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Charles Owens
Lesson #1, The Guest (by Albert Camus)
April 01, 2012
Grade 11 or 12; Language Arts
Block Schedule
(Assumption: more affluent school with access to digital resources)
Standards Addressed:
1. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a
complex account. (C.C. Reading Standard for Literature grades 11-12).
2. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources,
using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms
of the task, purpose, and audience. (CC Writing Standards grades 11-12).
3. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and
interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and
evidence and to add interest. (CC Speaking & Listening Standard grades 11-12).
4. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or
information. (CC Writing Standards grades 11-12).
Learning Objectives:
Students will determine and analyze various themes of this short story with special
attention given to poetry as a supporting text to this short story.
Students will focus on the following themes: existentialism, hospitality, and neutrality.
Students will write reflectively on the themes of this work individually with a blog and
collectively through group projects; specifically, a digital remix project.
Students will develop greater digital knowledge by publishing their projects on the
Internet.
Academic Language Objectives:
Students will need to be able to read the text, The Guest, by Albert Camus. Various
vocabulary words specific to Algeria and France may need to be defined for students in order to
derive the overall meaning of the text. Students will also be introduced briefly to Colonialism
(French specifically). Students will also need to understand their variously assigned poems.
Again, students may need to track down various vocabulary words to derive the overall meaning
of their assigned texts. Students will also engage in digital writing via blogs and digital
composition through song-writing or a video remix; thus, facets of digital composition will also
be acquired.
Assessments:
Submit a (found) song, YouTube clip, or poetry blog that relates to the theme of
existentialism, which connects to the first and third standard. Write down the thematic
connections between The Guest and the poems including: neutrality, existentialism, and
hospitality, which connects the first and second standard. Test on details of The Guest and how
its themes relate to the greater society, which connects to the first standard. Write a weekly blog
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entry incorporating themes, content, and personal reflection of The Guest, which connects to the
third standard. Create and publish a digital remix of an absurd event and an accompanying blog
post with lyrics and an analysis, which relates to the third and fourth standard.
Instructional Strategies:
Activities:
Jigsaw: Students will bring in music, YouTube clips, or found blogs where authors are raising
angst-ridden why interrogations (existential sentiments) and share them within their
groups.
Graphic Organizers: Students will fill out the graphic organizer pertaining to the ways The Guest
is similar and different to real world situations. They will also fill out a graphic organizer
pertaining to the choices each character has in this short story.
Group Work: Students will read different poems (based on aptitude), derive the meanings of the
poems and relate these findings to the various themes embedded within The Guest.
Journal Writing: Students will complete weekly journals for the class via online blogs.
Therefore, students are expected to mention some aspect of this unit on The Guest on
their blog and mention how this story relates to them as individuals.
Round-Robin reading: Students will spend in-class time reading round robin within their groups.
Independent Writing: Students will write reflectively on their blogs each week. They will be
asked to consider the themes covered and relate them to instances in their own lives.
Making Predictions: At two points in the short story, students will pause and work within their
small groups to discuss possible outcomes for this story. They will stop after Balducci’s
conversation ends with Daru, and they will pause two paragraphs before the end of the
story and predict how it will end.
New Media Project: Students will work with their groups to create a podcast, rap song, or remix
video about a real world situation that is absurd (students can pick something they find,
but they are encouraged to work on something that happened to them). These projects
should be ‘published’ on the web. By broadcasting an absurd situation to the world, they
will be publishing an instance of absurdism just as Camus does in The Guest.
Monday
Tuesday
Schedule:
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Vocab Pre
Assessment;
Writing
Prompt: “Why
do anything?”
& “How do you
treat a
houseguest?”
Begin in-class
discussion on
Existentialism,
Hospitality, &
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Assigned to
group tables.
Share music,
clips, or poetry
blogs with each
other. Poems
are handed out
to groups to be
read as
homework.
Large group
read aloud of
the first 5
paragraphs of
The Guest.
