Through the Eyes of Different Cultures:
In order to give my students an authentic multicultural experience, I contemplated what the best way to organize this project would be. I have never found it helpful to teach by genre, simply because I think students learn better when we combine and compare different kinds of literature, as they highlight things differently. Therefore, I decided to create a thematic unit that will incorporate the different pieces of literature I have selected and use them to help my students gain language and reading skills.
Also, as this unit will include texts for both middle school and high school, I have separated the different activities so that each part can be used separately depending on whether or not it is for middle school or high school. Most of the unit is developed for middle school, but there are some more advanced texts that would need to be taught in a high school setting. These texts are grouped together for their activities.
Note: The different activities for each text are highlighted in purple for easy skimming purposes to the instructor and as a future resource. The different texts being used are numbered.
THEME:
At the start of this unit, I would ask the students to create a Venn diagram, placing Africans on one side of it and Jewish people on the other, as pictured below:
I would put the students in small groups and ask them to compare and contrast the two cultures using what they know about them. I will collect these, give them points, and then have them do the same activity at the end. They will compare the two charts to see what information they have gained throughout the unit. I want my students to actually develop an understanding of the cultures themselves, not just of the books we read. I believe that THIS is what constitutes an authentic multicultural experience.
Norton expresses early on in her book that a need for an understanding and acceptance of different cultures is very important in the expanding demographics in the United States today (1). This is why I am beginning and ending with this activity. Throughout the unit, I will ask the students to take notes on different values about both Jewish and African people that they can use at the end to help with their diagram. The notes will be taken in journals that they will keep and turn in every week.
1. After we have established what we already know, I would read the story Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. It is a very short folktale about two rabbits who watch everyone in their clearing be taken by the "Terrible Things". This short tale has a lot of important themes, as it is an allegory for the Holocaust and what the Nazis did to the Jewish people in World War II. After I read this book aloud, I would hold a whole class discussion about the themes in it and about how it relates to the Holocaust.
2. This introduction will get them set up with ideas about the Holocaust, which is a period that is crucial to the Jewish literature I have selected. I will do a note-taking lesson using passages from Scholastic Encyclopedia of the United States at War, by June A. English. In this encyclopedia, there are passages about World War II that will give the students a background on the time period for a lot of the literature. I will model note taking with a page in this encyclopedia, teaching them to underline important ideas, put question marks next to confusing ideas, and put exclamation points by interesting ideas. This will give them a foundation for note-taking. Also, I will hold a whole class discussion using the information in this text to make sure the students understand the time period we are studying.
3 and 4. The students will also read Night by Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Each of these texts tells the story of a Holocaust survivor. While reading Night, I will have the students develop a character chart that allows them to label Elie as a static or dynamic character. Does his identity change throughout his experience? Who does he feel he is amidst all that is going on and all that he has to endure? They would do the same for Anne Frank. The character chart will look something like this, except I would have them make a separate chart for each character:
As a conclusion assignment for these two books, I will have the students write a comparison/contrast essay using the two novels. I will first model for the students how to outline the essay and how to organize it. It is important that they understand the organization of an essay so that in the future they will be able to write longer ones.
5 and 6. I want my students to understand how to determine good sources. Therefore, I will incorporate two informational texts about Jews and their history in order to teach this. These are Neil Waldman The Golden City: Jerusalem's 3000 Years and Karla Kuskin's Jerusalem. I will select passages from each of these texts and have the students read it, first in small groups in class. Then, I will have them re-read it for homework to make sure they understand it. I will have the students analyze each text as an informational resource. We will go to the computer lab and the students will have to research the things they find in these two sources to determine the credibility of each source. At this time, we will do a short mini lesson on this and on finding credible sources. (I have found that students who get to high school and college still do not know how to determine a credible source; therefore, it is an important task to get them started on.)
