Alan Fleisig



Alan Fleisig

Conceptual Unit Plan: William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses

Professor Melissa Schieble

SEDC 721.001-001

Teaching English Methods II

Hunter College School of Education

19 April 2012

Title: William Faulkner, Reconstruction, and the Emergence of Modern American Racial Identities

Unit Length: 6 weeks

Works:

• William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses (hereafter, “GDM”)

• W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 (selections)

• Eric Foner, Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy

Sample Secondary Materials:

• Emily Bernard, “Teaching the N-Word: A black professor, an all-white class, and the thing nobody will say.”

• PBS, The American Experience – Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (excerpts)

• History Channel, The Failure of Reconstruction. (

topics/reconstruction/videos#the-failure-of-reconstruction

• Faulkner reading his Nobel Acceptance Speech, and other Faulkner recordings

• Selected Thomas Nast and other 19th Century political cartoons on Reconstruction

• Selected period photographs and engravings

• Selected Hemingway parodies and contemporary political satire from YouTube.

• Touré, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? (excerpts)

Context:

This unit is designed to be taught to the 11th-grade AP American Literature class I am currently observing at New York City’s High School of Economics and Finance. The High School of Economics and Finance, formerly a specialty high school but now simply a better-performing general admission “small” high school, is located in the shadow of the former and future World Trade Center, in a building that was once the NYU Stern School of Business. The school earned an overall 2010-2011 performance rating of “B” from the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”), earning above-average grades in every category except “Student Progress” towards graduation.

The school attracts a diverse student body from around the city. 68% of the students are eligible for free lunch, with another 10% eligible for reduced-price lunch. The ethnic/racial profile of the overall school population is 23% African-American, 40% Hispanic or Latino, 28% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 9% White. Demographics by gender for the 2010-2011 school year have not been published.

Ethnically and racially, the 23 students in my 11th-grade AP American Literature class (compared to an average English class size of 30) generally reflect the overall school population, except that there is a preponderance of women (14 out of 23 or 61%), and without actually polling the class, it appears to the observer that Asians are slightly over-represented, and Hispanics slightly under-represented, relative to the overall school population. There are several mainstreamed former ELLs in the class, mostly from Asia and the Middle East who, while noticeable by their accents, appear to be participating well and keeping pace with their classmates.

Other texts covered in the course this term have included The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the course includes throughout the term some considerable time devoted explicitly to AP exam preparation.

Essential Questions:

• What is “Race?”

• Given the preponderance of strong familial relations between Caucasians and African-Americans in the United States, can we even say there is some objective thing called “Race?”

• If “Race” is principally or wholly subjective, what does that say about the ugly role this subjective idea has played in American history – and about ourselves?

• Taking Faulkner – and the characters Faulkner depicts – as representative, what can we say about the attitudes of Southern Caucasians toward African-Americans in the years after Emancipation? Of African-Americans towards Caucasians?

• How did American ideas about race change or not change in the aftermath of Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction?

• How radically did the experience of Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction change politics and society in the United States?

• How was the American experience of manumission and emancipation different from that of Haiti, the Caribbean and West Africa, and how might that have affected the future social and political histories of these different countries and regions?

• What was “Social Class” in the American context during the Civil War and Reconstruction?

• In the complementary but sometimes opposing views of Faulkner, DuBois and Foner, how did perceptions of race and realities of social class interact to shape lives and events during and in the aftermath of Civil War and Reconstruction, and come to shape the America we live in today?

• How was and is Mississippi its own unique case?

Enduring Understandings:

• Race and racism are murky and difficult subjects, not easily schematized or explained, the pernicious effects of which have nevertheless been strongly psychologically internalized by Americans Black, White, Brown, Red, and everything in between, and have had a profound and continuing impact on American politics, society and culture.

• In America, racial ideas and ideology, and social class relations, both changed and didn’t change over the course of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

• The Civil War may be said to have only truly ended in 1880 – or maybe even 1964.

• Politically, socially and historically, events of the so-called Reconstruction era are arguably more important, and have had a greater lasting impact, than events that took place during the Civil War itself.

