Editor's note: Zhu Ziqing's "Back Shadow" is a classic of prose and a classic of language texts. There have always been numerous articles on how to teach "Back Shadow", and there are countless references to "Back Shadow". This time, the articles of two famous teachers were compiled and distributed. One is mr. Cheng Xiang, somewhat similar to the teaching record, which implies the interpretation of the text. One is Wang Junming's interpretation of "Back Shadow", the article is read through, how to teach is clear. We put the articles of the two famous teachers together for readers to learn more.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > I teach Back Shadow</h1>
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > text/程翔</h1>
I like Zhu Ziqing's "Back Shadow", I have taught it many times, and I will be moved every time. As I grew older and more experienced, I felt more and more deeply about this article. I think that "Back Shadow" is very beneficial to the growth of middle school students, and is a typical text of "teaching culture and educating people". The last time I taught Back Shadow was in December 2018, and I spent 3 class hours. I will report my teaching process to you in order to teach the Fang family.
I start by having the students read the text by themselves. This is my usual practice, and I call it "primitive reading." I have been teaching for 36 years, and in addition to the first few years of my work, I like to play recordings, and since then I have always insisted on letting students read books by themselves. I also don't advocate that students prepare before class and just read in class. In my opinion, students' careful reading of texts is an integral part of the language classroom and is not optional. Reading in class and pre-reading are two ways of reading, and I pay more attention to reading in class. There is a "field" in class reading, a specific atmosphere, and I like this atmosphere very much. Many students do not like to study at home at night, but they are willing to run to school for evening self-study, which is what they want.
Students finish reading. I said, "Raise your hand when you're touched inside." "A few of them raised their hands. I said again, "Raise your hand untouched." "There were also a few who raised their hands. I called a student and asked him to talk about why it wasn't touched. He said: "The author is too exaggerated. In just one article, the author cried several times. That's an exaggeration! I asked the student, "Raise your hand like he feels." Several students also raised their hands. I said, "Raise your hand with a different opinion." One student said: "I think the language is very simple. So I wrote two words on the blackboard: exaggerated and rustic. In the same article, the students' initial feelings are significantly different, and I call this phenomenon "primitive understanding". The "original understanding" of the student is the logical starting point of the teacher's teaching.
I asked the student who said "exaggerated" to read the opening paragraph and then asked him to talk about the feelings. He said, very ordinary, we often write articles like this, do not go around the bend at all, straight to the point. I asked him, "Exaggeration?" He said: "Not an exaggeration. "He had the initial shift, so I started talking to the students. The author says that he has "not seen his father for more than two years", and what time does the phrase "that winter" in paragraph 2 refer to? The student said it was two years ago. I corrected that "it has been more than two years" from the time of writing "Back Shadow", that is, the first two years of October 1925; "that winter" is eight years ago, that is, the winter of 1917. There was a gap of eight years. In this way, the concept of time is clear.
"That winter", Zhu Ziqing's family was not alone, his grandmother died, and his father was unemployed. The father's home in Xuzhou was a mess, and the author could not help but shed tears. Ask the students to answer, who is not sad to encounter such a situation? Is tears a natural thing? Exaggeration? The student said: Natural, not exaggerated. The students underwent a further transformation. The author wrote: "Father said: 'This is the case, don't be sad, but there is no way out!' I asked the student, "Father seems to want to be very open, and he doesn't seem to be very sad." Is that right? "Father's words are worth playing. Why didn't the father say, "Man cannot be resurrected from the dead, he has fulfilled his filial piety, and he has no regrets"? Why did the author shed tears? The author wept when he saw the mess in the courtyard and remembered his grandmother's death. Father said "don't be sad", mainly for their own unemployment, which means that anyway, the job has been lost, sad is useless, simply do not have to be sad, there will be a road before the car to the mountain. This is the helpless words of Zhu's father, comforting himself and at the same time comforting his son. The son felt sorry for his father when he saw that his father was unemployed and had fallen from a leading figure with status and status to such a situation. This is the main reason for the first tears.