I will ask the students to prepare a presentation, individually, where they will explain to the class what they found in their research. Was the source credible? Did the information in the book match what you found? Why is it a good/bad source? The students will create a powerpoint to illustrate what they found to the class. The second activity for these books is that I will have them create a timeline of Jewish history, using the passages from the books. Then, after they have the timeline completed, I will have the students get into small groups and discuss why this history was important to the Holocaust.
7 and 8. Another activity in this unit will be analyzing poetry. I will have my students read both "I am a Jew" by Franta Bass and "The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedmann. Upon first read of each of these poems, I will do a short mini lesson on literary terms and poetic devices. Then, I will have the students find all the poetic devices used in each poem. We will discuss these in class, as well as what effect they have on the theme of the poem. The mini lesson on poetic devices will include poetic devices such as the ones listed below.
I will also include a short handout that has examples of what each of these are at the end of the mini lesson.
The handout is below. It is just something I created and can be easily duplicated.
The second activity for these poems is a creative writing activity. I will ask the students write a poem of their own that is about their own culture. I want them to try and incorporate the poetic devices from our mini lesson as well as some of the stylistic choices of the writers of "The Butterfly" and "I am a Jew". The poems will be shared in class so that the students are also working on their oral language skills.
9.Also in this unit, I want students to really understand the characters of these texts so that they can come to understand the cultures. Getting a feel on a character's identity can be hard, and I thought an activity like this one could help. While reading Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, I will have the students write a script for a few assigned chapters in the novel. This will help the students really get a handle on who the characters really are. I found this activity on Education World, along with a lot of other ideas for activities in the classroom. The students will select students to perform the scenes with them in class.
Also with this novel, I want the students to work on their oral language skills and develop their skills in critical thinking. The students will be assigned another activity from Education World called "Book Report in a Bag". At the end of this novel, I will have the students create a book report in a bag. The students will have to select a "bag" to put items in. Both the bag and the items have to be relevant to the themes within the novel. The students will present their bag and its contents to the class, as well as explain why they selected each item. A minimum of 4 items will be required for the bag and the students will write up their responses to why the item was chosen and turn it in.
10. I also want the students to read the short story Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene. With this book, I want the students to read it in small groups first. Then, as a group, they will develop a list of themes they find in the story. This list will need to be developed into a graphic organizer using evidence from the novel. These themes they will present to the class and explain why they chose them, using evidence from the story. Once everyone has presented, we will discuss the themes as a class and what they mean for the story. Also, we will discuss the identity of both Patty, the jew, and Anton, the Nazi prisoner, who become friends despite the cultural differences and historical past. Students are free to design whatever organizer works best for them, but I will provide them with this example.
Also for this book, students will have to write a journal entry from the point of view of Anton. We always look at the Holocaust, but we usually do not study it from the point of view of the Nazis. Despite a lot of terrible people during the Holocaust, there were some who were nice to the Jewish people and did not torture them. Also, there were children of these terrible people who were only related to the situation by blood, not by actions. The students will write a journal entry for three different chapters in order to grasp the character of Anton. What is his identity? How does he feel about his situation? The journals will be peer edited, typed, and turned in.
11. At some point throughout the unit, I will have to introduce the African American culture because I want the students to be able to compare and contrast the two cultures with a deep understanding of each. The introduction of the African American culture will begin with a reading of a very short folktale called The Faithful Friend by Robert D. San Souci. This story is also about a friendship between two unlike cultures. Therefore, I will read the story aloud and have the students take notes while I read. Not only will this develop their note-taking skills, but it will give them a resource to use for the next activity using this book.
The students will be creating a prezi presentation that compares this story to the short story we read previously, Summer of my German Soldier. They will need to include two parts in this project. First of all, the students will have to discuss the friendships developed in each story and what makes them similar and different. Also, the students will generate a list of values, based on what they have learned of the Jewish culture already. They will then create a list of African American values they gain from this short folktale and compare the two lists. The students can organize this however they want in their notes, but they will need to present it in an organized fashion in the prezi.
12 and 13. I will also want the students to do a research project on African American history, including the slavery era. I will assign the books A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968, by Diane McWhorter and Remember: The Journey to School Intervention, by Toni Morrison. These books are both about huge steps in African American history. The students will be required to cite from these two books in their research assignment, as well as other three sources they find themselves. They will develop a works cited page for their sources, as well as a write up of the information they find before creating a powerpoint presentation for the class. I will do a mini lesson on how to cite using MLA format. I will use my own texts as well as Purdue to guide my lesson.
Also, the books and research will give a lot of history of this culture as well as develop values for them. Therefore, using the same books and research, the students will select two important events in their research that define this culture. This project will be done in groups. Then, they will write a "newscast" for that event. The newscasts will be presented in front of the class.
14 and 15. The students will be reading a biography of Martin Luther King Jr., who was an extremely important person in African American history. This book, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Movement, by Lillie Patterson, will give them insights to MLK Jr's influence in the Freedom Movement. I will have the students create a timeline for this book to use while reading other literature from this culture. The students will use this timeline when reading Christopher Paul Curt's, The Watsons go to Birmingham- 1963. Then, they will create a book report mobile on this novel. The mobile will have to have five different pictures hanging from it: one for themes (2 themes at least for a total of two pictures), characters, and important events. On the back of each of these pictures, they will need to explain the important characters, themes, or events. On the last picture on the mobile, they will need to incorporate the timeline they created for the MLK biography and how it helps us read The Watsons go to Birmingham more critically.
The students will write a 3-4 page paper that compares and contrasts the themes in the biography to those in the fiction novel. They will need to provide evidence for their claims and incorporate both books.
16 and 17. The students will also be reading One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping The Diary of Julie Weiss, by Barry Denenberg. I will begin this lesson by reading the poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou. The students will read this poem in small groups and discuss the themes that the poem develops. They will use those themes to read One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping The Diary of Julie Weiss. They will then create a list of both values for the Jewish and the African American cultures.
Then, the students will write a comparative analysis essay of 4-5 pages that discusses how these two cultures are similar in the novel and in the poem. This essay will be written in small groups assigned by the teacher. I will explain exactly how I want this paper to be constructed. However, I will do it in small groups because it may still be a challenging assignment for middle grades. I would probably do a lesson like this with eight grade. They will be able to turn in one paper that they will write together, given time in class.
Also, for this novel I will hold a discussion at the end of the novel in which we discuss the effects the Holocaust had on the Jewish people.
18 and 19. Early on in this project, I mentioned that one thing African American and Jewish cultures have in common are strong family values. Both The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition and A Lesson Before Dying incorporate strong family values. Although one is a children's book and they are both from different cultures, students will notice that they both have strong family values in them. The students will read both pieces and make a web for each culture and their family values using Bubbl.us. Students can create a free account and are allowed two webs in a free account. I will have the students make them and print them to turn in.
20. Also, I will read the children's book The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. This is a story about a Jewish family and it includes a lot of important family values. A huge part of the identity of people from both the Jewish and the African American cultures stems form family loyalty. This is something I feel is very important to understanding these cultures accurately. As I read this book, I will have the write down family values they notice as I read. Then, I will have one student come to the board and take responses from the class and write them on the board. The students will take notes so that they have a collective list of values from this culture.
Also for this book, I will have them go back and write a short journal response on how this book compares to the values of African American cultures that they learned from A Lesson Before Dying. They will be using these lists and journals at the end of the unit; therefore, I will collect all of them and put them into folders for each student.
