures of Huckleberry

Finn, 4)


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Setting

Huckleberry Finn serves as a recreation of scenes, characters and events from the

authors own boyhood and youth. He once wrote: I confine myself to life with which I

am familiar when pretending to portray life. But I confined myself to the boy-life out on the

Mississippi because that had a peculiar charm for me, and not because I was not familiar

with other phases of life.

The riverside town, Twains boyhood home; the farms, the place he visited during

holidays; and the Mississippi River, another atmosphere that attracted him a great deal,

upon which he flew when he was a steamboat pilot when young serve as settings not onlyfor the novel but also for other works such as Life on the Mississippi. A recurrent topic in

Twain, the rivers meanings are, according to Andrew Dix in Twain and the Mississippi,

evocative of not only his own psychobiography but, most importantly, of larger American

contradictions, desires, even traumas in the closing decades of the nineteenth century

(295)

Far from merely recording scenes, personalities and events in the Missouri Middle

West, Mark Twain turned reality into fiction, manipulating the facts for the sake of art or,

in other words, for artistic purposes. Such modifications, however, occurred in some other

fashions as well: after he had left Missouri and the river, Twain travelled widely, read

books and acquired new attitudes and ideas which were destined to influence his writing,

serving as inspiration for Roughing Itand for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras

County".


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Irony as lens to see the world

The ironic language which is nothing but the reflection of his ironic perspective

towards the worldis what, among other elements, have made Mark Twain be recognized

(certainly not at the beginning) as the prominent figure he is, not only of his own country

but of world literature. From the very beginning of the novel, irony can be perceived. In the

introductory note to the novel, without going any further, the following notice reads:

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons

attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will

be shot." Open to interpretation as it may be, the warning certainly exhibits irony in that it

presents a disproportion between actions and their consequences. Finding a motive in a

narrative is so innocuous an action that it is hard to think of being prosecuted for its

performance (or, to be accurate, its attempt to perform it). Likewise, finding a moral and a

plot does not certainly deserve being forced to live ones country, let alone being shot. But

that is all what irony is about: disproportion, incongruities, or discrepancies between two

elements. Paraphrasing Twains introductory note to the novel, persons having a darker

skin color will not only be prosecuted and made slaves but they will not even be considered

human beings.

As a concept, irony is defined by Ruth Robbins, Julian Wolfreys, and Kenneth

Womack in their book Key Concepts in Literary Theory asbeing [t]he contradiction,

incongruity or discrepancy between appearance or expectation and reality that can be

understood in terms of events, situations, and the structural components of literature. (58)

One among the different categories is dramatic irony. The American Heritage

Dictionary of the English Language emphasizes its having an impact on the spectator or the

reader but not on characters: The effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an

incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the

play remain unaware of incongruity. In other words, the implications of, or the meaning

of, a given situation or speech are understood by the audience or the readership but not by

the characters in the play or in the novel. In scenes involving a dramatic irony, a character


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speaks or acts mistakenly. Such erratic speech or behavior stems from the characters

unawareness of some parts of the truth of which the spectator or the reader is in fact aware.

Dramatic irony is a technique employed to emphasize the significance of a particular truth

by means of the portrayal of a person who is stunningly ignorant about it.

An illustrative scene of such type of irony in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is

noticeable in Chapter 9:

"When we was ready to shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it

was pretty broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with a

quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good ways off."(Twain, 58)

To make a place to hide in case visitors arrive, Jim and Huck take the canoe and

provisions to a cave in the middle of the island. After a while a storm blows in causing the

river to flood. In order for Jim not to be seen, Huck hides him in the bottom of the canoe.

What is most evident in the excerpt is Hucks wrong assumption that people can tell from

a considerable distance a black individual from a white. Up to this point, Huck Finn,

because of his upbringing, still holds the belief that black people are essentially different

from whites. Readers of the novel, however, are (or at least supposed to be) well aware that

a persons skin color being darker than another ones bears no relation and makes no

difference whatsoever with the condition of being human. The dramatic irony, in this case,

lies in Hucks unawareness that Jim is a human being in spite of his color skin, something

of which readers are well aware.

Another instance of dramatic irony in the novel is perceivable in chapter 14, when

Huck is surprised to find in Jim qualities he did not expect to:


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"...he judged it was all up with him anyway it could be fixed; for if he didn't get

saved he would get drownded; and if he did get saved, whoever saved him would

send him back home so as to get the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him

South, sure. Well, he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon

level head for a nigger."(Twain, 80-81)

Traces of Hucks adherence to the Southern white perspective of the world can still

be perceived in the novel and are, in fact, reflected in the cited statement. Huck, raised in a

Southern slave-owning society, still holds the belief that black people are less intelligent

than white people. After Jim evaluates their adventure, Huck acknowledges that he has

acted imprudently by putting at risk Jims integrity, but he concludes, amazed, that Jim is

smart for a black individual. The situation narrated in the excerpt serves as example of

dramatic irony in that it shows a characters ignorance Huckand, at the same time, the

audiences readersawareness of a truth: black people are no less intelligent than white

people.

