I chose to read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I knew this book would deal with the tensions involved with participating in different and conflicting communities, and I thought that would be a great discussion topic for a high school English class. I hope to inspire students to examine the types of communities they consider themselves a part of both in school and for school, as well as the types of communities they consider themselves a part of completely outside of school. I wonder what comparing and contrasting those communities would look like or even feel like for students. The need to belong is a powerful drive in the human experience, especially at their age. Alexie's book does a great job of starting this kind of thinking and dialogue.
There are so many ways to access this book for students. I believe that Rebekah, in her blog, talked about this area of the country really having no experience with reservation life. This book is such a good way to bring that experience into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteYes, this would be a good way to expose students to this experience and I found a great New York Times article to go along with it. If this week's focus was "close reading," I would have chosen to go in this direction. Because this week is focused on "community," I wanted to have a more universal theme; I thought it was very important not to have a lesson where there was a "them."
DeleteI initially thought about talking about school resources and whether they influence success and opportunity (because Junior was of the opinion they did, so much so that he went through the trouble of switching schools). This idea could involve research and even a community project involving some kind of book drive or even speaking at a school board meeting, but this was not a universal enough theme; it could very easily draw a socioeconomic line right up the middle of my English class.
I wanted to have a lesson where every student in my classroom could empathize with the Junior, the protagonist, and relate to his experience regarding his conflicts when it comes to community(ies). That is why I made the decision to focus on the need to belong and the communities we associate with both inside and outside of school. I wanted this lesson to help my class bond as a community, to experience empathy together as well as other emotions (in a to be explained group poem project.) My goal for my lessons throughout this book is for my students to see that they are more alike than different, which is what Junior eventually discovers about himself and the people who surround him.
Focusing on Junior's "otherness" and the experience of life on a reservation just didn't fit this week's theme in my mind. I do agree that it would make for a phenomenal lesson plan at some point. This book is full of riches. I think this is a book that students would enjoy without having to even ask nicely.
That being said, I enjoyed the challenge of looking outside of the box to meet the theme of the week instead of just going with my first idea. I will make a point to post the referenced New York Times article at some point in case someone is interested in the direction I chose not to take.
I appreciate why you didn't want to bring Junior's "otherness" into this week's theme, because we tend not to focus on community building as much as we ought. I'm wondering if there's a way to make the "otherness" as universal as the "belonging," though, because they're sort of foils to each other. At some point we have all felt the "otherness," particularly in our teen years, so it would be interesting to explore how we work through our individual "otherness" to get to a point of "belonging" or acceptance. Glad you're tackling this one!
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