TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

November 16, 2001

 

In this week’s issue:

Elementary/Secondary TACTics

  (1)   Using TOC in Literature, Jackie Trimble

Networking

    (2)     Question…, Cheryl A. Edwards

Connections

  (3)   Reader Response

  (4)   The 6th International TOCFE Conference

Quote

  (5)  Rene Descartes

Editors’ Notes    

  (6)   Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

 

 

Elementary/Secondary TACTics

(1)        Using TOC in Literature*

From Jackie Trimble, Washington, USA

 

Following is a lesson I used in my 7th grade class.  I used the cloud in teaching a story by O’ Henry entitled “After Twenty Years”.  The story line is as follows:

 

Silky Bob tells a curious policeman that he is waiting at a street corner for his best chum, Jimmy Wells.  They were meeting at a predetermined spot and the time was set twenty years ago.  Shortly after the police officer leaves, another man (who is bundled up for the cold) approaches.  Silky says, “Hello, Jimmy” and the man answers.  They talk for a moment then proceed down the street to further discuss old times.  Silky turns to Jimmy, in the street light only to discover that it isn’t really his friend and is arrested for being wanted in Chicago.  The arresting officer gives him a note from his friend, Jimmy.  As it turns out, Jimmy was the first police officer he had talked to.  He didn’t have the heart to arrest his old chum so he sent someone else to do it.

 

We discussed what conflict existed in this story and the students decided on Jimmy’s internal conflict:

D   Arrest my dear friend

D’  Do not arrest my dear friend

B   Uphold duty as an officer

C   Stay true to my friend

A   Be true to self

 

Assumptions:

In order to uphold duty, he must arrest his friend because:

He has sworn to uphold the law.

It is his duty to citizens.

He would lose his job or get arrested if he didn’t.

It is what is right.

He must be true to his beliefs-upholding law, honesty.

In order to stay true to his friend, he must not arrest his friend because:

Their history goes back a long way.

His friend feels betrayed.

His friend may go to jail.

He may lose a best friend.

He must be true to his beliefs-don’t hurt friends.

 

After much discussion and no clear solution, we tried a Negative Cause and Effect Branch that started with: 

He must be true to his beliefs, with a branch for: Be loyal to friends and another for: Uphold the law.

 

We decided that he actually broke the cloud on both sides since he was true to his beliefs.  He upheld the law and he had someone else arrest his friend, so he was, in a way loyal to Silky Bob.  He didn’t directly hurt Bob.  The students saw this as a good solution and related it to events in their lives.  In fact, a girl came to me later in the week to report that one of her friends had been smoking pot that morning.  She didn’t want her friend to get in trouble, but she was concerned for her friend’s health and safety.  How quickly they can use the TOC tools in their own conflicts!  

 

* This lesson was originally published in TACTics 11/19/99.

 

Networking

(2)        Question…

From Cheryl A. Edwards

 

As we put TACTics together each week, one of our objectives is to provide articles from TOCFE practitioners that can be used as a catalyst to open our imaginations to more and better ways to help children learn. 

 

If we, as educators, are going to be continually held accountable for the performance of our students on standardized test, what do we need to do to help them be more successful on these tests and still maintain the integrity of the learning in our classroom?

 

Is there a controversy/a conflict on the best way to achieve this goal?

 

CONNECTIONS

(3)        Reader Response

 

This (“The Case of the Disruptive Student,” by Belinda Small, TACTics, November 9, 2001) is good.  I have a school that I'm working with that has an extremely dysfunctional family and thus the children are disruptive and many problems.  I plan to share this with them. 

 

Thanks,

Joyce

 

(4)        The 6th International TOCFE Conference

 

Conference dates:          July 8 to July 11, 2002 (July 11 concludes at noon)

Conference Venue:         University of Nottingham in Nottingham, United Kingdom

Location:          Nottingham is approximately 100 miles north of London.  A Nottingham City bus runs at frequent intervals from the conference venue to the center of town and costs around  $1.50. 

TOCFE UK Conference Committee:     Galina Dolya, David Higgins, Linda Trapnell

 

QUOTE

(5)        "Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." —Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

 

EDITORS’ NOTES

(6)        Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

 

To all of you in the TOCFE family, feel free to share with us.  Send your responses, applications of the thinking processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to:  Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719,! USA.  Or send hyperlink to:  redwards@sault.com, or bucknek@earthlink.net.

 

 

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