As a big THANK YOU for all of your support and encouragement, I was inspired to pull together a quick resource share for creating a multimodal text set that centers around Counter Narratives: re-writing stories, re-telling history. The foundation of this text set was designed by Dr. Beth Frye, Associate Professor at Appalachian State University (Thank YOU!) and I have modified it from there to accommodate the High School English curriculum. Included below, there are five text sources to consider including in the your counter narrative unit and five lesson plans designed to engage students in critical thinking and creativity. Enjoy!
Teaching counter narratives gives voice to communities that are often overlooked or misrepresented in the traditional school curriculum. The voices emphasized in each of these texts and resources are given the chance to "write" over the stories that others project upon them, thus changing the narrative by providing much more personal, authentic, and complex perspectives that, in many cases, has been dismissed or stolen from them. In doing so, these voices reclaim the story that gets to be told, accepted, passed down, and recorded in history from today forward. Studying counter narratives shift the focus from what others have done to these communities (physically and symbolically) to who they are as humans. Introducing students to this style of narrative emphasizes the agency that each of them have in owning their stories and re-writing themselves back into the narrative.
This text set/multimodal unit satisfies:
RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by
specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
RL.9-10.6 Analyze a particular perspective or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of
world literature.
RL.9-10.7 Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each
5.DREAMERS by Yuyi Morales
In this book, Yuyi Morales shares a counter narrative to confront the stereotypes that Mexican immigrants face. Each page of her story is complimented by her beautiful artwork, which collages a variety of textures, materials, and cultural artifacts to create colorful spreads. This book actively fights against the single story that is told about Mexican immigrants' journeys and emphasizes the unique gifts and dreams that are overlooked by the politicized conversations around immigration. This picture book would pair well with the documentary, Which Way Home (2009), as well as the chapter book, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Story Map (arcGIS)
After viewing the clip with Yuyi Morales and reading Dreamers, encourage students to think about how journeys affect the narratives that are and are not told. What kinds of journeys are emphasized (historically/culturally)? What journeys are dismissed or stigmatized? What happens when these two narratives confront each other?
Next, students will be encouraged to think about how their own journeys (personal and generational) have shaped them into who they are presently. Students will use the digital story map platform, arcGIS, to illustrate this movement and to tell their stories about where they have come from and where they hope to go. Some students may choose to look at the journey as a whole, while others may choose to highlight a few distinct “stops” that were substantially more influential for them.
Here are a couple of resources for writing inspiration: Poetry Maps, Map Poetry
4.FREEDOM OVER ME by Ashley Bryan
This book is a powerful collection of stories that give life to those who were enslaved by a plantation owner in 1828. Based off of the very real last will and testament of Mr. Fairchilds, Ashley Bryan pulls each of the slaves out from the estate list and writes powerful poetry to describe their essential roles on the plantation but directly contrasts this narrative with a record of each of their dreams and stories. The powerful craft within these pages counter the slave narrative and remind readers that these slaves had lives, dreams, histories, and stories that were eradicated when they were forced into slavery. The perspectives presented here confront the narrative that slaves were less than human and challenge the language in contemporary academia that convey the single story about slaves as forcibly subservient, when in fact the humanity and strength that is dismissed further emphasizes the inhumanity of this system. This book returns a portion of the humanity that was stripped from these individuals and their descendants.
THE 1619 PROJECT: Rewriting history
In response to the Freedom Over Me text, the 1619 Project offers an extremely deep dive into the counter narratives of black Americans: “It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative” (NYT). This resource would be best suited for older students because of the information and stories that are likely triggering and graphically and emotionally intense.
Using Freedom Over Me as an anchor in this lesson, students would further research the counter narratives told about black Americans; I would split students into small groups and have each group choose a segment of this narrative to explore using the 1619 project as a resource. Students would be prompted to address the connections and interpretations that they found most key and influential in a presentation (style of their choosing). For their presentation, students would be tasked with presenting:
The narrative that is generally accepted by the American public
The counter narrative parallel to that narrative (modeled after Bryan’s contrasting spreads in Freedom Over Me)
An analysis or reflection about the importance of telling the counter narrative.
Perhaps, I might encourage students to discuss how they would like to see these stories implemented into the school curriculum on the K-12 range and what is “appropriate” to teach when (more so out of my own curiosity about my students’ perspective than for presentation material). This discussion could also exercise claim/support and argumentation skills. Students might even be interested in taking this conversation further and writing a letter to the administration, central office, textbook companies, etc.)
3.
SEA PRAYER: a 360 degree illustrated film by Khaled Hosseini
The medium through which Khaled Hosseini delivers this story is so creative and offers a new format for storytelling. Recorded via film, Hosseini narrates the story of a Syrian father speaking to his son, while digitally illustrating and bringing his narration to life. As the story progresses, the viewer is prompted to follow along using the directive arrows and the animation mimics a three dimensional mural. This artwork emphasizes the sequence of events and the consistent hardships that the Syrian Refugees were forced to confront for their own safety. Inspired by the death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, Hosseini presents a powerful, retelling of this crisis and gives voice to the stories that were too often dismissed as the international community wrestled with the politicized conversations about asylum and refugee statuses. A strong complementary text for this short film would be an excerpt from Shaila Abdullah's Saffron Dreams; students could explore the texts and make connections about how each of the character's have been classified as "other" as a result of the public's fear and how that feeds into the false narrative about refugees and immigrants.
