Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God
Author(s): Lisa Garrigues
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 93, No. 1, Talking Literature (Sep., 2003), pp. 21-28
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3650565
Accessed: 18/10/2009 15:54
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ncte.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
National Council of Teachers of English is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
The English Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
I>I
TALKING LITERATURE I
Lisa Garrigues
Porch
Were
Talk:
Reading
Watching God
Their
Eyes
ZoraNeale Hurston'swork "underscoresthe importanceof the oraltraditionof storytelling,"writes
LisaGarrigues.Usingseveralrelatedactivities,Garriguesexpandsthe discussionof the novel and
entices
high schooljuniorsto participatein PorchTalk.
??qyMnq
very teacherknows the magic of castXs ing a story net on the classroom.Tell
a good story and all eyes are on you,
all faces expectant, all voices hushed.
But once the students have stopped talking, how do
you get them to begin again? How do you harness
the enchantment of storytelling in day-to-day talk
about sharedtexts? In a fast-pacedunit on TheirEyes
WereWatchingGod, my eleventh-grade honors students sat on the porch with the charactersfrom Zora
Neale Hurston's novel, listening and talking, eavesdropping and storytelling. In short, they used their
ears and their mouths to read TheirEyes.
L
A Story about Storytelling
TheirEyesWereWatchingGod is, on one level, a story
about storytelling. When Janie Crawford returns
after a two-year absence to her home in Eatonville,
Florida, she eagerly tells her story to her best friend
Pheoby Watson. A classic frame, Janie's life story
spans nearlyforty yearsbut is told during an evening
visit between the two friends on the steps of Janie's
back porch. At times, Janie speaks in her own voice;
at times, she lets other characters speak for themselves. But for the most part, Janie's story is told by
a third-person narratorwho is, of course, controlled
by the masterstorytellerherself,ZoraNeale Hurston.
Throughout the novel, the readerfeels as though he
or she were eavesdropping on the many storytellers
who sit on the front and back porches of Janie's life.
Zora Neale Hurston was as much an anthropologist as she was a novelist. After studying at
BarnardCollege with the celebrated anthropologist
FranzBoas, she traveled extensively throughout the
southern United States and the Caribbeanto gather
folklore and record the patterns of speech of illiterate, ruralpeople of Africandescent (Parini 15 3). Her
methods were as unorthodox as the material she
amassed.Writes Hurston scholarCarlaKaplan, "Evidently, she cut an unusual figure-a single black
woman driving her own car,toting a gun, sometimes
passing for a bootlegger, offering prize money for the
best stories and 'lies"' (Kinzer 2). Not surprisingly,
the novel she reputedly crafted in just seven weeks
is laced with legends, superstitions, songs, tales,
proverbs, and local lore about the weather, plants,
and animals of the South.
Such a novel, born of folklore and rooted in the
oral tradition of storytelling, begs to be heard and
discussed in the English classroom. Rather than permit my students to be passive receptacles of Janie's
story, I invited them to pull up a chair and join in
Porch Talk. We started by tun.,* . jThroughout
the novel,
ing our earsto Janie'sdialectand
the reader feels as
ended by sharing our own stories in an all-class storytelling.
though he or she were
In between, we listened to the
eavesdropping on the
novel on audiocassette;discussed many storytellers who sit
it in Porch Groups;reflectedon
on the front and back
what we read and heard in our
porches of Janie's life.
notebooks; responded to each
other's entries during Notebook Swaps; wove a Tapestry of Theme Threads from quotes gleaned from
the novel; and, as preparationfor our final PorchTalk,
we welcomed a visiting storyteller who modeled the
English Journal
Vol. 93, No. 1
September 2003
21
Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God
lost art for students as they preparedto tell their own
stories. The unit spanned four weeks and consisted
of fourteen one-hour class periods preceded by a oneday introductory lesson.
Stories from Home
To introduce the unit, I invited students to consider
the ancient tradition of storytelling by asking, "Why
do people tell stories?"Zach, one of the more scholarly students, said that people tell stories to educate
and edify, and he pointed to the Bible as an example.
