Love
Must Not Be Forgotten
By
Zhang Jie
Ruth Ann Perry
August 5, 2005
Honor Sophomore/Senior Levels Literature
Class
A Five to Seven Day Unit
Includes Survey, Discussion Questions
and Answers, Vocabulary
Assignment, Writing Assignment and Short
Stories
Context
This
lesson plan was specifically designed for the honor sophomore level, however; it can also be adapted for the studies/remedial sophomore level and the senior world literature class as
well. For the purpose of this lesson
plan, I will concentrate on the honor sophomore students because this
particular short story appears in the anthology. Also their reading list
consists of “cultures in crisis” literature, such as: Fahrenheit
451, Lord of the Flies, 1984, Brave New World, Night, Tale of
Our high school of 1800 students is very diverse. About 40 ethnic groups are represented in our school; however, we have very few Asian students. Our biggest Caucasian group is Eastern European, with a growing Hispanic, Arabic, and Palestinian groups. The number of African-American students has remained at about 18% of our student body. The high school is a one-school district located in a primarily residential neighborhood with very little remaining industry. Our students come from what used to be the “blue collar workers” and many are the first generation to graduate high school or to go on to college. The number of students designated as living at the “poverty level” has gradually increased to about 8%. For the first time last year three families were identified as “homeless”. The challenge becomes helping these students from such diverse backgrounds recognize the universal desires, problems, and tragedies common to all mankind.
Summary
As
the story begins, Shanshan, the 30-year-old narrator is questioning her own
identity and her reluctance to marry her handsome boyfriend. Her mother, who she describes as her “closest
friend”, has recently died having left instructions to destroy her complete set
of Chekov stories and her diary along with her body. According to her mother’s wishes, Shanshan
did burn the books, but could not part with the diary. As she reads her mother’s words, one of the
many things she discovers is that her mother had had a secret love. Although set with the Cultural Revolution in
The Big Picture
According
to the 2000 edition of the sophomore anthology, The Language of Literature published by McDougal Littell, Zhang Jie
suffered both poverty and government control within the Communist system. After being forced to study statistics and
work in a factory, she was finally able to begin her writing career in
Professor
Sarah Stevens, an expert lecturer at the Teaching East Asian Literature in the
High School Summer Workshop of 2005, placed Zhang Jie as a prominent
Post-Maoist fiction writer. Because of
the “unabashed” approach to the controversial topics of romance and gender in
this short story, it caused quite a stir in the Chinese society (Stevens p.
19).
Many general characteristics of the writing during this period appear in Jie’s story. Writing about a woman’s writing along with references to female sexuality, gender issues and Western contact were all popular devices during this movement. Her writing can also be seen as representative of the “Wound” and “Roots” Post-Maoist literature. Even though her criticism of Maoist policies might have been mostly inferred, they were presented through the love story, which Shanshan read in her mother’s diary or memoir, both characteristics of the “Wound” literature. The narrator is obviously searching for her place in the world and questioning traditional ways and morals as reflected in the “Root” literature of this same period (Stevens p. 15).
Discussion Questions and
Answers and Activities
In
preparation of all unit/lesson plans, I use Blank’s following four-question method to guide my choices of
questions, activities, and evaluations:
1. What facts do I want the students to know?
a. Zhange Jie’s biographical
information (See Big Picture)
b. Definition of the following
terms: renounce, atonement, heretic,
revolution, culture
2. What ideas do I want the
students to understand?
a. The causes and effects of
social change as well as the benefits and losses
b. Individual choices and
actions are affected by their society
c. Often there is a counter
revolution
(Possible answers found on the Student Cultural
Revolution Chart)
3. What skills do I want the
students to demonstrate?
a. The ability to participate
in effective discussion—oral and written
b. The ability to read and
understand the text
c. The ability to thoughtfully
complete the chart
d. The ability to write an
effective answer for an essay question
(Specific discussion and essay questions and answers
follow)
4. What moral and/or values do I
want the students to develop?
a. Begin to understand the
complexities of modern cultures
b. Begin to understand the
conflict between the individual and society
c. Begin to understand the
similarities among people rather than concentrating on the differences
d. Begin to recognize the
importance of literature in understanding ourselves and others
This
introductory activity will encourage
interest and discussion before and after reading the story. Students are asked
to read The Pre-and Post-Reading Survey
and respond quickly with the assurance that they will have an opportunity for
discussion later. Their choices are:
strongly agree, somewhat agree, strongly disagree or somewhat disagree. The statements are:
1. A woman can be completely
successful without husband or children.
2. A sense of duty should never
be a reason for marriage.
3. A sexual relationship is
always part of true love.
4. Marriage is a social
contract.
5. Citizens must always support
the government during times of crisis.
6. Citizens owe their
government obedience and service.
7. All revolutions have
something to do with government.
8. Your greatest duty is to
yourself.
9. Parents’ values always
become the children’s.
10. Face-to-face conversation is
always most effective.
After
students have read and responded to the statements, take a tally of the number
of students who answered either strongly agree or strongly disagree for each
statement. Choose a student from each
group to support his or her answer. Give
all students the option to change their answers after each debate. Continue through the ten statements and
answers. Remind the students to keep
these ideas in mind as they read because they will respond to the same statements
after reading the story. Students are
instructed to keep their completed survey in their notebooks along with the
other activities connected to this literature.