Another type, verbal irony is defined by Meyer Howard Abrams and Geoffrey Galt

Harpham in A Glossary of Literary Terms as a statement in which the meaning that a

speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed [and it]

involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the

overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite,

attitude or evaluation. (11) Thus the distinctive feature of verbal irony, as compared to

dramatic irony, lies in the deliberation with which a speaker produces it. It is, in other

words, the discrepancy between expression and intention as when a speaker says something

but means something else or when a literal meaning opposes its intended effect. For

example, someone says the phrase "Oh, that's beautiful", but what they actually mean (most

likely aided by the tone of voice with which the utterance is conveyed) is that they find

"that" rather ugly, that is, the right opposite.


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In chapter 12, an example of a discrepancy between what is expressed and what is

actually meant is perceptible:

"'See? He'll be drownded, and won't have nobody to blame for it but his own self. I

reckon that's a considerable sight better'n killin' of him. I'm unfavorable to killin' a

man as long as you can git aroun' it; it ain't good sense, it ain't good morals. Ain't I

right?'" (Twain, 74)

On a stormy night, Huck and Jim come across a wrecked steamboat and the former

convinces the latter to tie the raft to the boat and get on board to have an adventure. To their

surprise, they discover that three robbers are on board, two of whom have tied up the third

man and threaten to kill him. Expressed by one of these intruders, the statement reflects

Mark Twains use of language to satirize human beings by portraying them as being cruel

and thoughtless about the way a person could die (to let a man drown is a lesser crime than

to kill him outright). The discrepancy, thus, between what Twain actually expresses

through one of his characters and what he means makes verbal irony evident in this

passage.

Throughout the novel, satirical and humorous episodes abound, serving as evidence

for the greatness of Mark Twain, not only as a writer, but also as a philosopher and as a

humorist. This project intends to promote a reading of the novel with an emphasis on irony

not only as a rhetorical device but also, and more precisely, as an intelligent way to see the

world and its deepest problems.

In his 1913 essay The Burden of Humor, American author H. L. Menckenassumes that there is a prejudice against humor and attempts to find answers as to the origin

of such widespread error, as he calls it. Not only does he disregard the idea that humor

and sound sense are essentially antagonists but also the idea that humankind has found

evidence that the man who sees the fun of life is unfitted to deal sanely with its problems


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(67). In fact, he cites William Shakespeare as an example of an individual able to make

serious reflections on life while possessing a comic spirit. Even though there exists the

long-held belief that there is, Mencken concludes that there is no disagreement between

sense and humor and respectability. That old saying about how laughter abounds in the

mouth of the fool, in view of Menckens ideas, is not at all true. In wondering why people

tend to think humor and sound sense are at odds, Mencken is convinced that the reason for

such a misconception lies in the incapacity of most people to either tell jokes or funny

stories or to make quips. In his own plain words, Mencken concludes that the average

individual is far too stupid to make a joke (Ibid). I would not, however, go as far as to

blame peoples incapacity to make a joke on their stupidity, but rather on the laborious

effort that implies being funny or being humorous. In fact, it is hard to think of a good joke

based on a cheerful situation; jokes are funnier when they are based on serious issues and

not everyone is successful in that enterprise.

In such scenario, we are left to enjoy and appreciate the talent of someone who did

succeed at being not only a superb storyteller but also an outstanding humorist and

philosopher, with most interesting ideas about the world and humankind.


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Why teach Mark Twain?

His combination of the tradition of Middle West humor with frontier realism stands

out as Mark Twains main contribution to American literature. Trained as a journalist, he

took the modus operandiand form of a popular style, characterized by its maintenance of

the personal anecdotal approach he employed during his lecture tours. His travel books are

characterized by his digression from factual narrative to humorous exaggeration and

absolute burlesque.

Autobiographical and disjointed, Twains novels are not shaped by any larger

structural concepts but are rather written in a lively and irreverent style, by means of anauthentic Middle West native idiom. Behind this humoristic approach, however, lies a

strong yearning for social justice, which, regardless of how uneven his work might be,

establishes Twains place in American literature as a writer of broad human sympathies.

Specifically with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain seems to be

expressing that no matter how hopelessness and pessimism life can bring, you will always

find a moment when you could laugh at it instead of weeping over it. Furthermore,

hardships do not represent a justification whatsoever for not preparing oneself to embark on

another journey in search of further adventures, as Huck Finn does at the end of the novel.


