Talking Like Holden
This course helps you review the characters and events of 'The Catcher in the Rye' using a simple and fun video format. These lessons refresh your memory of important topics while interactive.
- As The Catcher in the Rye's notoriety grew, Salinger gradually withdrew from public view. In 1953, he moved from an apartment at 300 East 57th Street, 82 New York, to Cornish, New Hampshire. Early in his time at Cornish he was relatively sociable, particularly with students at Windsor High School.
- Holden Caulfield. We can’t make up our mind between feeling sorry for him and telling him to just. Phoebe Caulfield. Phoebe—according to Holden—is not.
Kind of Activity:
Group Work
Objective:
To understand how Holden's diction is unique and reveals his character
Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.5 ; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3
Structure:
Choose a passage and have students analyze Holden's word choices and sentence constructions in that particular passage, to create a picture of his speech and what it reveals about his character. Unique speech patterns include: use of the passive voice; use of the second person ('you' instead of 'I'); repeated phrases and words (phony, 'it killed me,' 'listen,' 'crumby,' 'I sort of did X,'...
Today’s Learning Target: Students will create contexts for The Catcher in the Rye’s setting—specifically the cultural values and societal expectations of the upper middle class in the 1950s. Students will strengthen understanding of rebellion and conformity within the novel’s time period.
Directions:
The Catcher In The Ryems. Scrolls Ela Classes For Beginners
- Hand out Dead Poet’s Society & The Catcher in the Rye Intro – Student Handout with the Anthropological Wheel on one side and questions on the other.
- Students should fill in the Anthropological Wheel while watching the film, seeking multiple examples of each trait.
- Clarify any unfamiliar terms and give contemporary examples.
- Offer an overview of the film’s plot. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_poets_society/
- View film through scene where John Keating (Robin Williams’ character) tears the Introduction from the poetry anthology ( ~26 minute mark)
- Allow time to for students to add final thoughts to the Wheel. Then tell students they can use the rest of the class period to work in their triads to answer the Discussion Questions on the other side of the handout.
- We will begin class Thursday by sharing with the class our triads’ responses and general observations from both sides of the handout.
- If students finish before the end of the class, they should read in their books. They should be done with chapter 2 by class tomorrow. If they have already finished chapter 2, they may read ahead.