PENGUIN READERS
Teacher’s notes LEVEL 4
Teacher Man
Frank McCourt
About the Author
In 1997, Frank McCourt received the Pulitzer Prize for
his book Angela’s Ashes. The novel, which describes his
childhood in Ireland, came out when he was 66 years
old. Before becoming a published author, McCourt was a
teacher. Read more about the writer and his books in the
Introduction.
Summary
Teacher Man, Frank McCourt’s third book, tells of his
experiences as a high school and college teacher in New
York.
Chapter 1: Mr. McCourt refers to his miserable childhood
in Ireland and to how hard it is to be a teacher in the
United States, especially in public schools.
Chapter 2: Mr. McCourt describes the first day of his
teaching career. There is an incident with a sandwich that
he manages really well, but the principal finds fault with
his behavior.
Chapter 3: Mr. McCourt would like to teach through
stories and music, but he is not allowed to do so, and a
comment he makes about sheep gets him into trouble.
Chapter 4: Mr. McCourt tells his students about his work
on the docks, how he chose to be a teacher and how hard
it was for him to get a job.
Chapter 5: Mr. McCourt describes his first Open School
Day. He gets into trouble again, as Norma, his student
monitor, makes comments that parents disapprove of. On
his second Open School Day, a mother blames him for
telling stories instead of teaching.
Chapter 6: Mr. McCourt describes a lesson in which he
teaches students grammar. He is very proud because he has
managed to teach students one “big” word.
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Teacher Support Programme
Chapter 7: Mr. McCourt uses some excuse notes as a
source for writing tasks. Students love it and are motivated
to write.
Chapter 8: Mr. McCourt tells us about a difficult student
whom he learns to love. McCourt accepts him as he is, but
the boy leaves school, joins the army and goes missing in
Vietnam.
Chapter 9: Mr. McCourt takes a job at a college. He
thinks he will be more respected, but he is wrong.
Chapter 10: Mr. McCourt is teaching at a high school
again. He is also going through a bad patch in his
marriage. A student tries his patience and he hits him
across the face with a magazine. He loses his job at the end
of term.
Chapter 11: At another high school, one of the students
tells a beautiful story about the death of her mother’s
favorite poet and everybody is moved.
Chapter 12: Mr. McCourt takes his students to the
movies. This is rather stressful, but for some of the kids
it is their first time at a movie theater and they find the
experience fascinating.
Chapter 13: He takes the students to see a performance
of Hamlet. He is delighted to learn that one of his former
students is going to finish high school and go to college to
become a teacher.
Chapter 14: Another difficult student proves defiant
and Mr. McCourt tries to use his behavior as a source
for writing activities. Later, he learns that the student’s
mother, a woman he has met, has died.
Chapter 15: Mr. McCourt goes to Dublin to do a
doctorate but returns to New York after two years without
having finished the course. His wife gives birth to a girl.
Chapter 16: Mr. McCourt starts teaching at one of the
very best schools in New York. He is invited to be the
Creative Writing teacher and becomes very popular, but he
feels this is because his classes are easier than the rest.
Chapter 17: Mr. McCourt starts finding his style as a
teacher but, in his attempt to avoid boredom in class, he
asks questions to one of the students which he will be
sorry for.
Chapter 18: Another Open School Day, which he finds
terrible. All the parents want his attention, even when
time is up.
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Teacher’s notes LEVEL 4
Teacher Man
Chapter 19: He supports two students who want to do
something different from what their parents expect.
Chapter 20: It is Mr. McCourt’s last day at school. When
he says goodbye, one of his students suggests he should
write a book.
Background and themes
The teaching profession: Teachers get little respect from
principals, parents and students. They only feel rewarded
by their students’ success. Teaching is shown as a job that
teachers try to get out of as soon as they can.
Innovative teaching: Are unusual teaching strategies
more conducive to learning than teaching by the book?
Is it important to learn facts and figures? For example,
stories are considered by some teachers and principals an
excellent source of learning, but others think they are a
waste of class time.
Flexibility: A major theme in this book is how to adapt to
different contexts and students.
Honesty/Being true to oneself: Mr. McCourt does
not hide his origins or his ideas about teaching to please
parents or authorities and encourages students to persevere
and follow their dreams.
Authority: Students will truly respect people because of
their integrity and good will, not necessarily because they
are in power.
Streaming: There are schools for the gifted and vocational
schools for those who are unlikely to make it to university.
How does attending one of these schools affect a student’s
future?
Stereotypes: Different stereotypes are portrayed
throughout the story, especially those related to origin and
to what different cultures think about one another.
Discussion activities
Before reading
1 Discussion: Guide students with these questions:
What can you see on the cover? What is the man’s job?
Is the story fact or fiction? Is there love in this story? Is
the ending happy or sad?
Do you think you’re going to like the story? Why/why not?
2 Discussion: Have students discuss these questions:
In your country, are teachers mostly men or women? Why
do you think this is so?