The third paragraph writes about the situation back to his hometown of Yangzhou. Selling the canon, returning the deficit, and borrowing money for the funeral, the situation is miserable. The author writes: "These days, the situation in the family is very bleak, half for the funeral, half for the father's leisure. It can be seen that the father's unemployment is a big thing for the family, and the pillar has fallen. As for the reason for Zhu's father's unemployment, Zhu Ziqing should be clear, but it is not explicitly stated in the text. Not to talk about it is equivalent to talking, in 1928, When Father Zhu saw this "Back Shadow", "his hands couldn't stop trembling", and his mood must have been complicated. Does Father Zhu have an element of self-blame in it? Maybe a little bit. However, at that time, Zhu's father was not knocked down, and for the sake of the family, he wanted to continue to find an errand and go to Nanjing to find a job; Zhu Ziqing also had to return to Beijing to study, and took the train to Nanjing Pukou Station, so he went along. In this way, the author's road map is very clear: Beijing-Xuzhou-Yangzhou-Nanjing-Pukou Station.
The beginning of paragraph 4 was puzzling. The author writes: "When I arrived in Nanjing, a friend asked to go for a visit and stayed for a day. This sentence is very inconsistent with the whole text. It is said that there is a funeral at home, and the father is unemployed, so where does the author have the leisure to go around? I asked the student, "Is that redundant?" Can I delete it? The student said that it could not be deleted, because it could show that Zhu Ziqing did not care much about his father, which was in contrast to his father's concern for himself. I think it makes some sense, but I think it may be related to the timing of the account. Could it be that the pukou to Beijing train was not every day? The author has not examined it. Mr. Ye Shengtao said in the "Article Examples" that because this place has little to do with the "back shadow", he has passed it all in one go, and does not explain whether it is idle writing or has another deep meaning.
Next, my father sent me to Pukou Station. Pukou Station is on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and it takes some time to cross the river to get to Pukou. Because Zhu's father was "busy", Ben said that he would not send his son to the station and let the tea room deliver it. But Father Zhu hesitated for a while, or decided to send it himself. Note that the tea room here and the tea room on the train should be two people. Zhu's father later changed his mind and personally went to send it, showing his concern for his son. However, the father's concern was not understood by the son. Paragraph 5 mainly states this meaning. For the price, the author thinks that the father is "not pretty". What does that mean? Probably because my father was too calculating and not generous enough. The father told the tea house to "take good care of me", and the author laughed at his father for being "roundabout" and felt that he had grown up and could live independently. I asked the students, what does it mean to be "too smart" and "too smart"? Students say "anti-language", which can be understood this way; but it is better to understand it as "self-deprecating". I asked again, "Why did the author spend a paragraph of ink and ink writing that he did not understand his father?" The student replied, "Express regret." "It was good. When the author writes this article, he is already a father, understands the love of being a father, and regrets his ignorance two years ago. Here arises a question: Did Zhu Ziqing, who was 20 years old at the time, really not understand his father? The author thinks that it is likely that Zhu Ziqing was dissatisfied with his father. Because my father's unemployment was self-inflicted, the good post of director was removed, the decent job was lost, and the family was in chaos. In other words, Zhu Ziqing, who is receiving higher education in Beijing, has some complaints about his father in his heart. With such a mood, it is normal to watch my father negotiate the price, hold the tea room, and laugh at his "roundabout".
If the article had been written in such a mood, "Back Shadow" would not have been so touching, after all, it is not a glorious thing to complain about the father.
