Jesse McLean, Amanda Krolikowski, Heather Homant, Hannah Nagi, Sarah Rehim, and Eric Salzeider

Jesse McLean, Amanda Krolikowski, Heather Homant, Hannah Nagi, Sarah Rehim, and Eric Salzeider
Merritt - TE 408
Spring ‘09
Multicultural Literature Unit

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
1. Unit Overview –
a. Context –
• This unit is put together for a 9th grade General Literature course. The overarching theme throughout the
course is the idea of “Identity,” which will be explored through several genres of texts. The individual
lessons for this unit are set-up for approximately 50-minute periods over the course of 12 class days. An
additional week will be needed for presentations of the students’ final multi-genre portfolio assessment.
b. Unit – “Exploring Dual Identities through Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”
• Previous Unit: “American Born Chinese - The Idea of a Personal Identity”
 This unit would use the graphic novel genre to introduce the overarching course theme
of identity.
• Unit to Follow: “What is the hero/heroine identity?”

 During the “Dual Identities” unit we will be breaking into the superhero genre by using
Daredevil as a supplementary text. This directly flows into a unit on epics and
heroism, and how cultural values and self-perceptions define heroism. Most 9th grade
class curricula require coverage of The Iliad or The Odyssey; these epic poems are
often rehashed and repackaged for each new generation, but slightly modified to keep
with the values at the time. This goes along with certain themes from our “Dual
Identities” unit of storytelling and stories that are retold and evolve accordingly. This
unit revolves around what qualities identify characters like Odysseus and Achilles as
"heroes," and how changing some of this would affect their status as heroes in
certain contexts. It will tie it back to the “Dual Identities” unit by also bringing up the
possible negative effects of having these idealized archetypes, and how it affects
peoples' perceptions of themselves (including stereotypes that caused Native
Americans to try to conform to “white ideals”).
c. Themes/Concepts –
• Themes: Conflicting/Dueling Identity, Stereotypes
• Concepts: How is our identity constructed by our experiences and the societies in which we live in and how
might this form dual/conflicting identity?
d. Essential Questions -
• How is identity formed within different cultures?
 What makes an identity?
 What outside influences affect identity?
• What happens when identities (culturally) are in conflict?
• What are the effects of stereotyping? How do they affect identity?
e. Rationale -
• This unit is a crucial part of the 9th grade English experience because it delves into the core of issues that
students at this age tend to struggle with. By using a text that gets at the heart of multiculturalism and a
person’s identity, students are able to critically analyze what it means to be multicultural and have or
explore their own identity.
Part-Time Indian MC Unit
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is used as the anchor text for this unit because of the rich
tapestry of topics it provides to explore. Not only does it give a glimpse into the Native American culture,
which is rarely addressed in English curriculums, but it also shows readers the infinitely complex questions
that surround stereotypes, identity and race. This text is a genre of its own. It reads like an autobiography,
factually accounting for the main character’s life but combines aspects of a graphic novel-type text
through illustrations also “created” by the main character. This offers a rare approach to different
reading/learning styles.
• This text is also an ideal text for the exploration of identity issues connected with race and disability.
Almost every part of this book revolves around the main characters conflicting identities between his
Native American culture and the white culture. He finds he is constantly struggling to be accepted by a
white society that wants to label and identify him within a Native American archetype while grappling
with the fact that he doesn’t fully fit into his full-blooded Native American culture either. Therefore
leaving him to feel essentially rejected by both “identities.” This book vividly displays the notion of
unknown, unsure or unexplored identities that students deal with on a daily basis, both in and outside of
school. Using this text allows students the chance to explore their own experiences of feeling apart and
feeling part of the larger tapestries of their social lives.
f. Inventory –
• Through activities at the beginning of our course and the knowledge already obtained from our first unit
looking at identity, we assume to know:
 Our students are at an age where they are constantly exploring and questioning their
identity
 Each student is an individual with their own identity(s) and life experiences
 They have not had much practice in formal representations of multi-genre texts
 They are motivated when they feel included in each lesson and are given the
opportunity to do academic, as well as personal exploration
g. Goals/Standards –
• SWBAT:
 Describe/discuss/explore the components of personal identity through oral discussion,
illustration and written journals
 Explore their personal identity through text analysis, illustration and reflection
 Synthesize what they read into a character/text analysis in a multi-genre format
• Michigan Department of Education Standards:
 CS1.2, CS1.5
 CS2.1, CS2.2,
 CS3.1, CS3.3, CS3.5, CS3.7, CS3.8,
 CS5.1, CS5.2, CS5.3, CS5.4, CS5.5
 CS6.2, CS6.3, CS6.4
 CS7.1, CS7.2
 CS8.2, CS8.4
 CS9.1
 CS10.1
h. Assessments -
• Multi-genre portfolio that consists of:
 Double-entry journals
 Self-identity illustration
 Multi-genre final component option
• Oral presentation of portfolio
i. Lessons: This is the general overview/theme behind each lesson. Fully fleshed-out lessons will follow after
unit overview:
• Lesson 1 (Thurs.): Anticipation Guides (Duel-Identities Cartoons, etc.), Introduction of
Unit/book; essential questions
• Lesson 2 (Fri.): Introduce journals; Small/large group discussion; Have read up through page
47 of Part-Time Indian
• Lesson 3 (Mon.): McCloud references; Compare/Contrast Images; how they affect identity,
how do these pictures enhance or complicate the text? Why does Junior choose to use
drawings?
• Lesson 4 (Tues.): Multiple Identities (exploring other characters); Have students return to
dual-identity cartoons; In-Class Reading (p. 104-113); Have read up through page 103 of PTI
• Lesson 5 (Wed.): Native American Literature, special guest (stereotyping)
• Lesson 6 (Thurs.): Have read up through page 151 of PTI; Pop culture; negotiating identity;
What are the effects of stereotyping? How do they affect identity? Comic strips
• Lesson 7 (Fri.): Dare Devil excerpts parallels with PTI; look at similarities in narrative; themes
cross over; everyone is a storyteller; Telephone Pictionary
• Lesson 8 (Mon.): Continuation of Dare Devil lesson
• Lesson 9 (Tues.): Have read up through page 199 of PTI; how do the people in our lives affect
our identity? (T-Mobile) "Fave Five": Select top five most influential people in own lives; who
would be in Junior's top five? Small group share/large group discussion
• Lesson 10 (Wed.): In-Class Reading, Finish novel, Last journal reflection/discussion
• Lesson 11 (Thurs.): Wrapping Up Lose Ends; Pass out Portfolio Assignment (Identity
Cartoon/Double-Journals/Multi-Genre/Oral Reflection); choice for 3rd component, write out
paper proposal (due at end of hour)
• Lesson 12 (Fri.): Work Day: finish journals, pass back proposals, answer questions, give
potential resources i.e. websites
j. Activities
• Anticipation guide
• Double-entry journals
• Dual-identity cartoons
• Native American guest speaker
• Telephone Pictionary
• Fave-Five
• Small/large group discussions
k. Discussion
• This unit will be balanced between:
 Small-group dialogic discussion and analysis
 Whole-class dialogic discussion and analysis
l. Texts
• Alexie, Sherman (Art by Ellen Forney). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Litte,
Brown and Company, 2007.
• Mack, David. "Echo Vision Quest." Daredevil. Vol.2 (issues 51-55). Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. Office
of Publication. New York. 2003.
m. Sources:
• McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publisher. 1993.
• Rationales for Teaching Young Adult Literature. Louann Reid, Ed. with Jamie Hayes Neufeld
• Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008.
• Jesse McLean, Amanda Krolikowski, Heather Homant, Hannah Nagi, Sarah Rehim, and Eric Salzeider
2. Daily Lesson Plans -
Lesson 1 (Thursday): Exploring Identity

Underlying Questions
 How do we introduce students to a new text that is visually different than what they are used to?
 How do we get students talking and thinking about the major themes of a text before they begin reading?
 How do we use anticipation guides to actually guide a student’s reading and interpretations of a text?
Goals
 To garner student interest in the text
 To have students better understand how to interpret this sort of writing and the themes within
 To allow students to become comfortable with read-arounds
Rationale
 Up to this point, students likely have not yet encountered a text with this sort of voice in an academic
setting, where the narrator is someone their age who is writing to them. We want them to understand
and appreciate how Arnold’s voice, his art, and the genre of the text correlate with the overarching theme
of identity construction. We want them to know how to read and interpret this text.
 Starting a new text, especially at a grade level when one is new to the high school experience, can be
daunting for any student. The purpose of an anticipation guide is to garner their interest in the text and
have them see some of its merits before they begin to read, as well as find examine the themes that will
guide their reading.
Assessments
 Students answers to Anticipation Guide
 Large group discussion
 Questions on style after reading Chapter 1 aloud
Objectives
 Students will be able to answer questions about themselves that relate to the main character, Arnold, and
what he’s going through in the novel
 Students will be able to participate actively in a conversation on the important themes and questions that
will be encountered in the novel
 Students will able to participate in a read-around of the first chapter
Tasks
(5 minutes) Begin by asking students if they have any questions on what they know of the text so far (they
will have skimmed the book, examined the titles, looked at the art and read the inside flap before
coming to class).
(10 minutes) The Anticipation Guide will then be passed out. Students will answer the questions on the guide
silently.
(15 minutes) Upon completely the guide, we will go through the questions aloud. I will ask students to volunteer
some of their answers to the questions. This will be done keeping in mind that we have already
established a comfortable community in the classroom. Students will be informed that these
questions are the sort of questions that the main character in the text grapples with, and all
relate to identity. They also represent themes and questions that they should keep aware of as
they read the book. The guiding lens for the text is identity.
(5 minutes) Once the discussion has closed, the teacher will pass out empty folders that will serve as the
beginning of the student’s portfolios for the duration of the unit. It will be explained that the
students will be keeping a portfolio of artifacts, including an ongoing journal that they will create
and acquire over the course of the two weeks. We will discuss the purpose of the portfolios (to
gather information, to keep thoughts and progress organized, and to have small assessments
which guide their reading and will work toward a final assessment).
(15 minutes) The rest of the class time will be devoted to a read-around of the first chapter of the text. I want
students to pay attention to Arnold’s voice and speaking/writing styles while we read, which is
one of the main reasons for reading the text aloud.
For homework, students will read through the third chapter. They will also begin a K-W-L for the
text, and must come to class with a Know based on our discussions and what they have read thus
far. The K-W-L will be part of their portfolio. They will be asked to write a journal entry based
on their Know and Want To Know, and may either do so for homework or in the first ten
minutes of class the next day.
Materials
 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
 Anticipation Guide
 Multi-colored folders
 Writing utensils
Resources
 The English Teacher’s Companion- Jim Burke (chapter 4- teaching narratives)
 Teaching English By Design – Peter Smagorinsky (chapter 13)
 Sarah Rehim
Lesson 2 (Friday): Further Exploration of Identity

Underlying Questions
 In what ways has Arnold begun to establish his identity thus far in the novel?
 What do we make of the way Arnold speaks to his audience? Is he affective?
 How can we begin to construct our own identities much through the same elements that Arnold constructs
his?
Goals
 To help students further build the community feel in the classroom through the group activity, which calls
on them to be open and comfortable with each other
 To allow students to begin questioning their own identities and how they are constructed – both internally
and externally
 To introduce students to the journal writing they will be doing throughout the next two weeks
 To help students further understand how Arnold’s voice operates within the text
Rationales
 At this age and grade level, it is a common struggle for students to “fit in” within many different
communities – that of their individual classrooms, their grade levels, the entire school, and other outside
social and familial communities. Through this lesson, we want students to question and analyze how their
actions and self-representations give way to their identities being constructed within their given
communities.
 The concepts of identity and self-awareness are wholly valued by the Michigan E.L.A. standards, and we
feel the day’s activities provide an approachable and fun way to examine identity construction that is also
pedagogically sound.
Assessments
 Journal entries (done either for homework or in class)
 Identity concept maps
 Identity concept list (as a class)
Objectives
 Students will be able to think critically about what they have read in a text and formulate questions (the
W’s of K-W-L journal) which will guide their further reading
 Students will be able to contribute their ideas on the elements and values that comprise identities
 Students will be able to work constructively in groups in order to complete a single assignment (the identity
concept maps)
 Students will be able to argue and justify their decisions on what factors contribute to and comprise
identity.
Tasks
(10 minutes) Students will begin the class period by completing their first dual-entry journal entry. The topic
will be to write about two things they have learned from the first three chapters of the text on
the left side of the page and three things they want to begin to find out on the right. **Since they
will have been given the option to complete the journal assignment at home, some students may
not have any writing to do. Those students will have their journals checked off by the teacher,
put them in their portfolio folders, and read their S.S.R. books.
(5 minutes) We will then move on to a brief class discussion on initial impressions of the book based on the
first few chapters. What are their impressions? Do they like it? Do they have any questions? At
the end of this discussion, students will be reminded that one of the large focuses of the text and
our study of it is identity.
(10 minutes) Students will then be broken into groups of four. Each group will get a large post-it sheet and a
colored marker. They will compose a concept map of all the things they know thus far about
Arnold’s identity. They can use the words and images from the text to answer this question.
(10 minutes) Once the maps are done, groups will post them around the room and briefly present them to their
classmates.
(10 minutes) Once the maps have been presented, another blank post-it will be posted on the board. As a class,
taking ideas from the concept maps, students will list all the factors they can think of that may
help people and those within their surrounding communities construct their identities. A volunteer
student with neat handwriting will write the list out as the class composes it.
(5 minutes) Students will be given the assignment sheet for their weekend homework assignment. The
assignment will be explained and questions answered.
Materials
 Paper and writing utensil for journal
 Copies of the text
 Large post-it notes for the identity concept maps
 Colored markers
Resources
 Burke, chapter 9
 Smagorinsky, chapter 6
 Sarah Rehim
Lesson 3 (Monday): How Images Enhance the Text

Goals
 To get students to explore literacy and critical understanding outside of just text (building from previous
unit using the graphic novel American Born Chinese)
 To have students acknowledge the relationship between text and image and how they influence each
other as well as investigate how they work separately
 To utilize popular culture as a means to explore and critically consider surroundings, culture, and identity**
 To get students thinking outside of the box and discussing with peers (in both small and whole group
discussions)
Rationale
 In Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning by Ernest Morrell, he
investigates the benefits of incorporating popular culture into school curriculums. He states, "Critically
teaching popular culture can go a long way in creating an informed and engaged citizenry of young people
that are able to more carefully discern and interact with the messages that bombard them on a daily basis"
(44-45). Morrell's claim can directly connect to questions and concerns regarding forming identity in a
fast-paced culture.
 Sherman Alexie naturally incorporates popular modes, such as cartoons and images, into his novel The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and utilizes them as a method of understanding/forming
identity for the main character, Arnold. Students will be able to approach character analysis, questions
concerning identity, and compare/contrast images with text in collaboration with the essential questions
related to personal identity.
Assessments
 Unit long double-journal assignment (to be a component in final portfolio assessment)
 Small group discussion questions (to be turned in at the end of class, one per student)
 Small group/large group discussion (participation)
Objectives
Students will be able to:
 Build on knowledge of images (comics, cartoons, etc.) and text relationships from previous unit (American
Born Chinese graphic novel) but add the complexities of text instead of comic strips (recursive)
 Explore how popular culture can add to more complex understandings (continue to work on preconceived
notions from last unit that comics are low culture and do not address complex issues) (recursive)
 Explore in both small and large group discussions (dialogic)
 Individually reflect on the relationships between their group of images and the text and explore how they
affect one another (critical thinking)
 Reflect on text and personal experience within double journals (recursive ongoing assignment)
Tasks
DUE: Have read PTI up through page 73
(5 minutes) Allow students an opportunity to write in their journals from reading assigned over the weekend
and any reading they needed to catch up from last week.
(10 minutes) Show excerpt panels from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (p30-31, p35-36) on
Overhead/SmartBoard/Handouts (based on accessibility) and discuss universality of comics.
So Why Images? Why is drawing and cartoons so important to Junior?
Read excerpt (PTI, p4-7):

Sure I want to go outside. Every kid wants to go outside. But it's safer to stay at home. So I mostly hang
out alone in my bedroom and read books and draw cartoons.
I draw all the time.
I draw cartoons of my mother and father; my sister and grandmother; my best friend, Rowdy; and
everybody else on the rez.
I draw because words are too unpredictable.
I draw because words are too limited.
If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain
percentage of human beings will get your meaning.
But when you draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it
and say, "That's a flower."
So I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me.
I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist.
Maybe a famous artist. Maybe a rich artist.
That's the only way I can become rich and famous.
Just take a look at the world. Almost all of the rich and famous brown people are artists. They're singers
and actors and writers and dancers and directors and poets.
So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation.
I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny lifeboats.
Okay, so now you know that I'm a cartoonist. And I think I'm pretty good at it, too. But no matter how
good I am, my cartoons will never take the place of food or money. I wish I could draw a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich, or a fist full of twenty dollar bills, and perform some magic trick and make it real. But I can't do that.
Nobody can do that, not even the hungriest magician in the world.
(20 minutes) Small Group Work: Assign particular images/ask students to explore how they
enhance/complicate the text using guided questions (to be turned in at the end of class)
Last unit we read American Born Chinese and discussed the effects of images and text in a narrative. Today we
have further discussed how images influence the text and can aid in understanding and clarity, build and add to
complex issues, and focus our attention to particular themes. Your small group will be assigned 2-3 images from
the text with questions that will you discuss. How do these images affect your understanding of the text? Do they
help you understand or make ideas more complex? How are these images commenting on Junior's
identity/formation of identity? Be prepared for a short 2-minute explanation of your central ideas to the whole
class. You may select one or two members of your group as representatives of your group to present. Though you
are working in small groups, all questions will be answered individually.
Directions on overhead/SmartBoard/chalkboard/handout (depending on accessibility):
Break down: 1. Look at assigned images from PTI and look at the text that pairs with the images
2. Answer image specific questions and questions below INDIVIDUALLY, but discuss IN
SMALL GROUPS. Turn in questions at the end of class.
• How do these images affect your understanding of the text?
• Do they help you understand or make ideas more complex?
• How are these images commenting on Junior's identity/formation of identity?
• Other comments?
3. Prepare approx. 2 minute "Newsfeed" explanation of your central ideas (Select 1-2
members of group to speak to whole class)
Selected Images: (Pass out copied images with page numbers and questions on back)
Group 1
p12, 27: "Parents' Dreams," "Mary Runs Away"
• What is Junior trying to say about his parents? His sister? How do the descriptions (text) affect the
drawings? Would they have the same effect if they weren't there? Why or why not? How is Junior
addressing Native American stereotyping?
Group 2
p23, 47, 53: "Rowdy Reading," "Tribal Torture," "Rowdy's Rage"
• How do these images comment on Junior and Rowdy's friendship? How does the first image
comment on Rowdy's multiple identities? Why is this drawing sketched? Why is the face over
Rowdy's face a cartoon? What does the second image suggest about Junior's feelings in going to
Reardon? How does this connect to the last image?
Group 3
p29, 31, 36: "Mr. P," "Frustration," "Reconciliation"
• Look at the sequence of these three images. What is this picture narrative describing? What is
Junior saying about Mr. P through these photos? Is Mr. P a representation of something? If so,
what? How does Mr. P influence Junior?
Group 4
p43, 51, 57 "Rez or Hope," "Unicorn," "Junior's Indian/White Identities"
• Look at the sequence of these three images, what are they describing? How do they relate to one
another? What is the main idea being addressed? How is multi-culturalism addressed? Where does
Junior fit in? How is this affecting his identity?
Group 5
p69, 71 "Grandmother," "Eugene"
• Both images represent two individuals who have affected Junior- how do these individuals affect
him or his beliefs about Native American culture? Why is one a cartoon and the other a sketch? Do
you see any forms of stereotyping in these images? Please explain.
(15 minutes) Large Group Discussion: Students will select 1-2 members of their group to act as a
representative to share the group's ideas to the rest of the class
(Encourage students to take notes in their double journals to reflect on later)
Wrap Up: Tomorrow we will be exploring how multiple identities can be formed simultaneously within an
individual- recall the old saying "there's more there than meets the eye"? We can use our knowledge about images
from today to further explore this idea as well. While you continue to read, keep in mind how the images you see
are affecting your understanding of the novel. What would the novel be like without them? Would your
experience change? Feel free to comment and reflect in your journal.
Homework: Read PTI up through page 103
Materials
 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian text, by Sherman Alexie (excerpt tabbed)
 Understanding Comics excerpts (transparency/SmartBoard/handouts)
 Copies/handouts of images with questions on back
 Directions for Small Group Activity (on overhead/chalkboard/SmartBoard)
 Ask students to bring double-journals to class
To-Do List
 Make transparencies/scan/make copies of McCloud excerpts (to discuss universality of images)
 Make copies of images with questions for students
 Select pairings of images and prepare individualized questions for groupings
References
i. Alexie, Sherman (Art by Ellen Forney). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Litte,
ii. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publisher. 1993.
iii. Morrell, Ernest. Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning. "Chapter
3: The Case for Popular Culture in America's Classrooms." (Rationale)
iv. Amanda Krolikowski
Lesson 4 (Tuesday): Multiple Identities, "There's more there than meets the eye"
Goals
 To have students look beyond the main character and approach multiple identities as a universal theme; have
students apply critical analysis to secondary characters
 To have students to continue to develop communication and group skills in small and large group discussions
 To have students continuously reflecting on their own identity formation and how it may/may not parallel
with Junior's or other characters with PTI; reflect on what their gaining from reading this novel (do they
acknowledge their own multiple identities and how they transform?)
 Encourage students to build on previous lesson, utilizing images for multiple identity reflection/exploration
and character analysis
Rationale
 Images and drawing are a central theme in the novel and Junior utilizes this mode to explore his own
identity; in connection with the previous lesson and McCloud's argument involving the universality of comics,
it will be beneficial for students to approach the universality of identity construction as well as the
exploration of multiple identity formation. Analyzing secondary characters enables students to consider the
essential questions of the unit (and curriculum) in relation to characters other than the main, focal
character.
Assessments
 Small and large group discussion (participation)
 Small group questions (to be turned in at the end of class, one per group)
 Duel-Identity Reflections/Modifications (to be turned in next class period; modifications to be due as a
component of final portfolio)
Objectives
 Use the text (and images) to find evidence of multiple identity formation of secondary characters within PTI
(recursive)
 Answer related questions about identity formation and character analysis (recursive)
 Explore in both small and large group discussions (dialogic)
 Engage in in-class reading to build community and increase participation
 Reflect on text and personal experience within double journals (recursive ongoing assignment)
Tasks
DUE: Have read PTI up through page 103
(10 minutes) In Class Reading "Hunger Pains" (PTI p. 104-113); Teacher will read as students follow along;
walk around classroom while reading
(5 minutes) Brief digestion/discussion about "Hunger Pains"

• This chapter covers some controversial issues with Penelope's eating disorder; allow students
to comment on their thoughts; lead questions/discussion into next activity by examining
multiple identities of individuals and the consequences of stereotyping; allow discussion to
remain focused on this broader idea rather than on controversial topic
(15 minutes) Small Group Work

• We've already started to explore and discuss Junior's own struggle with his multiple
identities (Native American and White cultures), but now we are going to explore the
complexities of other characters within PTI.
Directions/questions on overhead/chalkboard/SmartBoard/handout (depending on accessibility)
Each group will be assigned a character (Rowdy, Gordy, Penelope, Roger, Mary Runs Away, or Mr. P) and will
answer the following questions (to be turned in at end of class; one per group):
• What are two possible identities of this character (you can choose more if you think its
relevant)? What evidence in the novel (or from your own interpretations) influenced your
identity selections?
• How do these characters interact with Junior? Does Junior acknowledge these multiple
identities within this character?
• Are these identities affected by stereotyping? How?
• Are these identities in conflict with one another? How? Why do you think this is so?
• Has your understanding of/thoughts about this character changed through exploring his/her
(potential) multiple identities?
*If large white boards are available in classroom, students can write their answers on them for easier large group
discussion/sharing
(15 minutes) Large Group Share

Have an open floor where students can throw out ideas freely from their small group discussion; if
participation is lacking, ask each group to select one member to briefly describe the multiple
identities of their character and his/her relationship with Junior (similar to previous lesson
discussion). Questions to be turned in at end of class; one per group.
• Have students keep in mind that these multiple identities will continue to form and grow
throughout the rest of the novel; encourage students to keep track of these
transformations and their reflections on them in their journal.
• Encourage students to add to character analysis involving identity in their journals.
• Have students recall the previous class lesson and have them explore upcoming images in
connection with multiple identity formation
(5 minutes) For Homework, ask students to pull out their duel-identity drawings from the first day of the
unit: (Questions on Handout)
• Ask students to make changes to their identities (add/subtract/modify, etc.) if it seems
fitting and write a short reflection on these changes (at least one page, answering all
questions). What did you change? Why? How is Junior's story and identity transformation
affecting your own self-reflection?
• If students don't feel they need to modify their drawings, they can reflect on how Junior's
identity is starting to change throughout the novel and they can make predictions to where
they think he will end up. Will he return to the rez or stay at Reardon? How might his
identity be shaped by these experiences? (at least one page, answering all questions)
• Reflections can be turned in the next day, but identity drawing will be turned in with final
portfolio at end of the unit.
Homework: Duel-Identity reflections/modifications; Guest Speaker tomorrow!  Come with questions if you have
any.
Materials
 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian text, by Sherman Alexie ("Hunger Pains" tabbed)
 Directions/questions for small group discussion on overhead/chalkboard/SmartBoard/handout (depending on
accessibility)
 Large white boards/chalkboards (if available)
 Handout for Duel-Identity Reflections (with questions)
To-Do List
 Prepare transparency for small group questions
 Create Handouts for duel-identity reflection
References
i. Alexie, Sherman (Art by Ellen Forney). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Litte,
ii. Amanda Krolikowski
Lesson 5 (Wednesday): Fiction & Fact

Goals
 To differentiate between fiction and fact.
 To reflect on the cultural stereotypes of Native Americans that are not only prominent within the novel, but
our culture.
 To critically enhance students' awareness about Native American culture through an authentic source (i.e.
guest speaker).
 To revisit and build on the coined term "multiple identity" through student writing.
Rationale
 Consider this..."Native Americans are not extinct. As of the year 2000, there are more than three million
Native American people in Canada and the US combined--including more than a million children. Native
American kids have real-life hopes and real-life problems, just like other kids do. They may take part in
traditional Indian dances, or they may be Britney Spears fans, or both. They probably don't live in tepees,
any more than non-native kids live in log cabins" (Resources, 2008). With that said, it is imperative to
provide our students with maximum opportunities to not only read fiction, but to learn facts. Our guest
speaker, Regina Zapinski, is the leader and founder of the Indian Education Program in the Warren
Consolidated Schools District, MI. Upon request she visits various classrooms to educate students and
teachers about her heritage, culture, and Apache people. Although Ms. Zapinski is not 100% Native
American she speaks with students about this fact, and helps them to understand what it is like to be of
mixed race. In the end, not only can an experience like this educate students about Native American culture,
but it can possibly educate students about themselves.

Assessments
 General attentiveness, eye contact, and respectfulness throughout Ms. Zapinski's presentation.
 One page "Fiction/Fact" written response to be worked on after the presentation if time is allotted or to be
done for homework.
 "Thank You" cards for Ms. Zapinski to be turned in the following day.

Objectives
 See the prominence of Native American stereotypes beyond the pages of fiction by viewing a piece of pop
culture (i.e. clip from the Tyra Banks Show).
 Ask questions and learn new information about Native Americans through the guest speaker's
presentation.
 Further their understanding of multiple identities through the words of the guest speaker.
 Critically respond to what they have learned today by exploring "fiction" (i.e. stereotyping found in the
novel and Tyra clip) and "fact" (i.e. guest speaker's presentation) through a one page response.

Tasks
DUE: Collect Duel-Identity Reflections. Students must hold onto drawings.
REMINDER: Students must have read PTI up through pg.151 by TOMORROW!!

(5 minutes) Warm-Up
• As a class, briefly discuss any changes that were made to students' duel-identity drawings
and why those changes were made.

(15 minutes) Pop Culture Artifact
• Inform students that they will be having a guest speaker today, and that they are expected
to act respectfully.
• Revisit the previous day's activity and pull from it how certain characters in the novel are
affected by stereotyping. Use this to introduce the content of the Pop Culture Artifact...
• The Tyra Banks Show: Interview with the Baker Twins. Two identical Native American twin
models that have trouble finding work in Hollywood because they are stereotyped.
• Inform students to take notes and listen to the interview in comparison to the novel... Are
the testimonies of the Baker Twins similar to that of Juniors? Why or why not? What
message do you think Tyra Banks was trying to convey about Native Americans and
stereotyping? Are you stereotyped like the Baker Twins and Junior? If so, how does it affect
your life?
• Show clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzck-_MROrl

(25 minutes) Guest Speaker
• Introduce Ms. Zapinski to the class
• Remind students to be respectful and to take notes.
• Remind students the better their notes are, the better their response papers will be!
[students groan....ughhhh papers!]
• Give the floor to Ms. Zapinski...."They're all yours!"
(5 minutes) Wrap Up & Homework

• Inform students that they are expected to generate "Thank You" cards for Ms. Zapinski
DUE ON FRIDAY! Materials will be provided if needed by teacher.
• If time is left students may begin their ONE PAGE response to today's activities (Fiction &
Fact). What they do not finish is to be done at home and brought to class tomorrow!

Some Questions to Guide Student Response
Part One: FICTION
• What has the Baker Twin Interview and Juniors diary taught you about stereotyping of Native
Americans?
• Why do you think Native Americans are stereotyped? Is it just races, cultures, genders, etc.?
• Is it possible to be stereotyped for something like wearing the color black or being a Freshmen? If
so, what do you think this says about our society?

Part Two: FACT
• What did you learn from Ms. Zapinski about Native Americans?
• What did you learn from Ms. Zapinski about yourself? How did you reach this conclusion?

Materials
 YouTube Clip
 Art Supplies for "Thank You" Cards (i.e. colored paper, markers, scissors, glue, crayons, glitter, etc.)

To-Do List
 Make copies of "Are You a Freshmen?" comic strip

References
i. Resources on American Indians for Children and Teachers. Native Languages of the Americas Website.
2008. 2 April 2009. <http://www.native-languages.org/kids.htm>.
ii. Racism in Hollywood (Baker Twin Interview). YouTube. 2 April 2009.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzck-_MROrI>.
iii. Hannah Nagi

Lesson 6 (Thursday): Are you a Freshman?
Goals
 To build and reflect on the coined term multiple identity or duel identity through student comics.
 To foster group or pair work and the communication skills that go along with group or pair work.
 To revisit the effects of stereotyping and what they have come to mean within our society.
 To revisit the presence and meaning of comics/drawings within the novel through personal or group
comic drawings.

Rationale
 Hopefully students will have not only learned something about Native American culture, but about
themselves from yesterday's guest speaker. With that said, it is imperative that they have time to reflect
on this in tandem with the pages of the novel. In turn they will revisit their own personal concepts of
identity and figure out how society works to create such stereotypes, and how their identity may become
negotiated because of such. They will explore this idea through collaborative work and dialogic discussion
in a safe forum. Also, students will be able to create through the medium of drawing/sketching/comics,
and once again tap into the universality of drawing and comics.

Assessments
 Individual evaluation of collaborative group work (I.E. equal contributions)
 Are you a Freshmen? Comics (group, pairs, individual)

Objectives
 Students will be able to:
 Explore and revisit the concept of multiple identity through comic or drawing creation.
 Reflect on the effects of stereotypes and what they mean in society by self portrayal through comics or
drawings.
 Demonstrate collaborative work and develop their communication skills through group or pair work.

Tasks
DUE: Student Responses: Fiction & Fact
Must have read PTI through page 151
REMINDER: Students must have their Thank You cards completed by Friday!!!

(10 minutes) Warm-Up
• As a class, briefly discuss and reflect on yesterday's presentation and what students
responded to in their Fiction & Fact reflections.

(10 minutes) Journaling
• Students are instructed to specifically respond to the text in today's journal writing.
• They must comment on something they found within the specific pages read today (113-
151) that deals with stereotyping and multiple identities.
• They must references pages and give specific examples.

(25 minutes) Are you a Freshman? Comics
• After journaling students are instructed to take out their books and refer to page 128.
• Teacher revisits previous knowledge of comics and how drawings are universally
understandable to explain the day's activity.
• Teacher also revisits last night's homework to see if anyone though about or responded to
what it may be like to be stereotyped as a freshman.
• Class briefly discusses comics/drawings universality and freshmen stereotyping.
• Teacher informs students that they will be exploring another part of their identity that
maybe they did not think they would be stereotyped for, just like Junior (I.e. Freshmen &
Poor).
• Students have the option to work in groups, pairs or individually to mimic Juniors comic on pg.
128 to entertain possible responses in regards to being a Freshmen.
• Students are reminded that they must be working collaboratively on this comic. Everyone
must participate..
• Each student is responsible for one square& must come up with a response and correlating
picture& must initial in bottom left corner.
• Students are given the remainder of the class period to work.
(5 minutes) Wrap Up

• Students are instructed to complete these comics for homework if they did not finish them in
class. They will be collected tomorrow.
• Teacher informs students that they will be exploring and studying professionally published
comics tomorrow in class.
• Teacher informs students to come ready to entertain concepts of identity, stereotypes, pop
culture, and heroism.
• Teacher informs students to begin to think about heroism, and what it means to be a hero
depending on your culture.

Materials
 Are you a Freshman? comic strip copies

To-Do List
 Bring in Daredevil comic book
 Refresh knowledge of The Odyssey

References
 Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown and Company. 2007. (pg.
128)
 Hannah Nagi
Lesson 7 (Friday): Dare Devil

Goals
 To look in depth at an example of the graphic novel medium
 To see some of the big questions and concepts from Part-time Indian as presented through another voice
from another context
 To see how a universal theme or archetype can present itself in different ways through different stories
 To compare and contrast the texts by style and content
 To look at the elements go into telling the story visually within the comic book context
Rationale
 Exposure to a different medium/genre (2.3.1;2.3.2;3.1.3;3.1.4;3.2.1;3.3.6;3;4;1)
 Builds on the visual storytelling discussions from before (2.1.8; 2.1.9;3.2.3;3.4.1;3.4.2)
 Serves as a counterpoint to the main story, but also parallels the main story very tightly (3.1.5;3.4.1)
 Reinforces the overarching questions and overall themes for the unit; shows some universality across
texts (2.1.4; 2.1.5; 2.2.1)
o Issues are not specific to one race, group, or context, but carry over (3.1.7;3.1.8;3.1.9;3.1.10)
 Scaffolds into some of the themes for the next unit
 [Bonus]-the narrative is very poetic, and has several examples of metaphor and imagery that students
can learn from (1.1.3; 2.2.1;3.1.1)
Assessments
 Are students reacting to the text and making observations? Making comparisons?
 Are students making an effort to draw connections and points out contrasts between the texts?
Objectives
 See and discuss the conventions of the graphic novel style of storytelling (2.1.8; 2.1.9;3.4.2)
(3.2.4;3.3.6;3.4.1)
 See the layers in storytelling- (1.4.4)
o How various artistic modes can be incorporated into the presentation of a story (2.1.2; 3.4.2)
o How certain ideas recur throughout a story and build on each other (2.1.12)
 See common ideas and themes across two texts (2.1.4;3.1.2)
 See how issues can be presented in many diverse ways (2.1.5; 2.1.10;3.4.1)
 See how the presentation and placement of images and objects adds to a story or conveys certain ideas
(2.1.4;2.1.5 2.1.10;2.2.2;2.2.3;3.4.1;3.4.2)
Tasks
(1-2 minutes) Start class; let everyone settle in
(2-3 minutes) Briefly introduce text
• Frame it as another text in another medium that talks about some of the same themes
covered in Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian, but takes a different approach to
them as a different genre of storytelling
(45 minutes) Begin reading through the story (should be able to get through at least part 2 by the end of class,
ideally partially through part 3; may have to skip parts to get through the entire thing in 2 days)
(remainder of class time; gear towards about 15 minutes per issue)
• Discuss the various aspects of the story as you go along, drawing attention to significant
stylistic or thematic points, and allowing students to make observations.
• Some important elements of the story to note (many are going to be recurring and carry
over into tomorrow too)
• The protagonist-how is she like Arnold and how is she different?
• Different abilities/disabilities; different age; different context; etc.
• Both Native American; both trying to find identity-both respond to multiple
names: Arnold/Junior, Maya/Echo; both have “crushes”; both communicate
through drawing; both have significant people die in their lives; etc.
• They’re both the people telling their own story-how do they each present
themselves?
• General tone of the story- how does this differ from Part-time Indian?
• Different drawing styles- how does Maya portray the different people she draws? What does
this indicate about what she thinks about these characters? How does she portray herself? How
does the overall layout set the story apart from Part-time Indian?
• Motif-what effect does it have when pictures get repeated and/or re-
represented?
• What effects do the different modes (colored pencil, water colors, scrabble pieces,
scraps of sheet music, etc.) produce for the story?
• The layout of text-why is some of the text in boxes and other text is just scribbled around on the
page?
• How is Native American culture portrayed in the story?
• How does the history match with what the speaker said?
• “Seeing between the words”-what does this mean? How might this play out for the characters
in Part-time Indian?
• Students can jot reactions and observations down in the journals as well (1.2.2; 2.3.6)
Materials
 Copy of Daredevil:“ Echo Vision Quest” (available in trade paperback or as Daredevil issues 51-55)
 Overhead projector
 Students should have the notebooks with them that they’ve been journaling in all along (and a writing
utensil)
References:
i. Dare Devil comic
ii. Eric Salzeider
Lesson 8 (Monday): Dare Devil & Telephone Pictionary

Goals:
(Goals from the previous day still apply)
 To practice pairing pictures with words
 To see firsthand how images and stories mean different things to different people
 To see how a story takes shape over time
 To have fun with “collaborating” on stories
Rationale
(Same apply from previous day for the reading)
For the game:
 It’s fun and it’s hands-on
 It’s collaborative (1.3.7;3.2.4)
 It’s a chance to mix modes and use pictures with writing, just like the stories did (1.1.4; 1.2.2; 1.2.3;
2.1.8; 2.1.9)
 Students can see firsthand how stories can be reinterpreted and change from person to person to become
an entirely new story (3.1.6;3.2.5;3.1.4)
 They also see how “stories” affect people in different ways (3.1.6; 4.2.5)
Assessments
(Assessments from the previous day still apply for the reading of the story)
 For the game:
o Students are participating
o The finished story with all the sheets in the stack filled out
Objectives
 (Do all the things they did for the previous lesson as they finish the story)
 Get a different perspective about what constitutes a “story”
 Practice visualizing a story (2.1.8;2.1.9)
 Interpret images with no words
 See how different people respond to images and phrases differently (3.1.6;4.2.5;3.2.5;3.1.4)
Tasks
(5 minutes) Start class, settle in, review the story so far
(30 minutes) Continue with the story/finish the story
• Continue to discuss/observe/comment throughout
o Important aspects to mention from these parts:
 Significance of stories- how do the stories Maya hears/has heard affect
her?  This is also foreshadowing
 How is Maya changing throughout her “quest”? How is this similar/different
than Arnold?
 Do you think she really needed to go on a “vision quest” or is this just a vehicle
for getting onto an intentionally open frame of mind?
 It’s not just Maya (or Arnold) that has conflicting identities- in what ways
do some other characters (like Maya’s father) show duality of personality?
 She automatically tries to fight- just like Arnold does right when he starts
going to the white school
 Wolverine as a mentor- he’s another “minority”, and he’s part of the world
Maya is trying to be part of. How does this give him credibility? How could
Arnold use his advice?
 “Two dogs fighting”-what are the “two dogs” in Arnold’s life?
• This can work on several levels- the two dogs can also be Arnold’s
struggle between trying to leave the rez and stay loyal to the people
there
 Is there any significance to the lightning?
 “Archetypes”- transcend genre- this is why a lot of the themes and issues
cross over between these texts and several others
 “Writing our own mythology every day of our lives”; “the mantle of the
storyteller”- everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has a different
combination of experiences (stories) that go into their grand story
• Students continue to make observations in journals as well
(15 minutes) Closing activity:

• Get into circles of 8 to 10 on the ground with writing utensils and stacks of scrap paper
(numbering the pieces in the corner helps to keep them in order) (2 minutes)
• Introduce the game and go over the rules (2 minutes)
• Play telephone pictionary: (about 10 minutes)
o Each student starts by writing a phrase on the top piece of paper
 When everyone has written something, each student passes their entire
stack in a clockwise direction to the person immediately next to them (on the
left, since it’s clockwise)
o Each person will read the phrase that they’ve just been passed, put that sheet on the
bottom of the stack, and attempt to depict the phrase in a drawing (with no words)
on the next new page
 They then pass the drawings they’ve just done to the person immediately to
their left again (clockwise)
o Each person will take the drawing they’ve just received, put it on the bottom of the
stack, and attempt to describe the image they’ve just seen in words
 They then pass along the stack again (in the clockwise pattern) and draw the
new phrase that they’ve received
o Continue to pass the stacks around in the same direction, alternating between
written descriptions and drawn depictions of the previous page (instituting a time
limit of roughly one minute between passes will make sure there is enough time to
finish the game), until each student once again has their original stack on which they
wrote the first phrase
 Students can flip back through and see how their story has evolved as it
changed hands; if there is still time, students can volunteer to share the
“completed” story with the entire class
Materials
 (Everything from yesterday)
 Several evenly sized scraps of paper (about 10 per student)
References
 Dare Devil comic
 Eric Salzeider
Lesson 9 (Tuesday): “The ‘Fave Fives’ That Help Shape Identity”
Goals
 Students will be able to make connections between important people in a person’s lives and how they help
to shape an individual’s personal identity.
Rationale
 The students will have read up to page 199 in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Within this
portion of text, the main character experiences two tragic deaths of people very close to him and continues
to struggle with the loss of his best friend. It becomes quite evident that these people (as well as a person
that dies in an upcoming portion of text) truly help to shape the main character’s identity (and feeling of
conflicting identity). Therefore this lesson is a way for students to critically analyze the character and his
relationships within the text, as well as their own personal identity and the components that shape that.
Assessments
 A written or illustrated example of their personal “Fave Five” with brief description of why and how they
help shape the student’s identity
 A dialogic discussion and presentation to a partner in class
 Active participation in dialogic discussion and analysis of main character’s “Fave Five” in whole-class
setting
Objectives
Students Will Be Able To:
 Draw from personal relationships and experiences to develop 5 people in their lives that they think help to
shape their identity the most
 Write or illustrate these 5 people as something they can turn in for participation points
 Present their personal relationships and their ties to identity with a partner in class
 Critical analyze the text and the main character to try to see how relationships help to form his personal
identity
 Actively participate in a whole-class dialogic discussion by voicing personal observations or theories
Tasks
DUE: Have read PTI through page 199
(2 minutes) Teaser: Watch T-Mobile “Fave 5” commercial with Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley
(5 minutes) Beginning Discussion:
• Discuss question: What does it mean to be in someone’s “Fave 5”?
• Jot down ideas on whiteboard
(2 minutes) Introduction:
• Introduce activity by starting with some sort of dialogue such as:
o “There are certain people in life that you talk to and value the most. These people can be
very influential in how you see yourself and how you perceive your role as a person. It
may even be safe to say that these people help to shape your personal identity…”
• Each student is to brainstorm a list of 5 people that help to shape their identity the most
o Be sure to reiterate that they aren’t just thinking of the people they talk to them most –
like the T-Mobile version of “Fave 5” but the people they feel shape them the most
• They will need to either write down the names, relationship to them and a brief description of
why and how these people shape their identity or a rough illustration of the 5 with brief
descriptions of their relationship and why and how they shape their identity.
o Inform them this will be collected for participation points
(8 minutes) Teaser: Each student should create their own “Fave 5” following instructions from above.
(7 minutes) Pair-Share: In pairs, the students should share their “Fave 5” with each other, going over each of the
things they were supposed to write down and also asking any questions or making appropriate
comments that they see fit
(1 minutes) Ask if any of the students want to share theirs or even if they have one particular “Fave 5” that
they made a meaningful connection as to how that person shapes the student’s personal identity
(5 minutes) Making Connections:
• Explain that this specific portion of text dealt with some extremely telling events in Junior’s life
(may ask students to elaborate what these are – grandma’s death, dad’s best friend’s death,
basketball game, still grappling with lose of Rowdy)
• Delve further into this topic and explain how sometimes, like we explored with our own “Fave
5’s,” people can really have an influence on our personal identity
(15 minutes) Full-class Activity:
• Keeping with the same theme, ask the students to shift from their personal experiences into
Junior’s shoes.
o Who do you think would be in his “Fave 5” of people that shape his identity and WHY?
o Within that list, HOW do they shape his identity?
• Write ideas down on the whiteboard

• Once majority of people have given their insight on who should be in Junior’s “Fave 5” ask the
students to look at the list and say which ones should stay or go and defend why they think
they’re in the list and how they shape Junior using the text to help as evidence
• Towards the end of the activity make the students pick the “Fave 5” and go through each
person asking the students to reiterate how and why that person shapes Junior’s identity
• Leave this on the board for the following day.
(5 minutes) Wrap-up and Preview:
• Tell the students we will be reading the last 30 pages of the book out loud, as a group the next
day
o Comment that they are more than welcome to finish reading those pages though, it
could be beneficial for them to have read it once before it is read aloud
• Also inform them they will be doing their last double-entry journal the next day so they should
brainstorm a piece of the text, an illustration, an activity, a discussion point, etc. that really
stuck out to them that they could use for this and bring the actual journal to class the next day
Materials
 Whiteboard and dry erase marker

 T-Mobile’s “Fave 5” Commercial
 The text
To-Do List
 Bring commercial and have all of technology aspects figured out beforehand
 Explain each activity and discussion slowly and clearly, also writing brief description of it on the board
 Make connections and transitions throughout lesson
 Prompt when needed, but try to make students form connections with the text on their own
References
i. Wade/Barkley T-Mobile commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwLai2XImo

ii. Jesse McLean
Lesson 10 (Wed.): Wrapping up Part-Time Indian
Goals
 Students will be able to finish the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and critically
examine what they learned from the text as a whole and about identity from the text, reflecting on their
feelings in journal and discussion forum
Rationale
 This lesson is necessary to start to tie together the entire unit and lead them into the final piece of their final
assessment portfolio for this unit. Time is given to read and finish the book out loud, as a class, in order to
show the importance of reading and form a sense of accomplishment and unity in finishing together. They
are allotted time to do the final entry in their double-entry journal in order to help scaffold them towards
finishing and polishing the entire journal for the portfolio assessment. Discussion is included in order for the
students to cognitively sort through what they learned through the text and have a dialogic discussion with
one another about the book and the issues within the book.
Assessments
 Double-entry journal work

 Active and productive participation in class discussion and analysis of text
Objectives
 Feel a sense of accomplishment for completing an entire novel in a short period of time
 Reflect in writing and oral discussion about their thoughts, questions and overall opinions about the book
 Analyze what the text helped them to see and/or learn
Tasks
(2 minutes) Introduction:
• Explain one more time that they should have had up to page 199 of Part-Time Indian read
• Explain that we will read the last 30 pages of the book as a whole class
(15 minutes) In-class Reading:
• Have volunteer(s) read the final 30 pages, leaving time for students to look at and analyze the
few drawings within these last pages
(5 minutes) Discussion:
• Briefly, have students comment on what they thought of the ending and whether or not they
liked it
(13 minutes) Journaling: Have students get out their unit-long double-entry journals and write their final
prompt
o Elaborate that these prompts should follow the same format but ask them to try to find a
significant point/passage/illustration/discussion point, etc. that really speaks more towards
the text/overarching themes as a whole and talk about that within their reflection on the
right hand side of the double-entry journals
o If they don’t finish, they should take these home and finish them by the next class
(15 minutes) Discussion: Open the class back up to a whole-group discussion
o Start the discussion by saying if someone says a point that ties in with yours or that you find
interesting, can develop more, etc. JUMP IN! If conversation gets dull – I’m leaving it up to
you guys to find new avenues to explore!
• Possible prompts/questions to pose:
o What did you guys write about in your double-entry journals?

• Why did you find that specific point important?
• What did it say or not say about the book? Junior? Other characters? Identity?
Stereotypes?
o What did this book teach you about identity?
• Do you have a better understanding of personal identity?
• Do you understand your own identity more?
• How do you feel about Junior’s identity? Did it change throughout the book? How is his
identity at the start vs. in the middle vs. at the end?
• What are the major components you think make up an identity?
o And ANYTHING else they want to talk about!!!
Materials
 Text
To-Do List
 Be clear in explaining rationale behind reading last part together in class

 Back off! Allow students to discuss, formulate and come to their own conclusions.
References
 Jesse McLean
Lesson 11 (Thursday): Introducing the Unit Project

Goals
 Introduce students to the unit project.
 Get working on the texts students will be producing for next week’s presentations.
Rationale
 The main rationale for this portfolio assignment and presentation is that students should be able to
demonstrate their knowledge in a multitude of ways, both in elements created over a period of time (in-
process) and those created for a culminating assignment, and both in visual, audible or tangible pieces and
in written and reflective pieces. The presentation of this collection will allow the students a space in which
to reflect on what they have learned throughout the unit, and the format will reflect the oral nature of
many Native Americans’ cultural traditions. This portfolio, as it contains only three assignments, is brief,
reflecting the nature of the overall mini-unit, which lasts only two weeks. The goal of the assignment is,
however, to provide a space in which students can show the teacher, their peers and themselves the
growth in knowledge about identity over the course of this unit.
Assessments
 Production of a half-page project proposal.
 Compilation of three assignments: double-entry journals, character identity drawing, and choice genre
element about the book.
 Preparation of oral presentation for next week.
Objectives
 Reflect on their own reading of the text.
 Demonstrate knowledge of the whole text, and the characters’ struggles with identity.
 Begin thinking about the compilation of a project which will explore their own ideas about identity.
 Create proposals for the final portfolio projects, which they will turn in next week.
Tasks
(10 minutes) Begin class by talking about the previous day’s lesson, and revisiting discussion about the
conclusion of the book. How does the ending affect the overall tone of the book? What can the
students take away from it? How has Junior’s identity changed/developed over time?
(5 minutes) Remind students of the assignments that we have completed over the course of this unit, with
special emphasis on the double-entry journals (which should have been completed/worked on the
day before) and the dual identity character drawing. Allow them to talk about their work.
Introduce students to the unit project, which involves the compilation of a presentation that is to
be due the next week. Hand out the assignment description sheet.
(5 minutes) Give students time to read the assignment over.
(10 minutes) Discuss with students the possibilities for the choice-genre culminating element: a sound track for
Junior’s life over the course of the novel, a final drawing of Junior as they think he would see
himself at the end of the novel, or a 2-3 page reflection where they imagine themselves as Junior
looking back on his experiences a year later.
(15 minutes) Students will be required to make a half-page written proposal by the end of the hour about
which genre they will choose for this element of their project, why they believe it will work best
for them, and how they envision it being completed. These project proposals will be approved by
the teacher and returned the next day so students can begin work.
(5 minutes) Discuss with students the requirement to prepare 3-5 minute presentations about the portfolios,
which they have compiled. These presentations, which are meant to follow the oral tradition in
many Native American cultures, can include any combination of the following:
 Sharing of reflections from the double-journal.
 Showing the dual identity drawing, and explaining changes they would make to it.
 Showing the art they created for the culminating project.
 Playing songs from the sound track they created.
 Reading from the journal entry they wrote from Junior’s perspective.
All of the presentations should explain the student’s own understanding of identity, and should
address both the character’s and their own identities. (5 minutes)
Materials
 Assignment description handouts
 Notebook paper for project proposals
To-Do List
 Plan the introductory discussion based on yesterday’s discussion and journal-writing.
 Photocopy assignment description for class.
 Create overhead of assignment description.
 Read over and approve students’ work plans by the next class period.
References
 “Outlining a Unit” in Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky, pg. 148-156.
 “Assessment Tools: Rubrics, Checklists, Portfolios and Exams” in The English Teacher’s Companion by
Jim Burke, pg. 292-304.
 Heather Homant
Lesson 12 (Friday): Working on the Unit Project

Goals
 Give students the time they need to work on creating their unit portfolios in class.
 Have time for teacher to answer questions, give feedback, etc. before projects are due.
Rationale
 Given the short nature of this mini-unit, and the quick turn-around of this final portfolio and
presentation assignment, the students need one full class period in which to work. Students will be
able to use school resources to get started on their projects, and will be able to use the ideas of peers
to be productive in working on their final products. Any questions students might have about the
assignment or any of its components can be addressed by the instructor during this class period.
Also, students who lack computers or internet access can use this time to do any typing or internet
research which they might find necessary for their project.
Assessments
 Compilation of three assignments: double-entry journals, character identity drawing, and choice genre
element about the book.
 Preparation of oral presentation for next week
Objectives
 Spend time in class working to create the final pieces for their multi-genre portfolio projects.
 Get teacher and peer feedback on their project ideas.
 Finish any loose ends for the first two project elements.
Tasks
(5 minutes) Return students’ half-page project proposals from the day before. Students who are approved
will be able to begin work immediately. Any student who is not approved may conference with
the teacher in order to start work on a project.
(5-10 min) Allow time for students to ask questions in front of the whole class about what is required from
them for the project or the presentation.
(35-40 min) Allow students to work in class on any element of the unit portfolio they wish. Students who
need a quieter space or the resources there may go to the library to work.
Materials
 Paper
 Crayons/markers/colored pencils
 Magazines
 Scissor and glue/tape
 Computers with internet access (in classroom or in library)
 Books about popular music?
 CDs/CD players/iPods?
To-Do List
 Get permission from librarian/media specialist for students to come there to work during class.
 Grade students’ half-page project proposals.
 Gather materials for students to use
References
 “Outlining a Unit” in Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky, pg. 148-156.
 “Assessment Tools: Rubrics, Checklists, Portfolios and Exams” in The English Teacher’s Companion by
Jim Burke, pg. 292-304.
 Heather Homant
3. Discussion -
Jesse McLean
a. Reflect on
• a) your experience with planning the unit/daily plans, and/or
My experiences with planning the daily/unit was so different then my unit/daily planning from
the writing sequence. To start, I thoroughly enjoyed the subject matter this time around, more so then the
previous unit I did on persuasive speeches. I enjoyed being able to work with a text that covers such
important and interesting themes and finding interesting ways to integrate that into lessons. Because of
this, I think that showed in my excitement and passion for planning these lessons.
Beyond that it was a very different process trying to plan a conceptual unit and daily lesson
plans with what I consider to be a rather large group for this sort of assignment (6 people). There were
some real benefits and drawbacks to this group process. Because there were so many of us, I think we
were really able to pull and pick from each person’s teaching style, ideas and opinions. When it came to
planning my own daily lessons, I really benefited from having my group for feedback. I was slightly lost
at where I wanted to go with my first lesson and they were able to bounce ideas off and help my “Fave
Five” lesson come into fruition. Once I had their help I started to get even more inspired.
There were some drawbacks from being in a group setting as well, though. This was a problem
mostly because we are all on such busy schedules that it was hard to find a time and place that we could
all attend. It was also challenging at times because we all had different teaching styles and objectives in
mind. Despite these minor hiccups, I think it was beneficial for us to all have this experience with working
with fellow “teachers” because it could be something that happens in our future.
• b) Your experience implementing it. What are you learning?
Although we weren’t able to implement this unit/lesson(s), I’ve learned a lot from this experience
and have full faith this could be a unit I would feel comfortable implementing in my own future classroom.
I found it to be such an enlightening experience going from starting out with a text I was unfamiliar with,
reading it, finding the themes and issues the text covered, and developing lessons and an entire unit from
scratch. It allowed me to feel an authentic connection with how a student may feel throughout the entire
process (just subbing the lesson planning for participation). This makes me feel even more comfortable
with potentially using this with students.
b. How does what you planned account for the development of procedural knowledge in your students?
What we planned is a unit that is a piece of an entire course revolving around exploring identities
through literature. This specific unit definitely structures a developing procedural knowledge because it
follows them throughout their reading and structures a recursive conversation about the themes and
issues throughout the book through their writing, discussion and other activities and assignments. By
creating it as a piece of an entire course we are allowing for an entire course of procedural knowledge
revolving around the idea of identity which would be nearly essential for a ninth grade student.
c. How does what you planned on a daily basis connect to the overall plans for the unit and vice versa?
My daily lesson plans connect to the overall unit on several levels. For instance, my “Fave Five”
lesson looks into and asks the kids to analyze a specific aspect of identities (how others affect their/the
main characters identities) which directly coincides with our essential questions of “What makes an
identity?” and “What outside influences affect an identity?” And the other lesson connects with the
unit-long assessment of double-entry journals, small and large group discussions which flow throughout
the unit and most likely the year.
d. What makes what you’ve planned dialogic? What are you learning about the challenges of dialogic teaching?
How specifically could you improve these plans in this regard? Be explicit and give examples.
What we have planned is a completely dialogic unit and lesson plans. My first lesson allows students
to have a completely open-ended discussion without any right or wrong answer. It allows them to think
reflectively and comprehensively about the text while also making personal connections. They are then
asked to have dialogic discussion with a partner, and then move into a larger class discussion that will be
a true conversation with their peers and teacher rather than a teacher-guided prompted discussion.
Although I plan to have a list of questions to pose, I don’t have a predetermined answer in mind and
would begin the entire discussion by asking that they actually talk and ask each other things and get in
touch with the text. The second lesson follows the same path of being dialogic. It starts out with a dialogic
discussion through their writing in a double-entry journal, continues later on into a whole class dialogic
discussion on the ending of the book, their learning process and what identity means to them.
e. How does this unit ask students to engage in issues of multiculturalism? What are the strengths and challenges
of planning with multicultural objectives?
Multicultural objectives can be a touchy subject because I think “multicultural” can be a hard
thing to define and have many different definitions. It can be an extremely useful thing to try to do,
however, because I think it examines real-life issues and topics within our society. I think the strengths
definitely outweigh the challenges as long as the subject matter is handled in the correct fashion.
As far as this unit, it asks students to delve into the issue of multiculturalism while also exploring
identity. This particular text is a wonderful example of true multiculturalism because the main character
is dealing with two separate identities and figuring out where he fits in the mix. It also asks the students
to apply this issue to themselves and examine their own identities and own “multiculturalism.”
f. Reflect recursively on writing and literature instruction. You’ve now planned in some detail and depth for both.
How are thinking about writing and literature instruction? How is your thinking evolving? What do you hope to
achieve as you continue experimenting with instructional planning for both writing and literature?
As I continue to reflect on both of my experiences this year I have loved being able to have the
opportunity to work with both. Although personally, I always enjoyed reading more than I do writing, I’ve
loved finding new ways to use both and integrate both within each other. One of my biggest realizations
through this process has been the possibility of being able to read and analyze literature while also
applying the standard writing requirements to these lessons as well. For this specific unit plan we were
able to integrate the idea of reading a new, young adult book and also have them practice writing through
the journal entries and portfolio assignment. In my placement I’ve experienced my own mentor
integrating the idea of standard assessments like the research paper by having her students pick a
general topic from their reading material and developing an entire research project around it. I hope to
continue to find new and innovative ways to develop a deeper connection between reading and writing as
I further myself and my career.
Heather Homant
a. Reflect on your experience with planning the unit/daily plans.
The experience in planning the multicultural literature unit together with a group of six was very
interesting. There were so many added challenges. My group was large, and was full of strong-minded
people with very unique ideas, so we faced a lot of compromises. I think that it was a valuable learning
experience, though, because when working with a group of colleagues I’m sure we will often face
differences of opinion about the best ways to teach students. Luckily, in our future situations our day-to-
day lesson planning will be so much more individual, and our interactions with our colleagues will be for
planning at the curriculum level. I thought that the most productive part of working in this context was
the amazing of amount of ideas I got from my colleagues. In the future I will be sure to draw from a
multitude of sources, because I feel that by drawing from a large number of sources I believe that students
will be most likely to have been instructed in their own personal learning style, at least for part of the
lesson.
b. How does what you planned account for the development of procedural knowledge in your students? Be explicit
and give examples.
In planning the general outline of our unit, we tried to make sure to be very recursive for our
students, so that they will see connections between the lessons which came at the beginning of the unit
and those at the end. The students will be assigned a double-entry journal which they will be required to
keep throughout their reading of the novel. In this way students should be discovering their own identities
through explicit reflections on certain pieces of the material. At the beginning of the unit the students
will be assigned a dual-identity drawing of themselves which they will then explore in a lesson in the
middle of the unit and hand in as part of their final unit project. This assignment, and the exploration
and adaptation of it, should prepare students to really look into their own personal identities, as well as
the identities of the characters in the novel.
c. How does what you planned on a daily basis connect to the overall plans for the unit and vice versa? Be explicit
and give examples.
We tried to make our lessons all unique and individual (like we are) while still making them
interconnected. The backbones of the unit are the text itself, the double-entry journal and the focus on
personal identity. Several of our lessons (specifically lessons 1-4 and 9-10) are about the identities of
the students as well as the characters in the novel. Lessons 5-8 are more about the Native American
heritage of the main character, Junior, but these also fit with the topic of identity because they deal with
the stereotypes of being Native American and how that can affect a person’s identity.
Like the writing sequence, I am finding it important to note how essential it is to script dialogism
into daily planning. What seems like it would come naturally really doesn’t, and as the teacher I think
preplanning crucial open-ended and thought provoking questions is the way to go. Throughout this
multicultural literature unit we’ve tried to plan times for student talk about their ideas, their questions,
their reflections, etc. If I were to improve the plans, I would probably simply add more time to the unit.
When trying to fit reading a whole novel into two or three weeks, I think open time for discussion tends
to go by the wayside. If it were not possible to add more time to the unit, I would explore which activities
could be shortened or eliminated (though they’re all so good) in order to create more opportunities for
student talk.
I think The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is especially well suited to this unit
because Junior really does grapple with what it means to be a member of multiple cultures. I think that
the activities which ask students to explore dual identities (lesson 2 and lesson 4) really address the issue
of being a multicultural person: which elements conflict with one another, which supplement each other,
etc. Most students have experienced this duality, whether it is between races, or social identities within a
high school, or something else. I think that the most challenging part of planning a multicultural unit was
deciding to what extent we wanted to emphasize the character’s racial identity and the stereotypes that
went along with that. While we wanted to educate students about this underrepresented group, we also
wanted to use the novel as a jumping off point for students to explore their own identities.
I now believe that is essential to incorporate writing into literature instruction and literature into
writing instruction. I believe that literature can serve as a great model of successful writing, and can also
provide students with material to reflect on in meaningful ways when producing their own writing. How
to successfully and fully bridge these two (without isolating them as “writing day” and “reading day”) is
something I will grapple with in the future.
Amanda Krolikowski
a. Reflect on
a) your experience with planning the unit/daily plans, and/or
I enjoyed planning the overall lesson outline as a professional learning community as well as
developing my assigned lesson plans. I feel personally drawn to the text as I feel it is a true representation
of multicultural literature and believe that our decision to make the curriculum centered around essential
questions of identity and developing those questions through units such as The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian will be extremely insightful for students. As a group we had many different ideas,
assessments, as well as activities, but our goals and objectives remained focused on the question of
identity and how students' own identities are constructed and affected by their communities. Working in
a large group was a valuable experience, one I'm sure I will continue to experience in my future years
teaching and working with curriculum. In my own daily plans, I tried to guide discussion and bridge ideas
from previous lessons in the unit (recursive). Discussion was also a priority (dialogic), and I scaffolded my
students through this process by preparing focal questions to aid in their discussions. Overall I've enjoyed
my experience in working with this unit.
b) your experience implementing it. What are you learning?

There is so much value to be gained through lesson planning and though it's unfortunate at this
time that I'm unable to teach this unit, I have high hopes of adapting these lessons for my own future
classroom. Through lesson planning, and I'm not even specifically speaking of just this unit, I have gained
valuable knowledge when considering my students, as they are my foundation to work from. For this unit
though, we made our context fairly generic, as these lessons will need to be adapted to their context
anyways. A huge lesson I've learned through lesson planning has been the backwards-planning approach
in which we consider final assessments, goals and objectives before planning the specifics of our lessons.
This was the glue that held our entire unit together and each lesson we planned and discussed was related
to back to our final assessment (how we could prepare students for it through our lessons), our essential
questions, as well as goals and objectives.
and give examples.
As I said earlier, our focus on our curriculum's essential questions, which focus on identity, are the
basis of our units throughout the year. Students will be building upon each unit and returning to previous
discussions, texts, and ideas throughout each lesson. Students will also be developing concepts and
understanding related to identity that will continue to grow throughout the unit. We reference American
Born Chinese, in mode as well as content and tie in those themes (and mode of comics) into this unit. Our
goal is for students to be able to apply their knowledge of identity construction, stereotyping, cultural
relations, etc. through various experiences and working with various texts regardless of where they are.
Our objective is that the understanding and growth students will gain through questioning and discussing
will serve them later in their lives.
and give examples.
I feel I have addressed the recursive structure of our lessons, but my particular lessons are
particularly recursive and focused on the overall unit plans because they directly connect to the essential
questions concerning identity as well as incorporate a focal goal of ours, which is to include popular
culture (comics) within the curriculum to help engage students in higher exploration (thanks Morrell!).
Our daily lesson plans are cohesive and always reconnect to previous lesson plans to continue building on
concepts and understandings related to identity. We are able to address our goals and objectives through
the activities and assessments (formal and informal) within our unit.
Our unit utilizes discussion to a great extent, scaffolding students in such as way that they can
begin to explore more complex topics, like identity, and discuss their thoughts with their fellow classmates
(because they are 9th graders who may not be familiar with higher level thinking questions). Explicit
directions and prepared questions will assist students in this dialogic process and will help in organization
of thoughts and help students establish arguments and reflect. More specific suggestions for
improvement will be made available after actual implementation of lessons within a realistic setting.
As we've recognized earlier, my group feels that our text is especially representative of
multicultural literature as Arnold is dueling with Native American stereotypes as well as White American
stereotypes. He is literally torn between two cultures and his identity is thrown in the thick of it. By
asking students to explore stereotypes within each of these cultures, and by examining stereotypes within
their own lives, they are able to explore the idea of parallel cultures existing simultaneously, though not
always peacefully, within an individual. Multicultural literature is essential to any classroom to help
students explore narratives and traditions outside their own cultures, but it is very easy to stereotype and
generalize through this literature, which makes The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
particularly useful because it addresses these stereotypes within its own narrative.
How are you thinking about writing and literature instruction? How is your thinking evolving? What do you hope
to achieve as you continue experimenting with instructional planning for both writing and literature?
I have seen the benefit in bridging these instructions because though they serve wonderful
educational purposes on their own, they are stronger together. Reading and reflecting, regardless of the
mode, is essential in developing strong writing skills as well as strong rationales, why are we writing?
One possible answer for this could be, we write to explore what we read and how we think about the
themes that are included in the text and how they relate to our own lives. My thinking has evolved,
especially through using this text, to explore other means besides traditional reading and writing modes
(i.e. comics, film, etc.) These ideas have helped open new doors for me and I look forward to utilizing
nontraditional twists to traditional education in my own classroom in the future.
Sarah Rehim
a. Reflect on your experience with planning the unit/daily plans.
This experience was very challenging, but helpful in a lot of ways for me, I think. To start, we had
a group of six, and everyone, I feel, was equally invested in this unit. That definitely made it a challenge to
gather our independent ideas and build lessons that incorporated everyone’s thought processes and
concepts. Whenever we met, you’d hear the phrase “My placement teacher does…” or “I thought it would
be neat to…” or “I had this idea that we could… .” The challenge was not in coming up with unique,
pedagogically sound lessons – it was in organizing and structuring our ideas and making sure everyone’s
input was given equal value. The one thing I will say is that we were all in immediate agreement on
focusing our unit on identity, and that made certain aspects easier. It was very interesting to find all the
different creative and dialogic methods for instructing on identity construction.
That said, the lesson building for me was actually more of a challenge than it previously had been,
and I think this is because I really wanted to step up the quality of my lessons since my last unit. I tried to
incorporate more visual and hands-on activities and wean out some of the discussion. I found myself
referring to Burke and Smagorinsky more than I originally thought, and would definitely include them on
the list of professional texts that guided my planning. Burke’s ideas on having students write about what
they already know, what they want to know, and what they’d learned (K-W-L) were especially helpful
in coming up with lessons for the very start of a new text and unit. I can honestly say I have a much
greater deal of pride in the lessons I developed for this unit than for any previous ones I completed this
semester.
and give examples.
I think we really tried to incorporate procedural knowledge, but in ways that students are
unaware they’re even taking part in it. Our major skill we wanted them to acquire, I think, was the
ability to think critically and from multiple perspectives. We do this across the board, and many of our
activities feed into this skill while providing exposure to other skills as well. For example, we assigned dual-
entry journals to be completed every other day of class. The journals teach students how to pull excerpts
from a text that they have thoughts about and how to connect their thoughts to the excerpts. In more
simple terms, it also teaches them how to journal, how the voice and structure of this writing method
function. We’ve also shown our students how to use small, progressive tasks to build toward a larger
overall task. This is exactly what they are doing with their portfolio building.
On another level, we really wanted to introduce students to a culture that we believe they may be
unfamiliar with – the Native American culture. We’re aware that what most of them know does not
stretch beyond stereotypes and classroom studies around Thanksgiving time, we so we wanted to be sure
that had some history and perspective from a guest speaker to help show them where Junior is literally
and figuratively coming from. By studying a new culture, students learn how to formulate critical
questions and observations, and how the break-down of stereotypes can actual be useful to the learning
process.
and give examples.
This part was one of the greater challenges, since we discussed each lesson as a group but
ultimately broke off and wrote and designed them on our own (two per group member). However, what
unified our varied ideas and objectives was our overarching theme of identity construction. Our smaller,
every day lessons all tie specifically to this concept. Strong examples of this include the dual identity
drawings, the identity concept maps, the journals, and the final assessments, in which they choose the
assignment that best meets their interests and talents. Each of our smaller lessons asks students to think
deeper about what designs their identities (and Junior’s) until the end, when we feel their adequately
prepared for a larger assessment that asks them to put to work what they’ve learned.
I am learning the dialogic planning does not come easily and without a large degree of thought
involved. It’s definitely something you have to work at and build at, and as much as we stress its
important in class day in and day out, when I sit down to write my lessons, I feel myself asking how does
this engage students in their own learning? how does this ask them to take charge of learning and
educate each other and put me as the teacher in the backseat a bit more? Oftentimes, these questions
have me editing or even starting my lessons from scratch. I find that one of my greatest issues is in
providing lessons that ask students to use the skills and perspectives they already have, rather than just
putting me in front of the class to start a “Today, class, we’re going to learn about __________” sort of
lesson. The lessons we have in this unit definitely ask of students’ thoughts, perspectives, and prior
knowledge. For instance the journals provide a means for student to sort out their thoughts and question
and also provide a path to a safe and comfortable dialogue between me and them. Also, the concept maps
ask them to work constructively in groups and provide ideas and insights that they’ve either gathered
from the book or from their own experiences. Those lessons definitely ask that I step back a bit as the
teacher and let them teach each other.
This text, I think, is particularly valuable because it deals with a young man the same age as our
students who is struggling to find the true “Arnold” in the midst of the various directions his surrounding
communities are pulling him in. Between his school lives at his “Indian” and “white” schools, his home life,
and his social life, Arnold literally feels as though he has a dual identity. So not only does this text
introduce students to the perspectives of a student of another culture, it gives them a glimpse of a student
immersed in more than one culture and the effects that these clashing cultures have on him. Also, it
should be noted that reading a text about a culture that is rarely depicted accurately in the media and pop
culture asks students to question and break down stereotypes, which is a valuable aspect of
multiculturalism.
I would say the overall strengths of multiculturalism are exposing students to varying
perspectives, belief systems and values and taking them out of the “bubble” their childhoods often place
them in. The challenges, though, come from getting through any preconceived notions students may have
about different cultures. Also, many times, there are controversial themes and issues that are part of the
history and make-up of certain cultures, and finding ways to deal with these issues in a mature fashion
(that doesn’t upset parents or administrators) is tough.
I definitely have learned that literature and writing instruction go best hand in hand. Trying to
teach one with out the other is often inauthentic and subtracts from the value of each. As I grow, I find
myself thinking of new ways of instructing on writing and literature comprehension that call on
students’ prior knowledge and individual strengths more. In my placement, I conducted a survey that
asked students how useful they thought it was to be a good writer, and more than one student said it
wasn’t unless one planned to become an author. This lets me know that these students aren’t enjoying
writing, even if they are doing it well. I think one of the greatest challenges with teaching writing is
affecting students’ mindsets on its merits. As for literature instruction, I hope in the future I can build
more lessons that ask students to question and guide what they’re reading, and that get them to
understand the relevance of the themes they’re studying. This is what I think is at the foundation of good
literature instruction.
Eric Salzeider
a. Reflect on
a) your experience with planning the unit/daily plans, and/or
b) your experience implementing it. What are you learning?
This unit was kind of counter intuitive as far as how difficult it would be. I was expecting it to be
hard to fill time since there is supposedly triple the lessons and I was having trouble sustaining three
lessons for an entire class time each. I guess since there were six of us though, it’s technically half the
time that each of us had to fill. What really made it easy though, was that these lessons could be custom
fit to a hypothetical context, which made for much less pressure for ideas working or not—it was more
like lab last semester. All of us had all kinds of ideas. The trick became making everything fit into the
allotted time and weeding out the things that would flow the best.
One thing I learned was the importance of being as descriptive, specific, and transparent as
possible about ideas in a group since everything had to flow together. It seemed like we each needed to let
everyone else know exactly what we were doing as early as possible, every step, because otherwise
someone might act on a misconception—I think we were all kind of paranoid about that the whole time.
On several occasions, it felt like there were so many ideas flying around we had to slow down and say,
“Wait, which ones did we settle on again?”
and give examples.
A lot of our stuff dealt with visual story telling and how it can be used, because that was a major
theme we picked out from the book. The unit starts with the students trying to express the various parts
of their identity through drawing, and one of the major focuses of discussion is the various drawings
throughout the book and what they add. The class is introduced to the graphic novel medium, which has
images on every single page, and playing a game that involves describing scenarios with only pictures and
deciphering scenes from only those pictures. The final project lets students depict how they would imagine
Arnold, thus adding to the story with pictures of their own. Our unit really hammers home on the notion
of visualization as a way to cross cultural and language barriers.
Another point of procedural knowledge our unit builds into students is internalizing themes for
themselves. We start with where they are with making students think of their own identities without
influence from the book. We try to dig out the universal concepts and present them as general struggles
that could apply to anybody, like identity crisis, stereotyping, and insecurity. We carry these themes
across other texts, like the guest speaker’s presentation, and “Echo Vision Quest” to show counterpoints
and different portrayals to contrast to Arnold’s situation and show that a lot of issues can take one
form or another from person to person, but a lot of struggles are the same at their root. All the while,
students are making journal entries of how they are reacting to the texts, and bringing in personal
experience to make sense of what is going on in the stories. The assessments give a general trend from
personal to more book-based as they go along.
and give examples.
The unit was more or less divided into couplets, and we would each be in charge of one set of
these couplets. Reading was divided up by significant events in the story and due at the end of each pair
of lessons, mostly just to reasonably pace the reading. The first set of lessons is mostly introductory
activities to get students introduced and interested in the general themes presented in Part-time Indian.
The next set of lessons breaks into the book, and focuses on how the concepts previously introduced play
into the story. The lessons after that introduce some of the history behind Arnold’s heritage so that
students get some perspective on why Arnold might think the way he does. This also grounds the concept
of Native American culture in reality and breaks down that Native Americans only exist as the
stereotypical characters on TV. The lessons after that introduce a new text with a new character that
shares some of Arnold’s culture but is in different situations and acts differently (in some instances, in
ways that may deviate from realism more than Part-time Indian does). This further breaks down
stereotyping or thinking that all Indians act the same. The lessons after that go back to Part-time Indian,
but look at Arnold’s personal life and the specific people that influence him most. This further humanizes
Arnold by treating him more as an individual rather than part of one culture. The students then look back
at themselves and think about the specific people that influence their identity in their personal lives as
opposed to some cultural checklist. The whole time they’ve been reading through the book though, and
thinking about that story in tandem with whatever else is going on. Then there is the final, summative
assessment, in which students explore the nuance in Arnold’s identity at the end of his journey, either
with songs or with pictures.
We tried to present everything in as many ways as we could, with having Part-time Indian as
our “main text”, but counterpointing it the whole time other sources in other modes, like the speaker, the
graphic novel, and personal experience. A lot of our assessments are generative, like the introductory
drawing activities, and the extended journal (which doesn’t become summative until they hand it in). A lot
of class time is discussion based, where student questions and responses are welcome. In general, talking
about multiculturalism kind of has to be dialogic or else it will just be hypocritical.
One of the strengths in doing multicultural lit units is the chance to expose students to cultures
and scenarios that they may not otherwise get a chance to learn about or think to research for
themselves. I think this is supposed to be one of the highlights of going to school in general. The problem is
that people are so diverse that it’s impossible to cover everything and “include” everybody. We tried to
counter this by universalizing the issue as much as we could and placing the importance on the struggle
for identity in general regardless of racial/cultural/socioeconomic/etc. background—that these are just
pieces in a puzzle that everyone has in one way or another. We also got lucky and picked a text that
really lent itself to discussing visual storytelling as a valuable skill, but even that’s something that we
could tie back to multiculturalism by showing how pictures could speak to everyone, but also how
everybody looks at them differently, even two people seem to be 99% alike otherwise.
Looking back, the reason I got into English was because I thought it would be fun to get into
discussions about literature and talk about all the wacky characters and how their misadventures reflect
on reality. I never really thought about teaching writing though. That’s a lot harder because it’s not as
open to interpretation, and it’s more based on convention than experience. Writing has always felt more
rigid, because usually either a writing sample works or it doesn’t, and presentation matters just as much
as content, whereas observations about literature are way more subjective and easier to find a positive
spin for. There is a degree of subjectivity to writing, but people usually have to be aware of some standard
rules before they know how to break them, and some people just have the instinct to know when they
can bend those rules, whereas others will need to be walked through how to do everything. Also, learning
the conventions of writing isn’t fun for most people since it usually isn’t conducive to making kids think
of some movie or show they saw that lets them relate to it. Finding ways to mix the two seems to be the
best way to go. Attaching characters and elaborate scenarios can even make math more fun, and this
works for grammar and writing too—it’s kind of like putting peanut butter on celery to distract from
the fact that a kid is eating celery. I think the ongoing journaling assessment from this unit was a good
way to implement that.
Name: ___________________
Anticipation Guide:TATDOAPTI
1. I believe that stereotypes that exist about certain groups of people are very often true.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
2. I think that very few people really know the “real” me or understand me.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
3. I have the feeling that when I grow up, my life will look very similar to my parents’ or
family’s life right now.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
4. I often feel a conflict between the things that others want for me and what I want for
myself.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
5. One of the major considerations I have for my future is getting out of this area and
starting over somewhere new.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
6. My ethnicity is one of the defining traits that make me who I am.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE
7. I often feel like I don’t entirely fit in with one group of friends because my interests and
background are so diverse.
TRUE FALSE UNSURE

Dual Identity Assignment Sheet
As you can see from what you have read thus far of the novel and from the drawings, Junior feels a definite
conflict between the many ways his identities is constructed. Thinking back to the identity concept maps you
made and the list of identity elements you put together as a class, you will create a drawing of yourself that
exhibits the multiple factors you believe make up your identity.
With this assignment, the drawing process is not as important as the thinking process (so art-phobes, fear not!).
Think of all the different things that Junior talked about as well as what you saw in his drawings, such as his
socio-economic status, health issues, body type, interests, and most importantly, his ethnicity. How do those
same things define you? If they don’t, then what does? Your dual identity drawing should answer these
questions. You should use the drawing of Junior on the front flap of the cover as a guide for your art. Think of
things like clothing, accessories, though and word bubbles, color, hairstyle, etc.
Artistically, you can get as creative as you would like! You may use paint, markers, crayons, colored pencil, or
even choose to use no color at all (if you feel that fits your identity construction). However, please make sure
you clearly label all identity attributes just as Junior does in his drawings.
The drawing is due next MONDAY. Come to class with the drawing complete, since we will be using them on
Monday in class.
Multi-Genre Unit Portfolio Assignment

Now that you have read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and have discussed
issues and questions related to personal identity and growth in class, you will have the opportunity to show what
you have learned through your engagement with this literature.
This assignment will consist of four parts, two of which you should already have done!
 Double-Entry Journal
 You should have been keeping a double-entry journal during the reading of this text. In the
portfolio, your journal should meet the minimum requirement of at least five (5) entries filling at
least two (2) handwritten pages. You can type it if you would like, but that is not required.
 Dual-Identity Character Drawing
 This drawing should have been created in the introduction to this unit, and modified based on your
experiences in class and with the novel a few days later. Please include this drawing in your
portfolio along with any changes or modifications you have made. Make sure these are clearly
marked!
 A Culminating Text of Your Choice
 You may choose from one of the following, or propose your own text.
 A soundtrack to accompany Arnold’s diary. What would he have been listening to? Compile a
list (or create an actual CD), and create a CD jewel case cover for the soundtrack.
 A final drawing of Arnold. If he were to draw himself one more time at the end of the novel,
what would it look like? Drawings should pay attention to detail. Choices like whether to use the
cartoon style or not and whether to use color or not are left entirely up to the artist.
 A written diary entry. If Arnold re-read his diary a year later and reflected on it, what would he
write? Create a 2-4 page journal entry where you write as Arnold’s character and talk about
any changes that came about as a result of what happened at the end of the novel.
 An Oral Presentation
 These presentations, which are meant to follow the oral tradition in many Native American
cultures, can include any combination of the following:
 Sharing of reflections from the double-journal.
 Showing the dual identity drawing, and explaining changes they would make to it.
 Showing the art they created for the culminating project.
 Playing songs from the sound track they created.
 Reading from the journal entry they wrote from Junior’s perspective.
 All of the presentations should explain the student’s own understanding of identity, and should
address both the character’s and their own identities.
 Presentations will take place on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Start to think about your culminating text. Which one seems like it would work best for you? In what
way would you be most productive and interested? Prepare a half-page proposal in which you answer
these questions by the end of the hour. Approved projects will be begun in class tomorrow.

Transféré par

Informations du document

Description originale:

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Jesse McLean, Amanda Krolikowski, Heather Homant, Hannah Nagi, Sarah Rehim, and Eric Salzeider

Multicultural Literature Unit

• Unit to Follow: “What is the hero/heroine identity?”

2. Daily Lesson Plans -

Lesson 1 (Thursday): Exploring Identity

Lesson 2 (Friday): Further Exploration of Identity

Lesson 3 (Monday): How Images Enhance the Text

Read excerpt (PTI, p4-7):

Directions on overhead/SmartBoard/chalkboard/handout (depending on accessibility):

Homework: Read PTI up through page 103

(5 minutes) Brief digestion/discussion about "Hunger Pains"

(15 minutes) Small Group Work

Directions/questions on overhead/chalkboard/SmartBoard/handout (depending on accessibility)

(15 minutes) Large Group Share

Lesson 5 (Wednesday): Fiction & Fact 

(5 minutes)  Wrap Up & Homework

(5 minutes) Wrap Up

Lesson 7 (Friday): Dare Devil

Lesson 8 (Monday): Dare Devil & Telephone Pictionary

(15 minutes) Closing activity:

Lesson 9 (Tuesday): “The ‘Fave Fives’ That Help Shape Identity”

Students Will Be Able To:

DUE: Have read PTI through page 199

(5 minutes) Beginning Discussion:

• Discuss question: What does it mean to be in someone’s “Fave 5”?

• Jot down ideas on whiteboard

• Introduce activity by starting with some sort of dialogue such as:

o Inform them this will be collected for participation points

(15 minutes) Full-class Activity:

• Write ideas down on the whiteboard

(5 minutes) Wrap-up and Preview:

 Whiteboard and dry erase marker

i. Wade/Barkley T-Mobile commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwLai2XImo

 Double-entry journal work

Students will be able to:

(15 minutes) In-class Reading:

(15 minutes) Discussion: Open the class back up to a whole-group discussion

• Possible prompts/questions to pose:

o What did you guys write about in your double-entry journals?

 Be clear in explaining rationale behind reading last part together in class

Lesson 11 (Thursday): Introducing the Unit Project

(5 minutes) Give students time to read the assignment over.

Lesson 12 (Friday): Working on the Unit Project

b) your experience implementing it. What are you learning?

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

6. My ethnicity is one of the defining traits that make me who I am.

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

TRUE FALSE UNSURE

Dual Identity Assignment Sheet

Multi-Genre Unit Portfolio Assignment

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi

Lesson 5 (Wednesday): Fiction & Fact

(5 minutes) Wrap Up & Homework

(5 minutes) Wrap Up