Contemporary Sudanese Literature
Lesson Plan
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PowerPoint
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Class Materials
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This lesson titled “Contemporary Sudanese Literature,” took place on the fifth day of our unit about Central and East African cultural history and modern voices, and was the second lesson of our three-lesson series about the Sudan. The lesson heavily incorporated student learning from the previous day’s lesson about Sudanese cultural and political history and the Lost Boys of Sudan. Students were assigned a five-page excerpt from Dave Eggar’s 2006 work What is the What: the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng to read for homework, and this text was the focus of the majority of this lesson.
At the start of class, students answered three primarily plot-driven questions about the What is the What reading in their notes. These questions did not require much analysis or interpretation of the text to answer, and I began with them to ensure students had a sound surface understanding of the text before we delved into a deeper analysis. Before we discussed student answers to the “Do-Now” questions, I briefly introduced Valentino Achak Deng, the subject of the book, and how he came to partner with author Dave Eggars to tell his story. Returning to the “Do-Now” questions about What is the What, students shared their answers with the class. We then transitioned into a broader conversation about Deng’s intertwining feelings of satisfaction and disappointment about his new American reality, through the analysis of a quote I projected onto the SMART Board. I facilitated students in making connections between this passage and the impressions, expectations, and worries about America expressed in the Lost Boys of Sudan documentary we watched in class the previous day. This close reading helped prepare students for the close reading of What is the What that they would soon conduct in their “letter groups.” Breaking into their “letter groups,” students in groups A, B, and C analyzed passages, completed a graphic organizer, and discussed a final question related to Valentino’s impressions of the robbers and the robbers’ impressions of Valentino. Meanwhile, students in groups D, E, F, and G analyzed passages, completed a graphic organizer, and discussed a final question related to Valentino’s experiences of robbery, betrayal, violence, and friendship in Africa and America. Additionally, each person had an assigned role in the analysis according to their “number groups.” I reminded students that there is explicit language in this text and in some of these passages, and emphasized it is there purposefully to convey real, authentic experiences and emotions. I allowed students to pronounce the expletives aloud when reading the passages, but only if they determined they could do so with maturity and respect for the literary work. Students worked in their “letter groups” for twenty minutes to complete the graphic organizer and discuss the final question, then convened in their “number groups” to discuss their respective answers to the final question. Students in “letter groups” A, B, and C discussed the question: “What has Valentino learned about Americans? What have Americans learned about Africans/Sudanese? How might this interaction influence future interactions between these two groups? How might their impressions of one another be improved?” On the other hand, Students in “letter groups” D, E, F, and G discussed the question: “What is the difference between robbery, betrayal, violence, and friendship in Africa and America? Where is it ‘better’? Why do you think Eggers chose to relay Deng’s experiences with these issues by flashing between the past and present?” Students in “letter groups” A, B, and C shared first, followed by students in “letter groups” D, E, F, and G. To conclude, we reunited as a whole class and discuss these two final questions.
Students were very engaged in this lesson and participation was high for a number of reasons. First, in the initial Africa survey that I distributed before the start of the unit, several students indicated interest in learning about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Second, in the previous class, we concluded by watching and discussing a ten-minute clip of the Lost Boys of Sudan (2003) documentary. Student engagement was very high surrounding this activity and many asked if we could continue watching. Third, most all of my students came prepared for class, having read and understood the assigned What is the What excerpt in full. In advisory that the morning I heard my students talking about the excerpt and encouraging those who had not yet read it to read. The excerpt (and the novel) opens with the scene of an armed robbery and the excerpt is littered with explicit language. The inherently interesting and engaging subject matter of this text encouraged students to read and read more closely. As a result, almost all students came to class prepared and excited to talk about the excerpt. Working in their small groups, students each had an assigned role in the passage analysis. This made the analysis process run smoothly and cooperatively. Students also easily made connections between the character’s experiences in Africa and America, and to the previous lesson about Sudan’s foreign encounters and current socio-political situation. In particular, students were able to make connections between the experiences of the Lost Boys in the documentary and Valentino’s experiences as recorded in What is the What.