Sarah,a creative writer, offered up the Greek myths
as evidence of stories that immortalize humansor justify nature. Jared, who likes to provide comic relief
in the classroom, said that stories are strictly for entertainment, and he mentioned ghost stories as
among his favorites. I then asked, "Where do stories
come from?"and students said that stories come from
experience,books, parents,ancestors,history,friends,
nature, fears, dreams, childhood, home.
The poet Georgia Heard believes that we must
begin by telling stories from the home. I read aloud
an excerpt from her memoir WritingtowardHome:
Home is a blueprintof memory.I can drawit for
you. Exactlywhich path went where.Where the
creek curved. Where my sisters' pet ducks are
buried. Alexandria, Virginia.
Thirty miles outside Washington,
Counting on the
D.C. A place we moved to when I
mystique that naturally
was eight, from Germany, where
comes from stories
my father was stationed. Home is
loaded with missing
the smell of the wet undersides of
false
leaves behind our house an
identities,
persons,
earthy rotting acrid smell-and
sketchy diagrams,
the shadow patches of cool that
abandoned cemeteries,
crossed my face like cobwebs as I
and supernatural signs, I ran
through the woods. It's the
to
tell
the
of creek crayfish and thick
smell
proceeded
a storm, it's jumping on
after
mud
story of how Alice
rocks over the creek, sometimes
Walker journeyed to
getting my sneakerswet, it's seekFlorida in 1973 in search
ing the hiding crayfish. It's the
of the unmarked grave of
cool of the backyard in late afternoon. Laddie's ticks. The gutters
Zora Neale Hurston.
rushing with rain during a storm.
The streetlight buzzing on and the bugs speeding
aroundit like I imagine the planets orbiting around
our sun. Something known like breath. Skin is a
kind of home. (1)
22
September 2003
We listed all the places the poet calls home:
Alexandria, Virginia; Germany; the smell of wet
leaves; creek crayfish; jumping over rocks; her
dog; the gutters rushing with rain; breath; skin.
Clearly, "home" does not have to be a place; it can
be a smell, a feeling, a memory,a pet, a person. With
this in mind, students then generated their own
lists of the places they call home. These were as poetic
as Heard's:my grandmother'slap, sleep-away camp
in the Poconos, the brook behind my house, my
maroon-and-white baseball uniform.
Although the students did not yet know it, the
excerptfrom Heard'smemoir speaksto a majortheme
in TheirEyesWereWatchingGod,one I adaptedfor the
Leaving Home, Finding Home, Finding Self unit.
This theme was especially pertinent to my secondsemester juniors who, already knee-deep in the college admissions process, were about to embark on a
journeysimilar to Janie'sas she travelsfrom home to
home in search of her self. At this point, however, I
was interested only in encouraging students to think
of home as a source for stories and themselves as legitimate storytellers.
The final piece of the "into" lesson was an activity called Map Stories, borrowed from Bill Roorbach's WritingLife Stories(24). On 18" x 24" pieces
of newsprint, students drew a map of a neighborhood they call home, "the map [they'vel already
made in [their) heart,"as Georgia Heard advises (2).
Some students sketched the block they live on;
others drew their elementary school, sleep-away
camp, their uncle's farm. I prompted students to
"color"their map with as much detail as possible:
the names of the streets; the locations of shops,
schools, bus stops; where their friends live; the places
of the scary people; the secret meeting places; the
forbidden places. I allotted only fifteen minutes for
students to complete their sketch so that they would
not agonize over any artistic shortcomings.
FlanneryO'Connoronce said, "If nothing happens, it's not a story" (qtd. in Roorbach 24). So I
asked students to circle the places on their map where
something happened.They then "storied"their maps
in small groups, listening for which stories fell flat
and which ones came to life. Finally, students wrote
the first line of a story that emerged from their map
and went home with instructionsto drafta map story.
The objective was for students to begin telling sto-
LisaGarrigues
ries from the text of their own lives, like Janie Crawford, not to produce a polished piece.