Paragraph 6 focuses on the back. I start by asking students to read this paragraph and then ask, "What kind of back is this?" One student said: "It's a back that makes me sad." I immediately affirmed her answer: "Very good! I then asked, "Sad, this is not what the author said, but what you felt." As a reader, you have your own reading experience, which is very good. So, what is the author's back? "I ask students to grasp the key words in the text to summarize them. The student concluded: This is a fat back, a black back, a waddling back, and an effort. I also guided the students to grasp a few verbs, use their imagination, and experience the vivid and touching effect of the author's white drawing technique. Then I asked the student, "The author wept when he saw his father's back like this." Is the reason for the tears here the same as the tears that came before? The student said, "It's not the same." The front is tears for the death of his grandmother, the loss of his father, and the ruins of the hospital, and here is the tears of his father's back as he struggles to go up and down the platform to buy oranges. I then asked, "Are the tears here exaggerated?" The student said, "No exaggeration. Because the author also felt sad when he saw his father's back, the father suffered a heavy blow, but still loved his son, personally sent him to the train, and bought oranges for him, the author was touched in his heart. I then asked, "Does the author still complain about his father in his heart?" The student said: "I may not complain anymore, and I am beginning to feel sorry for my father." Only with such understanding can we understand the meaning of the action "I hurry to pick him up." In the upper paragraph, it is written that a "purple coat", which is a leather coat, very expensive, was made by his father for Zhu Ziqing, because of the cold winter in Beijing. Therefore, at this time, the author's heart is extremely unstable, the emotions are difficult to sustain, and when the father's back is mixed into the crowd of people who come and go, he will cry again. The tears at this time contain understanding and forgiveness for the father. This paragraph writes about the subtle transformation of Zhu Ziqing's feelings, and the reason for the change is that there is a back that symbolizes fatherly love.
Reading this paragraph, I attach great importance to the reading experience of students. Students say they feel "sad," which is called "reader intent." In this paragraph, the author does not directly express the feeling of "heartache", but uses white painting techniques to reproduce the back of his father, the fat back, the black back, the waddling back and the hard work are the focus of the author's performance, which is the "author's intention". "Reader's intention" and "author's intention" can coincide or may not coincide. "Reader's intention" may surpass "author's intention", because the reader is not passive in front of the text, and can produce personalized understanding according to his own life experience and reading feelings. Teachers should not deny the student's "reader's intention" not to the "author's intention". But "heartache" here reflects the high degree of "reader's intention" and "author's intention", that is, resonance. Resonating is often a peak experience that creates a powerful emotional impact deep within the reader. We can speculate and imagine that Zhu Ziqing's eyes have not left his father's back from beginning to end, just like a video camera, watching his father go up and down the platform, watching him "cross the railway", watching him "waddle", watching him "lean down", watching him "shrink his feet upwards", watching him "lean slightly to the left", watching him "climb on the top with both hands", watching him "work hard"... This picture is too touching, there is no bit of rendering, exaggeration, all objective description, but as a reader you can not be sad, as a son Zhu Ziqing can not be sad. Human emotions have a commonality, that is, human nature. Heartache is easy to cry - Zhu Ziqing shed tears, readers shed tears, this is the resonance!
"Heartache" prompted Zhu Ziqing to change his emotional attitude towards his father, which is the soft place of Zhu Ziqing's heart and the expression of his kindness. I asked the student, "Since my heart is sad and my father is hurting, it seems that I shouldn't just write a back." You should focus on the front of your father, such as wrinkled faces, vicissitudes, etc. But the author only writes about the father's back. Why? "The students are full of tongues and interest. Finally, I guided the students to accept a point of view of writing: "Writing should be good at choosing the 'focus' of feelings." It is certainly possible to write about the father's positive, but the author is sad and then hurts his father and sheds tears, which is triggered by the back shadow, so the 'back shadow' becomes the focus of feelings, which is a special perspective. Grasp the back to facilitate the concentrated expression of this feeling. When students write, they should be good at choosing the focus of their feelings. ”
Zhu Ziqing wrote here, the inner emotions can no longer be controlled, so there is the last paragraph of emotional expression. If the previous paragraph is mainly narrated and described, then this paragraph is mainly lyrical and argumentative, and the author's inner feelings gush out. "In recent years, my father and I have been traveling from place to place, and the situation at home is worse than a day." This is true. The fall of the Zhu family began with Zhu Father's unemployment, and he never regained his glory. Zhu Ziqing graduated from Beijing University and pinned his father's hopes, but Zhu Ziqing chose to become a teacher. The friction between father and son was constant, and at one point it was very sharp. In the past two years, Zhu's father began to take the initiative to show weakness and wanted to ease the contradictions between father and son, so he wrote to Zhu Ziqing, remembering his son, greeting his grandson, and saying that he was "not far away from the period of great destruction." These words deeply touched Zhu Ziqing, after all, he was his own father, and blood was thicker than water! The author writes: "He went out as a teenager to earn a living, supported independently, and did many great things. "This is admiration for the father, without the father there would be no such home!" Who knows that the old world is so decadent! "It's sympathy for the father." He was shocked and sad, and naturally could not help himself. In the middle, it is natural to be outside; family trifles often touch his anger. "It's about understanding the father and forgiving the father." alas! I don't know when I'll see him again!" "It's missing father. At this point, the author's feelings reached a climax, and then abruptly stopped.
