To launch a unit study of the concept of diversity in World Literature, class members compare Chinua Achebe's essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" and Richard Rodriguez's essay, "The Chinese in All of Us: A Mexican-American Explores Multiculturalism." Groups identify the challenges the authors faced in terms of issues of culture and communication and look for evidence of these challenges as they read Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

Concepts

racism, prejudice, multiculturalism, cultural diversity, ethnic diversity, diversity, things fall apart, imperialism

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Examine the Unit Overview by accessing the link provided in Included Materials to gain an understanding of the scope of and the approaches used in the unit
• Check out the YouTube video interview of Rodriguez to determine if it is appropriate for your learning situation

Classroom Considerations

• The first in a 13-lesson unit, designed specifically for identified gifted and talented learners, that uses a variety of texts to explore the concept of diversity and the challenges of communicating across diverse cultures
• Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart serves as the anchor text for the unit

Pros

• The seven-page resource includes the plan, an opening activity that sets the stage for the discussion, a SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Rearrange) brainstorming session, links to Achebe's and Rodriguez's essays, and a list of other related texts

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.6 RL.9-10.10a RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.2 RI.9-10.5 RI.9-10.10a W.9-10.1.a W.9-10.4 SL.9-10.1.a SL.9-10.1.b SL.9-10.1.c SL.9-10.1.d SL.9-10.4 L.9-10.6