• The contemporary United States we recognize was largely created in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and is radically different from the Republic of 1776-1862.

• The nexus of racial and class relation issues that emerged during and after the Civil War and Reconstruction – and our ways of thinking about them – is the root of how we continue to think about these issues today, and continues to strongly describe and influence our politics, society and culture.

• Art – and literary art especially – can be a unique and complex way to respond to, come to terms with, and understand historical and political events.

• Every time you read a great novel, you learn a new dialect.

Content:

• Understanding major historical themes and trends concerning the intersecting personal and political lives of African-Americans and Caucasians in the Reconstruction-era South

• Major themes from Go Down, Moses, including but not limited to family, racism, and other lingering social, political, and cultural effects of chattel slavery

• The complexity, absurdity, and tragedy of racialist ideologies

• “Modernist” structural and narrative strategies in the novel

• “Historicist” and “New-Historicist” interpretive strategies

• Unreliable narrators

• Humor, satire, and irony

• Miscellaneous vocabulary and grammar topics, as raised by students

Skills:

• Read, understand, analyze, and discuss historical texts

• Read, understand, analyze, and discuss complex literary texts

• Combine words and images effectively to create or reinforce meaning (create a political cartoon activity)

• Write a brief, well-formed, original expository essay

• Write a “Modernist” narrative

• Create a high-quality digital “record”

Common Core Standards:

Grade 11-12 Reading Standards for Literature

Numbers 2 through 7, and 9.

Grade 11-12 Reading Standards for Informational Text

Numbers 1 through 4, and 6 through 9.

Grade 11-12 Writing Standards

Numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6.

Grade 11-12 Speaking and Listening Standards

Numbers 1 through 3.

Reading and Writing Standards for History/Social Studies

This Unit supports several parallel standards for reading and writing in History/Social Studies.

Introduction, Overview and Rationale:

• Consensus critical opinion still holds that William Faulkner is one of the two or three most important American writers of the 20th Century.

• Faulkner is too often either not taught at the high school level, or taught badly. One suspects there are two major factors here. The first is Faulkner’s use of language that on its surface can be offensive. The second is the complexity of narrative structure and Faulkner’s deliberate, modernist, rule-breaking difficulty. High school teachers, especially at the AP level, need to embrace these challenges as a genuinely teachable opportunity instead of running away or avoiding them.

• Faulkner was obviously a highly political and social writer. One cannot begin to make sense of his novels without some well “beyond-the-textbook” understanding of the social relations and politics characteristic of the American South in the years following the Civil War. This Unit takes a substantial part of its first 3 weeks to lay this groundwork, using premiere but approachable academic and original sources.

• W.E.B. DuBois is arguably the most pivotal figure in African-American intellectual history, a tremendously gifted writer, and an important inspiration to all important Harlem Renaissance era artists. But beyond the occasional scan of The Souls of Black Folk, his works are seldom read in school. One supposes this is in part because his work falls into the cracks between ELA and Social Studies, and in part because of DuBois’ explicit Marxism, which teachers will have to engage, especially when using texts like Black Reconstruction. Rare is the Social Studies course that would devote the class or homework time necessary to reading DuBois at any length. It is going to be up to ELA faculty to make up for DuBois’ not having his rightful canonical place in the secondary school curriculum.

