The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Individual Unit Plan Grade/Course

Lesson Plan Unit

Jaclyn Ippolito

English Methods

Professor Cella

5/12/08

“There is another world, but it is in this one.”

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  Small suburban school in Upstate New York
  
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  Approximately 25 kids per class
  
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  Mixed ability levels
  
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  Single, 50 minute periods
  

Enraged, Arnold beans his geometry teacher with the book and gets suspended from school. The targeted teacher, Mr. P., visits Arnold at home and gives him a piece of advice: get out. Mr. P. has seen too many promising students — like Arnold’s sister, Mary Runs Away — fade year by year, beaten down by poverty and hopelessness. “The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up,” Mr. P. says.

“The Absolutely True Diary” tracks Arnold’s year of getting out. He transfers to Reardan High, 22 miles away, a gleaming campus full of wealthy white kids, with a computer room and chemistry labs. He’s the only Indian — if you don’t count the school mascot. Early on, Arnold fears being beaten up by the jocks. “I was afraid those monsters were going to kill me,” he says. “And I don’t mean ‘kill’ as in ‘metaphor.’ I mean ‘kill’ as in ‘beat me to death.’” (The comedian in Alexie pops up as often as the poet.) Arnold’s toughness soon earns him their respect, though, as well as a spot on the varsity basketball team.

What he can’t win back is the love of his neighbors at home. On the rez he’s considered a traitor. His best friend punches him in the face. When Reardan plays Wellpinit High in basketball, the Indians rain so much abuse on Arnold that a race riot nearly breaks out. Triumph and grief come in equal measure. Arnold figures out that he’s smarter than most of the white kids, and wins the heart of a white girl named Penelope. (“What was my secret?” he says. “If you want to get all biological, then you’d have to say that I was an exciting addition to the Reardan gene pool.”) Meanwhile, his father’s best friend is shot and killed, and his sister dies in a trailer fire. “I’m 14 years old, and I’ve been to 42 funerals,” Arnold says. “That’s really the biggest difference between Indians and white people.”

1. 
   How do internal and external expectations manifest themselves in our lives?
   
2. 
   How can such societal expectations impact our identities?
   
3. 
   Should a person’s responsibility to their family, tribe, or community take precedence over their individual goals?
   
4. 
   How does literature help us to understand ourselves and the world around us?
   

In this unit students will:

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  Read and respond to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as well as supplementary poetry by Native American authors. (Standards 1 and 2)
  
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  Draw parallels between themselves and the characters in the novel, developing an understanding and knowledge of the internal and external expectations in their lives. (Standards 1, 2, and 3)
  
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  Explore the roles others play in their lives and their own self-portrayal, developing an understanding of how societal and familial expectations shape their daily choices and their future roles in society. (Standard 2)
  
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  Discuss the idea of expectations in terms of race, class, gender, stereotyping, eating disorders, beauty etc. (Standards 1,2, 3, and 4)
  
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  Learn and/or review literary terms such as setting, plot, characterization, theme, and tone. (Standard 3)
  
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  Participate in a variety of activities and assessments, such as note taking, brainstorming, Socratic circles, visual representations, role playing, and journal writing. (Standards 1, 3, and 4)
  

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  Work collaboratively in groups as well as individually, developing communication skills and listening strategies. (Standard 4)
  
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  During in class reading, students will make predictions, inferences and draw conclusions. (Standard 1)
  
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  Create a final multigenre project that centers on the overarching class question for this unit: How do internal and external expectations shape and affect our lives? (Standards 1, 2, and 3)
  
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  Engage in free write “Do Now’s” in their writer’s notebook in order to have a collection of ideas as a starting point for their multigenre papers. (Standards 1, 2, and 3)
  
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  Work on their public speaking abilities by sharing part of their multigenre paper with the class. (Standard 4)
  

This unit was created and aligned with New York State Learning Standards. Above, next to each learning goal and objective, is the corresponding number(s) of the state standard addressed. For easy reference, the following are the New York State Learning Standards:

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Week 1