As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members conduct a close reading of a section of Chinua Achebe's essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Jigsaw groups then compare the voice in the essay with that in the novel, and analyze how the change in voice develops the ethos, logos, and pathos of Achebe's argument.

Concepts

close reading, nonfiction text features, reading nonfiction, nonfiction

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• The activity presumes class members are familiar with the SOAPSTone format; however, if this approach is new to class members share the destailed description and examples included in the packet

Classroom Considerations

• The eighth 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

Pros

• The eight-page packet includes the plan, a link to the essay, to a resource about Joseph Conrad and his Heart of Darkness, a review of the Rhetorical Triangle, and the writing prompt

Cons

• No rubric is included for the writing prompt

Common Core

RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.3 RL.9-10.4 RL.9-10.6 W.9-10.2.a W.9-10.4 W.9-10.9.a W.9-10.10 SL.9-10.1.a SL.9-10.3