(Echoing if
necessary).
Students will
report to their
groups the
meaning of
their assigned
poems and
predict ways in
which it relates
to The Guest.
Small groups
will read
independently
the first half of
the story in
class. (Up to
when Balducci
leaves Daru).
Students will
finish their new
media project
with their group
and ‘publish’
them on the
Internet.
Groups will
show their
projects to the
large class and
then a large
class discussion
about the
affordances/
constraints of
the short story.
They will
connect various
themes in the
poems, The
Guest, and their
projects
In groups,
students will
make
predictions
about the
ending of the
story. Then,
they will read
independently
up until the
final 2
paragraphs of
the story and
make
predictions
again and
submit
predictions via
email as a
group.
Students will
take a test over
the unit: both
multiple choice
on specific
details of The
Guest and two
essay questions
relating to
hospitality and
existentialism.
Colonialism
Students will
Small groups
finish reading
will identify
the final two
similarities to
paragraphs of
The Guest in
the story and
the real world,
then compare it students will
to their
and brainstorm
predictions.
/ outline / begin
Then, they will a new media
complete both
project
graphic
showcasing
organizers #1 & absurdism in
#2 as small
the real world.
groups. Then,
they will report
out to the large
group on their
findings.
On the Friday before we start The Guest, students will complete an in-class vocabulary
quiz based on words that appear in the text. Based on the results, students will be grouped in
low-performing groups and high-performing groups. (Based on the size of the class, there will
probably be several high and low groups). After the quiz, we will begin to think about
existentialism and hospitality customs. After a prompt on the white board, students will write
down their answers to questions such as: “Why are you here? What is the point of anything?
Would you do the right thing if you knew absolutely no one was watching and would never find
out?” “What are the customs at your home when hosting company for an overnight visit?” After
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writing independently, we will convene into a large group discussion about these questions,
existential philosophy, hospitality, and Colonialism.
On the following week, students will be re-grouped based on their aptitude levels and
they will bring to class found songs, YouTube clips, or poetry blogs that showcase existential
themes. Students will share their found files with each other and discuss existential questions
with each other more deeply. At the end of class, we will begin reading the first few paragraphs
of The Guest aloud in class. Students will be directed to think about how the three characters
interact with each other as well as how the harsh landscape works plays a factor in this story.
For the remainder of the week, students will work within small groups reading the short story in
round robin scenarios within their groups while thinking about how the themes of the poems
(neutrality, accountability, powerlessness) are relevant to this short story. As a during-reading
aid, students will fill out graphic organizers and pause to make (and check) their predictions.
New Media Project: students will identify an instance when an event ended with an
absurd conclusion. This can an event from pop-culture, the news, or something related to their
own life experience. Groups will hone in on one example and have it approved by the instructor.
Then, students will articulate how/why this example was so absurd to the greater society via the
Internet. The lower-level group will be encouraged to create and perform a song/rap. This
should be recorded and shared via a music website or podcast. The song should have an
accompanying blog post, which contains the song’s lyrics and a short analysis about the song and
its anticipated impact on society. The higher-level groups should construct a video collage (or
remix) of an absurd incident and share it on YouTube. Again, there should be an accompanying
blog post, which contains an analysis of the video and its anticipated impact on society.
Student Supports:
Students may need to see examples of video remixes or podcasts. Additional links to
existentialism, French colonization, and nation neutrality may also need to be provided. Further,
students may also need extra support when using digital resources—especially iMovie,
GarageBand, iStopMotion, and YouTube. In class, we will look at Vanderbilt’s All Inclusion
policy (YouTube) to understand how publishing something online brings attention to it. We will
also look at the Jane Austen Fight Club video to understand how authors can pull from different
subjects matters to create a singular, new narrative, which is typically humorous.
Materials & Resources:
Camus’ short story, The Guest, will be the central resource needed for this lesson plan.
