Curriculum Guide 1

Running Head: CURRICULUM GUIDE

Curriculum Guide:

Racism in Heart of Darkness; Sexism in Things Fall Apart

Steven W. Beech

Grand Canyon University

SPE 558

March 26, 2011

 Curriculum Guide 2

Curriculum Guide:

Racism in Heart of Darkness; Sexism in Things Fall Apart

Background: The course is an Advanced Placement Literature and Composition class. It

consists of 11th and 12th graders only and is run at the college level. The class consists of 14

boys and 11 girls. There are three students in the class qualifying for special education services

for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBDs), two boys and one girl. There is also one boy

who exhibits anger management difficulties but is not identified. The key issues are making

inappropriate comments or unnecessary noises in the classroom; making unnecessary physical

contact with others, being easily angered, annoyed, or upset; having little or no interaction with

peers; and not demonstrating the ability to resolve conflict situations. Interventions are provided

in this guide, along with accommodations for otherwise disabled students. This is a thirty-day

guide.

Guiding Question: Can Chinua Achebe's criticism of the value of Joseph Conrad's Heart of

Darkness based on racism be applied based on sexism to his own Things Fall Apart.

Objectives: SWBAT read a wide variety of texts, adjust language to communicate effectively,

employ strategies to communicate with different audiences, use a variety of technological and

informational resources, participate in literacy communities, and internalize context of historic

literature and beliefs.

Interventions: All interventions are from McCarney and Wunderlich (2006).

 Allow natural consequences to occur due to the student making unnecessary comments or

noises in the classroom (e.g., making noises and inappropriate comments during class

time will cause the student to have to make up the work during recreational or free time)

(291)
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 Teach the student behaviors that promote self-control (e.g., placing hands on desk, sitting

with feet on the floor, making eye contact with the person who is talking, etc.) (291)

 Structure the environment to limit opportunities for inappropriate behaviors (e.g., keep

the student engaged in activities, have the student seated near the teacher, etc.) (291)

 Acknowledge the student when he/she seeks attention verbally instead of making it

necessary for the student to gain attention through physical contact (301)

 Encourage faculty/staff members with whom the student interacts to reinforce appropriate

physical contact (301)

 Explain to the student what kinds of physical contact are appropriate and acceptable on

the student's job site (301)

 Allow the student to take a break to regroup when he/she is becoming angry, annoyed, or

upset (308)

 Teach and encourage the student to use problem-solving skills: (a) identify the problem,

(b) identify goals and objectives, (c) develop strategies, (d) develop a plan of actions, and

(e) carry out the plan (308)

 Maintain a positive/calm environment (e.g., positive comments, acknowledgment of

successes, quiet communications, etc.) (308)

 Encourage or reward others for interacting with the student (319)

 Give the student the responsibility of being a teacher's aide for an activity (e.g., holding

up flash cards, demonstrating the use of equipment, etc.) (319)

 Ask the student to choose a peer to work with on a specific assignment. If the student has

difficulty choosing someone, determine the student's preference by other means, such as a

class survey (319)

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Daily Lesson Plans: Heart of Darkness

Day One

- Introduction lecture

- Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights (Conrad, n.d. pgs 6&7) discussion

Day Two

- Introduction to vocabulary exercises for list one (see attached)

- Vocabulary work

- Teacher reading from Chapter 1 (pgs. 9-12)

- Discussion of framed narrative

- HOMEWORK: Finish chapter 1

Day Three

- Vocabulary work

- Discussion of chapter 1 and revisit of framed narrative

- Popcorn reading of chapter 2

-HOMEWORK: Finish chapter 2

Day Four

- Vocabulary work

- Discussion of chapter two and story within story

- Class quiet reading of chapter 3

-HOMEWORK: Finish chapter 3

Day Five

- Vocabulary work

- Discussion of chapter three and "The horror"

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- HOMEWORK: Finish vocabulary work, due next class meeting

Days Six through Nine

- Apocalypse Now movie

- Follow movie with discussion of artistic choices, comparison to text, and why it was set in Viet

Nam during the war instead of Africa

Day Ten

- Heart of Darkness Test (see attached)

Vocabulary Lists and Work for Heart of Darkness

List One:

abject, alacrity, alienist, catacomb, cipher, conflagrations, connoisseur, declivity, disinterred,

drollery

Assignment List One: In your journals, divide a page into four equal squares for each word. In

the upper left square, write the word and the dictionary definition. In the upper right square, use

the word in a sentence. In the lower left square, draw a picture that the word brings to mind. In

the lower left square, define the word in your own terms.

List Two:

estuary, evanescent, fecund, harlequin, immutability, impalpable, implacable, insidious, jocose

Assignment List Two: Choose two: advertisement, classified advertisement, wanted poster,

obituary, and write them using the vocabulary. Draw pictures and color them for each except the

classified advertisement.

List Three: moribund, ominous, peroration, placidity, precarious, prevaricator, rapacious,

recrudescence, sarcophagus
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Assignment List Three: Write a short story in which you use at least five of the list three words.

Highlight the words in your story.

Accommodations

- Amount of vocabulary words may be shortened

- Small groups may work on summarizing text

- Students may choose vocabulary activities in lieu of those assigned, such as journaling or doing

4-square vocabulary on every word

- Test may be delivered orally or student may have extended time

Daily Lesson Plans: Achebe's Essay

Day Eleven

- Vocab work: List: trivial, erudite, utterance, foil (literary), phenomenon, dispassionately,

antithesis, evocation, ponderous, emotive, felicity, purveyor, vignette, lavishes, formidable,

inexorable, imminence, proclamation, liberalism, devoid, pervasiveness. Work to be done with

dictionaries in small groups. Students look up words and put definitions into their own words.