Compare men teachers and women teachers. Which do
you like better? Why?
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PENGUIN READERS
Teacher Support Programme
3 Predict: Have students read the titles of the chapters
and predict what the story is about.
4 Make a list of words: Have students make a list of
the words they think will appear in the story and then
dictate the words to you. According to the number of
times each word appears on the board, decide on the
most popular. Ask students to keep this list while they
read.
Chapters 1–3
While reading
5 Read carefully: Have students read the last paragraph
in Chapter 1 (page 2). Ask them to add more
extraordinary ideas about the ideal life of a respected
teacher.
After reading
6 Word list revisited: Have students tick off on the list
in point 4 the words which they have found. Tell
them to add more words to their list.
7 Discussion: Have students answer these questions:
Look at the picture on page viii of the Introduction. Does
the man look like a teacher? Would you like to have him
as your teacher? Why/why not?
8 Discussion: Guide students with these questions:
Are teachers respected in your country? Is this the same
for primary, high school and university teachers? What
about other professions? Which are ‘important’
professions, and which ones are ‘less important’?
9 Discussion: You can guide students with these
questions.
Do you think Mr. McCourt solved the sandwich
situation well? Why? Think of a better way to solve it.
Think of a bad way to solve it.
10 Predict: Ask students these questions.
Is Mr. McCourt a good teacher? Why/why not? Is he
going to become traditional or is he going to use his own
methods and ideas?
11 Check: Have students go back to their predictions
based on the titles of the chapters. Would they make
any changes?
Chapters 4–6
While reading
12 Have students discuss the stereotypes in the last
paragraph of Chapter 4 (page 12).
What did people think about the Irish, Italian families,
dock workers and teachers? Do you agree with those
opinions?
After reading
13 Discussion: Have students discuss the following.
How important is it to learn spelling and grammar? Is it
boring? Can you learn grammar in fun ways?
14 Open School Day: Ask students to imagine their
parents have been to an Open School Day at their
school. What questions would they like to ask their
parents?
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Teacher’s notes LEVEL 4
Teacher Man
15 Discussion: Mr. McCourt’s students tell him that
some words won’t help them get a job. Ask your
students what words/information/abilities may help
them get a job. Does school teach them what they
need?
Chapters 7–9
Before reading
16 Predict: Have students discuss excuse notes.
Who writes excuse notes? When? Why? Have you or your
parents ever written an excuse note? Have you ever forged
an excuse note?
After reading
17 Make a list: What topics would students like to
discuss at school? What topics are most popular with
students?
18 Compare jobs: Have students compare a teacher’s job
at school and at college. Which one is more difficult,
interesting?
Chapters 10 –11
After reading
19 Mr. McCourt’s job: Ask students to compare his job
at the different places he has worked so far. Which
one is the best? Why?
20 Discussion: Consider these questions:
Why does Mr. McCourt feel at home with the students at
Seward Park? When do his students feel comfortable at
school? What about other teachers? And you?
Chapters 12–14
Before reading
21 Discussion: You can use these questions:
Are they interesting? Are they necessary? Are they better
than lessons? What can you learn?
After reading
22 Discussion: Why did Andrew keep tilting his chair?
Ask students to make a list of possible reasons. Then
have them discuss Mr. McCourt’s behavior. Did he do
the right thing?
23 Character description: Ask students to make a list of
characters and their description. The chart below can
help. Students then decide whether they are main
characters or secondary ones.
Name Description Main or not?
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PENGUIN READERS
Teacher Support Programme
Chapters 15–17
After reading
24 Compare schools: In groups, have students write
sentences comparing Stuyvesant High School and the
other schools Mr. McCourt has worked at. Ask them
to consider methods, students, parents, etc. Is this a
better job for Mr. McCourt?
25 Discussion: Have students discuss Mr. McCourt’s
behavior towards James. What do they think? And
how do they think Mr. McCourt and the boy felt at
the end of the conversation?
Chapters 18–20
After reading
26 Discussion: Have students discuss the following:
a Do you agree with Mr. McCourt’s ideas on teaching?
b Of all the students mentioned in the book, who
would you like to go out with? Play sports with? Be in
class with? Why?
27 Writing: Write the word TEACHER on the board
and get students to find words which contain each of
the letters in that word to form a poem, for example:
…T…
…E…
…cAre…
…C…
…H…
…E…
…R…
28 Role-play: In pairs, have students imagine a
conversation between Mr. McCourt and Bob’s father
or Ken’s and dramatize it.
29 Discussion: In groups, have students watch some of
the following movies: To Sir with Love, Dangerous
Minds, Dead Poets’ Society, Stand and Deliver, Mona
Lisa’s Smile. Have them compare the film to Teacher
Man as regards teachers, their schools and their
problems. Then ask them to choose local or
international actors to play the characters in Teacher
Man and justify their choice.
Vocabulary activities
For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to
www.penguinreaders.com.
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