Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Ms. Gayle, and we'll be introducing the short story, "Ten Minutes' Musing" by Alice Dunbar Nelson today.

Please take a moment to clear any distractions away and now make sure you have everything you need at hand.

Then I'd like you to write down our title for today.

"Ten Minutes' Musing" by Alice Dunbar Nelson.

So we're going to begin with a brief introduction to the context of the story, and then we'll focus on reading for meaning and developing our initial interpretations of the story before then going on to complete our review quiz.

So what can you remember about short stories? A short story is one with a fully developed theme, but one which is shorter and less elaborate than a novel.

The short story we're going to read today is by this lady, Alice Dunbar Nelson, who is an African American writer, poet and political activist for civil rights, women's rights and women's suffrage, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.

She was part of the first generation of Black Americans to be born free in the South after slavery had ended, following the American Civil War.

And most importantly, she was part of an artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

This was a rich cultural, intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centred in Harlem, in New York City.

She published the story we're going to read today when she was just 20 years old and in her life, she works as a teacher as well as being a published writer.

So after our introduction to Alice Dunbar Nelson, I'd like you to just pause the video, and add some of these things to your notes.

Well done.

Alice Dunbar Nelson was an African American writer, poet and political activist.

She was part of an artistic movement called the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural and social movement of mainly black artists and writers in the 1920s.

Now, the story we're going to read today is called "Ten minutes' Musing".

What might you expect from a story with a title like this? Well, musing means a period of reflection or thought.

So as you might have guessed, part of the story's purpose is to provide the narrator with an opportunity to think and reflect about the world.

So we're going to read the short story.

And it was first published in an anthology called "Violets and Other Tales" in 1895.

It's set in a schoolyard at break time.

Now there might be some vocabulary in the story that was unfamiliar to you, but hopefully as we read it, you can use the glossary provided on your screen to check any words that you don't understand.

"There was a terrible noise in the schoolyard at intermission; peeping out the windows the boys could be seen huddled in an immense bunch in the middle of the yard.

It looked like a fight, a mob, a knock-down, anything.

So we rushed out to the door hastily, fearfully, ready to scold, punish, console, frown, bind up broken heads or drag wounded forms from the melee as the case may be.

Nearly every boy in the school was in that seething, swarming mass, and those who weren't were standing around on the edges, screaming and throwing up their hats in hilarious excitement.

It was a mob, a fearful mob, but a mob apparently with a vigorous and well-defined purpose.

It was a mob that screamed and howled and kicked and yelled and sheltered and perspired and squirmed and wriggled and pushed and threatened and poured itself all seemingly upon some central object.

It was a mob that had an aim, that was determined to accomplish that aim.

Even when the whole azure expanse of sky fell upon them.

It was a mob with set muscles, straining like whip-cords, eyes on that central object and with heads inward and sturdy legs outwards like prairie horses reversed in a battle.

The cheerers and hat throwers on the outside were mirthful, but the mob was not.

It howled, but howled without any cachinnation.

It struggled for mastery.

Some fell and were trampled over, some weaker ones were even tossed in the air, but the mob never deigned to trouble itself about such trivialities.

It was an interesting nervous whole with divers parts of separate vitality.

In alarm I looked about for the principal.

He was standing at a safe distance with his hands in his pockets, watching the seething mass with a broad smile.

At sight of my perplexed expression, someone was about to venture an explanation, when there was a wild yell, a sudden vehement disintegration of the mass, a mighty rush and clutch at a dark object bobbing in the air.

And the mist cleared from my intellect.

As I realised it all, football.

Did you ever stop to see the analogy between a game of football and the interesting little game called life, which we play every day? There is one, far-fetched as it may seem though for that matter, life's game being one of desperate chances and strategic moves is analogous to anything.

But if we could get out of ourselves and soar above the world far enough to view the mass between.

But if we could get out of ourselves and soar above the world far enough to view the mass beneath in its daily struggles and near enough the hearts of the people to feel the throbs beneath their boldly carried exteriors, the whole would seem naught but such a maddening rush and senseless-looking crushing.

"We are but children of a larger growth" after all, and our ceaseless pursuing after the baubles of this earth are but the struggles for precedence in the business playground.

The football is money.

See how the mass rushes after it.

Everyone is so intent upon his pursuit until all else dwindles into ridiculous nonentity.

The weaker ones go down in the mad pursuit, and are unmercifully trampled upon, but no matter, what is the difference if the foremost win the coveted prize and carry it off.

See the big boy in front, he with the iron grip and determined, compressed lips? That boy is a type of the big merciless man, the Gradgrind of the latter century.

His face is set towards the ball, and even though he may crush a dozen small boys, he'll make his way through the mob and come out triumphant.

And he'll be the victor longer than anyone else, in spite of the envy and fighting and pushing about him.

To an observer, alike unintelligent about the rules of a football game and the conditions which govern the barter and exchange and fluctuations of the world's money market, there is as much difference between the sight of a mass of boys on a playground, losing their equilibrium over a spheroid of rubber and a mass of men losing their coolness and temper and mental and nervous balance on change as there is between a pine sapling and a mighty forest king, merely a difference of age.

The mighty, seething, intensely concentrated mass in its emphatic tendency to one point is the same, in the utter disregard of mental and physical welfare.

The momentary triumphs of transitory possessions impress a casual looker-on with the same fearful idea, that the human race, after all, is savage to the core, and cultivates its savagery in an inflated happiness at its own nearness to perfection.

But the bell clangs sharply, the overheated, nervous, tingling boys fall into line.

