While it is not considered a canonical text and is not yet widely used in the classroom, Sing, Unburied, Sing has gained notoriety since its publication in 2017, and may be recognizable to some readers from its inclusion on Barack Obama’s year-end list of favorite books. I believe that it is an ideal novel for high school seniors to read, due to its challenging structure and frank discussion of timely, controversial topics. Racism, trauma, incarceration, police violence, and addiction are each addressed in the novel, making it a useful tool for facilitating meaningful, challenging conversations in the classroom, and for illustrating connections between literature and real life.
Although the complex topics addressed in Ward’s novel may be recognizable to students, the narrative structure of the book can be difficult to penetrate. Sing, Unburied, Sing incorporates techniques that may be unfamiliar to many students, especially those who do not typically read for pleasure. The events in the book occur over multiple timelines, and transitions between past and present are not always obvious to readers. Narrators in the novel alternate from one chapter to the next, and these abrupt changes can be disorienting for students. Furthermore, one of the book’s narrators, Richie, is a ghost who experiences time and space differently from the living characters. These elements, along with the challenging subject matter, can obstruct comprehension for students. Therefore, readers need new strategies to set them up for success and build confidence.
This unit relies on mapping activities to illustrate and clarify some of the more unfamiliar territory (both literal and conceptual) in the book. By treating textual space as a geographic reality, readers can visualize abstract concepts as concrete ones. Distance is pervasive in Sing, Unburied, Sing, and it impacts many key themes in the novel, which is why mapping is a useful process to facilitate comprehension.
For students, the most familiar application of maps to literature is likely in the literal sense: a visual representation of important locations in a text and the physical, measurable distance between them. While creating this type of map is often a useful activity for students to envision specific spaces in which key plot points take place, the possible uses of maps extend far beyond this. Concept mapping is used by teachers of young children, showing learners that connections can be illustrated and meaning can be found beneath the surface of a text. Sing, Unburied, Sing illustrates this particularly well, because it is, on the surface, a travel narrative in which location is constantly changing and can be represented as points on a map. Beyond that, however, metaphysical distance in the novel must be recognized and visualized in order to understand its underlying themes. One of the goals of this unit, then, is to have students progress from mapping tangible places and spaces to diagramming more conceptual, abstract ideas in literature.
Connecting the dots between concrete and theoretical elements of text can be one of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of reading. This unit aims to show readers how to represent and spatialize abstract information in a tangible way, thereby recognizing relationships and connections that may not be immediately apparent.