The last paragraph is very moving. I asked the students, when you write essays, do you have such a bold way to expose your family conflicts? The student said, "No. I then asked the student, "Raise your hand if you have had a conflict with your father." Most of the class raised their hands. I asked again, "Later, I understood my father and forgave my father's raised hand." "A lot of students raise their hands." Unforgive raise your hand. One of the students raised his hand. I said, "I won't let you explain, I'll talk to you alone." The students laughed. I have always believed that teachers should close the distance between the text and the students, so that the students feel that although the age of the text is far away from us, the emotions and ideas expressed in the text are close to us, and even the observation of our real life. Only in this way will students feel that the text has something to do with me, that I have learned from the text, and that this is a good text. For example, when I ask students to read Yan Shu's "Huan Xi Sha", when tasting the sentence "Helpless flowers fall", I ask the students: "Who of you has a resonance with this sentence?" One student raised her hand, and I asked her, "Can you talk about it?" She said, "I can't say." I understand her: "It's enough that you have resonance." I continued: "The next sentence is 'Déjà vu returns', full of hope. In fact, the real hope is not in others, but in oneself, in one's own hard work. The student nodded. I think that's the connection between the text and the student. We read texts, we have students in mind, and the main purpose of our learning texts is for the healthy growth of students. You know, family influence is too important for a student's growth. As the saying goes, "Every family has a difficult scripture", and Tolstoy said that "unfortunate families have their own misfortunes". It's all about saying that every family will have problems of one kind or another that, for a minor, can destroy his or her hopes for life. Some students lose faith in life, have doubts about society, and even hate this society, including hatred of their parents, and the primary reason comes from the family. The responsibility of teachers is to use the sunshine of the text to illuminate the students, use their inner sunshine to warm the students, encourage the students to become strong, and guide the students to know how to write their own lives with writing and achieve success in life.
So, I asked the students, "Why did Mr. Zhu Ziqing write "Back Shadow"? The student replied. I said, "You have a point, but you didn't answer from the touchpoint of writing." Writing, to write about things that touch the heart, to write about the pain of the heart, not to write things that do not hurt or itch. Don't simply and superficially sing praises. Ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, most of the excellent works are the products of the soul being touched. 'King Gavin performed "Zhou Yi", Zhongnier wrote "Spring and Autumn", Qu Yuan exiled, nai endowed "Leaving Sorrow"... "Three hundred poems", most of the works of the sages who were angry. Bai Juyi wrote "Pipa Xing" after the demotion of the official Jiangzhou; Su Dongpo wrote the "Chibi Fu" after the demotion of the official Huangzhou. The ancients said 'article hates fate'. Students, when the heart is tortured and life suffers, it will produce the desire to express, and only then will there be a touching article. Mr. Zhu Ziqing is also like this. The changes in the family and the contradictions between relatives make the author's heart sad and sentimental, especially for his father, from not understanding to understanding, to heartache, to forgiveness, this process has the important significance of enlightening life. ”
I asked the students, "Is such a text exaggerated or simple?" ”
The student who said "exaggerated" at the beginning stood up and said, "Teacher, I changed my opinion." This article is very rustic. I then asked, "If compared with the essay "Spring", which one is beautiful and which language is simple?" The student replied: "'Spring' is gorgeous, and 'Back Shadow' is simple." I asked, "Why?" The student said: "Because this article expresses a sense of truth." I said, "Very well. Words that express affection do not require flowery language. The more simple the text, the more it can express the true feelings. In this way, teaching achieves a "basic understanding" of the text. This "basic understanding" is achieved on the basis of going through a series of "subsequent understandings.". Of course, "basic understanding" is not the "only understanding", let alone "absolute understanding". In the long road of the student's future life, he will continue to understand "Back Shadow". Understanding is not ultimate, and it accompanies people throughout their lives. How long a person's life is, how long it will be understood.