21 and 22. The students will also read Wartime Lies by Louis Begley. This book is about a young boy who survives the war by posing as a non-Jew. It tells the story of the mental price he pays after losing everyone he knows and surviving the war alone. I want the students to compare his survival strategy with that of the Spiegelmans in Maus: A Survivor's Tale. This unique story is told as a comic book. I will first have students compare these two stories by trying to understand how they survived. Using the details from the novels, the students will create an interview for each of the characters. The students will get into partners to do the interview, but each student will come up with their own interview questions. There should be at least 10 interview questions. The students will interview each other pretending to be the character from each novel. Each student in the partnership can do either Mr. Spiegelman from Maus: A Survivor's Tale or Machiech from Wartime Lies. Examples of the interview questions could be:
Also, as this unit will include texts for both middle school and high school, I have separated the different activities so that each part can be used separately depending on whether or not it is for middle school or high school. Most of the unit is developed for middle school, but there are some more advanced texts that would need to be taught in a high school setting. These texts are grouped together for their activities.
Note: The different activities for each text are highlighted in purple for easy skimming purposes to the instructor and as a future resource. The different texts being used are numbered.
THEME:
Identity
At the start of this unit, I would ask the students to create a Venn diagram, placing Africans on one side of it and Jewish people on the other, as pictured below:
I would put the students in small groups and ask them to compare and contrast the two cultures using what they know about them. I will collect these, give them points, and then have them do the same activity at the end. They will compare the two charts to see what information they have gained throughout the unit. I want my students to actually develop an understanding of the cultures themselves, not just of the books we read. I believe that THIS is what constitutes an authentic multicultural experience.
Norton expresses early on in her book that a need for an understanding and acceptance of different cultures is very important in the expanding demographics in the United States today (1). This is why I am beginning and ending with this activity. Throughout the unit, I will ask the students to take notes on different values about both Jewish and African people that they can use at the end to help with their diagram. The notes will be taken in journals that they will keep and turn in every week.
 |
| Image from Children's War Blogspot.com |
1. After we have established what we already know, I would read the story Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. It is a very short folktale about two rabbits who watch everyone in their clearing be taken by the "Terrible Things". This short tale has a lot of important themes, as it is an allegory for the Holocaust and what the Nazis did to the Jewish people in World War II. After I read this book aloud, I would hold a whole class discussion about the themes in it and about how it relates to the Holocaust.
2. This introduction will get them set up with ideas about the Holocaust, which is a period that is crucial to the Jewish literature I have selected. I will do a note-taking lesson using passages from Scholastic Encyclopedia of the United States at War, by June A. English. In this encyclopedia, there are passages about World War II that will give the students a background on the time period for a lot of the literature. I will model note taking with a page in this encyclopedia, teaching them to underline important ideas, put question marks next to confusing ideas, and put exclamation points by interesting ideas. This will give them a foundation for note-taking. Also, I will hold a whole class discussion using the information in this text to make sure the students understand the time period we are studying.
3 and 4. The students will also read Night by Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Each of these texts tells the story of a Holocaust survivor. While reading Night, I will have the students develop a character chart that allows them to label Elie as a static or dynamic character. Does his identity change throughout his experience? Who does he feel he is amidst all that is going on and all that he has to endure? They would do the same for Anne Frank. The character chart will look something like this, except I would have them make a separate chart for each character:
As a conclusion assignment for these two books, I will have the students write a comparison/contrast essay using the two novels. I will first model for the students how to outline the essay and how to organize it. It is important that they understand the organization of an essay so that in the future they will be able to write longer ones.
5 and 6. I want my students to understand how to determine good sources. Therefore, I will incorporate two informational texts about Jews and their history in order to teach this. These are Neil Waldman The Golden City: Jerusalem's 3000 Years and Karla Kuskin's Jerusalem. I will select passages from each of these texts and have the students read it, first in small groups in class. Then, I will have them re-read it for homework to make sure they understand it. I will have the students analyze each text as an informational resource. We will go to the computer lab and the students will have to research the things they find in these two sources to determine the credibility of each source. At this time, we will do a short mini lesson on this and on finding credible sources. (I have found that students who get to high school and college still do not know how to determine a credible source; therefore, it is an important task to get them started on.)
