For most of us teaching seventh-grader English would be similar to teaching flying monkeys to sit. Just thinking about it, we might feel frustrated. But it was not for Miss Smith. For 40 years, she stood in front of her classroom, tapping the blackboard where an inspirational quote was drawn neatly. “Open your notebook and write,” she would instruct. If a student was late, she would simply say, “Write about why you are late today.” The content and style didn’t matter. It was the connection of thought to paper that was the aim.
If you write long enough, these thoughts will turn into feelings and feelings on paper become visible, clear enough to examine. The anxiety of seventh-graders, the puberty (青春期) crisis and the mixture of emotions need a way out. Miss Smith knew that. She knew her teenage students needed to develop their own guidance systems, or they needed to deal with the forces that surrounded them.
The quotes Miss Smith carefully wrote on the chalkboard were inspirational, and could encourage self-reflection. Most of the notebooks were filled with silly nonsense, like looking forward to pancakes for lunch, or worse, line after line stating that they didn’t know what to write then. Regardless of those, Miss Smith read every entry and in neat red handwriting, wrote notes of encouragement and praise.
She would read Shakespeare and ask how Romeo must have felt about being rejected by his friends and family. The characters in the literature gave students permission to get emotional growth in a safe way, and the words inside those notebooks became more and more personal as time went on. Those who used to be problem students and need saving later became journalists and fiction writers.
No one would disagree that she made every student feel they are not only what they are now but they are more. That point drove them to work hard and see what that “more” was going to be. This is the greatest charm of Miss Smith.
4. What can be learned about Miss Smith?
A.She was easy to get frustrated with her job. |
B.She always got students to express feelings by writing. |
C.She was assigned to teach the worst class in the school. |
D.She had taught the English writing course for forty years. |
5. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to?
A.The advantages of recording life on paper. |
B.The importance of puberty for a child’s development. |
C.The difficulty of understanding and guarding children’s rights. |
D.The characteristics of teenage children and the coping methods. |
6. What’s the feature of the sentences in most students’ original notebooks?
A.They’re nearly meaningless. |
B.They’re quotes from famous people. |
C.They’ re a great encouragement to students. |
D.They’ re inspirational and set people thinking. |
7. What’s the author mainly trying to show in Paragraph 4?
A.Miss Smith treats her students equally. |
B.Miss Smith has a wide knowledge of literature. |
C.Miss Smith’s teaching methods turn out successful. |
D.Miss Smith teaches students according to their potential. |