Composition & Essays

Lord of the Flies

Other Studies

Poetry

Shakespeare

To Kill A Mockingbird

The Joy Luck Club: A Multicultural Approach

Grade: 11

Duration: 12 lessons, 75 minutes each

Unit Rationale:

My goal for both this unit and as an English teacher is to find ways to encourage my students to value pluralism and to combat racism through the use of a variety of literary texts that are written by authors from both Western and non-Western traditions. I have specifically chosen The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, as one of the novels to achieve this goal. It is important that, in a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism and diverse population, to develop a curriculum that works towards integrating rather than merely appending sections of works by authors who reflect the diversity of this country. The purpose of this unit is to provide students with the tools they need to comfortably, empathetically, and fairly interact with diversity.

Through the literary engagement of this novel and the variety of themes, such as: historical and cultural context, internal and external conflicts, sense of self and identity (suffering and survival, appearance versus reality), characterization, symbolism and imagery; lessons, and activities that will be involved with it, students will hopefully possess the ability to make connections from the text to their own lives and experiences and gain a new and insightful perspective of their own culture as well as those that differ from theirs by the unit’s end.