Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 10: Talking big, everyone is shocked

Countless scenes flashed through Zhang Chao's mind, and more than ten years of teaching experience flowed through his brain like water.

The reason why Chinese is regarded as "metaphysics" is mainly because there is a lack of clear answering standards and it is influenced by subjective factors of the three parties: the question setter, the answerer and the examiner.

However, in the eyes of Zhang Chao, who has been good at Chinese since childhood and has rich teaching experience, the so-called "metaphysics" is essentially a failure to grasp the rules of Chinese examinations.

First, the Chinese language knowledge framework is incomplete and lacks awareness of version upgrades. For example, in elementary and junior high school teaching, the genres are divided into "narrative", "argumentative", "explanatory", etc., mainly based on the way of expression.

The high school Chinese language course returns to literature, namely "novels", "poems", "essays", "dramas", etc., each of which has its own unique style and interpretation methods. However, many high school students still think about "time, place, characters, causes, processes, and results of events", which can no longer match the reading requirements of the college entrance examination.

For example, in Lu Xun's novel "Kong Yiji", can we say that "I" going to the Xianheng Hotel to be an apprentice was the cause, and Kong Yiji's death was the result?
It would be strange if you could defeat the new version with the knowledge system of the old version!
Secondly, the answers lack standard writing. Unlike math, physics and chemistry, where there are naturally step-by-step derivation steps, many people tend to answer whatever comes to mind when answering subjective questions in Chinese. Sometimes they put the detailed analysis of the text first and the knowledge points that are worth scoring at the end; sometimes they mix different knowledge points into one answer number; sometimes they answer one point at length and another point with just a few numbers...

The biggest reason for this problem is that there is no fixed rule for the various reference answers. Different teachers give their own answers with their own answer styles, some are brief, some are detailed. Students will gain very little from blindly copying the answers. Therefore, Chinese is considered to be the subject with the lowest cost-effectiveness of answering questions.

The third problem is that the knowledge points are not explored deeply enough. Unlike subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, where the knowledge points increase linearly, Chinese often involves continuous exploration of the same knowledge point. For example, metaphor rhetoric is learned in the third grade of elementary school, but it is still tested in junior high school and high school. However, when metaphor is tested at each stage, it is explored in depth.

From the simplest "…uses metaphors to compare… to…, which is very vivid and vivid", to "similarity of metaphors", "create a metonymy", "the sentence pattern of 'it seems like…' is a metaphor?" There are all kinds of new ideas.

Not to mention other more complex knowledge points, as well as the involvement and intersections between knowledge points.

Compared with 2024, the high school Chinese language in 2004 was not so abnormal, the boundaries of each knowledge point were clearer, and there were basically no questions that were seriously beyond the syllabus, such as "novel prose style" and "delayed effect".

Zhang Chao took a deep breath and said, "Hello everyone, what I want to share is first of all the mentality. As a subject that is most affected by the subjectivity of the examiner, the Chinese exam not only tests your mastery of knowledge points, but also a psychological game between you and the examiner. Everyone can think about it. If you are a Chinese teacher, what kind of student would you like to see in the test paper?"

The class suddenly became buzzing with discussions, with students constantly expressing their opinions:
"He who reads a lot."

“The handwriting is beautiful.”

"Literary."

……

"Handsome..."

The whole class burst into laughter. In the end, Chen Huan was the one who made a joke, but Zhang Chao glared back at him. Now the classmates still looked at Zhang Chao's sharing with a joking attitude, thinking that although his Chinese grades were a bit scary, he was not good enough to be their teacher.

However, Zhang Chao ignored all this and copied everyone's answers on the blackboard one by one. Then he turned around and said, "Since everyone knows what kind of students the teacher likes, then think about the mental outlook shown in your own test papers. Are you such a student?"

Everyone fell silent and began to wonder if their answers were too "original".

Zhang Chao continued, "If we are not such students, can we 'pretend' to be such students? With half a year left, it is difficult for anyone to complete the essential transformation, but at least we have to 'pretend' to be a student with a correct learning attitude, rich reading accumulation, and standardized answering habits."

"Can you pretend this? Then tell me how to pretend." The speaker was Liu Xinyu, the third place this time and also the study committee member of the class.

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "So pretentious. Let's start with standard answers. Do you remember this question in the mock exam? 'The image of the father in the novel is complex and full of human depth. Please analyze it in combination with the text.' This question looks simple, and every student can get some points, but it is always not perfect, and there will be points deducted." "Because we analyze the image of the character, we often follow the answering habits of junior high school and answer like this - 'The father in the novel is a kind, loving, shrewd, and a little greedy,...' A very long 'attributive clause'. This answer is too long and easy to miss."