• Understanding the American self – as much as in its diversity and complexity there can be said to be such a thing – is a difficult endeavor, one that has consumed, and continues to consume, the finest minds, the best scholars, and the most talented literary, visual, and musical artists. The attempt to capture something of this American self has given rise to a written literature globally recognized, at least since the early 20th century, for its fecundity, excellence, and generally democratic spirit – a spirit that permeates and partially defines not just our literature, but also our students. But despite all best intentions, a critical – radical – even a truly liberal – understanding of this complicated and beautiful American life, and the literature it has inspired, will never – can never – grow in the thin soil of overly simplistic theories about class, race and gender. A fifteen-minute mini-lesson on the “lens” of “race” is wholly inadequate; it is painfully condescending to our students, and results in too many of them acquiring and repeating a simplistic racial ideology that is overly schematic, based on half-truths and gross misperceptions, and which lacks both nuance and historical specificity. This Unit seeks to undo and overcome some of these problems by beginning to lay the minimum groundwork necessary for an intellectually rigorous and honest discussion of the political history of racism and race relations in the United States, and one kind of exemplary literary art that this central fact of our political history has given rise to. It is challenging and rigorous by design because it is our duty to confront, present, model, and encourage excellence. If, like Alicia Silverstone, we chew all our babies’ food for them, they will never grow teeth. So this Unit unapologetically contains no pre-chewed theory, history, or literature.

Assessments:

Formative

• “Something I’ve Read This Week” written paragraphs

• Friday vocabulary, grammar and reading quizzes

• Group project: create a 19th-century style political cartoon

• Vocabulary and grammar queries

• Informal individual and group writings and worksheets

• Discussion and other class participation

Summative

• Short essay on Reconstruction

• Audio and/or video production of Faulkner parody

Sequence:

|Monday |

|“Something I Read This Week” |Vocabulary and grammar queries |Vocabulary and grammar |Mini-lesson/whole-class |Weekly vocabulary, grammar and |

|read-aloud and discussion |Mini-lesson/whole-class |mini-lesson |instruction and discussion |reading quiz |

|Mini-lesson/whole-class |instruction and discussion |Present multimedia materials |Individual “expressive” |Whole-class discussion – review|

|instruction and discussion |Group “expressive” activity |Group “expressive” activity |activity |quiz and preview homework and |

|Individual “expressive” |HOMEWORK: |HOMEWORK: |HOMEWORK: |Monday topic |

|activity |Assigned Reading or Writing |Assigned Reading or Writing |Light assigned reading or |HOMEWORK: |

|HOMEWORK: | | |writing |“Something I Read This Week” |

|Assigned Reading or Writing | | |Catch-up and quiz prep |(1¶) and Assigned Reading; or |

| | | | |Other written or multimedia |

| | | | |assignment |

|Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday |

|WEEK 2 | | | | |

|WEEK 3 | | | | |

|WEEK 4 | | | | |

|WEEK 5 | | | | |

|WEEK 6 | | | | |

Short Essay Rubric:

|STANDARD ESSAY RUBRIC |

|Possible Score = 100 |

|Criteria |Excellent |Acceptable |Developing |Unacceptable |

|Introduction and thesis |The introduction includes a|The introduction includes a|A hook is present though |A hook is missing or weak |

|statement |hook and transitions to the|hook, transitions to the |not followed by important |and important information |

|(15 points) |thesis statement. The |thesis statement, and is |information. The essay |is absent. There is an |

| |thesis statement names the |mostly effective. The |includes an attempt at an |attempt at an introduction |

| |topic of the essay and |thesis statement names the |introduction paragraph, |paragraph, but it is not |

| |outlines the main points to|topic of the essay. |though it is not smooth and|developed and does not |

| |be discussed. | |doesn't include a complete |include a thesis statement.|

| | | |thesis statement. | |

|Body Paragraphs |Each of the body paragraphs|Each of the body paragraphs|Each of the body paragraphs|Some or all of the body |

|(15 points) |includes a creative and |includes a well-written |includes a topic sentence |paragraphs lack topic |

| |well-written topic |topic sentence, sentences |and supporting sentences, |sentences. The organization|

| |sentence, effectively |with supporting details, |but is not an easy read and|of some or all of the body |

| |constructed sentences with |transitions, and a wrap-up |often lacks transitions. |paragraphs make for a |

| |supporting details, smooth |sentence. | |difficult read because of |

| |transitions, wrap-up | | |poor sentence structure or |

| |sentence that presents a | | |lack of transitions. |

| |closing idea. | | | |

|Supporting Details/ |The paragraphs include all |The paragraphs include some|The paragraphs include few |The paragraphs include few |

