KILGORE TEACHING STRATEGY FORM

Text: ‘Girl’ by Jamaica Kincaid

I. Learning Objectives
At the end of the 90-minute interactive discussion, at least 80% of the students are expected to have:
a. described how the persona’s mother was characterized in the short story;
b. demonstrated understanding (through the worksheet and the activities) of how culture might have played a part in the
mother’s strict advice;
c. explained how the story, as much as a clever retelling of the mother-daughter conversation, also serves as Kincaid’s
subtle critique of the culture she grew up in; and
d. compared the persona’s culture with values held important in Philippine society.

II. Rationale

In Tarsem Singh’s 2006 film The Fall, a stuntman named Roy Walker, while hospitalized, befriends a little girl named
Alexandria and entertains her with a tale of fantasy. Alexandria, using her imagination, envisions the characters in Roy’s story as
the people she sees around her. It is through this personalization of the text that she develops sympathy for the characters.

This interesting phenomenon is something that is not exclusive to Alexandria. We as well, when faced with literature that
come from cultures other than our own, may automatically and unknowingly use such strategies. We interpret the text in terms
of our own schema and through the lens of our culture. Or perhaps, we imagine the other culture rather vaguely. While one
huge appeal of literature is that it is universal, sometimes this is not enough, and overlooking the cultural aspects that play a part
in a text can cause us to miss out on so much.

As more and more texts from various cultures get included in the reading lists of English/literature classrooms, the need
for a cultural approach to teaching literature also grows. As Dong (2005) stressed, the inclusion of more texts from diverse
backgrounds is more than just an expansion of the reading list; it also entails an expansion of attitudes and views and an
expansion of teaching strategies used to teach these texts. Traditional methods of English instruction lack effectiveness when
applied to multicultural texts.
 Dong argues for a cultural-response approach to teaching these texts as opposed to the reader-response approach. While
the reader-response approach focuses on the students’ personalizing of the text, the culture-response approach encourages
students to consider the context and the culture surrounding the text. He* observed that when exposed to texts from other
cultures, students’ discussions had a tendency to be ethnocentric. They overlook the cultural context and prefer to stick to their
own perspectives.

It serves as a win-win situation. By using a cultural approach to teaching literature, not only do students gain the
opportunity to broaden their knowledge of other cultures but they also get the chance to deepen their understanding of the
characters in a short story or the imagery in a poem by examining the factors in culture and in context that may have played a
part in it, as well as by taking a moment to consider how their own cultural background may be influencing the way they read
and react to a text.

In light of this, this lesson plan aims to incorporate a cross-cultural approach in reading Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’, a short
story (although some consider it a prose poem) that students encounter in English/literature classes. The story is a mother-
daughter conversation that features mainly the mother’s admonitions to her daughter. Since this is something that has universal
appeal – most of us have experienced being rebuked by our parents – there is a tendency to not go beyond that. More often than
not, the text is dismissed as just a girl or a young woman’s retelling of her mother’s harsh pieces of advice, and little focus is
placed on the huge part that the culture surrounding that conversation may have played. By isolating the conversation from the
culture that may have influenced the text, so much meaning is overlooked and lost. The story – especially the mother – may
even be misunderstood.

Reading the story ethnocentrically may lead the student to think that the mother is cold, harsh and unloving. However,
understanding the culture might encourage the readers to sympathize more with her and understand that she may be like this not
because of her own choosing, but because of the culture that shaped her and that she, too, is passing on to her daughter. The
text is not a mere expression of the daughter’s frustration over the kind of discipline her mother exercised over her; it can also
serve as a subtle – but a powerful one at that – of the strict societal norms in their (and in many other cultures). The force of
the recurring lines about singing benna in Sunday school may also be missed if one does not understand what benna is and what
role it plays in Antiguan culture.

In order to bridge these gaps, this lesson uses a number of strategies suggested by Lazar (1993). Attention is given to
social structures, roles and relationships (such as gender roles and parental relations), representativeness (to what subgroup of
society do the persona and her family belong to?), objects or products that exist in one society but not in another (such as
benna).

Strategies also include personalizing the text (the students will reflect on their own relationships with their parents and
compare it with the persona’s), providing explanations or glosses or providing cultural background information as
reading/listening comprehension (the report on Antiguan culture at the beginning of the session), asking students to infer
cultural information (through the worksheet and the discussion), and extension activities (asking the students to role play a
possible mother-daughter confrontation/reconciliation in the future).