Finally, I would like to say that throughout the teaching process, the "original understanding" and "subsequent understanding" of students have given me many triggers. Without the trigger of the student, I would not have these deep experiences; in the same way, without my guidance and inspiration, the student would not have many personalized understandings and would not have flashed the spark of thinking. Therefore, in the teaching process, both teachers and students are "subjects". The leading role of the teacher does not exclude the main position of the teacher, but it is precisely the leading role that constitutes the main position of the teacher as a teacher. The student is the object of the teacher's teaching, the subject of learning, and together with its internal factors, it lays the main position of learning.
That's the basic situation I taught Back Shadow.
This article was originally published in Language Learning, No. 1, 2019
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > Back Shadow</h1>
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > wen / Wang Junming</h1>
This is a simple and affectionate prose, as a traditional piece of middle school language textbooks, I don't know how many people have studied it and interpreted it. But I still have something to say. There is no need to make any "philosophical" mysteries, nor do you have to sell any "life" at a high price, I advocate honestly "reading it clearly" first.
One of the essential meanings of "reading clearly" is to grasp the text as a whole, and the basic way to achieve a grasp of the whole is to start with the key sentences. What are key statements? Generalizations, instructions, modal words, transitional languages, title language, etc., each play a "key" role in different texts.
For the purposes of this article, the first paragraph (only one sentence) is a typical "generalization (sentence)", which includes important indicators and modal words.
"I have not seen my father for more than two years": "I have not met my father", indicating the object of the text; the three words "not seeing each other" reveal the contradictory situation of father and son - not the general "separation", but the subjective mood; "more than two years" indicates the time, and the word "has" reveals the author's feelings - time is too long, too torturous.
"The last thing I can forget is his back": the previous sentence is to reveal the contradiction between father and son as the core, and this sentence is to express the deep love of father and son as the core: "Not to meet" is the outside, and how can the heart really "forget" his father? "Back shadow" indicates the image of the father; "can not forget" is the inevitable that blood is thicker than water, and adding a modal word "most", that is, in addition to the "back shadow", there are many memories of the father, here only the most impressive "back shadow" is only said.
In a word, the content of the whole text and the emotion to be expressed are all explained here; as readers, we can confirm that this is a narrative lyrical prose, and its main purpose is to express the feelings of father and son through the remembrance of the "back shadow".
From an artistic point of view, this beginning is plain and concise, but it has a certain "suspenseful" effect: since they are father and son, why do they "not see each other for more than two years"? Why can't we forget the "back" of the father? This arouses the psychological expectation of the reader: to see how it goes.
Let's read on.
"That winter", an important time indicator, pushed away, this is to say "can not forget" thing.
Until "these years", pull back, back to the "don't see each other" thing.
Paying attention to the time indicators in these two places, the hierarchical context of the whole text is also clear.
At this point, it can be said that the "overall grasp" of the text has been completed.
The above is just an interpretation of the thick lines. The article also needs to be read carefully.
What happened to cause father and son to "not see each other for more than two years"? The answer lies in the passage "over the years." This is the "mutual understanding of virtual reality" of "interpreting text in writing" - in general, it is "virtual", and in detail it is "real". "My father and I are both running from place to place, and the situation in the family is not as good as a day"; the old situation is decadent, so it makes my father sad and irritable, so "he treats me differently from the past", which is the family background caused by the contradiction between father and son. Of course, the author here is more general and implicit. If you want to "investigate the truth", you must also "explain the text by facts" - look up the specific plot of the contradiction between father and son at that time, what withholding salary, not allowing entry, etc., this information can be found at any time, I will not be long-winded.
