What Happens When Power Becomes Absolute?

Unit Title: Characterization and Motivations: Breaking Down Things Fall Apart
Unifying Concept: Unifying Concept: Ethics and Power
Overview: In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria are confronted with both social and religious influences from the colonial British expansion into their territory. Okonkwo leads a prominent family in an Igbo community. Things Fall Apart focuses on the evolution of his family as they confront their interpersonal relationships in the context of cultural change. However, Things Fall Apart is more than a clash of cultures, it explores Okonkwo’s development as a father, community leader, and possibly a hero. Additionally, this unit includes “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats and the Biblical story “The Sacrifice of Isaac” as literary tools to look at western and Biblical influences on Chinua Achebe’s writing. In the Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” Chimananda Ngozi Adichie discusses embracing multiple perspectives of a story. Using suggestions from this talk, students identify similarities and differences between Igbo and western culture.
Purpose:
To examine the complexities of cultural and personal change in late 19th century colonial Nigeria.
To analyze how an author draws on and/or transforms texts.
To evaluate similarities and differences between cultures.
To write an argument that explores the complexities of the novel.
Enduring Understandings:
1. Literature and informational texts describe how absolute power can be a corrupting influence and bring about uncertain and often violent outcomes.
2. By reading about absolute power, we learn that people have to work together in order to live in a less violent world. We can explain how absolute power can corrupt absolutely. / Essential Questions:

Why is there inhumanity?
What happens when power becomes absolute?
What motivates people to strive for absolute power?
How is power defined in different cultures?

Target Standards are emphasized during the quarter and used in a formal assessment to evaluate student mastery.
Highly-Leveraged1 arethe most essential for students to learn because they have endurance (knowledge and skills are relevant throughout a student's lifetime); leverage (knowledge and skills are used across multiple content areas); and essentiality (knowledge and skills are necessary for success in future courses or grade levels).
10.RL.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
10.RL.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
10.W.3Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
Supportingare related standards that support the highly-leveraged standards in and across grade levels.
10.RL.6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
10.W.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
10.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
10.SL.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
10.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
10.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
a)Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text.
Constant Standards are addressed routinely every quarter.
10.RL.1,10
10.RI.1,10
10.W. 4,5,6,10
10.SL.1,2,6
10.L.1,6
Selected Readings of Complex Texts
Extended/Short Texts:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
“The Second Coming” W.B. Yeats
“The Sacrifice of Isaac” (Biblical piece)
Additional Instructional Resources
Electronic Resources and Alternative Media:
Chinua Achebe on CNN’s African Voices

BBC Video Obituary for Chinua Achebe

Africa 50 years after Things Fall Apart

The Danger of a Single Story

Strong Women Angelique Kidjo

Optional pieces for an extended activities: New York Times Article on Chinua Achebe’s Death (online only—no permission for duplication)
Humanizing History Chimananda Ngozi Adiche
Performance Assessments
Formative Assessments:
Questions/activities over each section of Things Fall Apart
Questions/activities over “The Sacrifice of Isaac”
Questions/activities over “The Second Coming”
Vocabulary activities
Literary response journal
Writing process for final essay / Summative Assessments:
Small Group research project on a notable African
Letter from a son to a father (narrative)
Character speech (argumentative speech)
Comparing cultures group presentation
Final Essay: Literary Analysis
School City Assessment

1This definition for highly-leveraged standards was adapted from the “power standard” definition on the website of Millis Public Schools, K-12, in Massachusetts, USA.