English Language Development

Vignette 7.1. Examining Diverse Perspectives in World Literature

Integrated ELA/Literacy, ELD, and World History in Grade Ten (cont.)

on the Google Doc timeline (a different student serving as the scribe each time). The timeline

grows and changes as students progress through the novel and determine the most significant

events. An excerpt from the timeline, showing some of the tragic events in Okonkwo’s story,

follows.

Things Fall Apart Timeline

Orientation Complications and Their Resolutions

Events (both joyful and tragic)

Final

Resolution

Okonkwo

is a strong

man in an

Igbo village,

widely

known and

respected

as a fearless

warrior,

a man of

tradition

with three

wives and

land.

Okonkwo

feels deeply

insecure

about

turning

out like his

father—

weak and

effeminate.

He works

hard to

make it as a

wealthy and

strong man.

Okonkwo

joins in

the group

murder of

his adoptive

son,

Ikemefuna,

out of fear

of seeming

weak and

cowardly.

Okonkwo

accidentally

kills a boy

during a

funeral (a

feminine

crime) and

is exiled

for seven

years to his

mother’s

homeland.

He starts

to see his

people

falling apart

during his

exile.

White

colonialists

show up

and convert

many Igbo

people,

including

Okonkwo’s

oldest son,

Nwoye to

Christianity.

They arrest

Okonkwo

and other

Igbo

men who

refuse to

convert and

humiliate

them in jail.

As the students work together in their table groups, Ms. Alemi plays contemporary Nigerian

or Nigerian-influenced music (e.g., WizKid [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAV4KlD86E8],

Antibalas [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlgjOCxhLQ]) in the background, which the

students enjoy and which may prompt them to explore the music and music videos of these

artists on their own. When they track the themes of the novel, each table group is responsible

for adding evidence that illustrates the theme, using a template posted on Google Docs. The

students each have a tablet where they can add the information to the Google Doc as they work

through the text, and they take turns entering the textual evidence (either by paraphrasing or

using quotes), along with the page number. Students deepen their understandings of the novel’s

themes as they progress through the unit. For example, they begin by calling a theme language

is important, but as they progress into the novel, they rename it language as a sign of cultural

difference and later add to that and pride. The template they use is provided below.

Grades 9 and 10 Chapter 7 | 751