Liana Alcantara Professor Willis CI 403 LPA #2, Week 4 Title: Reality vs.

Truth: Blurring the Line between Fact and Fiction

Time: This lesson was designed to take a full 50 minute class period.

Theory Into Practice Background: This lesson is a good example of the Write to Learn framework as detailed in our theoretical rationale. There are many times where students are asked to use writing as a way to think through the essential questions and objectives of this lesson. This is facilitated into discussion through the KWL strategies used later in the lesson. In CI 402, many different KWL strategies were modeled for us, including the Think, Pair, Share and paperclip discussion activities in this lesson. Incorporating them into the lesson allows for students to feel that their writing is being validated, that I am not merely requiring them to write because I feel like it, but that there is an expressed and specific purpose for it.

Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will: Be able to critically assess the importance of historical fact in Midnights Children. Students will be able to answer the following question: Is it possible to tell the truth through fiction?

Be able to discuss the dichotomy between perception and reality. Engage the idea of purpose vs. effect. Students will be challenged with the following question: Saleem begins this story as an endeavor in history telling. Is he writing a history, or is he writing his story?

Materials: For this lesson, you will need: Copies of Midnights Children for every student Copies of the chapter How To Tell a True War Story from the novel The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien. A PowerPoint with the Think-Pair-Share prompt, excerpts from pages 162-3 and 18990 to use in an activity, and the prompt for the exit slip Handouts of the excerpts from pages 162-3 and 189-90 with questions, one for each group, to facilitate a structured discussion A box of paper clips Clip of V for Vendetta to use with the Think-Pair-Share activity (movie cued up to Eveys discussion of truth with V where she says, My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up. Student notebooks and writing utensils

Preparation: Students will have read the next two chapters in Book Two, Accident in a Washingchest and All-India Radio. Most of this lesson focuses on All-India Radio, but it is important for students to have read Accident in a Washing-chest for specific plot and character points important to All-India Radio. To ensure that the class runs smoothly, have the clip of V for Vendetta cued up and ready to go before students enter the classroom so there is no fussing around with technology that could lose student interest. As a backup in case the video does not work, have a slide with the quote ready to go and discuss the scene instead. Leaving the quote up on the projector as students complete the Think-Pair-Share activity can help refresh their memory as they jot down ideas on the prompt.

Procedure: 1) As students enter the classroom, instruct them to take out their notebooks and writing utensils for a Think-Pair-Share activity. When the bell rings, introduce the clip and play it for students. Switch to the PowerPoint slide with the prompt which would read as follows: (5 minutes) a. My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up. Do you think it is possible to tell truth with lies? Give an example to support yourself. 2) Have students discuss what they wrote with a partner (there will be one group of three as there are 25 students in the class). They should not only discuss what they personally believe and the examples they came up with, but they should also answer the following question: (5 minutes)

3) Go around the room and have each pair discuss what they talked about in their pairs. If they have any specific examples from the individual write that they would like to share, encourage them to do so. Each pair should say whether they agree with Eveys statement about artists and also what they think Saleem believes about this and why. (5-10 minutes) 4) Hand out copies of the chapter How to Tell a True War Story and read aloud, with emotion, as the students follow along. Instruct students to underline/highlight similarities and differences with how this text treats the idea of truth versus fact. (10-13 minutes) 5) Discuss in a large group the similarities and differences they found and see if it has changed their ideas about the nature of truth and fact. (2-5 minutes) 6) Allow students to break up into five groups of five for a structured discussion activity. Give each student two paper clips for this activity. Students should read the excerpts and deeply discuss each question. Students will put in one paper clip each time they speak. This is a good way for me as a teacher to gauge how far along each group is in the discussion while also ensuring that everyone is speaking. One student should act as scribe during the discussion so students have something to refer to when they discuss their ideas in the following large group discussion. The excerpts and questions handout is at the end of this lesson plan. (15-20 minutes) 7) Have students come back to the large group and discuss what they discussed. Push the idea of purpose beyond Saleems childhood and get students to think about his purpose in writing his story at all. (5 minutes) 8) Exit slip: Is Saleem writing a history or his story? Why do you think this? Is Saleems story true? Is it factual? Can it be one and not the other? (2-3 minutes) 9) Assignment sheet: Write a paragraph on the following prompt. Allow students to begin

working on this paragraph if there is any time left. Assignment sheet for this is at the end of this lesson plan. (remainder of class) a. Why is the question of fact versus truth important to Midnights Children? When other authors rearrange history, we call it historical fiction. Why is it different with Saleem? Taking another step back, why is it important that Rushdie frames this story within the context of a man writing his story? What does this form do for the novel as a whole?

