Lesson Plans and Resources for Sing, Unburied, Sing
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Lesson Plans and Resources for Sing, Unburied, Sing Table of Contents 1. Overview and Essential Questions 2. In-Class Introduction 3. Common Core Standards Alignment 4. Reader Response Questions 5. Vocabulary + Sample Sentences 6. Literary Log Prompts + Worksheets 7. Suggested Analytical Assessments 8. Suggested Creative Assessments 9. Online Resources 10. Print Resources - NPR Article: Writing Mississippi: Jesmyn Ward Salvages Stories of the Silenced - Book Review from The New York Times - Interview with Jesmyn Ward - “Raising a Black Son” by Jesmyn Ward These resources are all available, both separately and together, at www.freelibrary.org/onebook Please send any comments or feedback about these resources to [email protected]. OVERVIEW AND ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS The materials in this unit plan are meant to be flexible and easy to adapt to your own classroom. Each chapter has discussion questions provided in a later section. Through reading the book and completing any of the suggested activities, students can achieve any number of the following understandings: - Family connection is not automatic – you can choose to care for someone, and also choose not to. - Trauma and hardship takes up the space and time needed to live a good, healthy life. - When their lives feel unresolved, the dead stay with us. Students should be introduced to the following key questions as they begin reading. They can be discussed both in universal terms and in relation to specific characters in the book: Universal - Who in your family cares for you? How did they get to be in that role? - When has you or your family struggled? What impact did that struggle have on your daily life? - Who do you know who has passed away? Does their death and life stay with you? Why? Book-Specific - Who in the family cares for Jojo and Kayla? How did they get to be in that role? - What are some of the struggles their family has had to face? How did that struggle impact their lives and their relationships with one another? - Who has passed away in the book, and why do they stay with the characters? What are they looking for? Many of the reader response questions and suggested projects relate to these essential questions, and they can be looped back to frequently. IN-CLASS INTRODUCTION This lesson is designed to provide students with a one-class introduction to the book. The lesson can be used to start off a class reading of the text, or to encourage them to read it independently. As a recipient of One Book resources, the Free Library requires that you devote one class period to introducing Sing, Unburied, Sing to students, either using this lesson or your own plan. Introduction 1. Have students take five minutes to answer the following prompt on paper: What have you killed? What was the experience like? (If they ask, students are welcome to answer the question in the figurative sense, although it is originally intended in the literal sense.) 2. Have students share their answers in pairs. When one person shares, the partner asks them the following questions: Did you watch something die? How did its death make you feel? Did this experience change you in some way? 3. Hand out copies of “Sing, Unburied, Sing.” Read pages 1-6 together. If you can, use the audio recording of Ward reading the first few pages on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2017/11/28/566933935/for-jesmyn-ward-writing-means-telling-the-truth-about-the-place-that-i- live-in 4. Discuss: Why is killing the goat so important to Jojo? What does it show about his relationship to his Pop? How about the other members of his family? Why does he want to show he is “old enough to look at death as a man should” (5)? 5. Watch the three-minute video made about Ward when she won the MacArthur grant in 2017: https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1002/ Discuss: What are some of her unique experiences growing up where she did? Does you think her world has any overlap with ours in Philadelphia? Where do you see the similarities and differences? Correlation to Common Core Standards for Grades 11-12 INTRODUCTION LESSON + DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Reading Standards for Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. 2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. 10. By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently Speaking and Listening Standards 1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (oneon-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data. VOCABULARY Reading Standards for Literature 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. Language Standards 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. 6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. ANALYTICAL + CREATIVE ASSESSMENTS Writing Standards 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.) 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 11–12 on page 54.) 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. READER RESPONSE QUESTIONS Chapter 1 – pages 1-30 What is Jojo’s relationship to his two grandfathers, pop and Big Joseph/ What do you think these two men think of each other? Why does Jojo seek refuge among the farm animals? What do they offer him that the humans in his life don’t? Why has Jojo starting calling his biological parents by their first names, Leonie and Michael? What’s his relationship with them like? Chapter 2 – pages 31-57 What special abilities does Mam have? Why does Leonie choose not to tell Mam when she sees Given’s ghost for the first time? Why does Leonie choose to go deliver her message to Big Joseph in person, instead of calling on the phone? Chapter 3 – pages 59-89 Mam explains to Jojo that there’s “things that move a man. Like currents of water inside” (80). What doess he mean by this? Why doesn’t Jojo understand, at least at first? What do you think is the purpose of the gift that Pop puts in Jojo’s bag for the trip? What does it mean to “balance” a person (74)? Chapter 4 – pages 91-105 Why does Kayla prefer Jojo to Leonie? How does this make Leonie feel? Why does Leonie agree to do the drug transport with Misty? Chapters 5 – pages 107-131 Why doesn’t Jojo trust Leonie’s natural remedies for Kayla? Do you think his concern is justified? What is the reunion between Michael and Leonie like? Do you think it’s a healthy one? Who appears to Jojo at the end of the chapter? How do you know? Chapters 6 and 7 – pages 133-167 Why is Richie left on this earth to search for River, aka Pop? What is he really looking for? Why does he get in the car with Jojo and his family? Why does he say that it was not possible for River to save him? Why is Leonie mean to Jojo? What does she resent him for? Why does Leonie take the risk of swallowing the drugs during the traffic stop? Does this show that she is brave or impulsive? Chapters 8 and 9 – pages 169-191 What does Richie want to ask River about? Why is it so important to him? What did the sunshine woman tell River and Richie about? Why does this upset Riv? Why does Riv feel “like home” to Richie? Chapter 10 – pages 193 - 217 What is the symbolic significance of Leonie’s dream? Why does she keep pushing her