A Resource Guide: Integrating The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks into Writing Assignments
Table of Contents (Print Version)

Page Number

1. WRIT 100/101/102 3

  • In-Class Activities
  • Short Writing Exercises
  • In-Class Essay Questions and Prompts
  • Reflection Exercises

2. EDHE 10514

  • Responses to Speakers and Events
  • Discussion/Essay Questions Relating EdHe Themes to The Immortal Life
  • Grading Guidelines
  • Sample Rubric

3. Common Resources for all Teachers18

  • Classroom Guest Speakers: a Roster
  • William Winter Institute
  • Internet Resources
  • List of Events

4. Additional Resources54

Chapter 1: IntegratingThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in WRIT 100/101/102

In-Class Activities

In-class Summary Activity (one week of class: MWF schedule)

Pip Gordon

Day 1: As a class, summarize Part I of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in approximately 250 words (the closer to 250 the better). This should be done collectively with the students providing the sentences and a scribe typing them. The teacher should only give minimal suggestions during the composition phase. The teacher’s comments can be more pointed during the revision phase.

Composition: 25-30 minutes.

Revision: 15-20 minutes.

Goal: A clean, well-organized, complete, and coherent summary of Part I that is between 245-255 words long.

Homework: Divide the class in half. Half the students should summarize Part II, half should summarize Part III. Students should bring (mostly) polished 250 word summaries to the next class period.

Day 2: Divide the class into groups based on which part of The Immortal Life they summarized. The goal by the end of class is to have conglomerated all summaries of each part into two summaries that have the consensus vote of the class as the most thorough. By the end of class, these groups should have produced finished drafts of their assigned parts.

(***in Writing 100, with 15 students in the class, you would have 7-8 students summarizing Part II and 7-8 students summarizing Part III. For day 2, I’d break students into groups of 3-4, have them compare summaries and create a consensus of what a good summary should include. This would mean each part has two groups working on it. After the groups of 3-4 have had time to build a consensus--but not necessarily write a new summary from scratch--I’d have those smaller groups team up to compare notes.These larger groups would then be responsible for writing and submitting ONE final 250 word summary of their assigned part. I’d devote roughly 35 minutes to this project, but it could end of taking all of class).

Homework for the teacher: compile all three summaries in one master document (making no changes to student work, but rather just copying and pasting them together in the appropriate order into a word document.

Day 3: As a class, revise the FULL summary of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The class should have one summary of approximately 750 words (3 pages). This count should be cut by approximately 100 words in the revision process by omitting redundancies, cleaning up excess wordiness and phrasing, and crafting transition sentences that link the three separate parts into a more seamless whole.

Analysis Activity: Judging a Book by its Cover (and other things)

Pip Gordon

I’m presenting this as an in-class activity, but it could easily be turned into an analysis assignment with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as a class model for an analysis of book covers/movie posters.

In class: Have students bring their copies of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to class. Discuss in class aspects of the visual presentation of the book:

Outside:

--the blurb on the back cover

--the cover design (any pictures, the color of the book, font type for the title and author)

--the design of the whole cover (front, back, and spine)

--snippets from critical praise of the book included on the cover

Inside:

--Title page, arrangement of parts, type of paper (no joke!)

--any visual elements

--font style (if you feel up to it)

--the “praise for” page

Questions to consider:

--what does the book cover suggests about the content of the book?

--what kind of readership do you think the publishers are targeting?

--to what extent does the visual presentation seem connected to the content of the book? (for homework, the students will not have the luxury of knowing the content, but this can still be a useful question).

--if you had a choice, would you buy this book and read it? Why or why not? (answer here should be based on the cover alone).

Homework: assign students a book that is readily available in a bookstore. The goal would be to select books that student probably have NOT read! (I’d go for a mix between popular contemporary stuff like Steig Larson or Jennifer Egan and classics that I know the campus Barnes and Noble has on its shelf, conveniently as “Barnes and Nobles” classics so with a standard presentation with minor variations for different works).

The students will spend 10-15 minutes in the bookstore checking out their assigned book (amazon’s “Look Inside” feature might also come in handy). The student is not required to buy the book. After spending time analyzing it, the student will then compose a 300-400 word analysis of the book cover to turn in during the next class.