Before teaching this lesson I thought carefully about whether I would let students read the explicit language aloud in class. There is a considerable amount of cursing in the excerpt, much of in the passages students read aloud in their small groups. I decided to permit students to read the language aloud because the author incorporated it into the text to capture very specific experiences and emotions. My recommendation that they only pronounce the explicit words aloud if they can do with maturity was effective, perhaps because students saw that I trusted them and had confidence in their ability to respectful. Circulating among the different “letter groups,” I heard students reading the explicit passages with maturity, and preserving the integrity of the text. Beyond their engagement in small group and class discussions, students’ learning from this lesson left a lasting impression. Many of my students incorporated examples from this text into their “writing exercises” at the end of the unit, evincing their ability to situate ideas and themes from the text into the larger framework of African cultural roots and modern voices.
Below are samples of Krystal and Serena’s What is the What classwork:
At the start of class, students answered three primarily plot-driven questions about the What is the What reading in their notes. These questions did not require much analysis or interpretation of the text to answer, and I began with them to ensure students had a sound surface understanding of the text before we delved into a deeper analysis. Before we discussed student answers to the “Do-Now” questions, I briefly introduced Valentino Achak Deng, the subject of the book, and how he came to partner with author Dave Eggars to tell his story. Returning to the “Do-Now” questions about What is the What, students shared their answers with the class. We then transitioned into a broader conversation about Deng’s intertwining feelings of satisfaction and disappointment about his new American reality, through the analysis of a quote I projected onto the SMART Board. I facilitated students in making connections between this passage and the impressions, expectations, and worries about America expressed in the Lost Boys of Sudan documentary we watched in class the previous day. This close reading helped prepare students for the close reading of What is the What that they would soon conduct in their “letter groups.” Breaking into their “letter groups,” students in groups A, B, and C analyzed passages, completed a graphic organizer, and discussed a final question related to Valentino’s impressions of the robbers and the robbers’ impressions of Valentino. Meanwhile, students in groups D, E, F, and G analyzed passages, completed a graphic organizer, and discussed a final question related to Valentino’s experiences of robbery, betrayal, violence, and friendship in Africa and America. Additionally, each person had an assigned role in the analysis according to their “number groups.” I reminded students that there is explicit language in this text and in some of these passages, and emphasized it is there purposefully to convey real, authentic experiences and emotions. I allowed students to pronounce the expletives aloud when reading the passages, but only if they determined they could do so with maturity and respect for the literary work. Students worked in their “letter groups” for twenty minutes to complete the graphic organizer and discuss the final question, then convened in their “number groups” to discuss their respective answers to the final question. Students in “letter groups” A, B, and C discussed the question: “What has Valentino learned about Americans? What have Americans learned about Africans/Sudanese? How might this interaction influence future interactions between these two groups? How might their impressions of one another be improved?” On the other hand, Students in “letter groups” D, E, F, and G discussed the question: “What is the difference between robbery, betrayal, violence, and friendship in Africa and America? Where is it ‘better’? Why do you think Eggers chose to relay Deng’s experiences with these issues by flashing between the past and present?” Students in “letter groups” A, B, and C shared first, followed by students in “letter groups” D, E, F, and G. To conclude, we reunited as a whole class and discuss these two final questions.
