Considerar mi propuesta de desarrollo de un tema, concretamente el 53 sobre la novela, el relato breve y la poesía en los Estados Unidos: Melville, Poe y Whitman, como modelo puede ser quizás muy pretencioso, dejémoslo entonces un ejemplo de cómo desarrollar un tema en la segunda prueba de la primera parte de la oposición de secundaria, aplicando todos los consejos y recomendaciones que puedes encontrar en La receta del tema perfecto para presentar un tema de la forma más completa, abarcando distintos aspectos, aportando detalles de originalidad y demás.
Como curiosidad diré que en los años que estuve preparando las oposiciones, yendo a distintas academias y recopilando material de distintas fuentes, tuve acceso a distintos temarios, recomendaciones y consejos sobre cómo desarrollar un tema escrito, correcciones a simulacros de examen, pero nunca, nunca, tuve acceso a un examen que no fuera el mío propio, ni de mis compañeros -por razonas obvias- ni de ninguno de mis preparadores.
En cierto modo es comprensible porque al fin y al cabo no es enseñar la receta y decir cómo cocinarla sino presentar el plato acabado, como en todo, es más fácil decir que hacer...
A continuación encontrarás la transcripción de un examen de práctica realizados por mí en las condiciones más parecidas al día del examen (elección de un tema de forma aleatoria, limitación de tiempo y por supuesto, sin la ayuda de apuntes o esquemas).
No es un tema perfecto, aviso a navegantes, si volviera a desarrollarlo cambiaría cosas, eliminaría y añadiría otras, pero esto siempre pasa: da igual las veces que escribas un tema que el resultado final nunca va a ser igual.
Por supuesto, puedes usarlo como punching ball, es decir, ponerte el sombrero de corrector y encontrar errores lingüísticos y datos inexactos, el objetivo es mostrar un ejemplo práctico de desarrollo de un tema aplicando muchos de los consejos y pautas comentadas en el libro y que pueda ser una fuente de inspiración para tus propios desarrollos de temas, tanto en lo positivo a imitar, y desde luego también, en lo negativo a evitar (comments are welcome by the way).
Actualización 19/04/2024: ChatGPT aplicando los criterios de valoración de la prueba escrita le pone una nota de 8.85. Ver comentarios al final del tema.
Bueno, let's cut to the chase.... Aquí está el tema:
The unit under consideration is the number 53, entitled `Novel, short story and poetry in the United States. Melville, Poe and Whitman´, which is part of the literary block and will be developed following this outline: a) Interdisciplinary connections; b) Legal framework; c) Literary and historical background; d) Herman Mellville; e) Edgar Allan Poe; f) Walt Whitman; g) Didactic approach; h) Conclusion; and finally i) Bibliography.
“It’s better to fail at originality than fail at imitation” (Melville)
Any literary topic offers a great potential to connect it to other subjects in the official curriculum such as history, Spanish literature or visual studies (especially when there exists a good deal of film adaptations from the writer’s works as is the case with Melville and Poe).
In relation to the above mentioned official curriculum (Royal Decree 1105/2014), the rest of laws which compose the background are: the general education law LOMCE 8/2013* (amendment of former LOE 2/2006); the regional decrees 220/2015 for ESO and Bachillerato respectively; and the competence order ECD 65/2015 which establishes the relation among contents, assessment criteria and key competences. being the socio-cultural awareness the main competence involved in relation to the topic under study.
*Esta referencia debería reemplazarse por la actual
ley en vigor: LOMLOE 3/2020
Before entering into details about these juggernauts at different literary genres (novel, short story and poetry), it must be highlighted the fact that none of them ever joined or identified themselves with any literary movement of their time (Cunnlife, 2000).
That is the reason why they are usually referred as `individualists´. Nonetheless, according to Ward and Trent, following the common agreement of the scholars, they all can be included in the Trascendentalism: the American version of 18th century Romanticism which originated in the universitarian `Trascendental Club´ and was against materialism claiming the unity of nature and God, as well as the same characteristics in man in respect to universe (these ideas would later be reflected in Whitman’s poems).
The three authors are part of what is called the First Great Period of American Literature and as the main historical fact worth mentioning is the Civil War (1861-1865) which coincides with the end of this literary period (1820-1865).
After this introduction, let us delve into the first of the writers: Herman Melville (1819-1891).
