Introduction

Use this Real-Life Lens Plan to help students dive deep into Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart by examining the novel’s themes, action, and characters through the lens of storytelling. What is storytelling, and how is it used in the novel? What role does storytelling play in the characters’ lives? How is storytelling used to both maintain unity and gain power over others? What larger statements does Achebe’s novel make about the powers and dangers of storytelling?

Materials

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
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Introduce the Lens

To activate students’ thinking, choose one or two of the following Real-Life Links to use in an engagement activity. Have students read or watch and discuss the content. Encourage students to jot down notes, or record class notes on the board for future reference.

Pose the following Big Idea Questions to the class:

What is storytelling? Why do people tell stories? 

How is storytelling both a beneficial and dangerous tool in society?

Engagement Activity

Have students write quick initial responses to the questions. Then discuss the questions either as a class or in small groups. Prompt students to consider the function of storytelling in societies and cultures. Encourage students to first explore what makes a story and then explore why certain stories are told over and over and what unique features make these stories survive. Following discussion, give students time to revise their initial responses, and ask volunteers to share what they wrote with the class.

CCSS

Introduce the Driving Questions

Begin by having students write their own questions about the lesson topic. Encourage them to think about what they already know about storytelling and what they’re interested in exploring further. 

Hand out the Driving Questions Worksheet. Review the questions as a class. Students should enter initial answers to the questions as they read Things Fall Apart. They will revisit the questions and revise their answers following the lesson activities, classroom discussion, and the completion of the text. Remind students to support their responses with text evidence.

Integrate the Driving Questions into your classroom discussions. Use them to help guide students’ thinking about the Big Idea Questions. 

Why does Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, use proverbs to discuss his debt with his neighbor instead of direct language? In what other ways do the Igbo use proverbs and folktales in their daily interactions?

1. What is the significance of Ekwefi’s story of the tortoise? How does the story foreshadow later events in the novel?

2. How do Nwoye and Okonkwo react differently to the missionaries’ stories about God?

3. Who is the narrator, and what do you notice about the way the narrator relates major events in the story?

4. How do building on the “evil land,” the killing of the sacred royal python, and other plot events help the missionaries challenge Igbo beliefs and win converts?

5. What is the significance of the abrupt shift in perspective at the end of the novel?

6. What larger statement does Achebe make by writing his novel in English rather than the language of the Igbo?

CCSS

Introduce the "Through the Lens" Activity

Activity: Personal Experience

In this activity, students will describe stories their families and communities tell and reflect on why these stories might have been told.

Ask students to write a paragraph briefly describing one of the familiar stories they’ve heard growing up. In their paragraphs, students should give a brief summary of the story, note who told it and when, and reflect on why this story might have been told. 

Pair students and have partners share their paragraphs. Encourage pairs to return to the Big Idea Questions and consider how their experiences with their stories might have informed their initial answers. 

Invite three or four students to share their paragraphs with the class. Prompt whole-class discussion with questions such as: What made these stories memorable? What messages did they convey? Why do you think these stories were told? What impact did these stories have on you and others who also heard them? 

Before moving on, explain that students will explore Achebe’s treatment of storytelling and its role in society and culture through his use of characterization, plot, and language as they read Things Fall Apart.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Begin by having students orally define storytelling. Then, rather than having all students write about a story they heard, ask several volunteers to describe their chosen stories aloud to the class. Proceed with the whole-class discussion as outlined above.

Increase difficulty

Have students write short essays examining the impact of stories on their families and communities. Ask two or three students to read their essays to the class and proceed with the whole-class discussion as outlined above.

Introduce the Final Project

Before moving on, introduce the final projects to the class (see below for details). Have students choose the project they will complete and encourage them to keep their project in mind as they read the text. Facilitate the formation of project groups if necessary.

Assign the Midpoint Activities

Activity 1: Narrative Structure

Students will analyze the overall narrative structure of the text and how Achebe uses this structure to create a parallel story of an individual’s and a culture’s downfall and to develop major themes in the novel. Students will:

  • Note how the text is divided into three parts and examine how those parts correspond to major phases in both the Igbo’s colonization and Okonkwo’s life. 

  • Identify and analyze how the text’s three parts reveal and develop major themes in the novel (e.g., masculinity, tradition). 

  • Record their observations in their notebooks after reading Parts 1 and 2 of the novel. Students should return to their notes and repeat the process after reading Part 3 as well. 


Put students in small groups to discuss the first part of the activity and to make notes in their notebooks. Change small groups to do the same for the second and third parts. Have a whole-class discussion about students’ findings, encouraging them to support their analyses with special examples from the text.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Have students simply summarize the main events of Parts 1 and 2 of the novel in a written list. Then lead a class discussion about how these events reveal the novel’s major themes.

