TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
The principal text utilized throughout our unit, and the one that most inspired us to pursue the study of New Orleans, is Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Various other readings supplement this main reading, including excerpts from Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Passing by Nella Larsen, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, but Neufeld's graphic novel is the only text students will read cover-to-cover.
An alternative to a traditional prose text, we hope this choice will appeal to middle school students since graphic novels and comic books are very popular reading material for adolescents. They may interact with the A.D. on an entirely different level than traditional texts, viewing it as fun and a little bit devious with respect to educational custom even while actively working to decode or 'read' both images as well as text on each page. Thus the graphic novel format is uniquely engaging and accessible for a variety of learners, encouraging students to think critically, build flexible media literacy skills, and foster self-motivation and academic engagement.
This text is likely to challenge younger readers due to the necessity for a certain amount of background knowledge in order to gain full understanding of and appreciation for Neufeld's characters and plot. We have confidence, however, that with the right scaffolding and support, even those students with limited relevant knowledge would find the book compelling. We will work closely with the Social Studies teachers to ensure that students acquire necessary historical background information at appropriate intervals to support their readings and will supplement these lessons when necessary to ensure that students find the text coherent and meaningful.
The vocabulary in A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is fairly straightforward and accessible, befitting its graphic novel format. Neufeld does at times employ the use of what could be deemed as foul language and certain characters' verbal repertoires contain several expletives, but these controversial word choices are not gratuitous; rather they were artistic choices made by the author to better develop his characters. Prior to reading the novel, we will send a letter home to parents or guardians explaining the issue and why we believe it can be addressed in a healthy, educational format. Should parents request their child refrain from such exposure, we will provide alternative but comparable readings for those students or censor A.D. as needed.
There also exist some hurricane- and levee-related terms and New Orleans-specific references throughout the text that may frustrate understanding, but these could be touched upon briefly in tandem with the readings. Rather than framing vocabulary lessons around the novel, however, it could prove far more fruitful for students to examine and practice reading vernacular as several of the characters speak in dialects that deviate from Standard American English.
Students may also find the subject matter distressing and emotionally taxing as they encounter several characters that must face extremely upsetting circumstances. Based upon our introductory lesson, supporting materials, and their paralleled studies in Social Studies, however, we expect that students will not only appreciate the gravity of the situations described but also understand the importance of looking closely at such events even when they make us uncomfortable.
As we read A.D., we will also encourage students to remain aware of the choices Neufeld made with his illustrations and dialogue, asking them to examine those choices and think critically about why they were made. What do the abrupt color changes represent? Is there any significance to the timing of such color alterations? How does frame size - from a few square inches to a full two-page spread - affect the telling of the story? What current conventions exist for dialogue-use in graphic novels and comics? Does Neufeld conform to or adapt these conventions? Such questions will be raised regularly to help students critically analyze the artistic choices made throughout the novel as well as prepare them to make similar choices of their own as they create their own graphic novels at the end of the unit.
WORKSHEETS & HANDOUTS
Please find below, in order of use, links to a daily planning matrix for the entire unit and all referenced handouts and worksheets. Certain supplementary materials are also crossposted under the COLLABORATE and LESSONS tabs on the menu bar above.
PLANNING MATRIX
A day-by-day planning matrix for the entire five-week unit. Details student activities, teaching methods, and forms of assessment organized in table format.
For teacher use only.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the entire five-week planning matrix, or click HERE.
DIALOGUE JOURNAL HANDOUT
Worksheet to help organize student reading of a format that may be unfamiliar to them in an educational context. Refer to this worksheet often to ensure that students are thinking about the questions discussed. Consistent use will help in the completion of the final project.
For student use throughout the reading of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Dialogue Journal handout, or click HERE.
TABLEAUX HANDOUT
Instruction sheet for get-up-and-move Tableaux activity. Handout explains the activity, helps to structure it, and provides suggestions and tips for students.
For student use with A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Tableaux handout, or click HERE.
TEA PARTY WORKSHEETS
Worksheet outlines five main character roles for the teacher to clip apart and randomly distribute to each student. It also organizes the activity step-by-step with instructions and suggestions for students' actions and encourages critical engagement with the activity.