Various poems will also be distributed to students based on their achievement on the pre-reading
assessment. Students will also bring in songs of their choosing to share with their groups.
Finally, students will need access to digital equipment, software, files, etc. to remix the themes of
Camus’ story.
Students will read various poems based on different themes and aptitude levels. The
lower level students will receive one of these texts and report back to their group: Accountability
(P.L. Dunbar), Neutrality Loathsome (Robert Herrick). The higher level students will receive
one of these texts and report back to their group: Accountability (William Stafford), Path of
Neutrality (Knights Mourning), or The Sound of the Sea (Longfellow).
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Pre-Assessment Quiz
Write the definition of the following words:
1. estuaries
2. pupils
3. monk
4. provision
5. foretaste
6. wrestles
7. enthroned
8. obstinate
9. penmanship
10. solitude
11. wastelands
12. vulnerable
13. adversary
14. coagulate
15. prowling
16. fraternized
17. fatigue
18. musings
19. furtize
20. terrace
21. limestone
22. plateau
23. rapture
24. francs
25. nomads
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Graphic Organizer #1
Character
Daru
Arab
Balducci
Choices
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Graphic Organizer #2
In the Text (“The Guest”)
In the World
Discuss what is happening in the What does this remind me of in the
story in reference to being a prisoner. real world?
What is similar to things which
happen in the real world?
(Universalize)
How is this different from things
which happen in the real world?
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Poems
Accountability (PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR)
FOLKS ain't got no right to censuah othah folks about dey habits;
Him dat giv' de squir'ls de bushtails made de bobtails fu' de rabbits.
Him dat built de gread big mountains hollered out de little valleys,
Him dat made de streets an' driveways wasn't shamed to make de alleys.
We is all constructed diff'ent, d'ain't no two of us de same;
We cain't he'p ouah likes an' dislikes, ef we'se bad we ain't to blame.
Ef we'se good, we need n't show off, case you bet it ain't ouah doin'
We gits into su'ttain channels dat we jes' cain't he'p pu'suin'.
But we all fits into places dat no othah ones could fill,
An' we does the things we has to, big er little, good er ill.
John cain't tek de place o' Henry, Su an' Sally ain't alike;
Bass ain't nuthin' like a suckah, chub ain't nuthin' like a pike.
When you come to think about it, how it's all planned out it's splendid.
Nuthin's done er evah happens, 'dout hit's somefin' dat's intended;
Don't keer whut you does, you has to, an' hit sholy beats de dickens,-Viney, go put on de kittle, I got one o' mastah's chickens.
Neutrality Loathsome (ROBERT HERRICK)
God will have all, or none; serve Him, or fall
Down before Baal, Bel, or Belial:
Either be hot, or cold: God doth despise,
Abhorre, and spew out all Neutralities.
Accountability (WILLIAM E. STAFFORD)
Cold nights outside the taverns in Wyoming
pickups and big semis lounge idling, letting their
haunches twitch now and then in gusts of powder snow,
their owners inside for hours, forgetting as well
as they can the miles, the circling plains, the still town
that connects to nothing but cold and space and a few
stray ribbons of pavement, icy guides to nothing
but bigger towns and other taverns that glitter and wait:
Denver, Cheyenne.
Hibernating in the library of the school on the hill
a few pieces by Thomas Aquinas or Saint Teresa
and the fragmentary explorations of people like Alfred
North Whitehead crouch and wait amid research folders
on energy and military recruitment posters glimpsed
by the hard stars. The school bus by the door, a yellow
mound, clangs open and shut as the wind finds a loose
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door and worries it all night, letting the hollow
students count off and break up and blow away
over the frozen ground.
Path of Neutrality (Knights of Mourning)
Casually courting chaos
I walk a dangerous path
This tight-rope of neutrality
Which severs conflicting wrath
Casually courting chagrin
I take a lonely rout
Neither of the good, nor the bad
I stumble in self-doubt
The Sound of the Sea (HENRY W. LONGFELLOW)
The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.