TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
In this week’s issue:
Correction Please!
(1)
Last Week’s TACTics, Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
Elementary/Secondary TACTics
(2)
Poetry and the Theory of Constraints, Mike Round
Connections
(3)
8th Annual TOCFE Conference
Editors’ Notes
(4)
Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
CORRECTION PLEASE!
(1) Last
Week’s TACTics
From
Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
We
would like to make a correction to the article entitled “TOC is Fun,”
which
was published in last week’s edition of TACTics.
The credit to that
article
goes to Francois Moll (instead of Knoll) from
been
with TOCFE for many years. Our sincere apologies go to Francois Moll
and
anyone in which we unintentionally may have offended.
ELEMENTARY/SECONDARY TACTICS
(2) Poetry
and the Theory of Constraints
From
Michael Round, TOCFE Director,
MY
AMBITIOUS TARGET
I’m
already updating my prior statement about “poetry being hard to
understand,”
poetry is VERY EASY to understand. I was just never taught
how
to understand it.
My
Ambitious Target 2003-2004 Poetry Goal remains to learn 20 of the
“great”
poems.
• What
is the poem about?
• Are
the poet’s words meant literally, metaphorically, or a combination?
• Why
has the poet written this poem?
• What
is the significance of this poem?
• How
can I use this poem in my daily life?
• And
how can the logical steps, the evaporating cloud, and the ambitious
target
be used in this learning process?
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
By Walt Whitman
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores
a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead
THE CONTEXT
The
seceding
southern states against the remaining northern states of the
Immediately
after the conclusion of the war, President Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated.
WHITMAN’S
AMBITIOUS TARGET
IF:
The
AND
IF: As a poet, I often describe events metaphorically;
THEN:
I will write a metaphorical poem about the war, the President, and
my
reaction to the President’s sudden death.
IF:
I have in my mind a sea-going vessel returning from war, with the
President
as Ship Captain, to a shore lined with cheering citizens;
AND
IF: I will write a metaphorical poem about the war, the President, and
my
reaction to the President’s sudden death;
THEN:
I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the Civil War,
the
assassination
of the President, and my reaction to the President’s sudden
death.
NECESSARY
CONDITIONS
My
Ambitious Target: I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the
Civil
War,
the assassination of the President, and my reaction to the President’s
sudden
death.
A
necessary condition to meet my Ambitious Target is:
I
must write about the Civil War and the reuniting of the
Confederate
States.
Another
necessary condition to meet my Ambitious Target is:
I
must write about the celebration of war’s conclusion.
The
final necessary condition I must meet is:
I
must write about my reactions to the death of the President—ranging
from
denial to acceptance.
All
three of these conditions must be met for me to reach my goal.
THE
TRANSITION
Necessary Condition #1-
IF:
I must write about the Civil War and the reuniting of the
Confederate
States
Ambitious
Target:
AND
IF: I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the Civil War,
the
assassination
of the President, and my reaction to the President’s sudden
death;
THEN:
The Civil War is analogous to a FEARFUL TRIP,
the reuniting of the
Union
and Confederate States the PRIZE, the
President
the CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP.
O
CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The
ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The
ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From
fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Necessary Condition #2-
IF:
I must write about the celebration of war’s conclusion;
Ambitious
Target:
AND
IF: I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the Civil War,
the
assassination
of the President, and my reaction to the President’s sudden
death;
THEN:
Crowds of people display immense enthusiasm at the conclusion (and
victory)
of a hard-fought battle.
The
port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While
follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
Rise
up (Captain)—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills
For
you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
Exult,
O shores, and ring, O bells!
Necessary Condition #3-
IF:
I must write about my reactions to the death of the President –
ranging
from
Denial to Acceptance;
Ambitious
Target:
AND
IF: I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the Civil War,
the
assassination
of the President, and my reaction to the President’s sudden
death;
THEN:
Many people, myself included, first sink into a state of “Denial”
about
the death of a loved one.
But
O heart! heart! heart!
O
the bleeding drops of red,
Where
on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen
cold and dead.
Captain!
my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Here
Captain! dear father!
This
arm beneath your head;
It
is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve
fallen cold and dead.
Necessary Condition #4-
IF:
I must write about my reactions to the death of the President –
ranging
from
Denial to Acceptance;
Ambitious
Target:
AND
IF: I will write a sea-going metaphorical poem about the Civil War,
the
assassination
of the President, and my reaction to the President’s sudden
death;
THEN:
After first denying death, we come to accept the death of our lost
one.
My
Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My
father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
But
I, with mournful tread,
Walk
the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen
cold and dead
POETIC
CREATION
Since
the “necessary conditions” are not independent events, but events
occurring
simultaneously, I intermix the prose to arrive at the final product.
CONNECTIONS
(3) 8th Annual TOCFE Conference
Location:
Dates: Thursday, May 20 -
Conference: Intercontinental Hotel in New
Conference Fees: $50 (covers cost: 8 coffee
breaks, 4 sandwich lunches)
Accommodations: Jugoslavija Hotel
•
Single room: $42 to $62
•
Double room: $60 to $90
•
Breakfast included
• Room rates depend on how recently rooms have been renovated
• All prices are in
If
you would like to book rooms at the Jugoslavija Hotel, you can do that
through
the Miross Travel Agency.
The person to contact is:
Ms.
Dobrila Puzic
dobrila@miross.co.yu
Miross
Travel Agency
Svetogorska
4,
Tel/Fax:
+381 11 33 44 945
+381
11 33 44 510
+381
11 33 44 529
EDITORS’ NOTES
(4) Kay
Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
We
would like to thank Mike Round for sharing a most creative application of
the
tools; he proves that the tools are only limited by our imaginations.
Mike’s
article was originally done as a PowerPoint presentation, which we
have
attached along with our weekly pdf version of TACTics
this week. We
appreciate
Mike’s generosity and hope this will be of benefit to you.
Remember,
you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the pdf file. It is
freely
available for download from:
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
If
you have the Reader installed but still can't open the file, drag it from
this
e-mail to your desktop, launch the Reader, and open from the FILE menu.
You
may also view TACTics in
its intended formatting, by visiting our web
site
at www.tocforeducation.com. Click on “What’s New.”
Feel
free to share with us. Send your responses, applications of the thinking
processes,
lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards,
to
cedwards@cedarville.net
or kayseal@comcast.net.