I tried designing a unit following the UBD design.  Here’s the first draft.  What do you think? Normally we don’t make novel studies like this, but is this useful?

Questioning Differences

Reader’s Workshop

 

 (Based on Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe)

Narrative Description: (What is the plan, why is it important for student growth and achievement?)
In this unit, students read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.  The novel takes place in Nigeria right before the Ibo culture is colonized.  While reading, students are asked to question the cultural and historical influences.  In addition, students will question the gender and power dynamics.  Ultimately, the purpose of the unit is an introduction to Cultural Response Theory and Feminist Criticism.  Students under the lens of questioning will discover how their own interpretations are influenced by their own personal culture, bias and likes and dislikes.  By questioning, students will question the author’s purpose and how his bias affected the novel. In addition, students will be spiraling skills and strategies that should be taught and re-taught throughout the year.  Through class discussion, students will gain new understandings about cultural and historical influences as well as how bias impacts interpretation.  They will use literary elements such as theme, plot development and characters when interpreting the author’s purpose.  Vocabulary study will enrich their understanding of the text as demonstrated through their written work and class discussions.
Enduring Understandings: (What understandings are desired, what are the big ideas?)
(spiral) I discuss my reading with my classmates using textual evidence that is detailed, relevant and specific. (spiral) I demonstrate mastery of vocabulary words in my speech and in my writing. (spiral) I use literary elements to analyze the text. I question gender roles within literature and analyze why the author created certain power dynamics. I question how my own personal culture and background influences by likes and dislikes when I read about cultures that are different from my own. I question how an author’s background and culture influences the message he/she is trying to send in his novel.
Essential Questions: (What essential questions will be considered, how does the work of the unit of study relate to the larger contexts of self, world, life goals, etc,?)
How do the ideas of other readers improve my understanding of the text and the world? Can a sophisticated vocabulary improve my life? How do literary elements affect each other? Do I dislike things that are different than me? Are men and women treated differently in books, and if so, why? What makes a character a hero?
Suggested Motivational Strategies: (How do students maintain interest, and where can we see evidence of student & teacher investment in the content through the physical classroom?)
Motivational Strategies During independent work, play Nigerian folk music. Using the cover art as inspiration, to design your own modern art interpretation of an Okonkwo portrait and with the use of different colors, highlight his juxtaposed personality. In groups, students brainstorm what causes a society to fall apart.
Assessment Strategies: (What evidence will show that students understand – how are students provided with opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, & self assess?)
Formative   Conferences Exit Tickets Reading log (weekly)  Habits of Good Readers      Behavior Tracking Sheet      (weekly)	Summative Weekly Assessment On Demand Bi-Weekly response to a prompt writing Prompt 1:  What do you learn about Okonkwo and the culture in which he lives from his relationship with Ikemefuna, the hostage boy? What message is Achebe sending when he created this relationship? Do you agree or disagree with Achebe’s message? Be sure to use direct citations from the text when you give your answer. Prompt 2: Was Okonkwo a hero? If so, what three qualities of a hero did Okonwko have?  If not, what three qualities did he have that made him not heroic? Be sure to support your choice with direct citations from the text.	Student Self – Assessment/Reflection   Habit reflection (weekly) Goal setting	Standardized KIPP NYC quarterly assessments

 

Standards – Based Instruction: (How can I insure that everything I teach is standards – based?)

Standards Translated Into Knowledge and Skills

Knowledge and Skills Translated Into Daily aims Launch of Questioning Unit Aims: While reading your independent reading book, to ask two clarifying and two thick-questions (spiral review) While reading your independent reading book, to thick-question why you like or dislike the protagonist To determine whether or not female characters are powerful in Gossip Girl and your independent reading book by analyzing how they are portrayed In a class discussion, to analyze non-traditional gender roles in picture books such as Derek, The Knitting Dinosaur, and to thick-question if gender roles are traditional in your independent reading book Assess aims 1-4 Pre-Reading Things Fall Apart Aims  In groups  or a class discussion, to analyze the following biased statements Change is destructive Religion restricts behavior Social order demands conformity Being a man is difficult Fear is destructive It is a son/daughter’s duty to carry on family traditions By connecting to your own life in order to form your own opinion To analyze “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling and how it connects to the historical connect of Things Fall Apart To interpret Ibo proverbs in Things Fall Apart before reading in order to not “get stuck” during reading During Reading Things Fall Apart Aims: to ask thick and clarifying questions of Things Fall Apart in order to gain confidence when starting the exposition to use the glossary of Ibo terms in order to define unfamiliar vocabulary and to analyze why Achebe chose those words to write in Ibo Assess aims 5-11  to question whether or not male or female characters have more power in Things Fall Apart in order to analyze power dynamics to question Achebe’s intentions in making certain characters weak  in order to analyze the message Achebe is sending about gender roles to question gender dynamics within your own life, and to analyze the similarities and differences between middle school and TFA  gender roles On Demand Assessment #1 by discussing in a class discussion,  to question and analyze why you were particularly “turned off” by different scenes in Things Fall Apart that had to do with gender dynamics  Assess aims 12-15 To question and determine whether or not Okonwko is a hero and to determine whether or not Achebe would agree To analyze what Achebe is saying about the biased statements (see aim 6) and to question why your opinions were different  After Reading Aims:    to question whether or not your own personal bias toward the dynamics    in Ibo culture is effecting your  like or dislike of the book in order to determine whether or not your biases are affecting your interpretation of the book to determine what Achebe is “really saying” about gender roles in Things Fall Apart Assess Aims 16-21 On Demand Assessment #2

 

