The first step in designing this unit was to develop an engaging essential question. As the class is an AP Language class much of the curriculum is based upon the principles of argumentation and I always like to put together a question that will allow students to develop and defend a position on a broad topic. Thought-provoking AP Language questions require students to inspect relationships within these broad topics and I thought that looking analytically at the relationship between our past and our future would be a wonderful and engaging topic. The question I have decided upon for this unit is: In what ways does our past affect our future and help to shape our identity? I felt that this question would leave ample room for the class to explore many topics related to the search for identity, memory, and the creation of our past and future selves, while forcing reflection on how our experiences affect our development.
Literature is filled with examples of famous characters searching for identity, but students find it most easy to connect with characters like themselves – real people with real problems. In choosing literature to support the essential question I wanted to pick something that would be very engaging and relevant and would also be in line with the common core standards push toward non-fiction. I chose a memoir called
The Color of Water
by James McBride. I thought this particular book would be perfect for several reasons. First, although it is non-fiction, memoir is a sub-genre often labeled "creative non-fiction" which combines the artistry of literature with a basis in the factual. The stories that are included are true, but the author has creative license to embellish them with imagery, characterization, and interesting narrative. In
The Color of Water
the author makes many interesting stylistic and organizational choices that would give my students plenty of opportunities to analyze the author's purpose in conveying his message in this way.
The other major benefit of this particular book is that the themes are very relevant to my audience. The author is a mixed race man trying to navigate his search for identity in the Red Hook Housing Projects. His hard-working mother and mostly absent father(s) do not offer the kind of support he needs to assert his individuality in a house full of twelve children. Because of this, the author sets out on his own identity quest using his experiences alongside the research he compiles on his mother's life to fill in the holes in his understanding. The product is a very reflective and rich coming of age story that spans two generations. The story of the author's mother weaves in and out of his own narrative and as the author gains a greater understanding of his roots, he also gains a stronger foundation for his own identity.
I believe that students will see many parallels between their lives and the author's story. The narrative is filled with the types of experiences that most teenagers have – fighting with siblings, getting in trouble at school, the importance of education versus the need to have a social life. The narrative is also filled with experiences that are unique to underprivileged teenagers – not having enough food on the table, fighting for time with parents who are overworked, the realization that others have more opportunities because of their race or socio-economic class. As the story unfolds my students can watch James McBride struggle to establish his own identity while asking many of the same questions that they themselves are struggling with.
To supplement the class's reading of
The Color of Water
students will also participate in a personal search for identity through examining their own roots and reflecting upon where they have come from and where they are going. Each student will complete a Family History Project where they will write about their family dynamics, interview family members, research important historical events that have impacted their families, and dig into their family's history in the city of New Haven (or the city that they call home). As students uncover the place of their family in the context of their world, they will hopefully gain a greater understanding of how the past events of our memories help to shape who we ultimately become in the future. By looking to prior generations students will have a more solid understanding of their foundation. They will learn things about their family that they never realized and hopefully will be able to see how learning about their roots can help them understand things about themselves. The end product will be part history, part biography and part memoir as students weave the research they have completed on their family into their own story much as the author of
The Color of Water
did.
My hope is that this unit will give my students a greater understanding of where they came from and a firmer idea of where they will go. As we near the end of the school year, hopefully students will take this opportunity to look to the past, consider the memories that represent their current body of experience, and begin to think about how they will shape their future memories through their choices.