|Examples/ |of the necessary points |of the necessary points |of the necessary points |to none of the necessary |

|Development |that support the position |that support the position |that support the position |points that support the |

|(15 points) |statement. |statement. |statement. |position statement. |

|Conclusion |The conclusion is strong |The conclusion is |The conclusion is awkward. |The thesis is not restated |

|(15 points) |and leaves the reader |recognizable. The author's |The author's position is |or is found in the same |

| |solidly understanding the |position is restated at a |restated within the closing|wording as the |

| |writer's position. The |logical point in the |paragraph, but it may not |introduction. The essay is |

| |paragraph includes an |paragraph. |be in a logical point. |not summed up. |

| |effective restatement of | | | |

| |the position statement. | | | |

|Conventions |Author makes virtually no |Author makes few errors in |Author makes some errors in|Author makes excessive |

|(20 points) |errors in grammar, spelling|grammar, spelling or |grammar, spelling or |mistakes in grammar, |

| |or punctuation that |punctuation that distract |punctuation that distract |spelling or punctuation |

| |distract the reader from |the reader from the |the reader from the |that distract the reader |

| |the content. |content. |content. |from the content. |

|Citations |All necessary citations are|All necessary citations are|Some necessary citations |Many necessary citations |

|(10 points) |included in body and |included but with errors in|are missing or many errors |are missing or no citations|

| |bibliography, and in |formatting. |in formatting |at all. |

| |correct MLA format. | | | |

Audio/Video Project Rubric:

|NARRATIVE RECORDING/VIDEO PROJECT RUBRIC |

|Possible Score = 100 |

|Criteria |Excellent |Acceptable |Developing |Unacceptable |

|Craftsmanship, |The recording was |With a little more effort, |You showed average |You showed below average |

|Skill & |impressive and carefully |the recording could have |craftsmanship and applied |craftsmanship and a lack of|

|Technique |done. A strong |been outstanding. Your work|techniques with little |pride in the finished work.|

|(25 points) |understanding of techniques|shows an understanding of |care. Work is adequate, but| |

| |was demonstrated and |techniques but lacks the |not as good as it could | |

| |applied thoughtfully. |extra finishing touches. |have been, – a bit | |

| | | |careless. | |

|Fulfills |The project met or exceeded|The project satisfactorily |The project only fulfilled |The project only partly |

|Objectives |all requirements of the |met all requirements of the|the minimal objectives of |fulfilled the objectives of|

|(25 points) |assignment excellently. |assignment. |the assignment. |the assignment. |

|Content, |The content of your project|The content of your project|You did the assignment |Your project shows little |

|Aesthetics, |is thoughtful and |is meaningful. The work |adequately, yet it shows a |evidence of thought |

|Creativity |meaningfully reflects the |shows that you applied the |lack of planning and little|regarding content and the |

|(25 points) |Unit content. You explored |principles of narrative |evidence that the overall |elements of narrative |

| |combinations and revisions |writing while using one or |project was thought out and|writing and performance. |

| |on several ideas, made |more elements effectively. |carefully executed. | |

| |connections to previous | | | |

| |knowledge, showed an | | | |

| |awareness of the elements | | | |

| |and principles of narrative| | | |

| |writing and performance. | | | |

Bibliography

Christensen, Linda. Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools, Ltd., 2009.

Bernard, Emily “Teaching the N-Word: A black professor, an all-white class, and the thing nobody will say.” Web: . 9 April 2012.

DuBois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880. New York: Atheneum, 1983.

Faulkner, William. Go Down, Moses. New York: Random House, 1942.

Foner, Eric. Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and its Legacy. Baton Rouge, Louisiana and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.

Harvey, Stephanie and Harvey Daniels. Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2009.

History Channel, The. The Failure of Reconstruction. Web:

topics/reconstruction/videos#the-failure-of-reconstruction. 9 April 2012.

Public Broadcasting Service. The American Experience – Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. Web: wgbh/amex/reconstruction/. 9 April 2012.

Touré. Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now. New York:

Free Press, 2011.

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