For student use with A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Tea Party worksheets, or click HERE.
COLLABORATIVE WORKSHEET
Worksheet introduces two hypothetical situations as prompts for student free-writing. This assignment is intended to be followed up in Social Studies later in the school day but can be adapted for single-period instruction if need be.
For student use in collaboration with their Social Studies classes during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the collaborative worksheet, or click HERE.
CONFEDERACY HANDOUT
Excerpt from chapter one of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces touching upon New Orleans racial, socioeconomic, and power tensions as well as culture and dialect.
For student use in tandem with Larsen's Passing during Week Four.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Confederacy handout, or click HERE.
GRAPHIC NOVEL HANDOUT
Assignment sheet explaining the cumulative Graphic Novel Project and outlining criteria for assessment and grading. Provides several suggestions for topics and organizes group work.
For student use on the final Graphic Novel Project during Weeks Four and Five.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the graphic novel handout, or click HERE.
CITATIONS
Please find below citations and synopses of the principal resources used throughout the unit. For more information about any one resource, click on the book's cover in the sidebar to the right.
The principal text utilized throughout our unit, and the one that most inspired us to pursue the study of New Orleans, is Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Various other readings supplement this main reading, including excerpts from Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Passing by Nella Larsen, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, but Neufeld's graphic novel is the only text students will read cover-to-cover.
An alternative to a traditional prose text, we hope this choice will appeal to middle school students since graphic novels and comic books are very popular reading material for adolescents. They may interact with the A.D. on an entirely different level than traditional texts, viewing it as fun and a little bit devious with respect to educational custom even while actively working to decode or 'read' both images as well as text on each page. Thus the graphic novel format is uniquely engaging and accessible for a variety of learners, encouraging students to think critically, build flexible media literacy skills, and foster self-motivation and academic engagement.
This text is likely to challenge younger readers due to the necessity for a certain amount of background knowledge in order to gain full understanding of and appreciation for Neufeld's characters and plot. We have confidence, however, that with the right scaffolding and support, even those students with limited relevant knowledge would find the book compelling. We will work closely with the Social Studies teachers to ensure that students acquire necessary historical background information at appropriate intervals to support their readings and will supplement these lessons when necessary to ensure that students find the text coherent and meaningful.
The vocabulary in A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is fairly straightforward and accessible, befitting its graphic novel format. Neufeld does at times employ the use of what could be deemed as foul language and certain characters' verbal repertoires contain several expletives, but these controversial word choices are not gratuitous; rather they were artistic choices made by the author to better develop his characters. Prior to reading the novel, we will send a letter home to parents or guardians explaining the issue and why we believe it can be addressed in a healthy, educational format. Should parents request their child refrain from such exposure, we will provide alternative but comparable readings for those students or censor A.D. as needed.
There also exist some hurricane- and levee-related terms and New Orleans-specific references throughout the text that may frustrate understanding, but these could be touched upon briefly in tandem with the readings. Rather than framing vocabulary lessons around the novel, however, it could prove far more fruitful for students to examine and practice reading vernacular as several of the characters speak in dialects that deviate from Standard American English.
Students may also find the subject matter distressing and emotionally taxing as they encounter several characters that must face extremely upsetting circumstances. Based upon our introductory lesson, supporting materials, and their paralleled studies in Social Studies, however, we expect that students will not only appreciate the gravity of the situations described but also understand the importance of looking closely at such events even when they make us uncomfortable.
As we read A.D., we will also encourage students to remain aware of the choices Neufeld made with his illustrations and dialogue, asking them to examine those choices and think critically about why they were made. What do the abrupt color changes represent? Is there any significance to the timing of such color alterations? How does frame size - from a few square inches to a full two-page spread - affect the telling of the story? What current conventions exist for dialogue-use in graphic novels and comics? Does Neufeld conform to or adapt these conventions? Such questions will be raised regularly to help students critically analyze the artistic choices made throughout the novel as well as prepare them to make similar choices of their own as they create their own graphic novels at the end of the unit.
