While digging through my Things Fall Apart materials, I realized that I have taught this book in a few different contexts: to advanced 8th graders in 2008, advanced 10th graders in 2012, and then to my IB SL Language & Lit students in 2018. I don't recommend trying to teach it to 8th graders. I don't really remember what I was thinking or why I did that, but I did enjoy reading it with my 10 Intensified and 11 IB, for different reasons. 10 Intensified and IB 11 are different classes, so I taught the book a bit differently for each. I combined all of the materials for all of the classes and then regrouped them in a way I thought would be most helpful (pre-reading/during/after/extension, etc.).
Things Fall Apart Pre-Reading Materials
Things Fall Apart Plot/Comprehension Activities (During Reading)
Travel journal (paid product)
Things Fall Apart Tests & Quizzes
Things Fall Apart Summative Activities (End)
Things Fall Apart Socratic Seminar (paid product)
Things Fall Apart Connected Texts
"The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling (sets colonialism context)
Purple Hibiscus
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a contemporary Nigerian writer. She has published quite a few books but these are the ones I have used in the classroom. I have asked students to read Purple Hibiscus with Things Fall Apart and write a compare contrast paper. As well as bringing the Ibo from Things Fall Apart into modern day, it is just a darn good story that I enjoy reading every time.
Americanah
We study Americanah in my IB Lang & Lit IB SL class and there's a direct allusion to Things Fall Apart.
These are just a few materials that I have used for Things Fall Apart. If you have any resources that you would like to share with others, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. I will be posting more analysis passages when I get into my old IB materials.
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