Page 130 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

hat I remember most of all is washing tram-conductors as the tram stops at a station
4
1
W Leo Tolstoy’s ears. The year is 1989, the and, finally, I jump off.
CLOSE READING Identity mornings of revolution, the year when my birth A cab whooshes by me and abruptly parks at
country begins to fall apart. His ears are larger than the curb. I do not hear the screech of its brakes.
s essay
e of Kaminsky’
The episodic structur
The episodic structure of Kaminsky’s essay, ,
using mostly vignettes or images for each my head; I am standing on the shoulders of a boy This is the Odessa of my childhood: my
of its brief seventeen sections, lends itself who is standing on the shoulders of another boy. father’s lips open, in Proviantskaya Street. I see a
eading strategies. If
to several fruitful close r
to several fruitful close reading strategies. If I am scrubbing the enormous bearded head on a story. He bends to pick up a coin. The story
they read the essay on their own, before a pedestal — in the center of Leo Tolstoy Square, one stops. Then, as he straightens up and smiles at
class discussion, you could have students block from our first apartment. This is childhood: me, it is a story again.
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
annotate it using the Stop and Jot method. Once a year, my classmates and I are sent to the •
That strategy would also work during an center of the square. Our assignment is to wash the
in-class reading, with partners. You might head of a dead writer. We climb on top of one A soldier drags a Jewish child out of the house.
ask students to think about the connec- another’s bodies and scrub Tolstoy’s nostrils, ears. His adopted mother, a Russian woman, is run-
tions between sections as they read, to In the distance, my parents laugh, watching. ning behind the soldiers, half naked, wailing.
help them develop a sense of the line of Their deaf boy climbs and scrubs the enormous Another soldier blocks her. Another soldier
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
reasoning. Some sections link coherently; ears. Behind them, a band of sailors marches slaps her and laughs. The street empties, child’s
the segue between others is sometimes along — Odessa is a seaport, with a large navy toys lying in the snow. The neighbors shut win-
deliberately abrupt. school. The young captain shouts, though I can’t dows. Doors slam. A woman kneels on an
hear him: left, right, left, right. The sailors’ legs empty sidewalk as two soldiers shove her child
TRM Instructional Strategies go up and down, up and down. Aware I see her into the van.
For advice on conducting an
Stop and Jot. For advice on conducting an from my Tolstoy post, my middle-aged, slightly That’s when it happened, my father’s lips 10
effective Stop and Jot, see the Teacher’s heavy mother begins to march at the end of their pause —
Resource Materials. column, her legs high, mimicking their legs, her Out of the snow of Odessa, a fat Ukrainian
skirt flying up, as my father salutes. man appears. What are you doing? You bastards!
• Why are you taking away my child? Give me your
names! You bastards. I will go to the authorities.
I had no hearing aids until I came to America. Your names! His spit flies in the angry air. I want
The Odessa I know is a silent city, where the lan- to see your documents! He can’t stop spitting.
guage is invisibly linked to my father’s lips mov- Soldiers pause, bewildered. This is a child of
ing as I watch his mouth repeat stories again and a Jew — can’t you see?
again. He turns away. The story stops. He looks You morons! Do I look like a Jew? The fat
at me again, but the story has already moved on. Ukrainian stomps his foot, he shakes his large
DIFFERENTIATION Decades later, when I come back to this city, body around the young woman on the pavement.
I don’t feel I have quite returned until I turn my The windows begin to open. Who speaks to
Scaffolding hearing aids off. German soldiers like this in the occupied city?
®
AP Teaching Tip. You could ask students Click — and people’s lips move again, but no 5 People stare. The soldiers steal a look at the win-
to write a brief statement of commentary sound. dows. Now they walk quickly to the van. The
on the effectiveness of Kaminsky’s opening No footsteps of grandmothers running after child is left in the snow.
section. Ask them to explain how the first their grandchildren. No announcements by The fat man gathers the boy in his hands, wraps 15
section “introduces the subject and/or him in an overcoat. I will complain to the authori -
writer of the ar
writer of the argument to the audience” and gument to the audience” and 1 ties! To the woman: a lingering, frenzied kiss. The
Leo Tolstoy (1828‒1910) was a Russian novelist best known for War
how his rhetorical choices “orient, engage, and Peace and Anna Karenina. — Eds. van with soldiers disappears into the streets.
and/or focus the audience” (in the words of
®
the AP Language CED RHS-1.J). Chal- Ilya Kaminsky, “Searching for a Lost Odessa — and a Deaf Childhood,” The New York Times, August 9, 2018. Copyright © 2018 by The New York Times. All
rights reserved. Used under license. https://nytimes.com/
lenge the students to write several sen-
tences of commentary to help develop their tences of commentary to help develop their 236
analytical and writing skills.
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CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
You might have students examine the con-
nection between the second and third sec-
tions to help them understand the essay’s
narrative form. Section 2 ends with the line
“it is a story again” (par. 8), and the third
section begins with another story his father
has told. One implication, then, is that the
spaces between the sections are analogous
to the silences, the moments when “The story
stops” (par. 3). Your students might keep
track of references to silences of all sorts
throughout the essay.

236 chapter 4 / Identity

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