More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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The Things they Carried tells a complicated story in a simple way, with O’Brien using relate-able language to break down the complexities of the Vietnam war as best as he can. Students are lured in by the promise of death and curse words, but become ensnared in a beautifully tragic story populated by characters close to their own age, who are fighting a war they don’t understand, and carrying the weight of Vietnam for the rest of their lives.
The Things they Carried parallels the prejudices my students have been exposed to through readings like Othello and The Pearl, and sadly, their own lives. This story not only aligns with my yearlong curriculum chronologically, but emphasizes the cyclical nature of mistreatment throughout our history. It also leads directly into my final unit on dystopias where students read a variety of dystopian short stories and articles about mass-consumerism and collective unconscious.
Students will engage with the text in much deeper ways than simply reading. They will be expected to use the novel as a jumping-off point for analysis not only of the historical and plot-based events in the text, but also of the world around them. The Things They Carried also asks students to try and understand things such as truth, and how it can be altered by perspective or trauma. The surreal nature of war and post-traumatic stress disorder also gives students the opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing abstract concepts and themes.
About my class
The Things they Carried tells a complicated story in a simple way, with O’Brien using relate-able language to break down the complexities of the Vietnam war as best as he can. Students are lured in by the promise of death and curse words, but become ensnared in a beautifully tragic story populated by characters close to their own age, who are fighting a war they don’t understand, and carrying the weight of Vietnam for the rest of their lives.
The Things they Carried parallels the prejudices my students have been exposed to through readings like Othello and The Pearl, and sadly, their own lives. This story not only aligns with my yearlong curriculum chronologically, but emphasizes the cyclical nature of mistreatment throughout our history. It also leads directly into my final unit on dystopias where students read a variety of dystopian short stories and articles about mass-consumerism and collective unconscious.
Students will engage with the text in much deeper ways than simply reading. They will be expected to use the novel as a jumping-off point for analysis not only of the historical and plot-based events in the text, but also of the world around them. The Things They Carried also asks students to try and understand things such as truth, and how it can be altered by perspective or trauma. The surreal nature of war and post-traumatic stress disorder also gives students the opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing abstract concepts and themes.