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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was a favorite in my classroom for many years. It was one of those books that kids would stop me on the stairs about and say “Ms. L-I haven’t read a book in years but I finished that one in one night! It was soooooo good!” Those kinds of comments would make my whole day... maybe even my whole year.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a hard sell to administrators and parents in the first place because of its racist and sexual content, but the kids loved it, so I would teach it whenever I could. After Sherman Alexie’s sexual assaults went public around 2018, I was so mad, for all the obvious reasons, and the book itself is it no longer on the reading list for 9th grade. I remember one of my coworkers saying that we should separate the art from the artist and I am still working through this idea. I don’t know how I feel yet. I am reluctant to not teach or offer one of the few books my struggling readers like.
That all being said, I used to really enjoy it and so did my kids. It's been a few years since I last taught it, as I haven't had a class that has chosen it as their class text. (I usually let kids vote on the book we are going to read as a group. I describe the simple process in this post.) Below are some free resources that could be helpful to others who are teaching The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. I taught it a few times over a few different years so some of the materials below overlap in some places.
My objectives for the unit were simple: I wanted kids to learn about Native Americans and reservations, make connections between texts, increase their vocabulary, write a character analysis essay, and explore themes connected to identity and hope.
Day 1
I started this unit with a character quote activity. I posted them on butcher paper that I then hung around the room. Students had to read the quotations and then write down something they inferred about the character or learned about the character. They could also react to the passage.
Students then had to choose one quotation and turn the information on the butcher paper into a paragraph. I called this the “Character Prediction Paragraph.”
Once the kids were done with their predictions, we talked through each sheet of butcher paper, summarizing, and I explained that all of these quotations were about the main character in a book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
Next, we previewed the book cover and made some predictions. After the predictions, I read Chapter 1 out loud to the kids and we talked through what we learned. I used this handout to guide the students through it: Absolutely True Diary Day 1 Prediction Guide
Day 2
After introducing the main characters and hopefully hooking the kids in a bit, I tried to build a bit of background knowledge about reservations by having them watch an episode of 30 Days titled “Life on an Indian Reservation.”
We used a modified “KWL” chart for lesson... actually I guess it’s more of a “KL” chart now that I think about it, but, anyway, first kids wrote down what they knew about reservations, then they filled in whatever they learned about reservations while listening to Chapter 1. They then filled in the rest of the chart as we watched the episode.
Day 3
Once we finished watching “Life on an Indian Reservation” and filled in the KL chart, I asked students to write a short essay about what they learned. I think I did this as a writing diagnostic because it seems like a buzzkill to do at this point in the unit. I had students finish their short essay for homework.
Day 4
After building some background knowledge about reservations, we revisited Chapter 1. This time, I asked the kids to read pages 1-14 on their own and fill in this Chapter 1 Character Chart.
Day 5
One thing I consistently tried to focus on during this unit, which I usually taught to grade-level freshmen, was annotating. This was usually a new concept to them, so I always started by introducing text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world type annotations, which I think are pretty accessible for kids just learning to annotate.
After introducing students to the different types of connections (explaining them, defining them, and modeling how to make them), I asked students to read through page 24 and annotate by finding two examples of each type of annotation. This usually turned into homework.
Another year, I asked students to fill in this reading guide, “Reading Guide 2,” where the kids continued their study of Rowdy and Junior’s friendship and then compared Rowdy to their own best friend.
Day 6
I started the next day of class by having the kids turn to the others at their table and share out three text connections that they made, and then I asked them to read the next chunk of pages (24-53) and continue making connections.
Day 7
Once kids covered some ground in the book, we stopped to process. On this day, I started with a journal prompt and discussion.
Prompt: Junior thinks that white people have the most hope. What do you think? Write for 10 minutes and be prepared to share one idea from your journal.
Once we discussed the journal, we filled in a character chart to process some of the new characters. First I lectured on direct and indirect characterization(paid product) and then I had the kids work at their tables to fill in as much as they could of this Absolutely True Diary character chart.
As an exit ticket, I gave kids a blank sheet of scrap paper and asked them to list five characters AND one major issue that this novel is going to tackle.
For homework, I asked students to read and annotate pages 54-80.
Day 8
I started this class off with another journal prompt.
Prompt: In one paragraph, write about a time when you felt that you or someone you know were stereotyped. Or, write about a time when you stereotyped others. Connect your experiences to Junior’s arrival at his new school.
After journaling, I handed out scrap paper and had students write down any questions about the story OR a line from the story that they thought was funny. We then went around the room and shared out.
This part of the book was about how to fit into your neighborhood. I asked the kids to make a “rules” list for their neighborhood, family or other group that they are a part of. We then talked about the “rules,” which ones made sense and which ones didn’t.
For homework I asked kids to read pages 81-100.
Day 9
As I have started many other classes, I started today with a journal. The kids could choose from one of the following prompts:
Option 1: Junior make’s friends with Gordy. Why do you think he did this? Would you make friends with Gordy?
Option 2: Junior’s sister up and left the reservation and got married. What do you think about this decision? Do you know anyone who has done something like this before?
Next, I had kids complete this Character Review Handout.
After the review, I talked to kids about the characteristics of healthy decisions vs. unhealthy decisions and had them fill in the “pre-reading” section of this handout: Absolutely True Diary Reading Guide for Pages 100-117.
After the whole class discussion, I put kids with partners and asked them to read pages 100-117 and complete the rest of the handout.
For homework, I asked them to finish the “during” section of the handout and then and read through page 134.
This post is continue here: Free Unit for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian-Part 2