Silhouette [auto]Biographies
The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to compare and contrast the narratives that people carry personally with the narratives that are projected upon them. Students are likely familiar with the stigma and stereotypes associated with refugees and immigrants from the Middle East from studying post-9/11 America and the international Syrian Refugee Crisis. For this activity, students will practice applying text evidence to their own visual interpretation of this identity crisis.
After reviewing Khaled’s Sea Prayer short film, and possibly the excerpt from Saffron Dreams, students will create a silhouette biography from the perspective of one of these characters or a historical character facing similar experiences OR a silhouette autobiography depicting how they are forced to confront society’s perceptions of themselves and how that affects their own narratives.
The product will be modeled after this template:
Like a postcard, the silhouette of either the character students have chosen or a personalized silhouette of themselves will be on one side of the paper with the narrative that society has projected upon the individual. On the other half of the paper, students will write (creative outlet here in how they choose to present: poetry, list, expository writing, letter, etc.) the counter narrative, demonstrating their understanding of perspective and effective storytelling structure.
2.THE NIGHT DIARY by Veera Hiranandani
Truly, I could not speak more highly of this book! The Night Diary follows Nisha and her family as they flee from their homeland to seek refuge and safety after India and Great Britain sever ties. The historical and cultural details taught me something new on every page and the beautiful imagery and detailed character development emotionally hooks the reader in a magical
way that is a rare find in young adult novels. Because of the Eurocentric-leaning curriculum, I found this novel to be a beautiful breath of fresh air and it emphasizes the wondrous stories that are hidden in the margins of our school textbooks. Using this book as an anchor text for this counter narrative unit offers so many opportunities for students to dive into engaging conversations about family, journeys, coming of age, the cultural significance of food, religion, emotional development, displacement, and identity development.
Cultural Exposition
Because there are so many possible conversations prompted by The Night Diary, I would encourage students to collaborate in small groups to really dive deeply into specific details that are presented throughout the novel. As small groups, students would research, synthesize, and present their findings to the rest of their peers in an exposition-like model. This exercise would be a variation of a jigsaw activity but would likely require a few class periods to allow students enough time to really engage and interact with the content.
I would have groups study:
The historical context: the Partition of India (1947)
The cultural context: Indian/Pakistani food, clothes, customs
The religious context: Muslim/Hindu
The migration/refugee experience: Journeys of displacement
Students would be prompted to compare and contrast different elements of their topics, gather and present accurate research from credible sources, and use the novel as a primary reference for what specific elements they present to their peers (since the general group topics are extensively dense).
1.THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY by Chinua Achebe
This TEDtalk is iconic and foundational to any conversation that addresses counter narratives. Chinua Achebe is a beautiful storyteller and in this presentation, she stresses the importance of seeking out various perspectives, expanding on the well-accepted understanding that history is written by the conquerers. Stories represent more than a collection of lessons and history; they outlive our lives and are passed down long after they've been written. Children and students today accept identities and the stories associated with those identities even now, internalizing the narratives about themselves and their communities, entirely true or not. And, future generations will understand who we are today from the stories they hear--the stories we choose to pass down as is or the stories we choose to reclaim and retell.
A Letter to Posterity
After listening to Achebe’s TEDtalk, share Sarah Kay’s TEDtalk, “If I should have a daughter.”
Afterwards, prompt students to think about how both TEDtalks are related. If students are struggling with this, guide them in thinking about what each of these women are saying about stories. Yes, Sarah is addressing her piece to her daughter, but to whom is she really speaking to from the TED stage? They are both speaking to those who will hand down stories to the next generation.
I recently read an article where the featured teacher shared excerpts from an article titled, “Warrior with words: Toward a Post-Columbine Curriculum” by Lynn Nelson with her students, and she read:
"...our stories sit in us, waiting to be told, to be acknowledged. Untold and unacknowledged, they will eventually translate themselves into other languages--languages of abuse and addiction, of suicide and violence. In such a society and in such schools we are literally dying to tell our stories...Story is a “second look at personal history” that can transform a person from one who is “trapped in [their] past” to one who is “freed by it.” But… the telling is not all. “Along the way, on [their] pilgrimage, each [person] must have a chance to tell [their] tale, there must be someone there to listen.”
This fascination with stories and their roles in shaping history has been weighing on my mind since I read this. Stories are given life when they are told and continue to live as long as they are shared, eventually outliving the subject of the story yet continuing to live on in essence each time the story is passed on. If we don’t tell our stories, our literal existence in the grand scheme of things will be “written” over by those who do tell their stories; and this relationship between storyteller and listener embodies this conscious acknowledgement that we have existed. So, we approach stories in this manner, the importance of telling our stories is emphasized, especially when it comes to what stories are accepted and retold and believed.
With this responsibility in mind, I extend the invitation for students to write their story in the form of a letter, addressed to future generations: What do you want future generations to know about you? What stories have shaped you? What narratives, told and untold, have influenced how you have come to be the person I see before me? What narratives would you pass on to your children, your grandchildren? How do you want them to see the world in which they live? How will they see the world in which you live? History is written by the conquerors, we are all familiar with the phrase, but if you had the chance to change that narrative, what are you going to say?
As always, thanks for your support and encouragement! I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a comment below about how you used/modified the lessons in your classroom!
HAPPY TEACHING :)
xoxo, Miss S.
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