IDEAS? - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

[Alice Stapler]

I am thinking about teaching TPB to seniors this fall and would love ideas about keeping the students engaged and interested, especially in the beginning before they get into the story.

Thanks!

Alice

[Lorraine Caplan]

I just started reading this book myself, and a few things leap to mind.  First, the descriptions of the setting are glorious, and I wonder to what degree some immersion in that section of Africa via some National Geographic videos or other visual materials on flora and fauna might be useful. Second, the politics of that time and place probably need to be part of their knowledge, as well as some understanding of colonialism in general, and I do think that missionary activity is simply a form of colonialism.  The third aspect is that the world of the South in the late fifties is one that few students are going to have any knowledge of. I learned that very quickly teaching The Secret Life of Bees.  Perhaps a "day in the life" of a white person and a black person in that time and place might be interesting.

[Alice Stapler]

Thank you ! I had not thought of using National Geographic.

[KellyAnn Bonnell]

It strikes me you might be able to build a bridge between the 1986 Harrison Ford movie "The Mosquito Coast". It's just a thought but it might help the students get into the frame of mind.

[camille napier bernstein]

love this idea.

[Alice Stapler]

Oh, thanks! I'll have to check out The Mosquito Coast.

[camille napier bernstein]

You could play around with palindromes. Adah Price was fascinating to me.

http://www.derf.net/palindromes/old.palindrome.html

http://www.rinkworks.com/words/palindromes.shtml

 

Maybe you could just teach excerpts??

[Alice Stapler]

Great! Thanks for the websites!

[Meri Robie-Craven]

You know, the Bible is such a dominant theme in this book - the dad's a missionary and the kids are all named from the Bible - I would have kids explore the namesakes first and return to the original Bible stories to compare how Kingsolver uses the allusive names. Maybe even think about the larger idea - that the dad sees the whole thing as a return to Eden, but the children see it differently. You could also teach a little bit about the structure of the Bible too (as a way into text structure) - the way it's organized into books - so they could analyze why Kingsolver uses a similar, but slightly different pattern. (Ultimately, the chapters could be rearranged to be "The Book of Adah" or "The Book of Ruth"  and then summarized to focus on a given perspective of all the events.)

[Anna J. Small Roseboro]

Consider these three ideas.

RANDOM WALK THROUGH THE BOOK

• Ask students to write on a piece of paper any ten numbers between the first and last page of the edition of the book you’re using. Then turn to those pages, skim the it paying attention to names, sentence structure and anything that catches their attention.
• Copy into their journal a sentence from five different pages. Write a paragraph about what they think the sentences imply about characters, settings, possible theme(s).
• Meet in pairs and share the sentences and inferences. Return to these later to compare their early and later thoughts.

SOME OLD into SOMETHING NEW

• How about adapting one of those KWL CHART that students probably learned in elementary or middle school. These kinds of graphic organizers are great to pull into the upper grades, too. What do students know about Bible, about Congo, about this historical period, etc.? What do they hope to discover as they read?

ORGANIZING QUOTATIONS

• Photocopy a randomized list of the quotations at this website QUOTATIONS . (leave off the page numbers.)
• Ask the students to put the quotations in some kind of order that makes sense to them.
• Meet in pairs to compare the order. (Order is unimportant at this point. Thinking is.
• Then talk briefly about what they think the book is about. What inferences can they make based simply on these quotations. (This is a good way to show the sentence structure Kingsolver uses, too.)

Then, once students have "met" the main characters, ask them to sign up to keep a journal from one character's perspective as they continue reading the book, by writing two or three sentences for each assigned reading. Allot in class time for small group meetings of those writing from the same character's point of view. Mix it up some days, and construct groups with different characters meeting together.

Follow up: What would their chosen character have to say about something in the news today? What issues would interest them? See similar assignment for THE HANDMAID'S TALE found on Teacher Resources tab of my website TEACHING LANGUAGE ARTS.

Or, ask students to be prepared to talk about ways this novel reflects the SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL climate of the times during which Kingsolver wrote it. They could choose one of these three and follow it as they read. Of course, students will need time to research the times in order to "report" to the class at the end of the unit.

Enjoy!

 

[Alice Stapler]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Surely, you are all awesome teachers.

Alice

[Tim White]

Center for Learning has a whole book of lesson plans for the book. I used them in an AP class and found them excellent.

[Alice Stapler]

Oh, great! I don't remember finding one when I searched before. Thank you.