I like being prepared for all eventualities. I am not natural or spontaneous as a result most of the times. I thought of going through "Mirror Image" by Lena Coakley for the CE class last Saturday itself but then the YDRC (Youth Development & Rehabilitation Center) invitation came along and as it turned out consequentially, the experience was irresistible. Naturally, I was in no mood to prepare for the CE students by the time I was back home. Sunday is always a busy day of the week with the weekly shopping and washing and the 1001 other things to do. So all I could do yesterday was to go through the novel entitled “Dawa, the Story of a Stray Dog” written by Ashi Kunzang Choden in the evening. Not the whole novel though. Only the first three chapters!

As per the talk I had with Ms. Chencho Lham, my colleague and partner for teaching English to the CE students (this year we are trying out something new. Two of us are concurrently teaching the same class alternatively), I was to teach the above-mentioned story. Yesterday all I could do in the morning was to go through the story once more to be absolutely sure of the meaning of some of the words and the main story. As we were given the responsibility of arranging the halls for the exhibits (today we also had the Cluster Level Science Exhibition  being organized in our school), I knew I had to go to school by 8 in the morning. Despite my best attempts, I could not find the time to revisit the story in the morning. The exhibition then kept us busy till a quarter past four. No sooner had I come back to my residence for a quick cup of tea than it was time for the CE class ( the new CE Class timing has come to effect only today – from now onit is going to start at 5.30 in the evening). I was there back to school by 5 as per the old timing. Not a single student was to be seen anywhere in the near vicinity. I made a call to the Academic Head and came to know about the new timing. So I had almost 30 minutes at my disposal and I decided to make the best of the time by making the plan for the class in the staffroom. It was like what is mentioned below:

Class	CE Arts & Commerce (17 students) 2 Hours
Topic	Mirror image by Lena Coakley
Objectives	By the close of the lesson, each student should be able to :         I.            Talk about the genre, elements of the story,       II.           Clear any doubts related to the story,     III.           Summarize the story in their own words, and     IV.          Answer questions from the story to the point and correctly.
Introduction	Greetings/ Problems related to the previous story (Bluffing by Gail Helgesen)/ Introduction of the present story. (5 Minutes)
Lesson development	The teacher will read and explain the story, asking questions to check understanding in between.                                  (45-50 minutes)
Tr. Activity 2	The teacher will then summarize the story for the students.                     (10 Minutes)

Sequential/ Factual Summary of the Story:                                                   

Once Alice along with her father was travelling in a car to someplace when they met with a fatal accident. Her father died on the spot instantaneously, while Alice nearly lost her life. Her body which was badly mauled and injured was rushed to the nearby hospital as her brain was surprisingly still alive and active. Fortunately for Alice , the doctors there made a breakthrough surgery  for the first time in the history of medical science by transplanting her surviving brain to the body of a girl called Gail whose body had been donated earlier by her parents, the Jareds,after her untimely death due to most probably, a cruel affliction of brain tumour.  

After the successful surgery, Alice spent a long time at the hospital relearning things from talking to walking all over. Once the doctors felt that she was emotionally, physically ready for accepting her present status, they had all the mirrors in her room including the bathroom mirror removed before asking Alice’s mother and sister, Jenny to bring the silver mirror with her initials ACS written at the back for a reason. When she was handed the mirror, Alice was simply mesmerized by the stranger in the mirror with her large black and dark eyes. She remembered her father’s words that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Sitting up on the hospital bed, Alice was not sure whether the soul inside her body was hers or someone else’s.

But she was not really prepared for what was to follow next when she was released from the hospital. The media was so interested in ‘the first surviving recipient of a brain transplant’ that they made life difficult for her. She was referred to as the girl X in the newscasts. Naturally Mrs. Jarred felt that her daughter was still alive. Alice’s mother and Jenny did not make life any easier either as they found it to accept the girl in Gail’s body as Alice. What is more, Alice herself had some kind of identity crisis being unable to make head or tail out of the brain transplant.

Jenny continually teased her by addressing her as Gail. On their birthday (they were Siamese twins by the way), Jenny even told her that sometimes she felt her sister was dead. Even mother under the caring and concerned demeanour, had her suspicion about Alice – that is why she had taken the trouble of making the cake at home. She rarely looked Alice in the eye, stricken as she was by the pricks of conscience.

When things came to such a pass that Alice was miserable and hapless, she met Mr. Jarred in the middle of the road on her way back home from school. The encounter proved significant as whatever doubts she had had about herself were dispelled by Mr. Jarred’s open confession that he did not see Gail in Alice. She was very different from their daughter, accent, inflections, and behaviour – everything included.

Alice wrote her initials in the yet to set in concrete. Realized that she was none other than Alice. And secure in the knowledge, she headed home ready to face the world on her own terms.

Teacher Activity 3	The teacher is to talk about the elements of the story next.                       (15 Minutes)
1.      Genre	Science Fiction – Characteristics with examples from the text.
2.      Setting	Toronto, Bedford Street, hospital et.
3.      Characters	Alice, Jenny, Gail, Mother, Mr. & Mrs. Jarred
4.      Theme	The ethics of modern medical science.
5.      Plot	I.            Exposition – Alice, the protagonist introduced in the first paragraph itself.       II.           Opening Incident – The conflict of her identity is revealed.     III.            Rising Action – the series of actions that lead to the climax.     IV.          Climax – The Birthday and Jenny’s final declaration that she felt her sister was dead.       V.           Falling Action – Events leading to Alice’s meeting with Mr. jarred.     VI.           Denouement – The last few sentences of the story.Alice writing her initials and all..

I had also planned to ask them to answer two questions, but due to time constraint (it was almost 5.40 by the time the last student turned up), I requested them to answer then at home. The questions were:

A.      Give a brief character-sketch of Alice.

B.      To which sub-genre does the story belong? Support your answer with a close reference to the text and a brief description of the feature.

Closure:

Finally I also asked them if they had any doubts related to the story and try to write the summary of the story in their own words and submit their notebooks to me in the next class. (5 Minutes)