Daily Schedule: (7)   Do Now (15)   Mini Lesson  (30)  Reading Workshop (5)    Close/Share (10) Vocabulary (5) Homework review (5)    Exit Ticket

 

Monthly Calendar: (Map out learning experiences, instruction and assessment across a monthly plan.)
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday

 

Vocabulary :

 

1.  Adherent
2. Appease
3. Arduous
4. Audacity
5. Benevolence
6. Blasphemous
7. Calamity
8. Contempt
9. Desolate
10. Impudent
11. Malevolence
12. Ominous
13. pacifist
14. Resilient
15. revere
16. tentative
17. Vivid
18. Wily
19. Woe
20. Zeal

Guiding Questions

Chapter One:

One becomes influential in this culture by earning titles. As with the Potlatch Indians of our region and many other peoples, this is an expensive proposition which involves the dispersing most of one’s painfully accumulated wealth. What do you think are the social functions of such a system?

One of the most famous lines in the novel is “proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” What does this mean? Palm oil is a rich yellow oil pressed from the fruit of certain palm trees and used both for fuel and cooking. Look for other proverbs as you read.

Chapter Two

Beginning with this chapter, trace how women are related to the religious beliefs of the people.

What is the purpose of the taking of Ikemefuna? Note how Achebe foreshadows the boy’s doom even as he introduces him.

In what ways does Okonkwo overcompensate for his father’s weaknesses? In what ways is he presented as unusual for his culture? What is his attitude toward women? Why does he dislike his son Nwoye so much?

What seems to be Achebe’s attitude toward this culture so far? Is his depicting it as an ideal one? Can you cite any passages which imply a critical attitude?

Chapter Three

The priestess of Agbala is introduced at the beginning of this chapter. She is a very significant figure in this book. What effect does her status have on your judgment of the roles played by women in the culture?

Chapter Four

What are Okonkwo’s virtues? What are his faults?

Chapter Five

What is Okonkwo’s attitude toward feasts?

Chapter Six

This chapter introduces a much-discussed aspect of Ibo belief. As in most pre-modern cultures, the majority of children died in early childhood. If a series of such deaths took place in a family it was believed that the same wicked spirit was being born and dying over and over again, spitefully grieving its parents. They tended to be apprehensive about new children until they seemed to be likely to survive, thus proving themselves not to be feared ogbanje. What roles does Chielo play in the village?

Chapter Seven

How has Nwoye begun to “act like a man”? What values does Okonkwo associate with manliness? How does Nwoye relate to these values? 

Chapter Eight

What is Okonkwo’s attitude toward his daughter Ezinma?” Bride-price is the converse of dowry. Common in many African cultures, it involves the bridegroom’s family paying substantial wealth in cash or goods for the privilege of marrying a young woman. Do you think such a custom would tend to make women more valuable than a dowry system where the woman’s family must offer the gifts to the bridegroom’s family? How do you think such a system would affect the women themselves?

Young women were considered marriageable in their mid-teens. Why do you think this attitude arose? It is worth noting that European women commonly married between 15 and 18 in earlier times. There is nothing uniquely African about these attitudes.

Chapter Nine

Why does Ekwefi prize her daughter Ezinma so highly?  

Chapter Ten

The egwugwu ceremony of the Ibo has been much studied. The women clearly know on some level that these mysterious beings are their men folk in disguise, yet they are terrified of them. What do you think their attitude toward the egwugwu is?

Chapter Eleven

What is the moral of the fable of the tortoise? What values does it reflect?

Chapter Twelve

Notice the traditional attitudes of all small villagers toward large marketplaces like Umuike. How is the importance of family emphasized in the uri ceremony?

Chapter Thirteen

Having shown us an engagement ceremony, Achebe now depicts a funeral. We are being systematically introduced to the major rituals of Ibo life. How does the one-handed egwugwu praise the dead man? Okonkwo has killed people before this. What makes this incident so serious, though it would be treated as a mere accident under our law?

 

 

Chapter Fourteen

What is the significance of comparing Okonkwo to a fish out of water?

Chapter Fifteen

How does the story of the destruction of Abame summarize the experience of colonization?

Chapter Sixteen

Why do you think Nwoye has become a Christian?

Chapter Seventeen

What mutual misunderstandings are evident in this chapter between the missionaries and the people of the village? How does the granting to the missionaries of a plot in the Evil Forest backfire?

What does the metaphor in the next to the last sentence of the chapter mean?

Chapter Eighteen

The outcaste osu are introduced in this chapter. Why do you suppose Achebe has not mentioned them earlier?

Chapter Nineteen

Note how traditional Umuofian custom can welcome back an erring member once he has paid for his crime. In many cultures Okonkwo would be treated as a pariah, but this culture has ways of accommodating such a person without destroying him, and in fact encouraging him to give of his best. What does the final speaker say is the main threat posed by Christianity?

Chapter Twenty

There is a saying common to Native Americans and Africans alike which goes like this: “Before the white man came, we had the land and they had the Bible. Now we have the Bible and they have the land.” How does this relate to Things Fall Apart?

Chapter Twenty-One

Why do some of the villagers–even those who are not converts to Christianity–welcome the British?

Chapter Twenty-Two

How is Rev. Smith different from Brown? What is the result of his black and white thinking?

Chapter Twenty-Three

What does the District Commissioner say is the motive of the British in colonizing the Africans?

Chapter Twenty-Four

Once again Okonkwo uses his matchet rashly, bringing disaster on his head. But he could be viewed as a defiant hero defending his people’s way of life. What do you think of his act?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Why do you think Okonkwo kills himself? What is your reaction to the final paragraph of the book?