The Story behind the Story
With students primed for storytelling, I began the
next class by saying, "Letme tell you a story,"and it
was as if the lights had dimmed and the curtain had
risen. Counting on the mystique that naturally
comes from stories loaded with missing persons,false
identities, sketchy diagrams, abandonedcemeteries,
and supernaturalsigns, I proceeded to tell the story
of how Alice Walker journeyedto Florida in 1973 in
searchof the unmarkedgrave of Zora Neale Hurston.
In the spirit of the novel, I let Walker speak by reading aloud an excerpt from her written account:
We drivepastblocksof small,pastel-colored
houses
andturnrightonto SeventeenthStreet.At the very
end, we reacha tall curvinggate, with the words
"Gardenof HeavenlyRest"fadinginto the stone.I
expected,fromMrs.Patterson'ssmall drawing,to
finda smallcircle-which wouldhaveplacedZora's
gravefive or ten pacesfromthe road.But the "circle" is over an acrelarge and looks more like an
abandonedfield.Tallweedschokethe dirtroadand
scrapeagainstthe sides of the car.It doesn'thelp
eitherthatI stepout into anactiveanthill. (103-4)
I told my class that there, hidden beneath dried
grasses,snakes,and sandspurs,Walkerresurrectednot
only a gravestone but also the reputation of a major
African American novelist whose brief but flamboyant careerended in obscurityand poverty.By now, my
students were not only enchanted;they were curious.
Tuning Our Ears to Their Eyes
Hurston's fiction has been described by some critics
as "written oral art"(Parini 152). How, then, can we
as English teachers liberate the voices from the
printed pages of Their Eyes WereWatchingGod? As
with other texts thick with dialect, it is easier for
students to begin by hearing the natural cadence of
the spoken language than by struggling to decipher
the invented spellings of the written word. This is
especially true in a large class like mine, in which
several students spoke English as a second language
and several others were reluctant readers.I chose the
audio production performed by Ruby Dee, whose
versatility and authenticity bring to life the many
voices in the novel.
After briefly introducing the charactersand the
context, I invited students to listen to a segment of the
book on audiocassette, beginAs with other texts thick
ning two pages into Chapter 2
with the line, "Pheoby'shungry with dialect, it is easier
listening helpedJanie to tell her for students to begin by
story" (Hurston 10). Together, hearing the natural
the class attempted to make
cadence of the spoken
sense of what they had heard,
language than by
asking questions such as, "Why
struggling to decipher
does Nanny not trust Johnny
the
invented spellings
Taylor? Why does she insist
that Janie marry? How does
of the written word.
idea
of
Nanny's
marryingLogan
Killicks differ from Janie's idea of love?" Once the
class had grappledwith these questions, I distributed
the texts. This time students could read along as we
listened to the passage again. Now the questions ran
deeper. "Why does the vision of Logan Killicks desecratethe peartree?What might the peartree signify?
What does Nanny mean when she calls black women
'de mules uh de world'?"
Effortlessly, students were already gaining
facility with the language of the book. Now the work
began. First in pairs using their notebooks and then
as a class using an overhead transparency,students
documented a short lexicon of Janie's dialect (see
fig. 1). Throughout the unit, they expandedand consulted this list-and playfully recited from it-as
they continued to encounter new or unfamiliar constructions. Later, they considered what might have
been lost had Hurston written the novel in conventional English. By the end of their study, their ears
1. A Lexicon of Janie's Dialect
FIGURE
ah
uh
mah
yuh
tuh
youse
dat
wid
kin
'bout
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
I
a
my
you
to
you are
that
with
can
about
dis
dem
'cept
'scuse
yo'
ole
git
mo'
'cause
Lawd
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
this
them
except
excuse
your
old
get
more
because
Lord
English Journal
23
Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God
were so well tuned to Janie's dialect that they could
not imagine it any other way. (A helpful discussion
of "The Dialect Question" can be found in Bushman
and Bushman's Using YoungAdult Literaturein the
EnglishClassroom107.)
By listening to the audiobook every few days,
we never strayedfar from the spoken language of the
story.Teacherand writerNatalie Goldberginsists that
her students stay close to an author'soriginal words.
