The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - FULL UNIT - 34 Lessons

This comprehensive unit, oriented around essential questions related to culture, family, and identity, includes 167 pages of well-organized, editable resources for reading and analyzing Sherman Alexie’s engaging, humorous, and heartbreaking novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The detailed unit plan lists 14 supplemental texts students can explore to extend their thinking with regard to the book’s thematic preoccupations, such as identity, adolescence, oppression, the marginalization of Native Americans, racism, friendship, and family. The unit plan also includes weekly learning objectives derived from Common Core ELA standards and 34 days of daily lessons!

The entire bundle contains:
« Background building activities
« Comprehension and analysis packets for each chapter (address characterization, conflict, setting, theme, irony…)
« Reflective writing assignment on cultural identity
« Shorter text-based analytical/argumentative writing tasks
« Native American poetry TPCASTT assignments and spoken word poetry analysis
« Smoke Signals film analysis handouts (Alexie film with connections to the novel)
« Navigating multiple identities mask project
« Symbolism scrapbook project
« Persuasive essay related to censorship
« 4 vocabulary sets: 38 words, organizers, context clues activities, practice questions, and quizzes
« PowerPoint of over 300 slides!

This is an accessible novel into which students can really dive deep for analysis. ELLs and students with other specific learning needs have been very successful with the scaffolds embedded into each of the lesson activities. I have never taught a unit that had students more engaged in the reading and in conversations surrounding topics presented in the novel! I hope yours enjoy it as much as mine have!

To see how this unit fits into a yearlong curriculum oriented on the theme of identity, check out my 9th Grade English Full Year Curriculum Map:


9th Grade English Curriculum Map


Note: This text is accessible to middle school aged children, but the content is much more appropriate for high school, as it contains overt discussion of sexuality, racism, and substance abuse, and it includes occasional profanity.