I will ask the students to prepare a presentation, individually, where they will explain to the class what they found in their research. Was the source credible? Did the information in the book match what you found? Why is it a good/bad source? The students will create a powerpoint to illustrate what they found to the class. The second activity for these books is that I will have them create a timeline of Jewish history, using the passages from the books. Then, after they have the timeline completed, I will have the students get into small groups and discuss why this history was important to the Holocaust.
 |
| Image from tjed.com |
7 and 8. Another activity in this unit will be analyzing poetry. I will have my students read both "I am a Jew" by Franta Bass and "The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedmann. Upon first read of each of these poems, I will do a short mini lesson on literary terms and poetic devices. Then, I will have the students find all the poetic devices used in each poem. We will discuss these in class, as well as what effect they have on the theme of the poem. The mini lesson on poetic devices will include poetic devices such as the ones listed below.
 |
| Slide from powerpoint I created for mini lesson |
I will also include a short handout that has examples of what each of these are at the end of the mini lesson.
The handout is below. It is just something I created and can be easily duplicated.
 |
| Handout for Poetic Devices |
The second activity for these poems is a creative writing activity. I will ask the students write a poem of their own that is about their own culture. I want them to try and incorporate the poetic devices from our mini lesson as well as some of the stylistic choices of the writers of "The Butterfly" and "I am a Jew". The poems will be shared in class so that the students are also working on their oral language skills.
 |
| Image from Glogster.com |
9.Also in this unit, I want students to really understand the characters of these texts so that they can come to understand the cultures. Getting a feel on a character's identity can be hard, and I thought an activity like this one could help. While reading Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, I will have the students write a script for a few assigned chapters in the novel. This will help the students really get a handle on who the characters really are. I found this activity on Education World, along with a lot of other ideas for activities in the classroom. The students will select students to perform the scenes with them in class.
 |
| Education World |
10. I also want the students to read the short story Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene. With this book, I want the students to read it in small groups first. Then, as a group, they will develop a list of themes they find in the story. This list will need to be developed into a graphic organizer using evidence from the novel. These themes they will present to the class and explain why they chose them, using evidence from the story. Once everyone has presented, we will discuss the themes as a class and what they mean for the story. Also, we will discuss the identity of both Patty, the jew, and Anton, the Nazi prisoner, who become friends despite the cultural differences and historical past. Students are free to design whatever organizer works best for them, but I will provide them with this example.
Also for this book, students will have to write a journal entry from the point of view of Anton. We always look at the Holocaust, but we usually do not study it from the point of view of the Nazis. Despite a lot of terrible people during the Holocaust, there were some who were nice to the Jewish people and did not torture them. Also, there were children of these terrible people who were only related to the situation by blood, not by actions. The students will write a journal entry for three different chapters in order to grasp the character of Anton. What is his identity? How does he feel about his situation? The journals will be peer edited, typed, and turned in.
 |
| Image from Amazon.com |
11. At some point throughout the unit, I will have to introduce the African American culture because I want the students to be able to compare and contrast the two cultures with a deep understanding of each. The introduction of the African American culture will begin with a reading of a very short folktale called The Faithful Friend by Robert D. San Souci. This story is also about a friendship between two unlike cultures. Therefore, I will read the story aloud and have the students take notes while I read. Not only will this develop their note-taking skills, but it will give them a resource to use for the next activity using this book.
The students will be creating a prezi presentation that compares this story to the short story we read previously, Summer of my German Soldier. They will need to include two parts in this project. First of all, the students will have to discuss the friendships developed in each story and what makes them similar and different. Also, the students will generate a list of values, based on what they have learned of the Jewish culture already. They will then create a list of African American values they gain from this short folktale and compare the two lists. The students can organize this however they want in their notes, but they will need to present it in an organized fashion in the prezi.