This activity should take about 5 minutes for the students to complete
survey. The length of the discussion
will depend on the interest of the students and their ability to articulate
ideas and time available to the teacher. (See Appendix A for student handout)
The
vocabulary activity will follow the
Pre-and Post-Reading Survey. Students
may wish to work together as a class or in small groups or as individuals. Even though the text identifies and defines
10 vocabulary words from the story, only three are included in the activity in
addition to two of my own. The students are given a graphic organizer to be
completed for each of the following words:
renounce, atonement, heretic, revolution, culture. Their assignment is to provide a definition
and to answer the following questions for each word: what is it like? (three things or ideas),
what is its opposite?(one thing or idea), what category does it belong
to?(object/thing/idea/emotion/behavior,etc), and what is a specific
example?(name of person, movie, event, etc). (See Appendix B for graphic
organizer). Students should keep their
completed vocabulary activities in their notebooks along with their surveys to
be referred to later. This vocabulary activity lends itself to the discussion
of important ideas and events in the story, particularly the universal idea of
a “cultural revolution”. This vocabulary
activity and discussion should take about 25 minutes depending on the students’
ability to find and write definitions and to identify the other qualities of
the terms.
The
teacher should then lead a discussion about political revolutions—their causes,
effects, the possible benefits and losses and the possibility of a
counter-revolution. Possible responses
for the causes might include general or specific dissatisfaction of the people
and the effects might include violence, fear, excitement, improvement or
decline of quality of life. The possible
benefits and losses might include more jobs and education and the loss of
traditional values and class structures.
Examples of a counter revolution might be the French Revolution when the
“revolutionaries” eventually turned their violence upon themselves and the
“Hippies” came of age and became part of the “establishment”.
Now
guide the discussion toward cultural revolutions—their causes, effects,
possible benefits and losses. Help the
students recognize the similarities of the causes, effects, possible benefits
and losses between these two types of revolutions. Then present the idea that they are in the
midst of a “cultural revolution” of their own.
There should be a level of discomfort and disbelieve among the
students. Our Cultural Revolution Chart should help them understand this
idea and improve their understanding of the story. (Appendix C)
After
the students have completed the chart either working individually or in small
groups, lead a discussion about what they may have learned or come to
understand about their culture compared to the “old traditions”. Now, to help them understand the Chinese
Cultural Revolution in particular, ask them to imagine that their age group
from about 18-23 has been given official sanction to use whatever means they
feel necessary to get the changes they want.
As a class discuss their responses to the following questions: How would you use the media—movies, TV,
advertisements, Internet, etc—to promote your ideas? What laws would you put into effect? How would you punish those who did not agree
with your ideas or follow your laws? How
would you reward those who helped “the cause”?
Explain that this is exactly what happened during
Now
as the students read the story they will not only better understand the
Cultural Revolution in
The amount of time required for these pre-reading activities and discussions will depend on many variables such as time, number and level of students, etc. Two to three class periods would seem reasonable, however.
Students
will now read the short story Love Must
Not Be Forgotten (Appendix D). As an informal evaluation and a source
for important discussion, students will return to the Pre-and Post-Reading Survey and make changes. Hopefully, the students will now have a
better understanding of the circumstantial and cultural nature of the questions
and answers. As a more formal writing
evaluation, students must now read Chinua Achebe’s short story Marriage is a Private Affair (Appendix E) and write an essay
comparing the “cultural revolutions” and “counter-revolutions” in both short
stories and their own “cultural revolution” and the possibility of a
counter-revolution in the next generation.
They must use specifics from each story and their own society to support
their ideas. They must also use some of their vocabulary words.
Connections to Other Literary Works
This
story and the related activities are connected to much of the honor sophomore
curriculum, such as: Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, Lord
of the Flies, Night, Tale of
Resources
The Language of Literature, published by McDougal
Littell in 2000 p. 188-210
Teaching East Asian
Literature in the High School Summer Workshop 2005,
Professors Sarah Stevens and Jeff Wasserstrom,
lectures and handouts
Word Works: Cracking Vocabulary’s CODE, published by Thoughtful
Education Press, LLC, Silver Strong & Associates, LLC. 2004
APPENDIX A
PRE-AND POST
SURVEY
Love Must Not Be Forgotten
Pre-and Post-Reading Survey
Quickly read the following statements and mark your
answers. Please keep this survey so that
you can refer to it again after you have read the literature.
1. Strongly
Agree
2.
Somewhat Agree
3.
Somewhat Disagree
4.
Strongly Disagree
_____ 1. A woman can be completely successful
without husband or children.
_____ 2. A sense of duty should never be a
reason for marriage.
_____ 3. A sexual relationship is always part of
true love.
_____ 4. Marriage is a social contract.
_____ 5. Citizens must always support the
government during times of crisis.
_____ 6. Citizens owe their government obedience
and service.
_____ 7. All revolutions have something to do
with government.
_____ 8. Your greatest duty is to yourself.
_____ 9. Parents’ values always become the
children’s.
_____ 10. Face-to-face
conversation is always most effect.
APPENDIX B
VOCABULARY GRAPHIC
ORGANIZER
Category
Properties
Comparisons
Examples
APPENDIX C
CULTURAL REVOLUTION CHART
Cultural Revolution Chart
What Questions begin to be ask?
Why? Who
become the leaders? Why?
Who begins to ask the questions?
Why? Who
become the distracters? Why?
Explain how the following parts of the culture change:
Family Structure Jobs
Gender Roles Arts/Entertainment
Schools/Education Social Behavior
Religion Class
Structure
Who benefits? Why? Who suffers? Why?
Describe what sort of Counter-Revolution may occur. Why?
Write a one-sentence conclusion.
APPENDIX D
LOVE
MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN
BY
ZHANG JIE
Found in The Language of Literature, published by McDougal Littell in 2000
p. 197-208.
APPENDIX E
MARRIAGE
IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR
BY
CHINUA ACHEBE
Translated by Gladys Yang
Found in The Language of Literature, published by McDougal Littell in 2000
p. 189-193.