Second Draft BGA Junior Hum Curriculum
Theme: Imperialism and Independence
Essential Question: How do we do right?
Summer
Institute
Content Text Skills Products
A Small
Place by
Jamaica
Kincaid
Term 1 Content
Historical moment: Haitian
Revolution
Time period: early 1800’s
Larger contexts being explored: revolution, human rights, independence
Historical moment:
Ethiopia’s resistance of colonization?
Time period: mid-1800’s-mid-
1900’s
Larger contexts being explored: capitalism and colonialism
Term 2 Content
Historical moment:
Japanese occupation of
Asia
Time period: mid-20th
Text
Krik
Krak by
Edwidge
Danticat
Text
Comfort
Woman by Nora
Okja
Keller
Reading and writing
A “you” piece where students write something addressed to someone (an open letter of sorts)
Skills
-Initial strengths/ weaknesses reflection
-Active reading -- embedded question, reading norms, embedded purpose in reading
-Note-taking in class
-Text-based analysis
-- MCAS (accuracy)
-Vocabulary
-Grammar
Products
2 written products
1 other product
Group product?
Skills skills
-Analytical writing
-Personal/creative writing
-Seminar/discussion
-Public speaking
-Group-work
Products
2 written products
1 other product
Reflection/portfolio process
Group product?

century
Larger contexts being explored: war (esp. impact on women), imperialism
Historical moment:
Vietnamese resistance to
French, Japanese and US imperialism
Larger contexts being explored: anti-colonial struggles, Cold
War
Term 3 Historical
Content
Students choose a time/place to study imperialism and/or independence in the 19th/20th centuries
Text
Students find their own sources
-Test-taking?
-Reflection
Skills
- Access to research
- Writing a research paper
- Editing
Products
Research paper/thesis
-- 8-12 pages in length
Juniors/Seniors use different number of sources (6 vs.
8)/different requirements for OH
Exhibition/peer review
Products Term 4 Historical
Content
Historical moment: US imperialism today in (1) US mainland, (2)
Puerto Rico, (3)
Afghanistan?
Novels Brainstorm
Text
Flight by
Sherman
Alexie
Skills
Creative product
Portfolio/Reflection
Final Exam
Group product?
 Krik Krak, Edwidge Danticat (Haiti/USA) - moving, and used successfully with reluctant female readers

 Flight, Sherman Alexie (Native American/USA) - have used and has been successful with reluctant male readers
 The Fullness of Everything, Patricia Powell (USA/Jamaica): highly recommended
 Drown, Junot Diaz (USA/Dominican Republic) - a collection of short stories, resonates with slang/Spanish/English
 American Son, Brian Ascalon Roley (USA/Philippines) - action packed, used successfully with reluctant readers


Happy Birthday or Whatever, Annie Choi (USA/Korea)
Catfish and Mandala, Andrew X Pham (USA/Viet Nam) - highly recommended
 Forest Gate, Peter Akinti (Somali/England) - powerful, have not used with students, but personally moving for me
 Harare North, Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe/England) - powerful, but context may be too confusing for students
 The Book of Salt, Monique Truong (Vietnam/France) - themes of sexuality,
 colonialism, migration; context may be too confusing for students
 In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic/USA) - have taught Garcia Girls; think this would connect better with curriculum
 Comfort Woman, Nora Okja Keller (Korea/USA) - deeply moving, great connection to WWII curriculum
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) - have not felt great about using it with kids, but a canonical text and deeply relevant to content
 The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kinsolver - good curriculum connect, but would probably work best as an Open Honors book
 The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende - good curriculum connect
 He Drown She in the Sea, Shani Mootoo (Trinidad/Canada) - just amazing


White Teeth, Zadie Smith (UK/lots of people)
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson (UK)
 A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua)
 Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (Ireland)
 The Icarus Girl, Helen Oyeyemi (UK)
 Shabanu, Staples
 The Dead, James Joyce


The Gangster we are All Looking For, Le Thi Diem Thuy
We Should Never Meet, Aimee Phan
 The Kite Runner/Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hossain
 Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
 Age of Iron, Coetzee


Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane
 Nectar in a Sieve, Kamala Markandeya
 Industry of Souls, Martin Booth
The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima
 The Sorrow of War, Bao Ninh
 Mirrors, Eduardo Galeano
 Poetry of Suheir Hammad
 Paradise of the Blind, Duong Thu Huong

 Memory for Forgetfulness, Mahmoud Darwish
 I Saw Ramallah, Mourid Bhargouti
 So Long a Letter, Mariama Ba
 Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas


Vietnamerica, G.B. Tran
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
 The Stars, The Earth, The River, Le Minh Khue
 Samuel Selvon -- various texts


Cry, the Beloved Country
The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
 Corruption by Tahar Ben Jalloun (Morocco)


Stay Alive My Son by Pin Yathay (Cambodia)


The World and a Very Small Place in Africa (non-fiction)
Death and the King’s Horseman (Nigeria)
Purple Hibiscus (Nigeria)




Chand, Meira , A Choice of Evils (London: The Orion Publishing Company, 1996)
Qi, Shouhua. When the Purple Mountain Burns: A Novel . San Francisco: Long
River Press, 2005.
Qi, Shouhua. Purple Mountain: A Story of the Rape of Nanking (Paperback,
2010)
West, Paul. The Tent of Orange Mist (1995)
 Everyting Good Will Come by Sefi Atta
 The Eaves of Heaven by Andrew Pham
 Last Night I Dreamed of Peace by Dang Thuy Tram


A Border Passage by Leila Ahmed
 Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee
 Kismet by Arjouni
 The Record Player something something by the Czech author
Final Book Order List

Title Author Lexile
A Small Place
Discourse on
Colonialism
Krik Krak
The Dew Breaker
Masters of the Dew
Things Fall Apart
Jamaica Kincaid
Aime Cesaire
Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat
Jacques Roumain
Chinua Achebe
Unavailable; other Kincaid works range from 1000 to 1500
Unavailable; other Cesaire works range from 1410 to 1580
880L
Unavailable
Unavailable
890L
Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie
Nervous Conditions
Unavailable
Tsitsi Dangarembga 1100L
The Dark Child
God’s Bits of Wood
Harare North
Disgrace
Comfort Woman
A Gesture Life
The Eaves of Heaven
The Sorrow of War
Catfish and Mandala
The Book of Salt
Camara Laye
Sembene Ousmane
Brian Chikwava
J.M. Coetzee
Nora Okja Keller
Chang-rae Lee
Andrew Pham
Bao Ninh
Andrew Pham
Monique Truong
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable; other Coetzee texts range from 930 to 1160
Unavailable
1270L
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable Last Night I Dreamed of
Peace
Dang Thuy Tram
Vietnamerica
The Things They
Carried
A Map of Home
GB Tran
Tim O’Brien
Randa Jarrar
Unavailable
880L
Unavailable
ISBN Number of
Copies
978-0374527075 100
978-1583670255 25
978-0679766575 100
978-1400034291 100
978-0435987459 25
978-0385474542 100
978-1400095209 100
978-0954702335 100
978-0809015481 100
978-0435909598 25
978-0099526759 25
978-0143115281 25
978-0140263350
978-1573228282
978-0307381217
978-1573225434
978-0312267179
978-0618446889
978-0307347381
100
25
25
25
25
25
25
978-0345508720 25
978-0618706419 25
978-0143116264 100

A Border Passage Leila Ahmed Unavailable
Three Wishes Deborah Ellis 800L
1.
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (100 copies)
2.
Krik Krak by Edwidge Danticat (100 copies)
3.
Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain (?)
4.
The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier (?)
5.
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (25 copies)
6.
The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James (25 copies)
7.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (100 copies)
8.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (25 copies)
9.
Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (25 copies)
10.
Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller (100 copies)
11.
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (25 copies)
12.
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh (100 copies)
13.
The Gangster We Are All Looking For (?)
14.
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong (25 copies)
15.
Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham (25 copies)
16.
A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar (100 copies)
Library Books
Penguin State of the World Atlas
The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq by Derek Gregory
Haiti by Philippe Girard
Baghdad Burning by Riverbend
Atlas of Global Inequalities
Century of War by Gabriel Kolko
Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East edited by Reza Aslan
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano
Reference Texts
Where are students at?
1. Struggling writers -- need a daily practice of writing
2. Processing difficulties
3. Students have done what questions, but not why/how/how come?
ISBN-10:
0140291830
25
978-1845077433 100

4. Diverse student body -- culture, home language, race, ability
5. Wide range of readers
What is our vision of who students will become?
1. Uses research to understand self, history and political action
2. Uses writing to come to clarity and complexity
3. Sees writing/literature as action/form of activism
4. Sees herself/himself as making a contribution
Moments:
Summer Institute: A Small Place
1. Haitian Revolution -- Krik Krak?
2. Ethiopia (colonialism in Africa)
3. Japanese occupation of Korea -- Comfort Woman?
4. Vietnam resistance to French, Japanese and US imperialism
5. US in Puerto Rico