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Rationale

The literary work with which students will be working isAdventures of Huckleberry

Finn, a novel by American writer Mark Twain. First published in 1884 in the United

Kingdom and Canada and a year later in the United States, the edition to be used in the

workshop will be the 1994 Penguin Popular Classics by Penguin Books publisher. If

necessary, a 2000 simplified version of Oxford University Press published as part of the

Oxford Bookworms Library classics will be available for students.

The pertinence of choosing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as the novel to be

taught in the workshop stems mostly from its focus on the experiences of a teenager who is

of an age similar to that of the students. A distinctive feature of works pertaining to Young

Adult Literature, the closeness in terms of age between the main character (voice and

consciousness), Huck Finn, and the students will be beneficial as they will find in the novel

opportunities to relate their life own experiences with those presented in the story. In this

respect, Mary Owen emphasizes the importance of having central characters of ages similar

to those of the young readers to whom the novel is intended as it encourages the

development of an awareness of how other teenagers learn to move on from painful and

threatening situations. (12) Regardless of the evident differences between the life of awhite American young man in slavery times and the life of a young Chilean adolescent in

the XXI century in terms of social and cultural context, the novel, as the early example of

Young Adult Literature (YAL) it is, will give students the opportunity to gain, as Mary

Owen adds, a more mature understanding of the self and the world (11) In addition, the

novel grants the possibility to ponder not only on the question of slavery per se but on

greater issues stemming from it: the novel provides students with the chance to reassess

major concepts such as freedom, independence and identity and relate them with their own

life experiences.

Referring to adolescence, scholar Lauriat Lane, Jr., in his essay WhyHuckleberry

Finn is a Great World Novel from Huck Finn among the critics, regards such process

characterized by the passage from carefree childhood to responsible adulthood as being one


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of the most important in a persons life and as one of the elements that makesAdventures of

Huckleberry Finn be a world novel, which, he defines, is a kind of novel whose

importance in its own literature is so great and whose impact on its readers is so profound

and far-reaching that it has achieved worldwide distinction. (158) One of the forms in

which the novel gains such recognition, he argues, stems precisely from its treatment of the

passage from youth into maturity and dubs the novel a novel of education [whose] school

is the school of life rather than of books (the University of Life as we commonly hear)

which, for Lane, Jr., is what makes Hucks education all the more complete. (159) Even

though no certainty can be had as to the main characters preparation to face adult life, it

can surely be said, Lane, Jr. argues, that Huck Finn, throughout the story, has undergone a

knowledgeful and maturing experience (164) especially because of the permanent

frustration or reversal of his plans which resulted in his sense of alienation from the world

around him. Such state is typical of the adolescent period as well as the search for

independence and freedom. As a consequence, Huck is, as Hamlin Hill sustains in

Huckleberry FinnsHumor Today from Inges collections of essay,a fine representation

of the typically helpless victim of a world in which nightmares () alienation and

apocalypse are facts of daily life (243), a prototype that adds to the novels applicability in

the classroom settings as it finds echo in the adolescents experiences of their everyday life

during the process of coming of age.

Intended audience

The intended audience of this workshop is junior high school students. It may,

nonetheless, be useful with any type of students older than 13 years. The book will be used

for individual study (the actual reading of the novel), small-group and whole-class study.


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Brief summary of the book

The novels opening is characterized by Huck Finn being motherly protected by the

Widow Douglas and her proper sister Miss Watson. After the appearance of Hucks father

in demand of his fortune, Huck succeeds in transferring it to the custody of Judge Thatcher.

Huck is then kidnapped and kept prisoner by his father in a lonely cabin. Taking

advantage of one of his spells of drunkenness, Huck manages to escape to Jacksons Island

and meets Jim, Miss Watsons runaway slave. On a raft, the two sail down the Mississippi

river but, to their chagrin, it is shattered by a steamboat and the two lose track of each

other.

After swimming ashore, Huck eventually finds refugee with the Grangerford, a

family who is feuding with their neighbors, the Shepersons. Following Hucks reunion with

Jim, the two escape and set off on the raft only to come across two crooks, King Louis

XVII of France and the Duke of Bridgewater; the former gives lectures as a pirate and,

with his companion, perform dramatic acts which would result in scams and tricks played

on the audience. The crooks find out about the death of a certain Peter Wilks and claim

stake of the legacy as they pretend to be his brothers. As a consequence of Hucks

intervention on behalf of the dead mans three nieces, the plan is frustrated by the

appearance of the actual brothers.

Huck learns that the king has sold Jim to Tom Sawyers Aunt Sally, Mrs. Phelps.

Huck resolves to pay a visit to the Phelps farm and impersonate Tom in an attempt to

rescue Jim. When Tom shows up a fantastic plan is devised to free Jim, however, Tom ends

up wounded and Jim, the Negro recaptured.

