Overview

This lesson is designed to have students work independently using criteria to determine narrator unreliability, what it tells us about the character and about human nature, and writing an essay. Students will read and develop a reasoned response to a text by considering the narrator’s reliability. In addition, they will construct arguments in support of claims about unreliability and about themes and worldviews of texts. 

Guiding Questions

• If narrator is reliable, what might this suggest about human nature?
• If narrator isn’t reliable, what might this suggest about human nature?
• What does this story add to our understanding of the world?

Text/Materials

• “The Jacket”
• Character Map
• Hints from the Text
• Argument structure template 

Activities

1. Instruct students to read “The Jacket” silently and annotate as they read, focusing on general understanding of the text as well as on the strategies for detecting unreliability. Students should fill out the Character Map.

2. Instruct students to re-read the story, this time using the Hints from the Text worksheet. This worksheet will help students construct their essay in which they argue whether the narrator is reliable or unreliable. 

3. Put students into small groups to answer the following questions:

• If the narrator is reliable, what does this suggest about human nature? If the narrator isn’t reliable, what does this suggest about human nature?

4. Provide instructions for the essay on the board:

• Write an essay where you show how much trust we should place in the narrator’s version of what happened in the story. Use evidence from the story and from your own experience when showing whether we should believe the narrator. Then explain what the narrator’s version might be telling us about the character and about human nature.

Students should revise their essays based on the weaknesses or problem areas in their drafts and practice responding to counter arguments by writing a paragraph using the template for responding to counter arguments. This template is included in argument structure template. 

Assessment

The following are means of assessing students during activities so instruction can be adjusted and differentiated according to students’ needs.

• Character Map
• Hints from the text
• Essay editing and rewriting
• Final Essay