Chapter Summary
In Chapter 16, McCourt shows a little moodiness. He loves his students, but he also resents them for their all-too-fortunate lives. He cannot connect with their problems, and he wishes his life could have been so easy. Fortunately, McCourt is later reminded that everyone—no matter what their class happens to be—has problems. Phyllis’ story about having to choose between witnessing the moon landing and witnessing her father’s death is a powerful reminder of that.
Next McCourt informs his students that everyone is a writer. People write in their heads all the time. When they see a friend, an enemy, or a secret crush, they are writing in their heads. They write about their plans, their wishes, their dreams—it’s all in there. It’s just not down on paper, and the students need to start getting some of that down on paper. This discussion then turns into an assignment where the students are asked to listen to their grandparents’ stories and to write them down.
The chapter closes with a discussion on grades. The students ask McCourt how they will be graded for the course, and he encourages them to grade themselves. They know how hard they worked during the semester, and they know what they did or did not learn. The more important question, according to McCourt, is whether or not the class freed their minds in any way.
Chapter Response
I thought Chapter 16 was an interesting chapter. I liked McCourt’s belief that everyone is a writer in their own minds, that we all have good stories to tell, and that it’s important to share those stories with others before we die. I also thought the assignment with the grandparents was great. I want to include meaningful and thoughtful assignments like these in my own class one day, and I don’t believe that teachers and families should consider one another to be the enemy (as some of the grandparents did).
Personally, I did not like the whole letting the students grade themselves assignment. I had to do this for a class I took at
Thought Questions
1. Do you think it’s important to include your students’ life stories in your classroom? Why or why not?
2. How do you feel about McCourt’s decision to let the students grade themselves? Is this something you would do in your classroom? Why or why not?
3. McCourt talks about the lives of writers from the Beat Generation, and this gets him in trouble with a parent. What topics are considered to be controversial in your discipline? Do you think it is appropriate to include these topics in your lessons, or do you think these are topics better left for when your students are more mature and in college?
1 comment:
I do think it's important to include my students stories in my classroom because I think it will foster an attitude of inclusion and an atmosphere where every student feels as though he or she is welcome to share and that his or her experiences are valid and valued.
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