Sorry it took me so long to post this thread. I was at a Writing Project retreat this weekend with 7 content area teachers--chemistry, art, social studies, and ESL--to talk about content literacy. It was great but I am so exhausted! Looking forward to reading your ideas here today...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Unit Plan Think Tank
So, what are your ideas for teaching a unit with "The Things They Carried" and/or "The Red Convertible" at the center? What themes, concepts, questions or "big ideas" might be the driving force of this unit? What other kinds of texts might you ask students to read to help them access and understand the central concept, theme, question, or big idea of the unit?
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I want to do a unit on cultural texts that not demonstrate the values/traditions/beliefs of a culture, but also how that culture fits into American society: not just who we are but who we are in terms of American society. I have some ideas about specific activities and lessons that could come out of this but I’ll just talk about the texts I have chosen so far and how they connect to one another.
ReplyDeleteTo do this, I was thinking of starting with “The Things They Carried”, which would open up a discussion of Army/military culture. This story is great for documenting the way soldiers live, the traditions and values they have, and also the things they go through in times of war. I want this to be an opener to “The Red Convertible” because I like the idea of setting the stage with what happens at war and then (through Erdrich) revealing how what happens at war effects who soldiers are when they return home. This story also obviously opens up a discussion on Native American culture and a focus could be placed on how Lyman’s non-Native appearance affords him more opportunities while Henry’s Native appearance forces him to go to war. In conjunction with that idea, I think the Dropkick Murphys’ “Worker’s Song” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k) would be perfect because it discusses the culture of the working class in America and also has a focus on Irish culture.
I’m realizing how long it could take me to continue writing every text and why/how it connects to the one before it so I’ll just list them because I think it’s easy to see how I’ve connected them (obviously not an exhaustive list):
Angela’s Ashes excerpt – McCourt
“My Father” – Winch
“Long Black Song” – Wright
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Douglass
“Redemption Song” – Bob Marley
“White Privilege, Male Privilege” – McIntosh
“When I was Growing Up” – Wong
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” – Anzaldua
“Changes” – Tupac Shakur
I just basically want texts that help students either identify with a culture/position in American society, to hear the voices of cultures/positions that may have been oppressed, and/or to be aware of the variety of cultures within the United States.
Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteLOVE THIS. You are smart and thoughtful and resourceful. Look at this great list of texts and perspectives! Thanks for including Anzaldua. YAY! Bring these ideas to class tomorrow and we'll start turning them into a unit.
I am interested in looking at different relationships in literature and connecting them to the student’s lives. We will look at the relationships in the two short stories, “The Red Convertible” and “The Things They Carried”. The students will look for connections in the story and analyze the different kind of relationships while connecting the story to their personal lives. High school students are surrounded by different types of relationships including friendships, romantic relationships, and beginning professional relationships. Good and bad, constantly changing, dedication and commitment, willingness and team work are just a few of the similar characteristics recognized in relationships and are the key components and concepts I would like this unit to focus on. I feel like I need to talk through my ideas more...hopefully this is somewhat of a starting point.
ReplyDeletePoems: Old Things Are More Beautiful, Heirlooms, Memories
Story: Reflections (Short story from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul)
Non-Print Text: Across the Universe, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I hope you had the time of your life, Photograph.
OK, so I am not entirely sure what I'd like create a unit on, but I am thinking that I'd like to explore the roles of societal and familial expectations in life, and how they shape our daily choices and our own expectations for ourselves. Race, gender and religion also play an important part in our daily decisions and opportunities--as is apparent in The Red Convertible, considering that Lyman looks less Native American than Henry... I was thinking about using Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif" as a close comparison to "The Red Convertible." In addition, possibly Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel "Persepolis"--which brings in the religion aspect.
ReplyDeleteUgh, again, this is just a starting point, and will probably change many times between now and the final product! Like Nicole, I also just need to talk it all through...hopefully we'll all be able to inspire each other!