Students were very engaged in this lesson and participation was high for a number of reasons. First, in the initial Africa survey that I distributed before the start of the unit, several students indicated interest in learning about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Second, in the previous class, we concluded by watching and discussing a ten-minute clip of the Lost Boys of Sudan (2003) documentary. Student engagement was very high surrounding this activity and many asked if we could continue watching. Third, most all of my students came prepared for class, having read and understood the assigned What is the What excerpt in full. In advisory that the morning I heard my students talking about the excerpt and encouraging those who had not yet read it to read. The excerpt (and the novel) opens with the scene of an armed robbery and the excerpt is littered with explicit language. The inherently interesting and engaging subject matter of this text encouraged students to read and read more closely. As a result, almost all students came to class prepared and excited to talk about the excerpt. Working in their small groups, students each had an assigned role in the passage analysis. This made the analysis process run smoothly and cooperatively. Students also easily made connections between the character’s experiences in Africa and America, and to the previous lesson about Sudan’s foreign encounters and current socio-political situation. In particular, students were able to make connections between the experiences of the Lost Boys in the documentary and Valentino’s experiences as recorded in What is the What.
Before teaching this lesson I thought carefully about whether I would let students read the explicit language aloud in class. There is a considerable amount of cursing in the excerpt, much of in the passages students read aloud in their small groups. I decided to permit students to read the language aloud because the author incorporated it into the text to capture very specific experiences and emotions. My recommendation that they only pronounce the explicit words aloud if they can do with maturity was effective, perhaps because students saw that I trusted them and had confidence in their ability to respectful. Circulating among the different “letter groups,” I heard students reading the explicit passages with maturity, and preserving the integrity of the text. Beyond their engagement in small group and class discussions, students’ learning from this lesson left a lasting impression. Many of my students incorporated examples from this text into their “writing exercises” at the end of the unit, evincing their ability to situate ideas and themes from the text into the larger framework of African cultural roots and modern voices.
Below are samples of Krystal and Serena’s What is the What classwork:
Krystal is a motivated female student who is not afraid to express unpopular opinions in class discussion, and also speaks Korean as her first language. In her What is the What classwork, Krystal revealed her emotional reaction to the text through her distain for the robbers, who claim kinship with Valentino because they are African-American, while they proceed to rob him blind. Analyzing a passage about the robbers’ impressions of Valentino, Krystal wrote, “The robber is trying to ‘calm’ Valentino and acts like he is too naive. He tries to act like he’s doing a favor because their ‘brothers’ and Valentino should be glad this experience came to him. Acting like Valentino should be grateful that his ‘brother’ is robbing him.” Krystal’s use of quotes indicated close attention to the text and helped create the caustic tone she employed throughout the assignment. In response to the final question (“What has Valentino learned about Americans? What have Americans learned about Africans/Sudanese? How might this interaction influence future interactions between these two groups? How might their impressions of one another be improved?”), Krystal continued to show her engagement with the text. In the closing sentence of her response Krystal emphatically stated, “African should learn to be more careful, Americans should try helping kindly.” Having first hand experience with immigration to America herself, Krystal emphasized the importance of showing kindness to help others acclimate to a new environment, thereby identifying with this text. Read the complete transcript of Krystal’s classwork here:
krystals_what_is_the_what_classwork_transcription.docx | |
File Size: | 109 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Serena is an eager learner with an outgoing and bubbly personality. At the beginning of our unit about Africa, she disclosed to me that this was the unit she was most excited about. Serena demonstrated her engagement with this text through her astute observations comparing Eggars’ presentation of the theme of betrayal in Africa and America. Of betrayal in Africa, Serena wrote, “betrayed by their own kind -Ethiopian woman told him to trust her, then killed those who approached her.” Similarly, Serena noted that in America, Valentino was “betrayed by their own kind - his ‘brother’ another African-American robbed Valentino.” Building off of this connection of being “betrayed by their own kind,” Serena concluded, “Eggars is trying to show that Africa and America are not that different, they both have crime and violence.” Serena’s sophisticated analysis and interpretation of this text reveals her high level of engagement, due to her prior interest in the subject and the captivating nature of the story. Read the complete transcript of Serena’s classwork here:
serenas_what_is_the_what_classwork_transcription.docx | |
File Size: | 105 kb |
File Type: | docx |