Unit Introduction
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."
Magic - Illusion - Fantasy - Memory - Dreams - Time
This Unit explores a game between two dueling magicians and their apprentices, fierce in competition to bring this fantastical circus to its fruition!
Steeped in vivid imagery, The Night Circus entices students into a journey in which they do not only learn about fate and free will, but also about society and each person's effect on it and its governance over them. The text offers educators an opportunity to delve into student's subconscious and bring out their innermost thoughts. With unconventional ways to incorporate ideas like memory and dreams, even death and life, The Night Circus does what Moby Dick or 1984 could not. It really activates the students imagination. In this unit, students will travel with the Circus as reveurs themselves, and open each tent to see how it will interact within the circus itself, and how it will then affect all the people who visit the circus and those who they then meet.
The unit focuses on core ideas like Time, Social Change, Loss, and Magic. Over the course of the unit, the student will be designing their own circus based around the idea of the circus as a diverse and sentient being that can create social change. In groups they will literally create their own circus: tents they will have, what sort of food is served, walking characters, acts, costumes, etc. As they read the novel, their tents will become more and more creative as they see just what they can do by manipulating common thought into a stretch for the imagination. They will create a living representation of their circus, in map or diorama format, and will improve in writing skills in an essay describing their rationale for their creation.
The unit begins with a week of diversity with special workshop days on the history of magic, circuses, fortune telling, tattoos, and markings in different cultures. After establishing a historical background for the text, students will dive in to the novel, focusing in on connections to Shakespeare and manipulation of time. They will be inspired to visualize the text. As they read through the novel, students will delve deeper into travel and placement. Throughout the unit, students will construct an extended timeline around the classroom. The novel jumps into the future and back into the past, so the students will help keep track of what happens when and really be able to see the manipulation of time not only in the story but also in the author's writing. Students will keep dream journals in which they chronicle their own dreams and memories. Ultimately, by the end of the unit, students will have produced a circus of their own and in the process will have learned how something so unusual as a circus can inspire social change.
Magic - Illusion - Fantasy - Memory - Dreams - Time
This Unit explores a game between two dueling magicians and their apprentices, fierce in competition to bring this fantastical circus to its fruition!
Steeped in vivid imagery, The Night Circus entices students into a journey in which they do not only learn about fate and free will, but also about society and each person's effect on it and its governance over them. The text offers educators an opportunity to delve into student's subconscious and bring out their innermost thoughts. With unconventional ways to incorporate ideas like memory and dreams, even death and life, The Night Circus does what Moby Dick or 1984 could not. It really activates the students imagination. In this unit, students will travel with the Circus as reveurs themselves, and open each tent to see how it will interact within the circus itself, and how it will then affect all the people who visit the circus and those who they then meet.
The unit focuses on core ideas like Time, Social Change, Loss, and Magic. Over the course of the unit, the student will be designing their own circus based around the idea of the circus as a diverse and sentient being that can create social change. In groups they will literally create their own circus: tents they will have, what sort of food is served, walking characters, acts, costumes, etc. As they read the novel, their tents will become more and more creative as they see just what they can do by manipulating common thought into a stretch for the imagination. They will create a living representation of their circus, in map or diorama format, and will improve in writing skills in an essay describing their rationale for their creation.
The unit begins with a week of diversity with special workshop days on the history of magic, circuses, fortune telling, tattoos, and markings in different cultures. After establishing a historical background for the text, students will dive in to the novel, focusing in on connections to Shakespeare and manipulation of time. They will be inspired to visualize the text. As they read through the novel, students will delve deeper into travel and placement. Throughout the unit, students will construct an extended timeline around the classroom. The novel jumps into the future and back into the past, so the students will help keep track of what happens when and really be able to see the manipulation of time not only in the story but also in the author's writing. Students will keep dream journals in which they chronicle their own dreams and memories. Ultimately, by the end of the unit, students will have produced a circus of their own and in the process will have learned how something so unusual as a circus can inspire social change.
