Málfríður - 15.10.1989, Qupperneq 16

every page and to expect a vo-
cabulary “test” during the next class.
(Verkefni A).
QUESTIONS
For the class itself I followed Nut-
tall’s guidelines on questions (Teach-
ing Reading Skills in a Foreign
Language) and composed a sheet of
questions, intended rathe to help the
students understand the story than to
test whether they had understood it
on a first reading.
Questions a) — e) are concerned
with literal comprehension of the text.
They all require either one-word or
very short answers. Some essential
elements of the story are gone over,
such as who “Auntie” is and where
the story takes place.
Questions f) — i) are reinterpre-
tation questions, in which facts must
be put together from various parts of
the story. We understand, for ex-
ample, that Jack is young enough to
be interested in a playground, but not
so young that he has already for-
gotten his previous Auntie of almost a
year ago. Nonetheless he is not too
old to want to sit on Auntie’s knee, all
of which must lead us to the assump-
tion that he is probably nearer 5 years
old than 2 or 9.
Questions j) — m) have to do with
inference. It is necessary to read be-
tween the lines to see why Auntie
becomes angry with Jack (it is not
simply because she wastes her
money buying him an ice-cream he
doesn’t eat, but rather because of the
embarrassment he causes her).
The students work in pairs again
for about 15 minutes and note down
the answers to the questions on the
sheet. The questions are then gone
over in class, possibly with the stu-
dents asking and answering each
other. Questions j) — m) will proba-
bly need some discussion and stu-
dents should be encouraged to
exchange ideas and defend their opin-
ions. Questions k) for example, may
only elicit the answer “I just don’t
think she likes children” or “She’s
just horrible”, but students can be
encouraged to back up these im-
pressions by noting the harsh way in
which Auntie addresses Jack (“Eat,
child. Eat.”), and the fact that she her-
self does not appear to be eating or
drinking anything but has a news-
paper with her, implying that she
has planned on reading the paper
while he eats instead of having some-
thing herself to keep him company.
Students will only consider the impli-
cations of details such as these if they
are obliged to defend their own
stance on the story.
These thirteen questions, then,
deal with textual comprehension. By
the time these questions have been
prepared and gone over the students
should have grasped all the main ele-
ments of the story, both the basic
story-line and the less obvious, but
equally important, details. If there are
obvious gaps in understanding (for ex-
ample, a student thinks that the story
takes place in January, or that the two
characters are feeling better at the
end of the story because they have
enjoyed their ice-creams) attention
can be drawn to specific passages or
class discussions can be initiated to
elucidate these problem areas.
After this, the class divides up for
pair-work again and question n),
which concerns evaluation, is con-
sidered. This question is based on the
collection of short stories as a whole
and calls for an assessment of the
sentiments expressed in The Ice
Cream. Each pair tries to come to an
agreement on which of the feelings of
love, hope and fear one of the charac-
ters shows, and in regard to what.
Here the teacher should move be-
tween the pairs of students and offer
help where necessary, since this ques-
tion is far more complex than the
comprehension questions and calls
for more deeply analytical thought.
Some students will think in literal
terms and maintain that Jack loves
ice cream, while others will think on
a deeper level and understand that he
wants and needs love himself. The
teacher can be instrumental in help-
ing the students develop a less con-
crete, more abstract manner of thinking
by pointing out that the emotions in
question do not have to be directed
solely to tangible objects.
I list below further examples of an-
swers which I obtained from my two
groups. They illustrate clearly the
wide spectrum of levels of thinking
about a story which students dem-
onstrate. Jack — loves ice cream,
wants to be loved, knows that Auntie
doesn 't love him, hopes his next Aunt-
ie will buy him a big ice cream, hopes
he won’t see this Auntie again, fears
Auntie, fears she will take him out
again. Auntie — loves being seen
doing good, doesn’t love anything,
hopes she won’t have to take Jack out
again, hopes her next little boy will
be grateful and do as she tells him,
fears Jack, doesn ’t fear anything.
When each pair has noted down
which feelings their character shows,
and about what, they get together
with a pair who has taken the other
character and exchange ideas. This
way they cover both characters but
there is no risk of them not having
time to finish considering them both.
This question could take ten to fifteen
minutes.
Question o) concerns personal
response to the text, and can be done
in a variety of ways, depending a) on
how much time is left and b) on the
composition of the class. With one
class the teacher may want to elicit
group discussion, while a short writ-
ing exercise may suit another class
better.
When I took this story I had already
grouped the students in fours (to dis-
cuss guestion n)) and so left them in
those groups. Each foursome was
divided into two pairs and the pairs
worked on their own for a few minut-
es and then compared notes, to see
whether what Pair 1 had planned to
do coincided with what Pair 2 wanted
to do. I hoped this would be a re-
laxing exercise for late on a Friday aft-
ernoon!
Nuttall (Teaching Reading Skills in
a Foreign Language, 1982) says, “Nev-
ertheless, such (personal) responses
cannot ignore the textual evidence;
they do not rely only on the reader,
but essentially involve him with the
writer”. This is a valid point, and I
encouraged the students to think in
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