Eventually, Tom discloses that Miss Watson has died and given Jim his freedom in

her will. Huck, on the other hand, finds out that his own fortune is safe again because his

father is dead. Aunt Sally manifests her intention to adopt Huck and tries to civilize him,


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however, he is not willing to go through such a trial again, and decides to light out for the

territory ahead of the rest.

Potential problems with the work

Mostly because of the use of racial stereotypes and coarse language, particularly the

frequent employment of the term "nigger", the novel has continually been the object of

criticism ever since its publication. As a way to anticipate problems that may arise in this

regard, the issue might be addressed within the context of the realistic depiction of how

American people viewed Afro-Americans in the 1800s. In spite of the seemingly

inappropriateness, such language helps to reflect the perspective of white American people

had on blacks and eventually adds to the books reliability.

Also, objections to the reading of the novel may arise from the apparent distance

between American life and our own Chilean reality as it portrays a white young boy in a

slave-owning society that sees Afro-American as things that can be bought, instead of as

human beings in the XIX century. As a way to anticipate problems, the situation might be

tackled by comparing the major theme of discrimination and segregation to any of the cases

we have in Chile (namely, homosexuals, the Mapuches, so on and so forth.) By doing so,

awareness of the universality of the themes and issues discussed in the novel will be raised,

regardless of when it was written or when and where the events take place.


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Needs analysis

Needs analysis is a tool that has a vital role in the process of designing and carrying out any

language course, whether it be English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or general English

course.

About yourself

What do you do in your free time?

What kind of books do you like to read?

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

Do you watch TV? If so, what are you favorite TV shows?

About the language

Do you consider learning English to be useful?

Do you use oral English? If so, how often and where?

Do you use written English? If so, how often and where?

Which skills do you use/need/lack most?

Which parts of the language do you find most difficult?

How long have you been studying English?

How often do you watch English language films?


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How far do you want/need to go with your English?

About learning

Do you prefer that instructions are given in oral form or written form?

Do you feeling comfortable reading aloud?

Do you prefer listening to music or looking at a picture?

Do you take notes when in class?

The answers provided will help in the design of the course syllabus and the

activities to be done during the workshop. Informal surveys such as spontaneous

conversations between the teacher and the students about a topic they are interested in (be it

music, sports, etc.) will be also useful as they allow to gather information about the

students likes, interests, and needs.

Syllabus

According to Roberto Rabbini, a syllabus is an expression of opinion on the nature

of language and learning that acts as a guide for both teacher and the students by providing

objectives that have to be achieved. Hutchinson and Waters describe syllabus as a

statement of what is to be learned.

A syllabus can be also seen, according to J. Yalden, as a "summary of the content to

which learners will be exposed" (87). It is seen as an approximation of what will be taught

and that cannot accurately predict what will be learned.


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In plain words, the design of syllabus relates to the choice of what will be taught

and how which is a most important step in language teaching that has to be made gathering

as much information as possible, considering both students and teachers background and

capacities. A syllabus implies the inclusion of subject matter (what) and linguistic matter

(how). As a consequence, the selection of a certain type of syllabus will be subordinated to

the content to be taught is based on grammar or on semantics. Rarely in isolation, types of

syllabus are mostly mixed with other types, being one of them the predominant.


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Course syllabus

Sivilizationand society: an elective workshop for junior high school students based on

Mark TwainsAdventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Class information

Area: English

Sub-area: Literature

Weekly Hours: 2

Number of Lessons: 11

Number of students: 5

Level: Advanced

Type of syllabus: Topic and task-based syllabus

Course Description:

This workshop introduces students to Mark Twains novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

and the main issues it addresses. In addition to analyzing its historical background as well

as its main themes, the workshop will encourage a close and critical reading of the novel as

well as of other artistic works both from the time of the novel is set and from more

contemporary works that present similarities in terms of aesthetics, characterization and/or

themes.


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Daily lesson plans

Date: September 3rd

, 2012

Class period: 90 minutes

Stage: Presentation

General objective: To introduce major aspects of the American history, literature, art and

music of the 19thcentury so as to provide cultural and social contextualization before the

reading of the novel

Specific objectives

To understand the historical, social and cultural context of the United States in the

19th

century

To discuss the importance of the river and boats in the works of art presented as

forms of contextualization

To predict the movements of the escapees in the novel so as to locate the

geographical areas in which events take place.

To analyze art prints so as to estimate the historical significance in the context in

which the novel was written

To discuss the impact of language beyond the written word so as to analyze whether

art illustrations of the 1800s would be considered offensive or racist by todays

standards.


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slave narratives are

and their role in the

life of slaves.

times.

5

minutes

Presentation Teacher posts a map

of the pre-Civil War

Era in the United

States on the board

and explains the

existence and the

significance of Slave

and Free states.