Then, groups come together as a class and share their definitions and discuss differences to come

up with class consensus of definitions.

Day Twelve

- Teacher reads first few pages of essay aloud

- Popcorn reading of remainder of essay

- Remind students of definitions of vocabulary words as they appear in context

- HOMEWORK: reread essay for next class meeting

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Day Thirteen

- Discussion of essay in context of Heart of Darkness

- Introduce concept of how essay can be applied to other writings, maybe by changing "racism"

to other "isms"

Accommodations

- Students may read descriptive essay in lieu of class essay: "Chinua Achebe 'An Image of

Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness'" (1975)

Daily Lesson Plans: Things Fall Apart

Day Fourteen

- Introductory lecture on Ibo context

- Discussion of points of Achebe's essay and how they might be geared towards sexism instead

of racism

- Quiet reading

- HOMEWORK: Students read two chapters a day through day twenty three

Days Fifteen through Twenty Seven

- Students keep journal of any words they don't know with definitions

- Students share definitions of words in small groups

- Students discuss and summarize daily reading and discuss role and perception of women

according to Achebe, spawning class-level Socratic dialogue

Day Twenty Eight

- Overall discussion of whether or not Conrad as an author was racist or Achebe as an author was

sexist.
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- Things Fall Apart Test (see attached)

Accommodations

- As needed, students may use Sparknotes or the like to augment reading

- Students may need teacher instruction on vocabulary words in journal

Culminating Activity

Days Twenty Seven Through Thirty

- In small groups of three or four, students decide on how to make Things Fall Apart into a

movie. The product is a movie poster with a picture on the front and a list of contemporary actors

playing the lead roles. The back of the poster contains a summary of movie choices to make it fit

into a two-hour time slot and setting/scene choices. It also contains a defense of why each actor

was chosen. This will be presented on day thirty.

 Curriculum Guide 9

Heart of Darkness Test

Student Name: __________________________________ Date: ________________________

Multiple Choice Section: Chose the best possible answer and circle the letter. Make sure you
erase completely any mistakes or extra marks. Value: 1 point each.
1. The narrator within the narrator is named:

A) Kurtz

B) Marlow

C) Conrad

2. The true setting of the story takes place in

A) Africa

B) Belgium

C) England

3. The true setting of the story takes place on

A) A Boat

B) A Train

C) An Airplane

4. The Heart of Darkness on the surface relates to

A) England

B) School

C) Africa

5. The author of the novel is

A) Kurtz

B) Conrad

C) Marlow
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Short Answer Section: Use separate paper. Choose Two of the following questions, and using
at least one well-written paragraph, answer the questions fully and with detail. Make sure that
you mark which prompts you answered. Value: 5 points each.

1) Why did Conrad choose to use a frame narrator? Explain and defend.

2) What was Conrad's purpose for writing the "African Woman" the way he did? Explain

and defend.

3) Why were all of Conrad's settings along or on a river? Explain and defend.

4) What is the true narrator like? Explain and defend.

Essay Question: Using separate paper, write a three-paragraph essay explaining Kurt's comment
about "the horror." What does it mean for Kurz? for Marlow? for the book? for us? Value: 10
points.
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Things Fall Apart Test

Student Name: __________________________________ Date: ________________________

Multiple Choice Section: Chose the best possible answer and circle the letter. Make sure you
erase completely any mistakes or extra marks. Value: 1 point each
1. The ceremonial drink used throughout the novel is

A) Beer

B) Palm Wine

C) Whiskey

2. The author of the novel is

A) Okonkwo

B) Conrad

C) Achebe

3. The mild euphoric plant used for company and ceremony was

A) Marijuana

B) Betel Nuts

C) Poppy Seeds

4. At the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo is well known through how many Ibo villages?

A) Nine

B) Twenty

C) Only one, his own

5. Who plays the embodiment of the spirits in ceremonies?

A) They are real spirits visiting.

B) The people

C) White men
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Short Answer Section: Use separate paper. Choose Two of the following questions, and using
at least one well-written paragraph, answer the questions fully and with detail. Make sure that
you mark which prompts you answered. Value: 5 points each.

1) Describe Okonkwo and how he changes or doesn't throughout the story.

2) Explain what part the land plays in the novel.

3) Explain and defend why Achebe uses Ibo words in his novel.

4) Why did Okonkwo kill his adopted son? Explain and defend.

Essay Question: Using separate paper, write a three-paragraph essay explaining whether or not
you think that Achebe's novel is sexist and whether that makes Achebe Sexist. Value 10 points.
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Test Accommodations

- Students may take only the multiple choice or only the writing portions of the test

- Test may be open book and open notes

- Extended time may be given

- Test questions may be read orally

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References

Achebe, C. (1988). An image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." London: W.W.

Norton and Co., pp. 251-261. Retrieved March 25, 2011 from

http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html

Achebe, C. (1994). Things fall apart. New York, NY: Anchor Books/Random House, Inc.

Clark, R. (1975). Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987. Chinua Achebe "An

image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." London: Heinemann, 1988. 1-

13.

Conrad, J. (n.d.). Heart of darkness, unabridged with glossary and reader's notes. Cheswold, DE:

Prestwick House.

McCarney, S.B. & Wunderlich, K.C. (2006). Pre-referral intervention manual, third edition: The

most common learning and behavior problems encountered in the educational

environment. Columbia, MO: Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc.