Alex+Heidtke+Unit+Proposal


 * Unit Rationale: This is a very apt theme for this novel. You should help students see the various configurations of society: family, peer group, tenth graders, home town, church, etc. "Society" should not be a large amorphous thing, but something touching their lives directly. Consider multiple genres for the summative assessment. What forms can express this relationship between self and society? **
 * 5/5 **

In college, students often discuss things in class and get most of the class involved. At least in the language, literature and writing majors, college is also based on constant papers, specifically, papers involved in reflection. I feel both are greatly involved in higher level thinking. In high school, currently, not enough is based on higher level thinking. Higher level thinking aims at one big essential question, something that drives the students beyond the class. This is a focus that will be greatly integrated for this unit.

This unit is intended for high school, ideally, 10th grade or up. It will focus on the concept of society and it’s influence on everything else, we will be looking at this through assimilation vs. identity. When I say identity, I mean it in terms of finding what makes you, you. Many find their identity through their heritage and family. Assimilation is rarely discussed in high school, but it applies so strongly to most high school adolescents. Adolescents face a struggle with popularity and finding their identity on a daily basis. A majority of high school is a struggle of self, and potential compromise or change, in order to fit in with others. I’d like students to notice these trends and to question them. I want them to see that society forces people to assimilate or to be left alone and become isolated. I want them to see this and seek out a third option, one where individuality and identity can exist in a world where society doesn’t slowly remove it.

Their main text will be reading Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, a very comical autobiography about a Native American boy who lives on an Indian reservation. He essentially chooses to assimilate to a “white culture,” feeling it giv__es__ him the best future. Sherman Alexie__,__ includes drawings throughout the book__,__ the drawings will also give a nice segway segue to discuss literature or text as anything besides just writing. The students will see how the main character slowly changes who he is, and how it affects both him, and those around him. After this, the students would do a short paper on the book involving assimilation. Students are perfectly capable of learning what it means to assimilate or to hold onto individuality. Students will try to identify what their heritage is or in some way who they are [ what are other parts of identity to consider? music? religion? ethics?] They will then look at how society has influenced their decisions and who they are today. From there, they will write a paper about who they are and how society affects them.

I want students to learn assimilation in terms of not only its __e__ffect in the texts we read, but also how it affects their lives in today’s society. The intent, is more for students to begin to look at society and its power. Students would have the opportunity to identify what society is, more than just a simple word that refers to a group of people. I want them to ask “What is Society.” First they would write a paper describing what it means to assimilate and discuss their role in society. Most high schoolers never really discuss society or ever think about the need for assimilation. I want the students to slowly question this concept, to strengthen who they are and to make them capable of being the goldfish on the box that swims the other way. Not necessarily the wrong way, but their own way. The essential question might simply be "What is your role in society?"