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education work so hard and overcome multiple obstacles to make sure her daughter is 1
1
enrolled in school? A possible interpretation could be that the people who best understand section 1 / culminating activity
the importance of an education are those who didn’t have the benefit of one. TRM Rubric chapter 1
ompt can be found in the
A rubric for this pr
Point of view can often be a difficult angle to analyze and interpret, but in this story, Interpreting Short Fiction: Defending a Claim with Evidence A rubric for this prompt can be found in the
Teacher’s Resource Materials.
it is especially interesting. The narrator is the daughter, yet she recalls the incident T eacher’ s Resour ce Materials.
from the vantage point of adulthood. We learn some details about how the daughter’s The following is Lydia Davis’s 2001 short story “Blind Date.” In this story, the speaker
understanding of her mother has changed over the years, and we also know quite a relates a friend’s teenage experience with being set up on a date with a boy she did not Section 1 / Culminating Activity
DIFFERENTIATION
bit about the daughter’s understanding of her mother at the time. Consider how your know. Write a paragraph in which you make a defensible claim regarding how Davis DIFFERENTIA TION
knowledge of your own parents’ strength and fallibility has changed as you’ve grown uses characterization to express the friend’s complex attitude toward the experience.
Scaffolding
Analyzing Short Fiction
up. As you experienced people outside of your family and became part of the larger In your paragraph, you should incorporate at least one piece of evidence from the text Scaffolding
Ask students to consider the assigned
world, you likely began to see your parents as humans capable of imperfection. This to support your claim. Ask students to consider the assigned
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
prompt: “Write a paragraph in which you
brings us to a more specific aspect of the narrator’s point of view. She says that these pr ompt: “W rite a paragraph in which you
ding how
egar
make a defensible claim r
events occurred “long before [she] learned to be ashamed of [her] mother” (par. 1). The Blind Date make a defensible claim regarding how
ess
Davis uses characterization to expr
word “learned” seems significant, given this story’s focus on formal education. We think Davis uses characterization to express
the friend’s complex attitude toward the
of education as being “book learning,” but it’s clear that some part of the narrator’s Lydia Davis the friend’ s complex attitude towar d the
experience. In your paragraph, you should
education eventually involves “learning” to be ashamed of her mother. Yet as she’s “There isn’t really much to tell,” she said, but she water and the edge of the woods, each thinking, experience. In your paragraph, you should
incorporate at least one piece of evidence
telling this story, she does not seem ashamed; she seems proud of her mother’s heroic would tell it if I liked. We were sitting in a I was sure, about James Fenimore Cooper. After incorporate at least one piece of evidence
from the text to support your claim.” You
journey, proud that her mother overcame so many obstacles in order to make sure her midtown luncheonette. “I’ve only had one blind some parties of canoers had gone by, older fr om the text to support your claim.” Y ou
may wish to first suggest that complex
may wish to first suggest that complex
daughter had a bright future. So one interpretation of “The First Day” might be that the date in my life. And I didn’t really have it. I can people in canvas boating hats, their quiet voices claims will likely need mor e than one piece
claims will likely need more than one piece
story illustrates how our perspectives of our parents’ identities change over time and think of more interesting situations that are like carrying far over the water to us, we went on of evidence to support the claim. Then,
of evidence to support the claim. Then,
shape our appreciation for the sacrifices they make. Only later in life can we fully reflect a blind date — say, when someone gives you a talking. These were precious days of holiday using “Blind Date,” ask students to create
using “Blind Date,” ask students to cr
eate
upon all the things our parents have done on our behalf. book as a present, when they fix you up with that together, and we were finishing many a T -chart with two r ows and two columns.
a T-chart with two rows and two columns.
As you can see, an interpretation of a text moves beyond an understanding of what book. I was once given a book of essays about unfinished conversations. Ask students to include one characterizing
Ask students to include one characterizing
happens in the story to draw conclusions about the real world. “The First Day,” for reading, writing, book collecting. I felt it was a “I was fifteen or sixteen, I guess,” she said. word in each of the top columns. Then,
wor
d in each of the top columns. Then,
example, suggests something about the role of education in our lives that goes beyond perfect match. I started reading it right away, in “I was home from boarding school. Maybe it was in the second row, ask them to provide
, ask them to pr
in the second r
ow
ovide
this particular five-year-old’s first day in kindergarten. Isn’t this story really about the role the backseat of the car. I stopped listening to the summer. I don’t know where my parents were. support for their claims.
support for their claims.
education can play in parent-child relationships and about the opportunities and conversation in the front. I like to read about They were often away. They often left me alone
how other people read and collect books, even
there, sometimes for the evening, sometimes for
experiences children might have that their parents did not have? Maybe Jones is asking how they shelve their books. But by the time I weeks at a time. The phone rang. It was a boy I TRM Graphic Organizer
A graphic organizer for this activity can be
us to think about what happened later in the narrator’s life as she aged, was successful was done with the book, I had taken a strong didn’t know. He said he was a friend of a boy A graphic or ganizer for this activity can be
eacher’
s Resour
ce Materials.
found in the T
at school, and went on to college. Her mother may be one hundred percent supportive of dislike to the author’s personality. I won’t have from school — I can’t remember who. We talked found in the Teacher’s Resource Materials.
her daughter’s education. Yet as the daughter’s experiences diverge from those of her another date with her!” She laughed. Here we a little and then he asked me if I wanted to have
mother, those very opportunities can divide and separate the two. The narrator looks were interrupted by the waiter, and then a series dinner with him. He sounded nice enough so I
back with obvious love and appreciation for her mother, but Jones does not give us the of incidents followed that kept us from resuming said I would, and we agreed on a day and a time CLOSE READING
story of what took place between “the first day” and the point from which the narrator our conversation that day. and I told him where I lived.
Ask the students to consider how the
remembers it. Recall, however, that the daughter tells us that this “first day” is not just The next time the subject came up, we were “But after I got off the phone, I began Ask the students to consider how the
woman’s reliability affects her story,
about school—it’s also a day she views in relation to her own perception of her mother, sitting in two Adirondack chairs looking out over thinking, worrying. What had this other boy said woman’ s r eliability af fects her story ,
following
especially as they consider the
who she later “learn[s]” to be “ashamed” of. Perhaps the narrator’s education began not a lake in, in fact, the Adirondacks. We were about me? What had the two of them said about especially as they consider the following
phrases: “I was fifteen or sixteen, I guess . . .
phrases: “I was fifteen or sixteen, I guess . . .
just with her first day at school but also this first day of experiencing her mother’s content to sit in silence at first. We were tired. me? Maybe I had some kind of a reputation. Maybe it was summer . . . I don’t know
Maybe it was summer . . . I don’
t know
infallibility and her own first sense of shame. In looking back, the daughter also realizes We had been to the Adirondack Museum that Even now I can’t imagine that what they said wher e my par ents wer e . . . He said he
where my parents were . . . He said he
so much more about the bravery and love in her mother’s actions on the first day of day and seen many things of interest, including was completely pure or innocent — for instance, was a friend of a boy from school — I can’t
was a friend of a boy fr
t
I can’
—
om school
school. In revealing her inability to read and in facing public humiliation, her mother old guide boats and good examples of the that I was pretty and fun to be with. There had to r remember who” (par. 3). Ask students to
emember who” (par
. 3). Ask students to
ensures that the daughter doesn’t ever have to be similarly dependent on others. original Adirondack chair. Now we watched the be something nasty about it, two boys talking write a paragraph in which they addr ess
write a paragraph in which they address
how the woman’
(continued) how the woman’s inclusion or exclusion of
s inclusion or exclusion of
20 21 particular details affect her reliability. Then,
. Then,
fect her r
particular details af
eliability
ask students to shar
ask students to share their paragraphs in
e their paragraphs in
their small groups.
their small gr oups.
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chapter 1 / Culminating Activity 21
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