In Thunderand Lightning,she explains, "Often when
we study a book a good portion of the time is spent
reading parts aloud. I cannot tell you the tenderness
that is evoked when adult students one afterthe other
stand up and read their favorite parts. Everyone becomes attentive" (122). The same thing happens in
high school, but how rarely do we take the time to
read books aloud in English class, especially at the
honorslevel! Listening to the novel on tape is one way,
as Goldberg advises, "to stay close to the heat of the
writer's words" (122). From that energy, the story
comes to life and discussion naturallycombusts.
Porch Talk
The bell is still ringing and students have already
begun talking about last night's reading. Rashida
is offended by the repeated use of the word colored
and the depiction of the characters as stereotypically ignorant. Maggie cannot understand how
Janie, a girl her age, could be forced to marry someone she doesn't know or love. Then Miles groans,
"Is this gonna be one of those 'chick' books?"
Clearly, the class is ready to talk. But how can I direct the discussions to address individual concerns
without digressing into a freeFrom the back porch
for-all? And how can I provide
of Janie's home in
a platform on which every stuEatonville to the front
dent will have a voice-all the
more important in discussions
of
Joe
Starks's
porch
a book whose central
about
general store, the porch
concern is "finding a voice in
is the place for talk and
which to articulate one's story"
storytelling, for power
(Parini 156)?
struggles and friendly
That platform became
banter, for picking the
the porch. In the novel, the
guitar and playing dice.
porch is both the literal and
symbolic setting-the stage on
which the characters perform and the place where
Janie finds her voice. From the back porch of Janie's
24
September 2003
home in Eatonville to the front porch of Joe Starks's
general store, the porch is the place for talk and storytelling, for power struggles and friendly banter,
for picking the guitar and playing dice. In our classroom, then, the porch became the metaphor for how
we talked about the novel. Like Hurston's characters, my students sat on an imaginary porch "and
passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the
othersto look at and see"(48). Insteadof book groups,
they worked in Porch Groups; instead of book talk,
they engaged in Porch Talk.
It is our first day of Porch Talk, and one volunteer from each Porch Group is modeling the discussion for the class in a "fishbowl."Jon has agreed to
be the facilitator; Annie, the log keeper;Megan, the
time keeper. Bryan and Colette know they will need
to volunteer for one of these jobs next time. On the
overhead, I have illuminated the discussion script,
which details today'stopic, the relevantchapters,the
time limit, and two points of discussion with suggested questions (see fig. 2). Students are advised
that they will be expected to craft their own discussion questions in the weeks ahead.
As facilitator,Jon skims the script and begins.
"We've known Janie to be a dreamer and a romantic," he reads. "How do Janie's dreams differ from
Nanny's?"Mostly, Jon sticks to the script, but he is
encouraged to skip a question or invite a student to
interject his or her own. After ten minutes, Megan
advises the group to move to the second point of discussion, Janie's second dream as embodied by Joe
Starks. Bryan challenges the legitimacy of Janie's
marriage to Joe given that she is still married to
Logan. Colette questions Joe's intentions with Janie;
she fearshe might be "justanother bum." The group
ends by agreeing that the roadJanie travels symbolizes the "roadof life"; they predict that there will be
many "forks ahead." All the while, Annie fills out
the discussion log, which she will hand in at the end
of class (see fig. 3).
The discussion scripts modeled for students
how to pose an intelligent, open-ended question and
prompted them to refer to the original text when
formulating a response-skills not all honors students have mastered even by the eleventh grade. As
the unit progressed,however,I graduallyweaned the
class from the scripts and required students to craft
their own questions, providing only the topic of the
day. In the end, the discussion scripts served not as
Lisa Garrigues
FIGURE2. Sample Discussion Script
Discussion Topic: Dreams vs. Reality
3-4
Chapters:
Time Limit:
20 minutes
Janie's first dream: Love is a "blossoming pear tree."
