What has “fallen apart” in this novel, and who’s to blame for this destruction? Could Okonkwo’s fate have been avoided? Could Umuofian society have held together better? How? In this lesson, students will participate in a discussion to reflect on and attempt to answer these questions and others.

Read-alouds of The Story of Lightning and Thunder (a Nigerian tale) and The Story of the Milky Way: A Cherokee Tale introduce the concept of a pourquoi tale, a folk tale that explains how or why something came to exist. Background information on the Nigerian and Cherokee cultures (assembled by the teacher from the listed websites) sets the stage for discussion of how beliefs and customs might influence the narrative and the moral of a story. The class works together to outline the key elements of pourquoi stories, and students read and analyze an additional story using the Pourquoi Reading Worksheet. Working in cooperative groups, students then use these stories as a framework on which to write their own pourquoi tales. Final production is either a skit or illustrated narration of each group's story. If these books are not available, other folktale books will substitute and the lesson can be adapted.

Lesson plan where students must write an original short story that cannot contain over 100 words.