At the end of this paragraph, I speak of a letter from my father. This letter is the pivot of ending the contradiction between father and son, and it is also the motivation that causes the author to recall his father's love and write an essay. The word "back shadow" takes care of the title and also closes the whole text, which is natural and rigorous.
"The most important thing that cannot be forgotten is his back", what is going on? This is the core content of the whole text and needs to be carefully savored. Or "virtual and real mutual solution".
But the author is not eager to directly describe the "back shadow", but from the family changes: the grandmother died of illness, the father was unemployed, the pawn borrowed debts, and the disaster was not alone. This is to pave the way for the emergence of the "back shadow", and also to lay the lead for the later father-son contradiction.
Next, there is no "back shadow" - as a reader, I can't help but be a little anxious - the author uses two paragraphs to write in detail that my father went to the station to send me back to the north: asking the tea house, negotiating the price with the porter, helping to pick the seat, and then carefully instructing, the father who "did many great things", and then in such trivial things, not only insisted on personal experience, but also so thoughtful, so patient, fully showed the "loving" side of the "loving father". However, at that time, the "I" did not understand or appreciate it: "I always felt that he was not very beautiful in his speech" and "laughed at his pedantry in my heart".
But when the shot of buying oranges appeared, the "back shadow" finally made "my tears flow down quickly"; "when his back mixed into the people who came and went, I couldn't find it again", "My tears came again". When interpreting this paragraph, commentators mostly focus on the difficulty of his father's climbing up and down on the platform, getting courseware, setting up board books, and matching images, which of course makes sense. But that action is only visible on the outside, and if you can't understand the "inside", then the action does not have so much moving power.
Throughout the send-off trip, "I" never paid special attention to my father's clothes, and only when my father went to buy oranges did "my" eyes focus on him, and I noticed that he was "wearing a small black cloth hat, a black cloth coat, and a dark green cloth cotton robe."
Is there anything particularly noteworthy about this? Yes.
This requires "interpreting the text by facts". This kind of robe was the "dress" explicitly stipulated by the National Government at that time. Imagine that if the father wants to go out to "plot", he naturally has to pay attention to identity, dress, which is a symbol of identity; and such a person who pays attention to identity, in order to buy a few oranges for his son, climbs up and down on the platform, completely disregarding identity! This is one of its most touching. Besides, why do you have to buy oranges? Or maybe there's no other fruit there, so let's talk about it. In fact, I don't buy oranges just to meet my son's physical needs. In Yangzhou, the "luck" is called "going round", and "orange" and "bureau" are harmonious, so the deep psychology of the father to buy oranges regardless of his identity is to wish his son "go game". In this way, we can understand why my father "put oranges on my fur coat" and "pounced on the dirt on my coat, as if his heart was very relaxed." "Ease" is an important sentimental word, after doing all kinds of chores for the son, finally completed the blessing of the soul, everything that can be done, satisfied, relaxed. In this regard, "I" should have understood it, so not only did I cry at that time, but this "back shadow" has also become the image of his father who "cannot be forgotten the most".
Father and son have a deep affection, the whole world is the same; father and son are discordant, and it is not uncommon. Being able to express this "discord" and "deep affection" and their transformation in a short period of time is so sincere and moving that this article is immortal.
This article was originally published on the "Teacher Wang Junming" WeChat public account, and was pushed by this number with the authorization of Teacher Wang.
Cheng Xiang is the vice principal of Beijing 101 Middle School and a special level teacher of Chinese. The first batch of experts in the expert database of the "National Training Program" of the Ministry of Education. He is the author of "Exploration of Language Teaching Reform", "Research and Practice of Language Classroom Teaching", "Cheng Xiang and Language Teaching", "Classroom Reading Teaching Theory", "Commentary on the Translation of The Garden", "Translation of the Analects", etc.
Wang Junming, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Peking University in 1967, is a special teacher and a national advanced worker, enjoying "special government allowances". He has been engaged in the practice and theoretical research of language teaching for a long time, and has in-depth research on language teaching methods and ancient poetry. Readers can learn the method of reading from his works, "how to read a good book, how to read a book", so as to obtain the wisdom and pleasure of reading.