Students visualize

geographical areas

such as Slave and

Free states, network

of rivers, open

territories, etc.

To predict the

movements of

the escapees in

the novel so as

to locate the

geographical

areas in which

events take

place.

20

minutes

Presentation Teacher builds

background

knowledge by

presenting works of

art of the XIX century.

Students look at the

works of art.

To analyze art

prints so as to

estimate the

historical

significance inthe context in

which the novel

was written

To discuss the

importance of

the river and

boats in the

works of art.

10 Presentation Teacher shows a Students examine To discuss the


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Material

Music

Artist: Audioslave

Song: What You Are

Writer (s):

Lyrics: Chris Cornell

Music: Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk

Album: Audioslave

Recorded: 2002

Map of the pre-Civil war era in the United

States


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Illustration of characters


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To identify differences between Hucks use of language and Standard English so as

to analyze the effect that all characters speaking Standard English would have on

the reader.

To discuss the use of own dialects and the importance of using Standard English

(and Spanish).

Time Stage Teachers activity Students activity Objectives

5 minutes Presentation Teacher posts on

the board a picture

of Mark Twainwithout telling the

students who he is

and elicits from

them adjectives

that may describe

him (whatever

comes to mind as

long as is not

disrespectful is

acceptable)

Students give their

own ideas taking

into account whatthe picture elicits

from them.

To recognize

Mark Twain as

the author ofthe novel and as

a remarkable

figure in

American

letters.

10 minutes Pre-reading Teacher provides a

brief summary of

Mark Twains

biography.

Students analyze the

summary of Mark

Twains biography.

To predict what

elements of

Mark Twains

life are

incorporated in

the novels

characters,


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setting and plot.

10 minutes Pre-reading Teacher asks

students to respond

to some statements

regarding the use

of language.

Teacher asks

students to choose

one of the

statements andjustify their choice.

Teacher

encourages

students to

compare their

viewpoints and to

provide concrete

examples about

what they feel like

they do.

Students express

their agreement or

disagreement on the

statements.

Students free write

about their

viewpoints on the

statements

Students compare

their viewpoints and

provide concrete

examples about why

they feel as they do.

To raise

awareness on

the impact of

language so as

to discuss

stereotyping


students to explain

the concept of

stereotype and lists

some common

stereotypes that are

used to describe

Students are asked to

sort the list of

stereotypes into

three categories

(positive, neutral,

and negative labels)

To examine

how and when

stereotyping

has an impact

on other people.


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young adults

10 minutes Pre-reading Teacher explains

that Twain uses

regional dialect in

the novel

Teacher asks

students to think

about why Twain

decided to use

language that hasbeen considered

offensive

(especially the term

nigger)

Teacher asks

students to provide

examples of

contemporary films

that exhibit

forbidden words

profusely.

Students ponder on

why Twain decided

to use language that

has been considered

offensive (especially

the term nigger)

Students provide

examples of

contemporary filmsor songs that exhibit

forbidden words

profusely.

To analyze the

use of taboo

words in

contemporary

art (music and

film)


students to examine

Hucks initial

speech in Chapter

One in terms of

grammar,

Students examine

Hucks initial speech

in Chapter One in

terms of grammar,

vocabulary and

speech

To identify the

novels Realism

reflected in its

use of regional

speech so as to

value the novel


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reader.

20 minutes Pre-reading Teacher opens

space for

discussion by

asking students

some questions: Do

people judge one

another based on

language habits?

Do you have a

dialect? Do you

change your speech

patterns at time? If

so, why?

Students provide

answers to enrich the

discussion

To discuss the

use of own

dialects and the

importance of

using Standard

English (and

Spanish)


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Daily lesson plans

Date: September 24th

, 2012


Stage: Pre-reading

General objective: To introduce students to key themes in the novel so as to enrich their

reading of the novel and to value its significance in American literature.

Specific objectives

To build background knowledge before the actual reading of the novel

To create an environment of inquiry to deepen their understanding of the novel

To reflect on the process of coming of age young people undergo

To express viewpoints on the similarities and the differences of the maturation

process among young people

To identify ways of conformity and discuss them in the context of contemporary

society

To discuss and define the concept of civilization

To ponder on the issues of friendship and betrayal (of people and of believes)

To reflect on the issue of freedom and enslavement in the context of their own life

experiences


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To make predictions about events in the novel regarding key themes


10

minutes

Presentation Teacher introduces the

issue of coming of age

as an initial

exploration of main

themes in the novel.

Students take notes

and ask questions

To define the

main features

that

characterize

adolescence so

as to discuss theimplications of

having such a

teenager as

main character

in a novel.