12 and 13. I will also want the students to do a research project on African American history, including the slavery era. I will assign the books A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968, by Diane McWhorter and Remember: The Journey to School Intervention, by Toni Morrison. These books are both about huge steps in African American history. The students will be required to cite from these two books in their research assignment, as well as other three sources they find themselves. They will develop a works cited page for their sources, as well as a write up of the information they find before creating a powerpoint presentation for the class. I will do a mini lesson on how to cite using MLA format. I will use my own texts as well as Purdue to guide my lesson.
Also, the books and research will give a lot of history of this culture as well as develop values for them. Therefore, using the same books and research, the students will select two important events in their research that define this culture. This project will be done in groups. Then, they will write a "newscast" for that event. The newscasts will be presented in front of the class.
14 and 15. The students will be reading a biography of Martin Luther King Jr., who was an extremely important person in African American history. This book, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Movement, by Lillie Patterson, will give them insights to MLK Jr's influence in the Freedom Movement. I will have the students create a timeline for this book to use while reading other literature from this culture. The students will use this timeline when reading Christopher Paul Curt's, The Watsons go to Birmingham- 1963. Then, they will create a book report mobile on this novel. The mobile will have to have five different pictures hanging from it: one for themes (2 themes at least for a total of two pictures), characters, and important events. On the back of each of these pictures, they will need to explain the important characters, themes, or events. On the last picture on the mobile, they will need to incorporate the timeline they created for the MLK biography and how it helps us read The Watsons go to Birmingham more critically.
The students will write a 3-4 page paper that compares and contrasts the themes in the biography to those in the fiction novel. They will need to provide evidence for their claims and incorporate both books.
 |
| Image from Amazon.com |
16 and 17. The students will also be reading One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping The Diary of Julie Weiss, by Barry Denenberg. I will begin this lesson by reading the poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou. The students will read this poem in small groups and discuss the themes that the poem develops. They will use those themes to read One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping The Diary of Julie Weiss. They will then create a list of both values for the Jewish and the African American cultures.
Then, the students will write a comparative analysis essay of 4-5 pages that discusses how these two cultures are similar in the novel and in the poem. This essay will be written in small groups assigned by the teacher. I will explain exactly how I want this paper to be constructed. However, I will do it in small groups because it may still be a challenging assignment for middle grades. I would probably do a lesson like this with eight grade. They will be able to turn in one paper that they will write together, given time in class.
Also, for this novel I will hold a discussion at the end of the novel in which we discuss the effects the Holocaust had on the Jewish people.
18 and 19. Early on in this project, I mentioned that one thing African American and Jewish cultures have in common are strong family values. Both The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition and A Lesson Before Dying incorporate strong family values. Although one is a children's book and they are both from different cultures, students will notice that they both have strong family values in them. The students will read both pieces and make a web for each culture and their family values using Bubbl.us. Students can create a free account and are allowed two webs in a free account. I will have the students make them and print them to turn in.
20. Also, I will read the children's book The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. This is a story about a Jewish family and it includes a lot of important family values. A huge part of the identity of people from both the Jewish and the African American cultures stems form family loyalty. This is something I feel is very important to understanding these cultures accurately. As I read this book, I will have the write down family values they notice as I read. Then, I will have one student come to the board and take responses from the class and write them on the board. The students will take notes so that they have a collective list of values from this culture.
 |
| Image from Amazon.com |
Also for this book, I will have them go back and write a short journal response on how this book compares to the values of African American cultures that they learned from A Lesson Before Dying. They will be using these lists and journals at the end of the unit; therefore, I will collect all of them and put them into folders for each student.
21 and 22. The students will also read Wartime Lies by Louis Begley. This book is about a young boy who survives the war by posing as a non-Jew. It tells the story of the mental price he pays after losing everyone he knows and surviving the war alone. I want the students to compare his survival strategy with that of the Spiegelmans in Maus: A Survivor's Tale. This unique story is told as a comic book. I will first have students compare these two stories by trying to understand how they survived. Using the details from the novels, the students will create an interview for each of the characters. The students will get into partners to do the interview, but each student will come up with their own interview questions. There should be at least 10 interview questions. The students will interview each other pretending to be the character from each novel. Each student in the partnership can do either Mr. Spiegelman from Maus: A Survivor's Tale or Machiech from Wartime Lies. Examples of the interview questions could be:
- Were you scared that the Nazis would catch you?