We've known Janie to be a dreamer and a romantic. How do Janie's dreams differ from Nanny's? Does Janie's
marriage to Logan fit her idea of love and marriage as conceived under the pear tree? What key lesson does
Janie learn about the relationship between love and marriage? (It might be helpful to compare pages 10-11
with the last lines on page 24.)
Janie's second dream: "She heard whistling coming down the road."
Now that Janie's first dream is dead, Joe comes along to embody her second dream. Let's read aloud pages 26-27,
from "It was a citified, stylish dressed man ..." to "It had always been his wish and desire to be a big voice. ..."
Describe Joe as we first meet him. Notice the reference to "voice." What does he offer Janie? Why does she
hesitate? We first see Joe "coming down the road," and we later see Janie walking down the road to run off
with Joe. What might "the road" symbolize?
FIGURE3. Sample Discussion Log
For each Porch Talk,assign students the roles of facilitator (discussion leader), time keeper (in charge of pacing the
discussion so that you finish on time) and log keeper (responsible for completing and handing in the discussion log).
Each member of your Porch Group is required to carry out each task at least once by the end of the unit.
Topic:
Facilitator:
Chapters:
Time Keeper:
Time Limit:
Log Keeper:
The question that stumped us ... (huh?)
The question that sparked the best discussion . . . (wow!)
The most thought-provoking answer ... (deep!)
The most controversial comment ... (whoa!)
The comment that made you see something you didn't see before ... (aha!)
English Journal
25
Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God
mandates but as models, not as crutches but as training wheels for students still learning how to talk
about literature.
The Porch Groups met regularly throughout
the unit. As befits a gathering on a porch, the atmosphere was casual; students felt free to lean back
in their chairs or sit up on their desks. But because
there was a time limit and an agenda, the conversations were charged. There was much head shaking,
debate, and laughter.
Conversations on Paper:
The Notebook Swap
In keeping with the theme of the unit, LeavingHome,
Finding Home, Finding Self, I encouragedstudents to
think of their notebooks as a "home"for written reflections. Beginning with the map stories, students
completed a variety of take-home and in-class writings that asked them to explore issues of theme, character, language, and structure. Later on, they used
their notebooks to draft a personalstory for the final
all-class storytelling. The notebooks gave me insight
into each student's journeywith the novel. They also
provided me with an essential tool for assessment in
a unit that produced more oral than written output.
The notebooks were more than just a home for
private reflection, however. They provided another
forum for dialogue. Periodically throughout the
unit, the class held a Notebook Swap, during which
members of each Porch Group responded in writing
to one another'sentries. A variation of the dialogue
journal described in Inside Out (Kirby, Liner, and
Vinz 63), the Notebook Swap gave students a chance
to conduct silent conversations on paper. Original
entries were written only on the right-hand pages so
that students could write their responses on the adjacent left-hand pages. "Visitors"to someone else's
notebookwere advisedto behavethe way a houseguest
would: courteously,respectfully,and neatly. The objective was not to critique or judge one another'swriting, but rather to provide another context-a safer
and more private one-for students to talk about the
text between themselves.
Tapestryof Theme Threads
Like all master storytellers, Zora Neale Hurston
weaves themes into her novel like threads in a ta-
26
September 2003
pestry. Home, voice, dreams, love and marriage,
journeys, power, freedom, stories-these recurring
themes not only provided the focus of discussion
during Porch Talk; they also inspired students to
weave their own Tapestry of Theme Threads. It
began as a large bulletin boardwith two gaping eyes.
At the top of the Tapestry,I mounted ten themes,
from which I hung long pieces of yarn. As students
read the novel, they copied passages onto 3" x 5"
index cards that related to each of the themes (see
fig. 4). Students were requiredto identify the theme,
copy the quotation, provide proper citation, give the
context (who is speaking and what is happening) and
explain the relevance (how the quote relates to the
theme). By the end of the unit, our Tapestrywas filled
with theme cards.Students often hoveredaroundthe
board, reading one another'scards or gesturing to a
particular card as "proof"of a point. While it kept
students close to the original language of the novel,
the Tapestrybecame another site for conversation.