"I will now introduce a method that can make the answer appear standardized and clear. This method is the 'character role analysis method' - people play different roles in different environments. For example, in class, everyone is a student, but when they return home, they become 'children'. Different roles are different in characteristics, personalities, actions, and qualities..."

Zhang Chao spoke eloquently, occasionally writing an outline on the blackboard. The students in the class also gradually became serious from watching the fun at the beginning. They found that what Zhang Chao said was something they had never heard of before, and it sounded very practical. Many students took out their notes and started copying Zhang Chao's blackboard writing.

Zhang Ting, who moved a chair and sat in the back, was also very surprised. Because Zhang Chao's performance had far exceeded her expectations. There were many methods that she had only vaguely felt during teaching in the past, but had not really understood. After Zhang Chao's guidance, she felt like she had suddenly realized something.

She remembered that Zhang Chao's father was also a Chinese teacher. Although he taught in the countryside, he was one of the few graduates of the Chinese Department of Xiamen University at that time and was also well-known. This might be the source of family learning.

Zhang Chao was already in the right state at this time: "...I suggest that everyone should use this 'three-paragraph' answer method when answering questions. This is the answer format that I find very convenient to use. When we are doing the questions, it is recommended that after we have thoroughly understood the reference answers, we should transform the reference answers of different expressions into the 'three-paragraph' format. This way, we can achieve the goal of solving each question and mastering it."

"But the knowledge points in Chinese are very complicated. It is really difficult to sort them out, and it is also difficult to determine which points to answer for a question." The person who asked the question was Shen Ming.

Zhang Chao replied: "That's because our students generally lack a strong and clear 'text awareness'. Novels, essays, poems, dramas... different texts have their fundamental creation purposes and derived text characteristics. The so-called rhetoric, writing, expression, description... are all for the purpose of achieving the purpose and expressing the characteristics."

"For example, we can give a simple definition of a novel - 'a kind of fictional narrative literature'. Then fiction and narrative constitute its basic characteristics, and the three elements of a novel - characters, plot and environment - are all subordinate to the basic characteristics. The author of the novel creates fictional characters..."

Shen Ming listened, nodded, and occasionally asked some additional questions, to which Zhang Chao also answered.

Senior 2 () class had completely become Zhang Chao’s personal stage. There were more and more words on the blackboard, and finally when the bell rang, the entire blackboard was filled.

Chinese was the second class, and after class there was a 20-minute break, during which they had to go to the playground to do exercises. However, the students in Class 2 () of Senior were clearly still not satisfied, and they all requested not to do the exercises and continue to listen to Zhang Chao’s experience.

Teacher Zhang Ting had no choice but to agree, and personally went to the grade office to explain the situation to the grade leader. Senior high school students always have some privileges, and their morning exercises are not strictly enforced, because it is too common for senior high school teachers to stay after class.

So Zhang Chao had to continue his explanation. However, it was too long to finish, and when the bell for the third class rang, this personal "talk show" had to end. Zhang Chao threw the half-finished chalk forward, and it fell accurately into the chalk box. He bowed gracefully and walked off the podium.

The whole class spontaneously applauded for a full minute, which confused Zhao Rudong, the math teacher who came in to teach the class. He thought to himself, am I so popular?
But he soon saw who everyone was applauding for - the boy even bowed at the podium before leaving. Turning back, he saw a dense pile of blackboard writings on the blackboard. Not only were the writings beautiful, but they were also clearly organized, and some parts even looked like beautiful knowledge topology diagrams.

Zhao Rudong could recognize Zhang Ting's chalk writing. After all, she was a frequent participant in the teacher competition, and Zhao Rudong was a senior judge. Was this really all written by Zhang Chao? Zhao Rudong was puzzled.

But thinking of Zhang Chao's math mock test score, he was furious and called out to Zhang Chao: "Stand up! You are not allowed to sit down!"

Zhang Chao was still immersed in the joy of returning to the podium, full of youthful vigor and ambition, when suddenly he was poured a bucket of cold water and had to stand in his seat awkwardly.

Teacher Zhao slammed the table and said, "You are so proud! Do you know how many points you got in the math test?"

Zhang Chao shook his head, but he knew what was going on. It was within his expectations that he would fail the math test.

"8 points! Yes, you heard it right, you all heard it right, it's 8 points! Zhang Chao, you broke the record!"

This really shocked everyone in the room!
(End of this chapter)