"Things Fall Apart" Projects

The "Things Fall Apart" project could be modified to fit a lesson on any book.  The basic idea is that the students were introduced to different themes and symbols in a book through hands on and creative projects.  The projects were kicked off by me explaining what each "job" was to be.  The students then were able to apply to the job of their choice.  I put them on teams based on their applications.  The teams were as follows: 

Cultural Anthropologists- Created a museum exhibit that taught classmates about the culture of the Igbo tribe that the book focused on
Landscape Artists- Recreated the landscape of the book
Music Group- Created a sound track for the novel (some groups chose to write their own songs) 
Religion Studies- Broke down the religion found in the book in a poster presentation 
Drama Group- Wrote a modern drama of them play and performed it for the class 

The projects happened simultaneously with the reading of the book.  Students we given ample class time to work with their groups to create projects.  There were mini lessons to supplement the learning of literary terms and vocabulary but for the most part the class was student lead and focused the entire time. 

Performance Standards Covered (Georgia): 

ELAWLRL1  The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence
(i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism,
plot events, main ideas, and cultural characteristics) in a variety of texts
representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay,
editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for
interpretation

ELAWLRL2  The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a
work of world literature and provides evidence from the text to support
understanding.

ELAWLRL3  The student deepens understanding of literary works from around
the world by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background,
as well as to works from other time periods