He worked as a sailor in his youth and this experience was the basis for most of the topics and plots of his works: `Typee´(1945); `Omoo´ (1946) –sequel to the first biographical story about being marooned in a cannibal island; the satirical works `Mardi´; `Pierre or the ambiguitities’; and `The Confidence-Man’; `Israel Potter´; `Benito Cereno´ (about a real event involving a Spanish vessel which finds another ship kidnapped by the slaves it was transporting) and his masterpiece –although it was not appreciated at his time, as well as the other works making him abandon his literary career in 1957 to enter working as a customs clerk until the end of this life- `Moby Dick, or the whale’ (1952).
That Melvilian milestone and all the proper names embedded in current culture (Ahab, Pequod, Nuntucket island) will serve to show some of the distinctive features of his writings, apart from the topic he broached.
In Moby Dick, following the advice of his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, he composed a Shakespearian tragedy where issues as revenge, limits of man and knowledge, and concepts of good and evil are treated in the many chapters of the novel, which is one of the stylistic characteristics of Melville with the narrative economy through short paragraphs and complex sentences (e.g. paragraphs which are composed of only one sentence or two), as well as the division into chapters (e.g. chapter 122 is only 36 words in a paragraph).
Following on his style, the prose is rhythmic, with use of action verbs and profuse use of repetitions (eg. pity, pitied, piteous) in the same fragment.
Another remarkable feature is the use of non-typical combinations of adjectives and nouns (e.g. immaculate manliness) and influence of Shakespeare through Ahab’s soliloquies (some of them remind us of King Lear’s blank verse parliaments) and compound adjectives.
He left `Billy Budd´, a sea story about a tattering boy who is unfairly accused and dealing once more with destiny force issues, unfinished but later would be transformed into an opera whose libretto was written by E.M. Forster, the famous writer and critic.
The second author, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), is generally acknowledged as the father of short story by setting the structure and establishing the guidelines of his so-called “unity of effect”, where all the linguistic elements must contribute to achieve the effect intended on the reader (e.g. fear, surprise or laugh).
Together with Melville, he is considered one of the exponents of Dark Romanticism, which deals with supernatural topics, predestination, dychotomy of evil and good, and human nature, among others.
He had a difficult childhood being raised by an aunt and suffered mental problems and alcoholism (as most bipolar depressed people some critics affirm).
Regarding his literary production, it can be grouped in comic tales inspired by journalistic hoaxes and news of his time (`The Spectacles´ or `The balloon hoax´); the horror tales (`Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque´) and the detective stories of C. Auguste Dupin which made him be also considered as the father of detective story (`Murders in the Rue Morgue´; `The Mystery of Marie Rôgret´ and `The Purloined Letter´).
Among his most popular stories, which has inspired many horror movies, are `The Tell-Tale Heart´,`The Black Cat´, `The Fall of the House of Usher´, `The Pit and the Pendulum´, `The Mask of the Red Death´ and `The Cask of Amontillado´(set in Spain).
Poe was also as remarkable poet (`The Raven´) and a literary critic, but if a poet is to be mentioned in this age and time, is America’s Homer, Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
He worked as a school teacher, journalist (founder of the Long-Islander paper, still active) and nurse during American civil war (1861-1865) where he underwent life experiences he would later reflect in his poetry and only prose work `Democratic Vistas´.
As a poet, he is unique and a referent in all American poetry. His magnum opus is `Leaves of grass´(1855) which contained twelve poems in its first edition but the last had three hundred and eighty-five poems, all prologued with other poems where he exposed his intentions, ideas and objectives when writing them.
Other remarkable works are `Drum-Taps´ and `Sequel to Drum-Taps´, the last including the popular `Oh Captain, my captain´poem dedicated to president Abraham Lincoln after his murder in 1865.
In relation to his style, it must be reminded his conviction about that poetry should be always spoken, not read. Because of the former he uses a lot of repetition and alliteration as literary devices for sonic effects, apart from colloquialisms, contractions and even slang terms, all of them characteristics of oral discourse (discussing and relating more features of oral language in relation to unit 5 would be out of the scope of this paper).
When analyzing his topics, it is generally agreed he reflects his `body electric´(the convention that body –as physical element- is not below soul or any other spiritual element- is a valid method to reach God, in opposition to traditional Puritan concept of communication with God.