In the role play, students are encouraged to let the persona’s character talk about gender roles, societal norms and the
value placed seeming reputable (‘pakitang tao’, something that Filipinos might be able to relate to)

III. Learning Experiences (based on the Kilgore teaching strategy form)

ACTIVITY PURPOSE EXPECTED EXPECTED MATERIALS

STUDENT BEHAVIOR TEACHER BEHAVIOR
PRE-READING
Report about the life of To acquaint students A student or a pair of The teacher will PowerPoint
Jamaica Kincaid and with Jamaica Kincaid students will briefly connect the Presentation
life in Antigua and with life in report about the life of information about
Antigua, especially Jamaica Kincaid, life in Jamaica Kincaid and
since Kincaid’s writings Antigua, and about the Antigua to the short
are usually based on her British colonization in story ‘Girl’. The teacher
own experiences in Antigua. (For each new will also ask the
Antigua. author discussed in students about how
class, a student or a pair their own mothers give
of students is assigned them advice, and then
to report. Everyone has introduce the story.
a chance to report.)
READING
Worksheets (attached) To encourage students The students will group After the students have Worksheets
 to pay attention to themselves, and as a answered the Copies of the short
detail and read between group, they will answer worksheets, the teacher story
the lines. the worksheet. will facilitate the
discussion on the items.
POST-READING
Discussion To allow the students The students will share The teacher will
to express their own their ideas and insights. facilitate the discussion
observations, ideas and Each group must be through asking the
insights and as a class, represented. following questions:
delve deeper into the 1) What does the
text. text imply about
gender roles in
the society?
About societal
norms?
2) What is benna?
Sunday school?
Why is it not
acceptable to
sing benna in
Sunday school?
3) How would you
describe the
story’s tone?
4) Which lines
strike you the
most? Which
lines can you
relate to the
most? If you
were the
 persona, how
would you feel?
5) Can you blame
the mother for
being so strict?
Role play To encourage students Two volunteers will act The teacher will Students’ prepared
to put themselves in the out the following facilitate. script
characters’ shoes and scenario (the third item
thus better understand in the worksheet): The
them, especially the persona ran away from
perspective of the home. Years later,
mother, as well as to be mother and daughter
creative and think meet again. The
beyond the text. daughter confronts the
mother, and the mother
explains herself. How
would the conversation
play out?
Synthesis To allow the students Volunteers from each The teacher will
to express how they group will share what facilitate.
feel and think after they feel and what they
reading the stories and have learned from the
participating in the text.
activities.

IV. References

Lazar, G. (1993). Reading literature cross-culturally. In Literature and Language Teaching. (pp. 62-70). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Dong, Y. R. (2005, December). Bridging the cultural gap by teaching multicultural literature. In The Educational Forum (Vol.
69, No. 4, pp. 367-382). Taylor & Francis Group.
 GIRL
Jamaica Kincaid

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the much; this is how you smile to someone you like completely;
stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them this is how to set a table for tea; this is how to set a table for
on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun; dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an
cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is
clothes right after you take them off, when buying cotton to how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in
make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this
on it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned
soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you you against becoming; be sure to wash everyday, even if it is
sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles – you
way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers – you
try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds,
becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you musn’t because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to
speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good
eat fruit on the street – flies will follow you; but I don’t sing medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a
benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a
hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on
prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies
bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there
shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad
your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel
this is how you grow okra – far from the house, because like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall
okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, on you; this is how to make both ends meet; always squeeze
make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me
itch when you are eating; this is how you sweep a corner; feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really
this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near
a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too the bread?
Names: _________________________________________________________ Section:_______ Date:_____________

As a group, answer the following exercises. You may want to divide the task among the members to facilitate efficiency.

What do the following lines reveal about the mother’s character?

on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming
this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the
slut I have warned you against becoming

this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child

this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you

What does the text imply about gender roles in the persona’s society? Cite some lines.

Consider the following scenario: the persona ran away from home. Years later, mother and daughter meet again. The
daughter confronts the mother and the mother explains herself. How do you think the conversation would play out?
Write a short script below. You may use the back of the sheet for more space.