Discussion Ideas: Much of the discussion questions for this lesson are in the Think-Pair-Share, paper clip discussion, and the paragraph assignment. The rest of the questions for this lesson would be entirely dependant on what students bring to the discussion from their individual writings and group work. Please look to the handouts/assignment sheets for these discussion prompts. The following question is an example of what I might say in the final large-group discussion in order to scaffold student understanding of purpose in Midnights Children. Lets turn to page 174 and see what young Saleem has to say about purpose: ...the terrible notion that I, alone in the universe, had no idea of what I should be, or how I should behave. Purpose: it crept to behind me when I stood staring down from m y window at European girls cavorting in the map-shaped pool beside the sea. Where do you get it? I yelped aloud; the Brass Monkey, who shared my sky-blue room, jumped half-way out of her skin. I was then nearlyeight; she was almostseven. It was a very early age at which to be perplexed by meaning. Compare this to the excerpt you discuss from page 190. How have Saleems ideas of purpose changed? What effect does this have on

Saleems story? What effect does it have on the novel, which remember, is not written by Saleem, but by Salman Rushdie?

Bilingual/ESL and Englishes Accommodations: Midnights Children is a very complex, dense novel that could be difficult for ESL students. Were they in this class, the use of summaries from Spark Notes could be invaluable. Specifically for this lesson, I have tried to have at least two modes of representation for each point in the lesson. All of the questions are gone over verbally, but they are also written out in a PowerPoint, handout, and/or an assignment sheet. The Think-Pair-Share activity allows students to work out some thoughts by themselves first, and then to share their thoughts with one other person before the pressure of large group discussion. Also, the exit slip allows me to check their individual understanding of the concepts. If the student would be more comfortable writing in their own language and then talk it through with me in English, if written English is proving more of a problem then spoken, I would be open to this as well.

Special Education Accommodations: In attempting to adhere to the UDL model in all of my lessons plans, I tried to incorporate as many different kinds of learning into this lesson as possible. There is individual work, group work, and individual assessment of each student. This could easily be tweaked to better serve any student with a specific disorder or difficulty. I would have the agenda written on the board at the beginning of every class and briefly go over it with the class so they knew what to expect every day, and this lesson is no different. For the student with ADHD, there are multiple ways of engaging in this lesson. The movie clip is visually stimulating, and the many different kinds of

discussion helps break the monotony of only using the large group discussion. Also, the paper clips discussion activity could help this student focus on what they want to say, and also keep them accountable for contributing to the discussion with a physical representation of what they have said. If responsibility helps focus this student, they could also be in the scribe in the paper clip discussion activity.

Assessment: Much of the success of this lesson can be assessed by circulation in the small group discussions and polling in the large group discussions. There is an exit slip at the end as a way of assessing individual understanding, and the paragraph assignment at the end will help further assess this. The other goal of the paragraph assignment is to get students thinking about the importance of form in this novel as much as possible, because the final assignment deals greatly with the students ability to recreate Rushdies form of personalizing history. For students to be able to create their own personalized histories, they must first understand how and why Rushdie told this story in this way. This leads into questions about what affect this can have in the social sphere, and where ideas of social justice can be helped/created/furthered by literature.

Extension Ideas: If students wished to expand on anything from this lesson, I could extend the paragraph assignment into a longer 1-2 page paper where they quote from the novel to support themselves. They would then present their ideas to the class and we could have an in-depth class discussion, similar to giving a paper at a conference. Source of Activity:

The paper clip discussion idea and Think-Pair-Share activity are both KWL technique that I learned about in Hilarie Welshs CI 401/402 classes. I am unsure of the exact origin of the activities other than that. The rest of this lesson was created by myself.