Short Writing Assignments

Plagiarism/Intellectual Property

Ashley Gutierrez

  • Homework: Read the “Avoiding Plagiarism” section of A Writer’s Reference; selected chapters from Immortal Life (that deal with the Lacks family not getting any kind of recognition/repayment for Henrietta’s cells—there are several)
  • Writing:
  • Explain what plagiarism is, based on your reading and your own experiences with it. How is academic plagiarism the same thing or similar to violating intellectual property rights? Why is it important that an author or researcher not plagiarize?
  • In your opinion, and using examples from Immortal Life to back up your argument, explain whether or not what Dr. George Gey and the other researchers did was “plagiarism.” Your assessment will need to be based both on your definition of plagiarism and defended with examples from both Immortal Life and The Writer’s Reference.

The Writing Process

Ashley Gutierrez

  • Prep-work: Discussions and activities about the writing process, especially peer-review and research methods
  • Homework: Read sections about the writing process from A Writer’s Reference; Read sections from Immortal Life that deal with Skloot’s process, especially the forward, endnotes, and chapters where Skloot appears as a central character
  • Writing:
  • Explain, based on your own experience and A Writer’s Reference, what the writing process is. What are the “steps” and why are they important? Why is each step necessary—what does each step allow the writer to do or know about his/her work?
  • What was Rebecca Skloot’s writing process? Base your response/discussion on specific passages from the text. How did she go about research? How did she know what sources to include? What was her “peer review” process like? What struggles did she encounter across her many drafts?
  • Consider how Skloot’s “rhetorical situation” changed her writing process (audience, genre, stance, purpose, medium, etc.)

The Argumentative Situation

Ashley Gutierrez

  • Prep Work: Discussions on how to evaluate arguments both in content and in structure, discussion of ethos, pathos, and logos
  • Homework: Read section A-3 (Evaluating Arguments) in A Writer’s Reference, pick a chapter (or several chapters) from Immortal Life and outline it (them)
  • Writing: In short paragraphs, determine how Skloot appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in the chapter(s) you chose. Where do these appeals succeed? Fail? Using section A-3 as your guide, determine where Skloot falls prey to logical fallacies. Explain what she should have done to fix these fallacies.

Contextualizing The Immortal Life within a Horrifying Tradition (Research, Summary, and Analysis)

Chip Dunkin

At the heart of The Immortal Life is the problematic intersection of African- Americans and scientific/medical study. Skloot mentions the Tuskegee Experiments and the Mississippi Appendectomies—two particularly gruesome “research projects” in which African-Americans were lied to and forced to suffer in the name of white scientific progress.

Do some online research on the “Tuskegee Experiments” and “Mississippi Appendectomy” and write a one-paragraph summary of each project. Then, think about the similarities and differences between these two brutal and dehumanizing projects and the case of Henrietta Lacks. Finally, write two paragraphs in which you compare and contrast the treatment of Lacks and her family with the treatment of these other African-American victims of the past. Use specific examples from your research and The Immortal Life to contextualize Lacks’s story within the historical context of racism and modern medicine.

Thinking about the Boundaries of Biography (Freewriting + Class Discussion)

Chip Dunkin

Generally speaking, we hold historians, biographers, and commentators to a certain standard of objectivity. We like to think of these writers of nonfiction as disinterested, unbiased observers who push aside (or hide) their own feelings and emotions and produce chronicles of unvarnished truth. Skloot makes it very clear early in The Immortal Life, however, that she is by no means a disinterested observer/reporter, but rather an emotionally attached participant in the Lacks’ struggles. At one point, she even calls herself a “character in [Henrietta’s] story” (7).

Freewrite for twenty minutes about your thoughts and feelings on Skloot as an author, and attempt to answer the following questions: Is it appropriate to call Rebecca Skloot a “biographer,” or does her intense involvement in the Lacks family’s fight for recognition and redemption make her something else? Can we call Skloot an “objective” chronicler of events? Does it matter?

In-Class Essay Questions and Prompts

Guy Krueger

  1. How would you describe Skloot’s portrayal of the Lacks family (e.g., positive, negative, objective, etc.)? Why? Point to examples from the text to support your perspective. What role does her portrayal play in how we read the text?
  1. Is it acceptable to break rules or even laws in the name of medical research that may cure diseases such as cancer? Why or why not? Use the text to support your response.
  1. On page 54, Skloot writes about one of her early calls to the Lacks family, “Years later I'd understand how a young boy could know why I was calling just from the sound of my voice: the only time white people called Day was when they wanted something having to do with HeLa cells. But at the time I was confused – I figured I must have heard wrong.” Write a response in which you analyze what Skloot means. Also include your thoughts on why she says she understood years later. Use the text to support your response.
  1. How have Henrietta Lacks, her immortal cells, and her family’s tribulations effected change in research on human subjects, both directly and indirectly? Use the text to support your response.
  1. What role does education play in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? How might the Henrietta’s story be different if the Lacks family had been more educated and knowledgeable about cells and medical research? Use the text to support your response.
  1. On page 271, Paul Lurz, the director of performance and improvement at Crownsville Hospital Center says, "Sometimes learning can be just as painful as not knowing." What is Lurz telling Deborah when he says this? In your opinion, would Deborah be better off not knowing some of her family’s past? Why or why not? Use the text to support your response.

