Things Fall Apart Synthesis Bundle / 9 resources / 100+ questions / 50+ pages

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart offers a textured, nuanced glimpse into the life of Okonkwo as his world falls apart after the introduction of European imperialism and colonialism. This is one of the most important novels I teach, and to make the reading experiences as robust as possible, I pair the novel with multiple texts. Included in this bundle are all the questions and printables you need to pair Things Fall Apart with meaningful texts.

Includes:

-"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats is, of course, the text from which Things Fall Apart takes its title. For this reason, students and I read and annotate this poem prior to reading the novel. This helps students understand mood and make prediction about the novel they are preparing to read.

-excerpts from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. This is the novel that inspired Achebe to write Things Fall Apart. In many ways, this excerpt helps readers understand Achebe's purposes for writing and gives students an idea of what Achebe was writing against.

-Things Fall Apart Context Clues: Throughout our study of Things Fall Apart, students encounter many new words, so this is a great opportunity to practice our context-clues skills. In this resource, you will find the 12 slides I use throughout this unit.

-Things Fall Apart Journals: I put together this collection of 20 journal prompts to help students understand how the text touches on topics, themes, and ideas that still resonate today. I mix and match the journal prompts during instruction based on the needs of my students, schedule, and assessment.

-Things Fall Apart Anticipation Guide: This anticipation guide is a fun way to engage students in a new text. Students can consider the opinions before, during, and after reading. This free resource is available in a fillable .pdf, fully editable Google Form, and Google Slides.

-"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell: This set of reading analysis questions helps guide students through Orwell's short story and helps students analyze symbolism, point of view, and historical context. When I teach Things Fall Apart, we read this about midway through the novel.

-Crash Course Things Fall Apart Listening Guides: While I enjoy using John Green's Crash Course videos with my students, sometimes the videos move too quickly or my students struggle with active listening skills. For this reason, I put together listening guides to help students follow along.

-4 Tools for Teaching "The Danger of the Single Story": This Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is incomparable. Overwhelmingly, this is also my most popular resource and includes tools that help students discuss the text meaningfully. This includes two listening guides, a text-connection tool, and a SOAPSTone analysis. I watch this with my students after we finish the novel.

-"Words and Behavior" by Aldous Huxley may seem like an unusual text pairing for Things Fall Apart. However, Huxley's commentary resonates with Adichie's insights about the single story. Together, these texts help students understand the elements that contribute to Okonkwo's fall and help students connect those elements to our world.

Plus, I have included Bundle Exclusive Synthesis Questions

All together that's over 100 questions and 50 pages! Purchasing each item individually would cost $22.71, but this bundle will save you $5.98. That's just like getting two resources for free. Save time, money, and sanity with this bundle!

Since these are Google resources, when you purchase this resource, TPT will create a file in your Google Drive where you will find the fillable .pdf, Google Forms, and Google Slides.

***This is a BIG bundle, so I totally understand if you don't need everything I've included here. That's why Moore English also offers Custom Bundles. With Custom Bundles, you can choose which short stories you would like to teach and design the bundle of your dreams! Read more here.***

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Read more about these texts at Moore English. Check out these related posts:

-Defining World Literature (includes a freebie)

-Why I Always Teach "The Danger of a Single Story"

-When Things Get Foggy: Teaching Deliberate Ambiguity

-Paired Texts for Teaching Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

-4 Steps for Pre-Reading Any Poem (and the resource to help)

-Chatting About Culture with High-School Students (and the resource to get the conversation started)

-10 YouTube Recommendations for Secondary ELA (features "The Danger of a Single Story")

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