Adapting Literature

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 07.01.06

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction & Inspiration
  2. Intention
  3. Research & Rationale: The What and the Why
  4. Strategy 1: Establishing a Hook through the Interactive Read-Aloud
  5. Strategy 2: Creating Culture of Student Ownership through Cooperative Grouping
  6. Strategy 3: Establishing Intimacy with the Text through Performative Embodiment
  7. Classroom Activity 1
  8. Classroom Activity 2
  9. Classroom Activity 3
  10. Appendices
  11. Annotated Bibliography

The Color Purple's Three-Fold Adaptation: Examining Protagonists and Media through a Self-Reflective, Critical Lens

Ane Nyoka Ebie-Mouton

Published September 2007

Tools for this Unit:

Intention

This curriculum unit will increase my preparation for a literacy rich fifth-grade classroom environment with performance by enabling me to flesh out and structure my curriculum in a way that creates a concrete connection between the in multiple installations of The Color Purple and the real world in which my students live. The particular things I will illustrate are the interpretation of the original story and societal issues it stirred up, one dealing with depictions of African-American males, and perceptions of African-American female beauty. I also want to use the work to highlight the cathartic nature of journal writing. I wish to examine how Oprah Winfrey's production of the Broadway adaptation cultivated a wave of newfound awareness, appreciation and investment in live musical theatre for African-Americans. She established a thread from past to present between the themes of self-esteem, generational curses, and illumination of gifts with her recent announcement of Fantasia Barrino, the season three American Idol winner, as the headliner, a pop culture icon who has significance for female youth in our nation, across race and class lines. Fantasia Barrino's pursuit of her dream as American Idol was controversial and vindicating. Fantasia's life circumstances that made for such an unlikely road to becoming an American Idol have much in common with Walker's conception of the protagonist Celie. My girls especially need to have exposure to the Fantasia's factual and Celie's fictive life.

Exposure will enable them to recognize the efficacious and powerful connection this American Idol and literary protagonist share, validating their own real world experiences. These characters and their intertwining stories will be studied and embraced, interpreted through performative adaptation, and communed with as a vehicle by which their own voices will emerge. It is my hope that the curriculum unit will enable me to clearly chart an effective course by which this vulnerable yet life-changing experimentation can take place.

For the purpose of this unit, I will be exploring the following literary, film, and performance mediums: Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg's film ,The Color Purple, and The Color Purple a Musical, specifically with Fantasia starring as the second, most current Celie. These works will be examined in concurrence with Fantasia's autobiographical novel, Life is Not a Fairy Tale.

Comments:

Be the first to comment on this unit!

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey
Feedback