In high school, my eleventh grade English teacher had the class write letters, and I really enjoyed doing it. I never had to write a letter before, so it was a fun new experience. I want to do a unit plan on writing letters, not just the writing of but also the techniques and the meanings/interpretations that other writers have used in their writing. To start, the students and I would look at "The Things They Carried" and "The Red Convertible" because they both have parts dedicated to letters. For other texts directly linked to letters, we would look and discuss the first letter from Frankenstein, the "Immortal Beloved" letter from Beethoven, and the poem "This Is Just to Say." For non-print texts, I thought I would bring in "P.S. I Love You" and just show clips of receiving and reading letters. I think this movie is effective in showing the power that letters have. We would discuss the written texts for meaning and interpretation as well as for unfamiliar words and geographical locations. Then, I would have the students look at the techniques that the writers use in their letters and have them come up with the elements that should go in a letter. For practice, the students and I would write a letter together to one of the characters or people that we would study. As a final project, I would have the students write their own letters to real people and bring them in to have workshops.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the letter writing idea, Laura. Really. And, Nicole and Jill, please don't fear, although this due date is going to come up on us quickly. We will indeed help and support each other and each others' ideas as we move forward in the planning of this unit. I think you both have great ideas and might think about how you can use Appleman's ideas--critical lenses to look at the literature--to help shape your unit ideas. Thank you for posting everyone.
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ReplyDeleteOkay, so I know that we are suppose to be thinking "out of the box" and all; but, when I think of teaching a unit with "The Things They Carried" as a central text, I get really, really excited about creating a unit around the whole book, rather than a thematic unit using the short story and ancillary texts from other authors. I have such a passion for Tim O'Brien as an author!! Is it old fashioned and out of touch to do an updated version of an "Author Study?" I have thought of including excerpts from his novel Tomcat In Love as well as the article "The Vietnam in Me" that I quoted from in class. Within the unit, I wanted to focus on the ideas of fiction, truth, and perception. I like the idea of exploring the validity of a person’s perception of events even if s/he remembers them in a way that is different than how the events happened in reality. I think it is interesting to explore how our perceptions influence and affect our realities. For example: If someone has a memory of an occurrence, that for them is very real and accurate, then the memory of the incident as it seemed is more valid than what may have really happened, because it is the memory that the person will carry and it is the memory that will shape their future. In other words, one’s perception of reality, because it is what forms us into the people that we are, is often more important than reality itself. Often, the person’s perception (rather an a recount of reality as it actually was) gets closer to the essence of “truth” that is central to her/his memory.
ReplyDeleteI would want to read the whole collection, but focus specifically on 5 stories: “The Things They Carried,” “How To Tell A True War Story,” “The Man I Killed,” “Ambush,” and “Good Form.”
My ideas for the unit are in their infancy, but they include experimenting with creative writing that deals with “story-truth” versus “happening-truth.” I would have the students write versions of stories that attempt to tell a story how it happened, then tell the same story in a way that is concerned with recreating a feeling for the reader that mimics the feeling that was the writers “truth.”
I also want to focus on Point of View, metafiction as a literary device, tone, narrative form, and poetic language.
So if all of this focus on O’Brien is no good, then my other idea is to do a unit which focuses on “the language of grief” In this unit, I would texts from the following list:
Short Stories:
Lorrie Moore—“People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling In Peed Onk”
Raymond Carver—“A Small Good Thing”
Dave Eggars—“When They Learned To Yelp”
Richard Wright—“Long Black Song”
Louise Erdrich--"The Red Convertible"
Excerpts from Novels/Memoirs:
Frank McCourt—Angela’s Ashes
Jacqueline Woodson—Behind You
Markus Zusak—The Book Thief
Movie Clips/Media:
From Speak, based on book from Laurie Halse Anderson
The Mountain Goats—“Get Lonely”
Tracy--Your ideas are NOT old fashioned. They are awesome. I love this idea and think that students would, too. Clearly, your passion for this author and his writing is what will ultimately shine through here. Take this idea and RUN! I like the "language of grief" idea, too, but oh so sad (sadder than Vietnam? Hmmm). Anyway, go with your first instinct. It is very exciting and so very different from the other ideas that have been posted. YAY.
ReplyDeleteI want to do a unit on literary theory focusing primarily on dominant idealogies. I will have the students read "The Things They Carried" and "The Red Convertible" along with The graphic novel "Maus" to exhibit how dominant ideologies can destroy people who do not belong to them.
ReplyDeleteI also would like to incorporate some feminine authors such as, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Emily Dickenson to show different reactions to the dominant ideology at the time. This also creates an opening for teaching how texts reflect the authors' views on their own cultural status.
I also want my students to be able to come up with a piece of writing that reflects the way that they see themselves and where they fit into the dominant ideology of their community and America as a whole. They should also be able to do a critical reading of a text from a literary perspective.
My entire goal with this unit is to curb students prejudices by teaching them about diversity and that no one perspective is ever absolute.
Nicole