10

minutes

Pre-reading Teacher shows posters

of both the film series

Star Wars and the

novel series Harry

Potter and asks

students to think of

similarities between

the two.

Students think of

things both series

have in common (the

main character

undergoes a series of

changes in the

course of the story)

and list the traits that

characterize the

protagonist from the

beginning of the

story and how he/she

To analyze the

changing

process human

beings undergo

in the process

of adolescence

so as to identify

features of

coming of age

in the novel.


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minutes conforming they

consider detrimental

to them and to society

(suggestions: voting

as another person

says, mindless

imitation of others in

dress and behavior,

etc)

Teacher poses

questions: Under

what circumstances

are social rules for

conformity an abuse

to citizens? Do such

rules create a civilized

society?

they consider

detrimental to them

and to society.

civilized

society so as to

contrast the

society depicted

in the novel

with our

contemporary

society.

10

minutes

Pre-reading Teacher asks the class

to define the concept

of civilization as

homework (a short

written text for the

following class)

Students are to hand

in a short essay on

the concept of

civilization.

To define the

concept of

civilization so

as to extend the

understanding

of the novel

before reading

it.

10

minutes

Pre-reading Teacher introduces the

concept of friendship

Students take notes

and are asked to

To discuss the

constituent


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and betrayal and asks

students to write a

short paragraph about

what friendship means

in their own lives.

write a short

paragraph about

what friendship

means in their own

lives

elements of

friendship and

betrayal (of

people and of

believes) so as

to estimate the

importance of

values in an

adolescents life

in light of

events in the

novel.

10

minutes

Teacher introduces the

concept of freedom

and enslavement by

asking students to

think of types of

freedom in their ownlife (suggestions:

having ones own car

[freedom] / depending

on other people for a

ride [enslavement]

and think of occasions

in which freedoms

imply enslavements

(having ones own car

= freedom / paying for

gas, insurance, tires,

Students think of the

concept freedom and

enslavement in the

context of their own

life.

Students write ways

in which they are

free and ways in

which they consider

themselves to be

enslaved.

Students write as

many concepts as

they can to then

build a raft made of

paper that must be

To question the

implications of

being free and

being enslaved

so as to

illustrate theapplicability of

concepts such

as freedom and

enslavement,

recurrent in the

XIX century, in

our own

contemporary

reality.


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and having to work

for those things =

enslavement)

Teacher asks students

to make a chart with

two columns, My

freedoms and My

slavery.


to come up with ways

in which they are free

and ways they are

enslaved.


to write the ways in

which they are free

from their own

enslavements so that

they can build a raft

made of paper that

must be presented in

front of the class at the

end of the workshop.

presented in front of

the class at the end

of the workshop.

10

minutes

Teacher gives out

copies of an

anticipation guide

Students read the

statements and

complete the Pre-

To predict the

unfolding of

events in the


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Pre-reading activity

Objective: To analyze the changing process human beings undergo in the process of adolescence so as to identify features of coming of

age in the novel.

Look at the picture and think of similarities between the two main characters from of both

series. The main character undergoes a series of changes in the course of the story.

List traits that characterize the protagonist from the beginning of the story and how he/she

has changed by the end of the novel or movie.


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Daily lesson plans

Date: October 1st, 2012


Stage: Reading (Chapters 1-5)

General objective: To discuss characterization so as to comprehend its relevance in the

configuration of voices in a novel and its relation to ones own life experiences.

Specific objectives

To contextualize the topic of the class so as to prepare for class discussion.

To distinguish features of characterization so as to discuss its relevance in the

configuration of the story.

To apply new concepts so as to relate them to ones own life.

To assess how elements of place so as to identify how they help to develop the

voice and characters of Huck, Tom, Jim, and others.

To discuss characterization so as to identify instances of stereotyping and

prejudices.



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Activity (Chapters 1-5)

Objective: To contextualize the topic of the class so as to prepare for class discussion.

Look at the pictures of these famous tricksters. Think of a characteristic that all of these

characters share and write them down.

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________


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Daily lesson plans

Date: October 8th

, 2012


Stage: Reading (Chapters 6-11)

General objective: To introduce the concept of irony and satire so as to discuss them in

light of events in and characters from the novel.

Specific objectives

To present the concept of satire so as to discuss it with an example of pop culture

that students might relate to.

To enrich the discussion of irony and satire so as to revise those concepts in light of

events and characters in the novel.


45

minutes

Teacher introduces the

class by presenting a

video clip of

American TV show

The Simpsons.

Teacher elicits from

students ideas about

Students watch

carefully the video

clip of American TV

show The Simpsons.

Students give their

insights about irony

To present the

concept of

satire so as to

discuss it with

an example of

pop culture that

students might


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irony and satire.

Teacher gives a clear

definition of irony and

satire.


to work in pairs to list

as many ironies and

objects of satire as

they can in the

chapters thus far.

and satire.