And the sudden transition from massing disorder to military precision cuts shot the 10 minutes' musing." Now that you've read the story, what do you think it's about? Do you think it's about a teacher watching a fight in the school playground? Is it about a football match? Is it about human nature? Is it about money, inequality and greed, or is it about something else? I think you could argue that it is about all of these things on your screen.

It's about a teacher watching a fight in the school playground, which she then realises is just a football match played by some overenthusiastic boys.

As she muses over the course of break time, she considers how similar the zeal and passion of the boys' desire to win the ball is to business, ambition and greed.

And she starts to reflect on human nature.

Now the narrator very helpfully has a clear first person voice in the story and her thoughts and reflections are shared with the reader.

So in the middle of the story, it reads almost like a persuasive essay, doesn't it? There are lots of interesting structural things we could talk about, but today our focus is on ensuring that we have our own interpretation of the story and what we think it explores.

So, how did the story make you feel? Hello.

Look at the words on the screen.

Perhaps that might reflect your feelings about the story.

Perhaps not.

Feel free to use your own words as you complete that sentence data on your screen.

The story made me feel thoughtful and reflective because although begins and ends with a realistic description of a school playground, it quickly becomes quite thoughtful and reflective itself.

And that's why it's called "Ten Minutes' Musing." So what are the key themes in the story? Take a moment to write down what you think the key themes or ideas that the story explores might be.

So remember a theme is a recurring or central idea, and I'd say that there's three key things that this story uses that are reflection on the football game as a sort of metaphor for.

The first one is power.

The writer reflects on how the stronger, merciless boys win the ball and therefore win power.

And she makes that connection between the game of football and the game of life where the powerful are the ones that succeed.

I also think this story is a metaphor for human nature and that seething mob represents the savage nature of human desire.

Everything that the boys want is represented by that football that they're all striving for.

And then thirdly, I think that the story explores the theme of ambition and desire.

Because the teacher associates the football match and the desire to win with money, greed and ambition.

I'd like you to take a moment to note down those key themes, along with anything else that you think that this story might be about or might represent.

We're going to take a quick look now at some of the key things in the story that you need to understand before we go any further with our interpretations.

So we'll look at the comprehension of the basic facts and ideas that the story covers.

Firstly, where is the story set? Pause the video and complete the sentence stem on your screen.

The story is set in a school playground at intermission or break time.

The narrator is surrounded by the noise and chaos of children playing.

And the entire story plays out over the 10 minutes of playtime finishing as the school bell rings.

Who are the key characters? Again, complete the sentence on your screen.

The main characters are a teacher who is also the narrator who shares her thoughts and reflections as she watches what seems to be a fight between a group of boys, but obviously turns out to be a game of football.

How would you describe the boys as they play football? Again, complete the sentence on your screen.

The boys playing football are noisy, angry, and aggressive.

They're no longer individuals, but seem to have become a seething mob.

What happens when the narrator tries to look for the principal? Again, complete the sentence on your screen.

When the narrator tries to look for the principal, she sees him watching with a broad smile and is confused about why he doesn't stop the fight until she realises they are playing football.

What I'd like you to do now is to check your understanding of some key extracts from the story.

We're going to reread some of the key extracts, and I'd like you to select the quotations which emphasise some of the key ideas that the story explores.

Here's the first.

Which words or phrases in this section suggest that the teachers are panicked by what they see and hear in the yard? Hopefully you picked up this phrase.

"We rushed out to the door hastily, fearfully." Because it shows the teachers' concern.

They're worried about the immense bunch of boys.

The writer uses adverbials to emphasise how swiftly the teachers felt the need to act.

The list also shows how ready they are to step in and intervene.

I wonder if you've ever been in a football match that's got a bit out of hand.

Here's the next example, read the extract and then think about which words or phrases suggest that the boys are out of control.

The boys are in a seething mass, a fearful mob and are screaming and throwing up their hats in excitement.

And that shows with these verbs that they've almost lost control of themselves and have become this chaotic mob who are no longer individuals.

Here's the next example.

Read the extract, pause the video and think about what the writer suggests that football is analogous or similar to.

The writer makes the connection and emphasises the connection between football and the little game called life, which we play every day.

So she's using football and the game of football, the way that people behave whilst playing it as a metaphor throughout the story for the way that the world works and the way that life works.

Here's the next example, which words or phrases suggest that the weaker ones will suffer at the hands of the strong? Well, the narrator sees the big boy in front as a symbol of power.

And it says at the beginning of that paragraph, "the weaker ones go down in mad pursuit and are unmercifully trampled upon." And then describes the big boy with his iron grip and determined, compressed lips, a type of a big merciless man, the Gradgrind of the latter century.

And she compares him to Gradgrind who is a greedy and merciless businessmen from the Charles Dickens novel, "Hard Times." She sees young people.

She sees the young people she teaches as a microcosm of the wider society where the weaker ones are trampled upon and the strong succeed.

In this next extract, which words or phrases suggest that the narrator thinks human nature is greedy and selfish? Well here you can see that the momentary triumphs of transitory possessions impress a casual looker-on with the same fearful idea that the human race after all is savage to the call.

And that means that she's really criticising what it is to be human in their greed and selfishness.

Savage means violent and vicious.

And so she's suggesting that football really brings out the very worst in people.

So well done.

You've selected some really effective quotations there.

We're going to finish by writing a summary of the story that we've read today.

I'd like you to use the sentence stems on your screen to give a summary of the short story, "Ten Minutes' Musing." Well done, and thank you for your focus.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning today, but remember before you get onto that to complete the end of lesson quiz.