Those views about physical love, introspection and relation to God and nature are embedded in the three sections of `Leaves of Grass´: `Inscriptions´ (with the exceptional `Song of myself´); `Children of Adam´ and `Calamus´.
Once we have exposed enough information about these authors as representatives of each literary genre, it is time to propose a classroom activity to exploit this content didactically (it would be taken into account for the purpose of this case the assessable learning standard 3.7 for `ESO´ third level from official curriculum in block number three: “the learner understands fiction and literary works”)*.
*Esta referencia debería reemplazarse por la actual ley en vigor: LOMLOE 3/2020
Considering the above, at classroom level students could be presented a fragment or a full short story by Poe and work on it (for example `X-ing in a paragraph´ which tells a story about not using a certain vowel and a task where students would have to write a sentence related to the story avoiding one letter).
Whether it be a sort of game (avoid a letter as in the short story) or watching a film adaptation (`Moby Dick´ or `The Heart of the Sea´, about the visit of Melville to Cape Cod to know first hand the story of the sperm whale and prepare to write the book), we would be including a neurodidactic component (i.e. motivation) in the activity proposed where knowledge acquisition would be linked to emotion and hence stored in the LTM (long term memory).
Moreover, the use of literary texts offers an opportunity to include the use of ICTs (Digital Technologies in the most recent proposed term by Council of Europe) in the realization of the activity (e.g. editing the video fragment with the EdPuzzle application to add questions to be prompted as they are watching the content).
In conclusion, this topic gives an overview of three of the main American writers who set the basis of American literature, as one of distinctive style and topics, and who lived in the aftermath of one of the most salient historic events of America, the civil war between the northern and the southern states.
All of them are recognized unanimously as major figures and their works are still quoted, from the initial “Call me Ishmael” of Moby Dick to mentions in movies and series (Walter Whitman appears in several episodes of Breaking Bad series for having the same initials as the main character), trascending their time and being part of present cultural knowledge regarding English as a foreign language.
Finally, the bibliographical references taken into account to write this essay have been: Cengage, G. (2015). Contemporary authors; Cunnlife, M. (2005). The literature of the United States; Ward and Trent (2002). Cambridge History of American Literature; and The Norton Anthology of American Literature (2000).
COMENTARIOS CHATGPT SOBRE LA CORRECCIÓN:
Deep Update Scientific Knowledge of the Topic (30%):
- The essay demonstrates a solid understanding of the literary works of Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman, covering their biographies, major works, and literary styles.
- Definitions and explanations are provided for terms like Dark Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and specific literary techniques used by each author.
- Pertinent bibliographical references are mentioned, although specific citations are not provided within the text.
Structure (40%):
- The essay follows a structured outline, beginning with interdisciplinary connections and legal framework, then proceeding through sections on each author and concluding with a didactic approach and bibliography.
- Each section is well-developed, providing sufficient detail about the life and works of Melville, Poe, and Whitman.
- The conclusion effectively summarizes the main points discussed in the essay, emphasizing the significance of the authors and their enduring impact on American literature.
Presentation, Order, and Writing (30%):
- The writing is clear and coherent, with a formal tone appropriate for an academic essay.
- The ideas are presented with clarity, and the essay flows smoothly from one section to the next.
- The use of examples and references enhances the understanding of each author's contributions and literary style.
Overall, the essay demonstrates a strong grasp of the topic and effectively conveys information about Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. The structure is well-organized, and the writing is clear and engaging. Based on these assessments, I would assign the following marks:
- Deep Update Scientific Knowledge of the Topic: 8.5/10
- Structure: 9/10
- Presentation, Order, and Writing: 9/10
Considering the weights assigned to each criterion (30%, 40%, and 30%, respectively), the final mark would be:
Therefore, the final mark for the essay would be approximately 8.9 out of 10.
ENTRADAS RELACIONADAS
Corregir examen de oposiciones con ChatGPT
Sobre el tema 48: Romanticismo en Gran Bretaña. Novela y poesía
Recuerda que tienes dos libros imprescindibles para preparar la oposición de secundaria de inglés, específicos para la parte del desarrollo del tema (La receta del tema perfecto) y la del ejercicio práctico (1,2,3 ¡Practica otra vez! ).
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario
Gracias por comentar.