By: Brendan Constantine The Opposites Game for Patricia Maisch This day my students and I play the Opposites Game with a line from Emily Dickinson. My life had stood a loaded gun , it goes and I write it on the board, pausing so they can call out the antonyms – My Your Life Death Had stood ? Will sit A Many Loaded Empty Gun ? Gun. For a moment, very much like the one between lightning and it’s sound, the children just stare at me, and then it comes, a flurry, a hail storm of answers – Flower, says one. No, Book, says another. That's stupid, cries a third, the opposite of a gun is a pillow. Or maybe a hug, but not a book, no way is it a book. With this, the others gather their thoughts and suddenly it’s a shouting match. No one can agree, for every student there’s a final answer. It's a song, a prayer, I mean a promise, like a wedding ring, and later a baby. Or what’s that p
I loved this part. And this movie. Ironically, you know who loved it more than me? And couldn't stop talking about how good it was? My dad. He's the best.
ReplyDeleteI'm questioning my use of the word "ironically". I think I pulled an Alanis Morrisette and used it incorrectly. It was mostly cute and endearing that my dad loved this movie. Not really ironic. Right?
ReplyDeleteHahahha... actually, i think you used the word "ironically" correctly. I always remember the definition for ironic to mean "the opposite of what we would expect or think to be fitting"... or something. Well done Miss G!
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