TEACHING UNIT

JAMES JOYCE, A SELECTION FROM “DUBLINERS”

The following teaching unit is addressed to 5 th year students of a general upper secondary school
(Liceo). Referring to the CEFR self-assessment grid the appropriate target level must be B2.
The lessons will focus on James Joyce as one of the most outstanding figures of the Modernist
movement and will analyze two stories taken from the collection entitled “Dubliners” (I would
select “Eveline” and “The Dead”). The objectives to be pursued by the completion of the unit are:
• identify the writing conventions and the literary devices used by the author
• analyze the main themes approached
• analyze the effect of the blending of realism and symbolism
• identify the author's main innovations in the narrative technique
• offer a close reading of “Eveline” and “The Dead”

As far as materials and resources I would use: books (literary anthologies), educational software,
Interactive Multimedia Whiteboard (LIM), internet resources and audio/visual resources (John
Huston 1987 movie “The Dead”).
In order to help students to think critically and autonomously about the topic in many divergent
ways, I would suggest them active and cooperative learning activities taking into consideration
multiple intelligences and different learning styles, such as “learning together” “student team
learning” or/and “group investigation”. In this perspective Formative and Summative Assessment
will be the most suitable methods to evaluate the student progress and growth aligning them to the
Cefr self-assessment grid.