- How did you make them believe you were not a Jew?
- After you got out of that situation, how did you feel?
- What would you have done if you had been captured?
The students would write up their questions and record the answers. Then, they would edit the draft and type up the responses to be turned in.
 |
| Image from paperdroids.com |
Maus: A Survivor's Tale is an novel told in a unique way. It can be interesting to the students because it is told as a comic strip.
I want the students to understand both cultures with this unit. Therefore, because Maus was about the Jewish culture, the students will create a chapter like in the novel as a comic strip, but from the African American perspective of surviving slavery.
Also, for each book, the students will design a book jacket that is meant to sell the books to interested readers. The book jackets will have to be different than any that are currently on the books. The students will be instructed to design a jacket that incorporates a main theme without giving away the book to readers.
23. I would also have the students read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. With this book, I want them to grasp the concept of identity and what it means. The students will write an thesis essay on how Pecola Breedlove struggles with her identity in this novel. If at this point in the year I had not done a lot of work on writing thesis statements, I would do a lesson on how to write a thesis. Then, they would have to write an essay on this novel and the identity struggle of the main character. Secondly with this book, the students will discuss the relevance and importance of the title, both before and after reading. Prior to reading, I will hold a whole class discussion about what this title could mean. After reading the novel, I will have the students compare our original responses with our ideas after reading. We will discuss how they changed and why.
24 and 25. In Feathers, by Jaqueline Woodson, Frannie struggles with her identity and with concepts of racism, faith, and hope. She is drawn to Emily Dickinson's poetry and the themes within that as well. The poem, "Hope", by Emily Dickinson is one that is important in the novel.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me. (From PoetryFoundation.org)
When we come to this poem in the novel, I will have the students take it out and read it and analyze what it does for the novel. The students will discuss in small groups what they think the poem means. Then, they will incorporate what it means to Frannie in the novel. They will use evidence from the story to defend what make this so important to Frannie. They will informally present this information to the class using posters provided by the teacher.
Also, I will have the students find an Emily Dickinson poem that is not in the novel and discuss whether or not it can apply to Frannie's life and why.
I will also have the students read the poem "I, Too Sing America" by Langston Hughes. The students will each be given a copy of this poem to write on. They will be told to take notes on the poem itself, underlining important terms, highlighting images, and drawing lines to comments about themes within the poem. At the bottom of the page, the students will have to explain what they found when reading the poem. What were themes? What is the speaker trying to say? Why is this important?
Then, I will have them type up a 1-2 page response to the following question:
If Frannie had been reading poetry like this instead of Emily Dickinson's poetry, how would she have been influenced differently? How might the story be different?
This unit is designed to incorporate both Jewish literature and African American literature in order to help students understand the similarities and differences between them. Therefore, at the end of the unit, I would have the students revisit the initial venn diagram we created comparing and contrasting the two cultures. Given what they have learned, I would have them create a new diagram. Then, I would have them compare the two diagrams and we would discuss everything we have learned in class. The diagrams would be turned in, as well as a response activity in which the students each give me a journal entry that states how their views of these cultures have changed. The students can use all of their former work as evidence for their thoughts in the response journal.
I want to be able to measure whether or not they had an authentic multicultural experience at the end of the unit. "Identity" is about individuality as much as it is about togetherness. It is about who you are. I want to see what my students grasped from this unit and if they have a better understanding of the cultures we studied.
THIS ENDS THE MIDDLE SCHOOL PORTION OF THE UNIT-
The following lessons/literature can also be a part of this thematic unit. However, they are for high school level students and therefore need to be separated.
