Alexander T. K. Elnabli
I have detailed specific content knowledge relevant to three text sets that could occupy the full curriculum unit. This is a choice of quality coverage over quantity covered. Unfortunately, limiting the text set to three has the downside of limiting the variety of mythical and spiritual reference points students can be exposed to. Ultimately, the choice to focus on student practice of long form reading and writing strategies limits the amount of content one can reasonably expect to cover within the unit. However, pacing may differ depending on the level of ability of a given group of students. Using the same structured format for before, during, and after reading, small group discussion and writing analytical paragraphs as Exit Tickets, teachers may easily incorporate further or alternative Text Set pairs into this unit.
In order to support greater diversity of representation in the text set, teachers should consider extending the length of the unit, or replacing Text Set 2 with one of the sets below. Some of these examples are more advanced and could be appropriate for later grades. Alternatively, as the argument of my rationale is to engender in students a clear vision for the intentional connections between texts across time and geography in a humanistic tradition, consider building further lessons using the texts below that return to the same humanistic essential question and which continue to make explicit allusive connections.
- “Ring of Gyges,” Plato’s Republic paired with excerpts from The Lord of the Rings (Consider using clips from the theatrical version in order to incorporate multimedia modalities in the classroom. Provide students with guides for translating close reading strategies of text to film. The same rule of multiple reads, or views, should apply.)
- Excerpts from Qur’an and Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley (This text could be used for a novel-length study. Mahfouz’s writing uses extensive Islamic allusion, implicitly and explicitly. Giving students selected passages to interpret before and after reading the Qur’anic references would be valuable. For a shorter task, consider issuing students just pages 19-21 and pair it with Surat al-Baqarah, verse 187. Providing background material on Ramadan and the five pillars of Islam could provide helpful context. Students should note that the reference to distinguishing light from dark in Mahfouz’s text alludes to marital relations as well as eating and drinking, providing greater insight into the implications of Kirsha’s party with the men.
- “The People Could Fly” tale, excerpts from the Bible’s book of Songs, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Morrison’s novel borrows heavily from direct allusion both to the Old Testament Bible’s Songs as well as the Black American slave legend of flying Africans. Having taught Morrison’s novel in the past, much of its meaning is under-appreciated by students based merely on giving them these allusive references. Using the methods outlined in the Teaching Strategies and Activities above, consider having students read key passages from the novel, then study the allusive references, and finally return to the novel to note how directly understanding the allusive reference impacts their interpretation of the meaning of those passages of the novel in relation to an essential question. To extend the reference, consider having students identify and explain the allusive connection between Beyonce’s Lemonade, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, and “The People Could Fly.” This more advanced study could have the aim of students’ making interpretive connections that may be less intentionally given by the allusions, from fashion choices, to the Gullah people, to the legend of flying Africans and the implication of the legend on Beyonce’s answer to the essential question, “What does it mean to be human?” Here is an opportunity to extend the humanistic question away from a universalistic analysis of the human toward a particular, identity-rich and historical one.