Resources and References: McTeigue, James, dir. V for Vendetta. Writ. Andy Wachowski. Warner Bros, 2006. Film. Works cited for the film V for Vendetta

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York City: Mariner Books, 2006. 67-85. Print. Works cited for The Things They Carried, to novel from which How to Tell a True War Story comes

Illinois State English Language Arts Goals: This lesson meets the following ISBE standards: 1.A.5a: Analyze the meaning of abstract concepts and the effects of particular word and phrase choices. o This is accomplished throughout the lesson by asking students to deal with the dichotomy of fact versus truth and the meaning of purpose in Midnights Children. 1.C.5b Analyze and defend an interpretation of text. o This is accomplished throughout the discussion in the lesson, but its progress is assessed by the paragraph assignment. Having students grapple with defending Saleems story as either history or his story at this point in the unit will help them later on when they go to tackle their final project.

Paper Clip Discussion Sheet

Death of Gandhi [from pages 162-3] His voice brokea sob from the Serpent, to lend power to its teeth!and then continued. This afternoon, at Birla House in Delhi, our beloved Mahatma was killed. Some madman shot him in the stomach, ladies and gentlemenour Bapu is gone! The audience had begun to scream before he finished; the poison of his words entered their veinsthere were grown men rolling in the aisles clutching their bellies, not laughing but crying, Hai Ram! Hai Ram!and women tearing their hair: the citys finest coiffures tumbling around the ears of the poisoned ladiesthere were film-stars yelling like fishwives and something terrible to smell in the airand Hanif whispered, Get out of here, big sisterif a Muslim did this thing there will be hell to pay. For every ladder, there is a snakeand for forty-eight hours after the abortive end of The Lovers of Kashmir; our family remained within the walls of Buckingham Villa (Put furniture against the doors, whatsitsname! Reverend Mother ordered. If there are Hindu servants, let them go home!); and Amina did not dare to visit the racetrack. But for every snake, there is a ladder; and finally the radio gave us a name. Nathuram Godse. Thank God, Amina burst out, its not a Muslim name! And Aadam, upon whom the news of Gandhis death had placed a new burden of age: This Godse is nothing to be grateful for! Amina, however, was full of light-headedness of relief, she was rushing dizzily up the long ladder of reliefWhy not, after all? By being Godse he has saved our lives!

Deep Thinking Questions 1) What is the significance to the plot that Gandhis death occurs here? 2) What does the motif of snakes do here?

Saleems Reflection on the Death of Gandhi [from pages 189-90] Rereading my work, I have discovered an error in chronology. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi occurs, in these pages, on the wrong date. But I cannot say, now, what the actual sequence of events might have been; in my India, Gandhi will continue to die at the wrong time. Does one error invalidate the entire fabric? Am I so far gone, in my desperate need for meaning, that Im prepared to distort everythingto re-write the whole history of my times purely in order to place myself in a central role? Today, in my confusion, I cant judge. Ill have to leave it to others. For me, there can be no going back; I must finish what Ive started, even if, inevitably, what I finish turns out not to be what I began...

Deep Thinking Questions 1) Adding what you now know about the death of Gandhi to what you previously discussed, what does this do to our understanding of the plot? What might have happened had Saleem gotten it right? 2) What does it say about Saleem that he is unwilling to change his story in the face of fact? 3) Look at the last paragraph: Saleem asks a question of us. He asks us, Does one error invalidate the entire fabric? Answer this question. What do you think of Saleem at this point? Is he reliable? Is his need to be at the center of everything because he is recording what happened, or is he re-creating what happened so he can be at the center of everything?

Think About It: Write to Learn Paragraph

We have discussed a lot of deep, difficult topics today. The purpose of this paragraph is for you to synthesize what you have heard and discussed and decide what you believe based on those discussions. You will be referring back to this paragraph when you are writing your final projectthe more you are able to concretely define what you think now, the better off you will be for the final project.

Main Question: Why is the question of fact versus truth important to Midnights Children?

When other authors rearrange history, we call it historical fiction. Why is it different with Saleem? Taking another step back, why is it important that Rushdie frames this story within the context of a man writing his story? What does this form do for the novel as a whole?

This paragraph is due at the beginning of the next class period. It will be graded for completion. Worth: 5 points.