A Classroom of Storytellers
As Janie Crawfordnearsthe end of her story,the class
began preparationsfor our final Porch Talk, an allclass telling of personal stories inspired by the novel.
To help students find their stories, I asked them to
make a list of all the stories they had been told, or
all the stories they tell repeatedly (Goldberg, Bones
78). I then asked students to circle those stories that
spoke to a theme on our Tapestryof Theme Threads.
Dillon's story about his brother'sbeer belly did not
fit, but Jared'sstory of his grandfather'sescape from
4. Theme Card
FIGURE
Lisa Garrigues
Voice
"Youcan tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's
just de same as me 'causemahtongue is in mah
friend'smouf."(page 6)
Context:BeforetellingPheobyher story,Janiegives her
friendpermissionto pass along the informationto the
otherwomen of Eatonvilleat her own discretion.
Relevance:Thisquote introducesthe theme of voice.
Now that Janiehas found herown "voice,"she can
trusta good friendlikePheobyto speakon her behalf.
LisaGarrigues
Germany during the Holocaust related to any number of themes. Several students revisited the map
story they had written at the start of the unit.
We also welcomed to class a visiting storyteller,
Mr. McKeon, who teaches Myth, Legend, and Bible
at the high school. He chose to tell the story of a legendaryslave hero mentioned in Hurston's novel, Big
John de Conquer,adapted from an African American
folktale in ThePeopleCouldFly (Hamilton 107). Mr.
McKeon is skilled at using the resourcesof a professional storyteller: varied tempo and pacing, visual
images, repetition, silence, hand gestures, facial expressions, charactervoices, and audience participation. Students were captivated by the story and its
delivery. "I noticed Mr. McKeon stood up at the
climax," Courtney said, "when the devil almost got
John." Blake was impressed that Mr. McKeon had
"memorized the whole thing" but relieved to learn
that he had improvised some parts on the spot.
Using Mr. McKeon's performanceas a model,
students rehearsedtheir stories in pairs. Annie chose
a story, now a family legend, of an ancestor who
nearlydrowned in MatawanCreek.Jon told the story
of a harrowing pursuit that ended in a close escape
from the Ho-ho-kus police. Kim, who did not want
to share a personal story, told a Korean folktale that
had been passed down from her great-grandparents.
As they listened, students identified the key elements
of each other'sstories (character,setting, conflict, resolution, beginning, and ending) and suggested performance techniques.
Finally, the big day arrived. Students had already received formal invitations to the Porch Talk
that requiredthem to RSVP in advance,and they had
written and submitted a Story Abstract (see fig. 5).
As students walked into the classroom,they were directed to one of several groupings of chairs-the
Front Porch, Back Porch, or Side Porch-and invited
to help themselvesto pink lemonadeand butter cookies. African American folk music played in the background. Several visitors attended, including the
principal of our high school.
I began by connecting our storytelling to the
storytelling in Hurston's novel. By framing the
story ofJanie Crawfordon a porch, I told the class,
the author underscores the importance of the oral
tradition of storytelling. Borrowing Hurston's recurring metaphor of the mule as representative of
the burden of African American women, I sug-
5. Story Abstract
FIGURE
Foryourfinalproject,I inviteeach of you to kickup
yourfeet andjoin in the PorchTalk!As we imagineourselvesseated on the frontporchof Joe Starks'sgeneral
store,you will(1) tell a story,threeto five minutesin
length,that relatesto a theme in the novel;(2) assess
yourpeerson the tellingof theirstories;and (3) submit
a one-page StoryAbstractthat detailsthe information
listedbelow.Yourabstractmustmeet the standardsof
conventionalexcellenceat the same time that it conveys
the followingessentialinformationaboutyourstory.
Nameof Storyteller-You!
Titleof Story-Be creative.
StorySummary-Be sureto touch on the 5 Ws:Who is
the storyabout? Whenand wheredoes it take place?
Whatis the centralconflictand how is it resolved?Why
is the storyworthtelling?
The FirstLine-Rememberour favorites!
The Storyteller-Who areyou, the storyteller?Areyou
a characterin the storylikeJanieCrawford,or are you a
third-personnarratorrecountingsomeone else'sstory?