WORKSHEETS & HANDOUTS
Please find below, in order of use, links to a daily planning matrix for the entire unit and all referenced handouts and worksheets. Certain supplementary materials are also crossposted under the COLLABORATE and LESSONS tabs on the menu bar above.
PLANNING MATRIX
A day-by-day planning matrix for the entire five-week unit. Details student activities, teaching methods, and forms of assessment organized in table format. For teacher use only.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the entire five-week planning matrix, or click HERE.
DIALOGUE JOURNAL HANDOUT
Worksheet to help organize student reading of a format that may be unfamiliar to them in an educational context. Refer to this worksheet often to ensure that students are thinking about the questions discussed. Consistent use will help in the completion of the final project. For student use throughout the reading of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Dialogue Journal handout, or click HERE.
TABLEAUX HANDOUT
Instruction sheet for get-up-and-move Tableaux activity. Handout explains the activity, helps to structure it, and provides suggestions and tips for students. For student use with A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Tableaux handout, or click HERE.
TEA PARTY WORKSHEETS
Worksheet outlines five main character roles for the teacher to clip apart and randomly distribute to each student. It also organizes the activity step-by-step with instructions and suggestions for students' actions and encourages critical engagement with the activity. For student use with A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Tea Party worksheets, or click HERE.
COLLABORATIVE WORKSHEET
Worksheet introduces two hypothetical situations as prompts for student free-writing. This assignment is intended to be followed up in Social Studies later in the school day but can be adapted for single-period instruction if need be. For student use in collaboration with their Social Studies classes during Week Two.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the collaborative worksheet, or click HERE.
CONFEDERACY HANDOUT
Excerpt from chapter one of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces touching upon New Orleans racial, socioeconomic, and power tensions as well as culture and dialect. For student use in tandem with Larsen's Passing during Week Four.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the Confederacy handout, or click HERE.
GRAPHIC NOVEL HANDOUT
Assignment sheet explaining the cumulative Graphic Novel Project and outlining criteria for assessment and grading. Provides several suggestions for topics and organizes group work. For student use on the final Graphic Novel Project during Weeks Four and Five.
Please click the image at left to view or download
the graphic novel handout, or click HERE.
CITATIONS
Please find below citations and synopses of the principal resources used throughout the unit. For more information about any one resource, click on the book's cover in the sidebar to the right.
Eggers, Dave. Zeitoun. New York: McSweeney's, 2009. 351. Print.
Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his family flees. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to rescue people, before being arrested by an armed squad and swept powerlessly into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality. When a guard accuses him of being a member of Al Qaeda, he sees that race and culture may explain his predicament. (Synopsis adapted from a review by The New Yorker.)
Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Penguin Books, 2003. 122. Print.
Clare and Irene were two childhood friends. They lost touch when Clare's father died and she moved in with two white aunts. By hiding that Clare was part-black, they allowed her to 'pass' as a white woman and marry a white racist. Irene lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of events as each woman is fascinated and seduced by the other's daring lifestyle. (Synopsis adapted from a Wikipedia article.)
Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. 1st. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009. 193. Print.
In the dialogue-free opening chapter, 'The Storm,' Neufeld powerfully intersperses images of the hurricane gathering speed with the cities it crippled when it hit Louisiana on August 29, 2005. Readers are then introduced to seven New Orleans residents from all walks of life and parts of the city. Denise and her family—mother Louise, niece Cydney and Cydney's daughter, R'nae—join thousands of hungry and thirsty New Orleanians waiting to be evacuated after their apartment is destroyed. Leo, the publisher of a local music zine, and Michelle, a waitress, reluctantly leave the city for Houston and are devastated when their apartment (and Leo's impressive comics collection) is flooded. Other characters flee, or try unsuccessfully to ride out the storm. (Synopsis adapted from a review by Publishers Weekly.)
Toole, John Kennedy. Confederacy of Dunces. Baton Rogue: Louisiana State University State Press, 1980. 636. Print.
Set in New Orleans in the early 1960s, Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but slothful 30-year-old man still living with his mother in the city's Uptown neighborhood, must set out to get himself a job. In his quest for employment, he has various adventures with colorful characters in the French Quarter. (Synopsis adapted from a Wikipedia article.)
