Advanced Placement Students
The students in the Advanced Placement class will focus on the characters, the narrator, internal and external conflicts, setting, symbols, and themes. I will also prepare a series of different activities to teach my students how the author uses different literary techniques and literary devices to characterize and convey the characters' vision of their own community (Marlow's cultural background juxtaposed to the Congolese one in Heart of Darkness). In the meantime, they will be engaged in class-discussion and various writings: brief responses that will help shape our discussions and formal analytical and argumentative essays. Before concluding this section, my students will also determine, discuss, and write about the themes that the novella presents like authority, power, evilness, isolation, and/or greed. While we will be reading and discussing the novella, I will assign them some poems (the specific title will be in the Lesson Plans Section) and/or visual texts that focus on the concept of community (cluster of values, organization, institutions, everyday routine, and/or cultural myths) These texts will help them understand the concepts of community and identity, and how they interact.
Sophomore Students
This group of students will read Lord of the Flies as main text. I will also assign them to research lyrics and/or poems that reflect similar themes like savagery, innocence, power, and/or greed. Since this group of students needs more support, I will implement different strategies for reading in class and at home. While we will be reading the novel, we will analyze the setting, characters, symbols, conflicts, and theme(s). We will also learn how to close-read shorter passages focusing on how the literary devices used by the narrator characterize or convey meaning. We will have numerous in-class discussions on the concepts of community, conflicts, and identity. I will frequently ask them to write about concerns and/or questions that either the novel or the class discussions arise.