Students work in

pairs to list as many

ironies and objects

of satire as they can

in the chapters thus

far.

Students state in one

sentence the main

message of each

irony.

relate to.

45

minutes


to think of comedians

or TV shows that use

irony and satire to

deliver serious

messages with humor.

Teacher shows video

clips featuring

sketches from TV

show El Club de la

Comedia.


to think of instances in

which a character or a

Students discuss

their job as

comedians and as

satirists.


think of instances in

which a character or

a situation is

satirized in the novel

and to present that

next class.

To enrich the

discussion of

irony and satire

so as to revise

those concepts

in light of

events and

characters in

the novel.


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do.

25

minutes

Teacher posts a

picture of Romeo and

Juliet, briefly explains

what the story is about

and then asks students

to find similarities to

the elopement of

Harney and Sophia.


find similarities

between Romeo and

Julieta to the

elopement of Harney

and Sophia.

To apply the

concept of

satire in the

discussion of

other literary

works so as to

analyze its

effectiveness.

35

minutes

Production Teacher asks students

about what other

characters and

elements of this

episode resembles

Shakespeares play

and explains that the

feud has been also

called a satire of the

Civil War.


write a short essay

arguing for or

against the

effectiveness of this

satire.

To apply

concepts so as

to produce a

written text.


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Daily lesson plans

Date: October 29th

, 2012


Stage: Reading

General objective: To compare other literary works to the novel so as to identify similarities

and differences in terms of characterization and treatment of themes.

Specific objectives

To compare elements from a literary work to other elements from the novel so as to

identify similarities and differences.

To identify differences between Shakespeares work and Huck Finn so as to deepen

the understanding of the novel.

To analyze Hucks life so as to estimate the value of material and abstract things in

ones life.

To examine the authors attitude towards the society of the time so as to compare it

with our contemporary society.


15 Teacher introduces the

class by showing a


compare

To compare

elements from a


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minutes picture of

ShakespearesHamlet

Teacher presents the

soliloquy.

Shakespeares

soliloquy with

Hucks quotes from

the Dukes memory

literary work to

other elements

from the novel

so as to identify

similarities and

differences.

10

minutes

Teacher notes that

Twains characters

mix several

Shakespearean plays

together; namely,

Macbeth, Hamlet, and

Romeo and Juliet

Students discuss the

differences between

the two in terms of

meaning and then

perform the two

soliloquies in

costume.

To identify

differences

between

Shakespeares

work and Huck

Finn so as to

deepen the

understanding

of the novel.

20

minutes

Teacher elicits from

students things theyconsider necessities

for survival (possible

answers: food,

housing, clothing,

water, companionship,

and so forth and so

on)

Students focus on

things from the listthat Huck and Jim

have been cut from

on the river.

(Possible answers:

they go naked, they

have little shelter,

they eat what they

catch or borrow,

etc.)

To analyze

Hucks life soas to estimate

the value of

material and

abstract things

in ones life.


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45

minutes

Teacher invites

students to discuss

Twains implication

about freedom and the

pursuit of happiness

when Huck and Jim

disregard behaving

according to the rules

of polite society on

the river.

Students discuss

Twains implication

about freedom and

the pursuit of

happiness when

Huck and Jim

disregard behaving

according to the

rules of polite

society on the river.

To examine the

authors

attitude towards

the society of

the time so as to

compare it with

our

contemporary

society.


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74

Daily lesson plans

Date: November 5th

, 2012


Stage: Reading (Chapter 32-43)

General objective: To examine the concept of civilization so as to determine to what extent

characters have been civilized

Specific objectives

To analyze concepts such as adventure and heroism so as to determine their role

in the novel.

To analyze characters treatment of each other so as to examine their its impact in

their life.

To discuss how truths that were not revealed would have changed the outcome of

the novel and the characters themselves so as to rate their impact if they had been

revealed.

To assess characters evolution so as to examine the authors intention for such

transformation.

To analyze the concept of civilization so as to determine to what extent characters

have been civilized.


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10

minutes

Teacher writes the

concepts adventures

and heroism on the

board and invites

students to define

them as Huck and

Tom would do.

Students make a list

of ways in which

Huck and Tom has

proven their own

heroism.

To analyze

concepts such

as adventure

and heroism

so as to

determine their

role in the

novel.

10

minutes

Teacher invites

students to compare

Pap and Jim as father

figures to Huck.


reflect on how Paps

and Jims treatment

has affected Hucks

view of family and

whether Jims

mistreatment of his

deaf daughter is to

any extent

comparable to Paps

abuse of Huck

To analyze

characters

treatment of

each other so as

to examine their

its impact in

their life.

20

minutes


if they have ever kept

a secret from others.

Students share their

experiences.