Credits-Where did the storycome from?Yourgrandmother?Yourfriends?Firsthandexperience?
Purpose-What is the purposeof yourstory?Entertainment or edification?Toexplainor justify?Tofrightenor
soothe? To immortalizean ancestoror preservea memory? Isthere a lessonor a moral?
RelatedTheme-Which theme in ourTapestryof
ThemeThreadsdoes yourstoryecho? Explain.
gested that the storyteller, too, is a kind of mule, a
tribal pack animal who carries her people's stories
from one generation to the next. I told students
that they had come to class carrying a story that in
some way spoke to a theme from the novel. I then
invited them to "kick up [their] feet and join in the
Porch Talk!"And so, like the novel itself, we began
and ended in the same place, with students telling
their stories.
WorksCited
Bushman,John H., and Kay Parks Bushman. Using Young
AdultLiterature
in theEnglishClassroom.
2nd ed. Upper
SaddleRiver:Merrill, 1997.
God.Audiocassette.
Dee, Ruby,perf. TheirEyesWereWatching
Caedmon,2000.
Goldberg, Natalie. Thunderand Lightning:CrackingOpenthe
Writer'sCraft.New York:Bantam, 2000.
English Journal
27
Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God
. WritingDown the Bones:Freeingthe WriterWithin.
Boston: Shambhala,1986.
Hamilton, Virginia. The PeopleCouldFly: AmericanBlack
Folktales.New York:Knopf, 1985.
toFind
Heard,Georgia.WritingtowardHome:TalesandLessons
YourWay.Portsmouth:Heinemann, 1995.
Hurston, Zora Neale. TheirEyesWereWatchingGod. New
York:Harper,1990.
Kinzer,Stephen."FloridaFootstepsof a HarlemGreat."New
YorkTimes.9 May 2002: E1+.
Kirby, Dan, Tom Liner,and Ruth Vinz. InsideOut:DevelopmentalStrategiesfor TeachingWriting.2nd ed. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1988.
Parini,Jay, ed. "ZoraNeale Hurston." AmericanWriters:A
Collection
ofLiteraryBiographies.
SupplementVI. New
York:Scribner's,2001. 149-161.
Roorbach,Bill. WritingLifeStories.Cincinnati:Story, 1998.
Walker,Alice. In Searchof OurMothers'Gardens.San Diego:
Harvest, 1983.
Lisa Garrigues developed the idea of PorchTalkwhile teaching at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey.She
currentlyteaches courses and leads workshops in creativewritingand memoir.email: [email protected].
AuthorJackGantos Is ALANBreakfastSpeaker
Jack Gantos, author of the 2001 Newbery Honor BookJoeyPigza LosesControl,is the speakerfor the Annual
Breakfast of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN), set for Saturday,November
22. His presentation, "On the Road with Jack: BreakfastIncluded," will begin at 8:00 a.m., following breakfast at 7:00 a.m.Joey Pigza SwallowedtheKey,Gantos's first book about Joey Pigza, a young boy with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of Heads
or Tails: Storiesfrom theSixth Gradeand Hole in My Life.
in advance. Tickets requested before
Ordering Tickets: Breakfast tickets must be purchased
November 3 will be mailed to the purchaser; orders postmarked November 3 or later will be returned and
money will be refunded.To order tickets, send a check for $32 payable to ALAN to Gary Salvner,Youngstown
State University, Department of English, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555.
EJ 90 YearsAgo
Literature Must Be Read Aloud
The ability to read aloud so that literature shall be lifted from the dead page of print into complete expression should be far more than it is at present a prerequisite for the teaching of English. Teacherstoo often fail
to appreciate that all real literature is addressed to the mind through the ear, not through the eye-wordsymbols are merely convenient for transmission-and that since this is so, the ear must be appealed to if the
student is to understand literature aright, or to appreciate at all the sensuous beauty which is latent in it.
Horace A. Eaton. "Reading Poetry Aloud." EJ 2.3 (1913): 151-157.
28
September 2003