Revolution, Romance, and the Scarlet Pimpernel

For those of you in SI 620, you might have noticed I've had the Scarlet Pimpernel on my mind this week.  It started here, with a single slide in Kristin's presentation, the one asking  us to think about comparing the current unrest in Egypt with the French Revolution.  Whether we call it making connections or, more accurately, daydreaming, I was off to the guillotine with the "surging, seething, murmuring crowd ... animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate."  Well, you get the idea.  And since it was Valentine's Day (weren't those slides lovely/hilarious?) I took a side trip to visit Sir Percy and Marguerite.  Zounds!  demmed marvelous!  So, when KF asks "does transfer always require abstract concepts?" do we count my wandering mind as reflections based on prior knowledge or skipping stones across the surface?   Which reminds me of the slide with the floating dock--it's only transfer when I use the prior knowledge (my reflections of the story) to find connections with the current situation in Egypt, right?  And since the protesters in Tahrir Square are nothing like the bloodthirsty "savage creatures" of the novel,  and I can't find a Pimpernel anywhere in the news reports, I suppose I'm still underwater on that point.  But what a great book.

The readings on Socratic Seminars have sparked my interest in trying this out, and I'm excited about the story Carmen, Andrew, and I have chosen to discuss, Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question."  It's about collaboration on steroids, God, entropy, and a planetarium show narrated by Leonard Nimoy.  Oh, and Hal and Watson.  But more on that next week.  The articles by Lynda Tredway and Margaret Metzger are encouraging examples of how effective the SS method can be in teaching critical reading of a text and, just as important, how to teach students to participate in a group discussion.  I was particulary impressed with the comprehension techniques compiled by Metzger's students, since they can transfer these questions to discussions of any text, or even film or other media formats.  A study of vocabulary, or character, or point of view is a great place to start in any critical discussion, and the student who remembered years later to "Look at the words!" will forever find more in a text than the superficial reader.  The presence of an outer circle seems awkward and uncomfortable for those being observed, but it must be what keeps the inner circle on task and motivated, a definite challenge for middle or high school students.  Even in our graduate courses, most group discussions will eventually separate into personal chats, go off on tangents, or just fall silent for lack of leadership.  It was interesting to read that Metzger's freshman were so good at this method that they wanted her to stay out of their discussions.  What a success.

As a veteran of book clubs, both superficial and serious, I found Barbara Hoffert's article a good summary of options and ideas available to groups.  There is nothing wrong with the tea party approach, however, though I've found wine works better for getting a good conversation going.  For schools unable to purchase multiple copies of books, the public library usually offers book kits suitable for reading circles, though the selections favor popular, adult fiction.  I think the best alternative is going with a theme and letting students choose from a reading list, or have their own selection approved and added to the list.  This way students share something they chose to read--very important motivator to most--and also learn about other books they might want to read later.  It's also a good option for reading across the curriculum, since the teacher librarian can create reading lists for any subject.  Hoffert also recommends using technology to connect readers with authors, which is even easier now with video chat possible directly from computer to computer.  Unfortunately, Baroness Orczy is not available.