TACTics
Journal
In this week’s issue:
(2) Question…, Cheryl A. Edwards
Quote
(5) Rene Descartes
Editors’
Notes
(6) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
(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.
* This lesson was originally published in TACTics 11/19/99.
(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?
(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
(5) "Each
problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other
problems." —Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
(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.
To view TACTics in its intended
formatting, visit our website at
www.tocforeducation.com and click on “What’s New.”