Increase difficulty

After reading Part 2, have students write a short essay considering the statement Uchendu makes in Chapter 15, page 141: “There is no story that is not true. . . . The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.” After students finish reading Part 3, have them revise or add to their essays as necessary.

Activity 2: Foreshadowing Through Stories

Students will examine various Igbo stories and language presented in the first two parts of the novel, e.g., the parables, proverbs, and myths, and predict how these stories foreshadow what will happen in Part 3. Students will: 

  • Look up definitions or descriptions of parables, proverbs, and myths, and identify the differences between them. 

  • Choose one or two examples of stories from Parts 1 and 2 and identify what type they are (parable, proverb, myth, etc.). 

  • Determine each story’s theme or message. 

  • Make a prediction about what event(s) each story might foreshadow in Part 3. 

  • Record their answers in their notebooks for future reference. 

  • Share their predictions with the class. 


Have students return to their notebooks after they read Part 3 to see how close their predictions were.

This activity can be done individually or in pairs.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Require students to find only one example of a story in Parts 1 and 2 to make notes on.

Increase difficulty

Have students revisit their recorded predictions in their notebooks after reading Part 3 and write a paragraph reflecting on the results of their predictions. Ideas to consider: How accurate were your predictions? What, if anything, surprised you?

Final Projects

Students will work on their final projects after they have finished reading the complete text of Things Fall Apart. Project 1 can be completed by students working individually or in pairs, while Project 2 calls for small groups.

Final Project 1: Storytelling in Things Fall Apart

Students will work individually or in pairs to trace the use of storytelling throughout the novel (by both the Igbo and Achebe himself), analyzing how the use of storytelling develops key themes in the novel. Students will: 

  • Use the Storytelling Worksheet to identify and organize key storytelling elements in three selected stories and/or character/narrator accounts presented in the novel. 

  • Analyze what function each story serves in the novel by considering: 
    -the story’s theme or message
    -the story’ purpose, or the reason why the story is told, including whose perspective it represents and whose perception(s) it challenges
    -the story’s effect on the characters, plot, and overall theme(s) of the novel 

  • Present their findings in a well-developed essay.

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Preselect one story for small groups to reflect on together. Before groups analyze the story using the worksheet, lead a class discussion on the different types of stories (fables, folktales, news stories, and retellings of community events) and the different purposes storytellers have (to teach, to expose, to inform, to challenge, etc.). Tell students to keep this information in mind as they analyze the assigned story.

Increase difficulty

Extend the project by having students compose a journal entry in which they explain how the stories in the novel and the novel itself challenged their own perceptions of reality and/or describe what lessons they learned from the stories.

Final Project 2: Eyewitness Accounts

Students will write two accounts of the novel’s final events from the perspectives of two different characters to analyze the characters’ viewpoints and motivations. Students will ensure that they write both accounts to relate to the themes of storytelling and truth. The events to recount include the villagers’ fateful meeting with the District Commissioner and surprise imprisonment and Okonkwo’s killing of the messenger and suicide. Students will: 

  • Write one eyewitness account from the perspective of an Igbo villager who witnesses the events. 

  • Write another eyewitness account from the perspective of the District Commissioner, who is directly involved in the events. 

  • Work in small groups to stage and record a news video with one classmate acting as a journalist interviewing each witness at the “scene” to give the eyewitness accounts. (If video equipment is not available, students can perform the interview as a scene in front of the class.) 

  • Engage in a wrap-up discussion as a class to compare and contrast the accounts they wrote and tell how the differences reflect the larger themes of storytelling and truth as Achebe presents them in the novel. 


Note: Have students write their eyewitness accounts individually. Then have them work together in their small groups to write a script for their news video. They should draw on their individual accounts for ideas.

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Have students write just one account each. Have half the class write from the perspective of an Igbo villager and the other half write from the perspective of the District Commissioner. Ask volunteers to share their accounts. Engage in a whole-class discussion to compare and contrast accounts.

Increase difficulty

Have students compose a well-developed essay on perspective, storytelling, and truth as a follow up to the class discussion. Require students to include examples from the text to support their ideas. For an extra challenge, have students include additional examples from other texts or even current events in which different accounts of the same event are given by different eyewitnesses.

Assess the Assignments

Use the Rubric for Student Assessment to evaluate student work on the lesson assignments. 

Distribute the Student Reflection Worksheet. Guide students through the self-assessment and reflection questions.

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