Class/Subject: High school juniors / The Namesake Day 2
Date: Week 1, Day 2
Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:
Students will be able to discuss stereotypes implemented on people and how to deal with
ones that are pertinent to themselves
Students will be able to identify the essential questions that will be referred back to
throughout the unit
Students will be able to relate the text to their own lives through essential questions
Content Standards:
-Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that Is
particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful
-Determine two or more 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 provide a
complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
-Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific
individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
Materials/Resources/Technology:
25-30 notecards with names of famous celebrities or people on one side (bring tape to
tape on students’ foreheads on the other side)
30 Printed of biography on Lahiri, essential questions & song lyrics
Book, The Namesake
Clipboard to track student responses
Time
5 minutes
Start of Class:
Do Now Journal:
What are some things that you consider about yourself that are unique? What are the
different factors that make you different from others/stand out? What makes you the
same?
10 minutes
Introduction of Lesson:
-Pass out notecards to students with notecards faced down and tape on the
side of the notecard that is facing up. Then, have students place the cards on
their foreheads, making sure not to look at what is written on the other side.
Have students then go around asking peers yes/no questions in order to infer
who/what iconic character/celebrity is written on their notecard.
30 minutes
Lesson Instruction:
-Discuss the game and what kinds of questions were used.
-Teacher facilitates questions in order to stimulate students’ thinking into what
factors play into identities.
-What question was used most often?
-Does that question play an integral part in forming identities?
-Which questions were most useful in figuring out what was written on their
notecards?
-If their names were written on the notecard, what kind of questions would be
pertinent to discovering their identities?
-Introduce the Namesake
-Pass out biography on Lahiri & quotes and talk about the summary of the
book.
Biography:
( http://www.library.pima.gov/books/caboodle/guides/lahiri-namesake-bio.pdf)
Quotes:
*“The book isn't so much about names per se. It's more about what we inherit
from our parents—certain ideas, certain values, certain genes—the whole
complex set of things that everyone gets from their parents and the way that,
no matter how much we create our own lives and choose what we want out of
life, it's very difficult to escape our origins."
*"The question of identity is always a difficult one, but especially for those who are
culturally displaced, as immigrants are . . . who grow up in two worlds simultaneously."
*"America is a real presence in the book; the characters must struggle and come to terms
with what it means to live here, to be brought up here, to belong and not belong here."
-Introduce The Namesake to class & the essential questions. Remind
students to keep the essential question in mind when reading
Essential Questions:
Is it possible to reconcile or assimilate two cultures without conflict?
How does a name define a person?
How is identity formed and maintained?
How do traditions, the past and history inform or change the present?
-Discuss how Lahiri’s biography plays an integral part in how you read the
novel.
-Go over quote from Lahiri on how she sees America and immigration
-Talk about any first impressions of the book just from the title, or from
what students may already know
5 minutes
Assessments/Checks for Understanding:
Collect end of class assignment and track student responses
Carry around clipboard and record responses to essential questions and video
Closure/Wrap-Up/Review: Have students write a response to one of the essential
questions and hand it in when finished.
If there is extra time, allow students to begin reading The Namesake
Self-Assessment:
Do students understand the implications set in questions when asking about a person?
Have students defined the questions that are most used when talking about a person’s
identity?
Do students understand essential questions and quotes from Lahiri?
Can students figure out what name was written on their notecard just by asking yes/no
questions?