In Darkness novel study project
Welcome to the In Darkness Novel Study Project. This page has been created by Meg Kelly, Josh Peschang, Alexis Cooper and Kylee Palmer from the English Education program at Western Illinois University.
On this website you will find information that can be used when teaching this novel in a secondary classroom. We have chosen to use this novel in a 11th-12th grade classroom, but it can easily be adapted for any high school classroom. The novel was given a 9th grade interest level, but a 5.3 grade reading level. Throughout the site we have activities, discussion prompts/activities, book projects and a compiled vocabulary list to help jump-start a unit on Nick Lake's novel In Darkness. Our goals for this unit:
1. Students will deeply engage in the text via in-class discussion, journal writing , mini-lectures, and projects. 2. Students will gain significant amounts of knowledge about the historical background of the island of Haiti along with how the island reached it's independence and dealt with a number of natural disasters throughout their history. 3. Students will analyze the use of the double narrator and create assessments based upon it. 4. Students will connect the history of Haiti into the events in the novel. 5. Students will use various strategies (contextual clues, etc.) to determine the meaning of unknown words. State Standards: (http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/11-12) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.2a Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. CC.11-12.SL.1 Comprehension and Collaboration: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. CC.11-12.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3b Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. The author, Nick Lake, discussing the novel.
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