Unit Rationale
While The Night Circus may not seem like a book that relates to multiculturalism on the surface, we did not want to ignore the diversity in our classroom. For this reason, we began our unit with three diversity lessons, establishing a multicultural lens to examine the novel through, while reading it later. In his book, Privilege, Power, and Difference Allan Johnson states how we perpetuate privilege in education and in our community at large by ignoring it and “promoting the illusion that difference by itself is the problem,” (12). However, we believe differences and diversity bring a strength to the classroom, which is why we chose to acknowledge and celebrate it in the first few days. The first lesson deals with the history of the circus in different cultures. This allows the students to see the setting of The Night Circus as a dynamic atmosphere that has the potential for incorporating many cultures. The second lesson examines five short stories concerning magic in different countries, which relates to the two magicians and protagonists of the novel. This lesson gives the students to opportunity to compare and contrast the main characters’ forms of magic with other cultures. The third lesson concerns fortune telling in different cultures. Fate and knowing ones future is a predominant theme in the novel, which can be analyzed through a multicultural lens after this lesson. In addition, some of the characters actually use the methods discussed, such as tarot cards. The most important reason we wanted to emphasize these multicultural lessons was to address our unit long guiding question: How can literature act as a vehicle for social change? Our diversity lessons focus on the similarities between different cultural practices and literature. We want to show our students that literature can unite people of different backgrounds, not only exhibiting our differences, but also our commonalities. Literature can be the first step to breaking down those structural inequalities in education and moving towards classrooms that celebrate our diversity, similar to our own.
Our unit also includes movies, visual timelines, diagrams or maps, and film clips. While some critics may ask why we are including so many activities that do not include reading or riding, we would argue that these visuals only supplement reading comprehension and writing clarity. Burke states in his book The English Teacher’s Companion, “visual thinking is instrumental in my class as a tool for thoughtful engagement of all students,” (249). Not only is it helpful, but also it’s exciting! In addition, Visuals not only help with the general education students, but they also will aid our student, Doug, who has dyslexia. Our three ELL students will benefit from the visuals as well, because they may not be able to comprehend texts as quickly when reading. Having visuals is not a crutch, but an enhancement. The ELL students will also benefit from the group work that consistently occurs in the classroom. According to Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in Secondary School it is important to integrate ELL students into an active role in the classroom through “guided literacy groups… shared readings, and other whole group activities,” (Faltis, Coulter 75). We want all of our students to feel welcomed and part of a community in the classroom, which is why group work is so important. It also allows our students to learn from each other and other cultures or viewpoints.
Most importantly, our book and unit encourage student centered learning. The Night Circus, and the fantasy genre in general, is exciting and requires imagination, which is why we wanted our final project to mirror this sentiment. The final project is not a paper or a written exam, but a group project that encourages creation, which is the top level of Bloom’s Taxonomy and highest level of thinking. The final project requires students to create their own circus in groups, including models, newspaper reviews, descriptions, and a four page rationale. The project still requires, thinking, reading, discussing, and writing, yet allows students to take charge of their education and enjoy learning. The reading throughout the unit is intensive and at some points heavy. In addition, each day we help the students to analyze the text more independently. Our goal was to maintain a rigorous curriculum, while still having fun, which is what we achieved in the end.
Sources:
Burke, Jim. English Teachers Companion. 3rd ed. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Faltis, Christian, and Cathy Coulter. Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in Secondary School. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power, and Difference. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Our unit also includes movies, visual timelines, diagrams or maps, and film clips. While some critics may ask why we are including so many activities that do not include reading or riding, we would argue that these visuals only supplement reading comprehension and writing clarity. Burke states in his book The English Teacher’s Companion, “visual thinking is instrumental in my class as a tool for thoughtful engagement of all students,” (249). Not only is it helpful, but also it’s exciting! In addition, Visuals not only help with the general education students, but they also will aid our student, Doug, who has dyslexia. Our three ELL students will benefit from the visuals as well, because they may not be able to comprehend texts as quickly when reading. Having visuals is not a crutch, but an enhancement. The ELL students will also benefit from the group work that consistently occurs in the classroom. According to Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in Secondary School it is important to integrate ELL students into an active role in the classroom through “guided literacy groups… shared readings, and other whole group activities,” (Faltis, Coulter 75). We want all of our students to feel welcomed and part of a community in the classroom, which is why group work is so important. It also allows our students to learn from each other and other cultures or viewpoints.
Most importantly, our book and unit encourage student centered learning. The Night Circus, and the fantasy genre in general, is exciting and requires imagination, which is why we wanted our final project to mirror this sentiment. The final project is not a paper or a written exam, but a group project that encourages creation, which is the top level of Bloom’s Taxonomy and highest level of thinking. The final project requires students to create their own circus in groups, including models, newspaper reviews, descriptions, and a four page rationale. The project still requires, thinking, reading, discussing, and writing, yet allows students to take charge of their education and enjoy learning. The reading throughout the unit is intensive and at some points heavy. In addition, each day we help the students to analyze the text more independently. Our goal was to maintain a rigorous curriculum, while still having fun, which is what we achieved in the end.
Sources:
Burke, Jim. English Teachers Companion. 3rd ed. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Faltis, Christian, and Cathy Coulter. Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in Secondary School. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power, and Difference. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.