Sheena Boran

  1. In response to Van Valen’s argument that HeLa cells should no longer be classed as human, Robert Stevenson states: “Scientists don’t like to think of HeLa cells as being little bits of Henrietta because it’s much easier to do science when you disassociate your materials from the people they come from” (216). However, Skloot’s goal in this book seems to be to attach human faces to a scientific issue, and her book chronicles the competing forces attempting to humanize and dehumanize the HeLa cells. Should we attempt to connect human stories to scientific research, or would this interfere with objectivity?
  1. You almost certainly know someone who has benefited directly from research conducted using HeLa cells. If you learned that tissue removed from your body during a routine procedure at some point in the past had gone on to significantly benefit science and research, would you feel that you should somehow be retroactively compensated? Which do you think is more important – your right to control your own tissue, or contributing to science and research for the greater good of humanity?
  2. Skloot weaves together four separate narratives in this book – a biography of Henrietta Lacks, the scientific biography of the HeLa cells, the history of the Lacks family, and the story of her own research. How does each narrative contribute to the effect of the entire book? How would the overall effect of the book have been different if Skloot had left out the history of the Lacks family? the story of her own research?
  1. Can there be justice for the Lacks family? Should they be compensated? Is it possible to relate the Lacks case to that of John Moore or Ted Slavin, or is this situation unique?

Keith Boran

  1. Although there is some dispute over who coined the name Helen Lane as the source of the HeLa cells, many believe it originated from an interview Dr. George Gey gave to Collier’s magazine in 1954. If this is true, why would Gey use a false name? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your answer (pp. 105-109).
  1. Rebecca Skloot withstood some major setbacks in her research. Give two specific occurrences when Skloot overcame adversity to finish her work to tell the story. What do the two occurrences have in common? What can we learn about the writing process from Skloot’s experience?
  1. What were the true intentions of Dr. Sir Lord Keenan KesterCofield’s attempt to breach the Lacks family’s privacy? Why was he so willing to help the family for free? Be sure to be specific in your answer and explanation by including information from the book (pp. 225-231).

Mallory Blasingame

  1. In “A Few Words About This Book,” Skloot writes of her efforts to “capture the language with which each person spoke and wrote,” claiming that this decision was spurred by one of Henrietta’s relatives, who told her, “If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest. It’s taking away their lives, their experiences, and their selves.” Describe and analyze Skloot’s use of the “original language” of her subjects. What effect do these decisions have on your reading of the text? Do you find that the end result feels “honest”? Why or why not? Support your claims with specific textual evidence.
  1. The Lacks children differ in their responses to the revelation that their mother’s cells have been used for others’ scientific and financial benefit. Describe at least two of the siblings’ reactions. With whom do you most agree or empathize? How does Skloot’s characterization of the sibling contribute to this impression? Using specific textual evidence, explain the reasoning behind your claim.
  1. Should Henrietta or her family (and, by extension, others like her) have been compensated for the use of her cells? Why or why not? Use specific textual evidence to provide context and support for your argument.
  1. After having read the book, do you agree with Skloot’s claim that, unlike others who have written about Lacks, she is not exploiting her or her family? Why or why not? Use specific textual evidence to support your argument.
  1. Choose one of the following passages and provide a three to four page response that

1. contextualizes the passage within the rest of the book (What is happening here? When in the text does this occur?); 2. analyzes the passage’s use of rhetorical strategies (How does the way the information is presented contribute to the reader’s understanding of/reaction to it?); 3. argues for a particular interpretation of the passage (Why is this passage significant? How does it contribute to Skloot’s overall message? Your answers to the previous questions will help shape this argument). You should use specific evidence in the form of direct quotations, paraphrases, and summary to support your evidence. You may draw support from other areas of the book, as well. You will have 50 minutes (or 75 minutes) to plan, compose, and edit your response.