Task 2: Approaching the Unseen Prose Question (Characterisation)

1) Trigger activity:

Teacher will write the following questions on the white board:

Think of a moment in your childhood where you were forced to do something you did not like. How did it make you feel?

How did you feel about your parents who made you do it? Why do you think your parents may have wanted you to do it?

Students will be given a few minutes to pen their thoughts down and after that, the teacher will call on students to write their answers on the board for discussion.

[This activity is carried out to tap on students' prior knowledge and will also serve as points they can use for their own personal response for the unseen prose used later]

2) Video

The teacher will then play students a video showing a scene from The Joy Luck Club, about Waverly Jong who is a chess champion, and her mother. Waverly seems forced into playing chess and feels some resentment towards her mother for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSoKfVen-9M

[This video actually is the film adaptation of the text and shows part of the unseen passage].

After watching the video, the teacher will elicit response from the students on the following questions:

What is your impression of Waverly and her mother from the video?

Based on your earlier writing, can you identify with the characters?

3) Unseen prose activity

After the discussion, the teacher will give out the following passage to the students.

~*~

I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place. I never visited

the playground where the pigeons and old men gathered. I

went to school, then directly home to learn new chess

secrets, cleverly concealed advantages, more escape

routes.

But I found it difficult to concentrate at home. My mother had a

habit of standing over me while I plotted out my games. I

think she thought of herself as my protective ally. Her lips

would be sealed tight, and after each move I made, a soft

“Hmmmmph” would escape her nose.

“Ma, I can’t practice when you stand there like that,” I said one

day. She retreated to the kitchen and made loud noises with

the pots and pans. When the crashing stopped, I could see

out of the corner of my eye that she was standing in the

doorway. “Hmmmmph” Only this one came out of her tight

throat.

My parents made many concessions to allow me to practice.

One time I complained that the bedroom I shared was so

noisy that I couldn’t think. Thereafter, my brothers slept in

a bed in the living room facing the street. I said I couldn’t

finish my rice; my head didn’t work right when

my stomach was too full. I left the table with half-

finished bowls and nobody complained.

But there was one duty I couldn’t avoid . I had to accompany

my mother on Saturday market days when I had no

tournament to play. My mother would proudly walk

with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. “This is my

daughter Wave-ly Jong,” she said to whoever looked her

way.

One day, after we left a shop I said under my breath, “I wish

you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’m your daughter.”

My mother stopped walking. Crowds of people with heavy

bags pushed past us on the sidewalk, bumping into first

one should, then another.

“Aii-ya. So shame be with mother?” She grasped my hand even

tighter as she glared me.

I looked down. “It’s not that, it’s just so obvious. It’s just so

embarrassing.”

“Embarrass you be my daughter?” Her voice was cracking with

anger.

“That’s now what I meant. That’s now what I said.”

“What you say?”

I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard

my voice speaking. “Why do you have to use me to show

off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn

to play chess.”

My mother’s eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She

had no words for me, just sharp silence.

I felt the wind rushing around my hot ears. I jerked my

hand out of my mother’s tight grasp and spun around,

knocking into an old woman. Her bag of groceries spilled

to the ground.

“Aii-ya! Stupid girl!” my mother and the woman cried. Oranges

and tin cans careened down the sidewalk. As my mother

stooped to help the old woman pick up the escaping food,

I took off.

From The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

~*~

After the trigger activity and watching the video, the students would be able to have a clear

understanding of the passage.

In groups, they are to discuss the following questions, using their own responses from the

previous activities as a springboard to develop their answers.

1) In the first paragraph, the girl, Waverly Jong, tells us that she no longer plays ‘in the alley’ or visits the ‘playground’. Why has she stopped doing these things? Do you think she is happy or unhappy about not doing them?

2) Who do you sympathise with more in the passage: Waverly, or her mother? Give reasons for your views.

In groups, the students will present their answers to the class. The teacher will give

feedback after each presentation.

-Nur Izyan Mohamed Hashim

Bedok View Secondary School.