To discuss how

truths that were

not revealed


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76

would have

changed the

outcome of the

novel and the

characters

themselves so

as to rate their

impact if they

had been

revealed.

25

minutes

Teacher reminds

students of the class in

which they discuss

characters from other

movies and books

who undergo a

process of change in

the course of the story.

Students chart the

characters and the

ways in which they

have changed during

the novel.

Students reflect on

what each character

has learned and how

Mark Twain has

used them in the

novel to change his

readers.

To assess

characters

evolution so as

to examine the

authors

intention for

such

transformation.

25

minutes

Teacher writes on the

board the word

Sivilization

(deliberately

Students discuss in

what ways Jim and

Huck have explored

To analyze the

concept of

civilization so

as to determine


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77

misspelled) and

explains that the

reason for misspelling

it is to reflect Hucks

lack of instruction and

education.

being uncivilized. to what extent

characters have

been civilized.


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78

Daily lesson plans

Date: November 12th

, 2012


Stage: After-reading

General objective: To analyze the unfolding of events so as to compare predictions made at

the beginning of the workshop in light of events in the novel.

Specific objectives

To compare predictions with actual unfolding of events so as to analyze how

students got to think the way they think at the beginning.

To analyze changes in characters attitude so as to deepen the understanding of

themes in the novel.


45

minutes


to work with theanticipation guide

handed in during the

pre-reading stage.

Students complete

the after-readingportion of the

exercise.

Students compare

To compare

predictions withactual

unfolding of

events so as to

analyze how


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to fold the piece of

paper so that students

cannot see their

previous answers.

their answers students got to

think the way

they think at the

beginning.

45

minutes


to discuss those

statements that shifted

for Huck during the

novel and factors that

influenced the

changes.

Students discuss

those statements that

shifted for Huck

during the novel and

factors that

influenced the

changes.

To analyze

changes in

characters

attitude so as to

deepen the

understanding

of themes in the

novel.


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80

Daily lesson plans

Date: November 19th

, 2012


Stage: After-reading

General objective: To determine key themes from the novel so as to defend their

significance in it.

Specific objectives

To select and defend a stance so as to develop critical thinking and debate skills.

To extend the range of themes so as to deepen the understanding of themes in the

novel.


20

minutes

After-

reading

Teacher posts cards

around the classroom

containing themesdiscussed in the novel.

Students have to

select one of the

themes to answer thequestion: what is the

novel about?

Students are given

To select and

defend a stance

so as to developcritical thinking

and debate

skills.


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10 minutes to list

reasons they feel

their theme is the

most relevant.

Students give their

reasons for choosing

their topic as the

most relevant in the

novel.

20minutes

After-reading

Teacher asks studentsif there are other

themes they would

defend.

Students give ideasabout other themes.

To extend therange of themes

so as to deepen

the

understanding

of themes in the

novel.

60

minutes

Teacher calls out

students to present

their enslavement

raft

Students present to

the class the

enslavement raft

containing ways in

which they can be

free from quotidian

forms of

enslavement

To examine

concepts from

the novel so as

to apply them

in ones own

reality.


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would be.


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Work cited

Dix, A (2005) Twain and the Mississippi.A Companion to Mark Twain. Ed. Peter

Messent and Louis J. Budd. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 293-308. Print

Eagleton, Terry. Introduction. Literary Theory: An Introduction. 2nd

Ed. UK: Blackwell

Publishing, 1996. 1-14. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. Green Hills of Africa. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. Print

Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987) English For Specific Purposes: A Learning Centred

Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hill, Hamlin. Huckleberry Finns Humor Today. Huck Finn among the critics: a

centennial selection 1884-1984. Ed. M. Thomas Inge. Washington D.C.: United States

information Agency, Division for the study of the United States, 1984. 157-164. Print.

Lane Jr, Lauriat. Why Huckleberry Finn is a Great World Novel. Huck Finn among the

critics: a centennial selection 1884-1984. Ed. M. Thomas Inge. Washington D.C.: United

States information Agency, Division for the study of the United States, 1984. 231-244.

Print.

Owen, Mary. Developing a Love of Reading: Why Young Adult Literature is Important.

Orana(2003): 11-17.Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 November 2012.


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Robbins Ruth, Julian Wolfreys and Womack Kenneth. Key Concepts in Literary Theory.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Print.

Proukou, Katherine Kim. Young Adult Literature: Rite of Passage or Rite of Its Own.

The ALAN Review. Vol. 40. No. 3. Summer 2005. 62-68. Print

Spikes, Michael. Paul de Man: Deconstruction. Understanding Contemporary American

Literary Theory. South Carolina UP: South Carolina, 2003. 19-40. Print

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 1994

Works consulted

Notes on Mark Twain's The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.London: Methuen. 1968. Print

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