Introduction

Use this Real-Life Lens Plan to help students dive deep into Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and examine the novel’s themes, action, and characters through the lens of storytelling. How does O’Brien use stories to convey the Vietnam experience? What does O’Brien have to say about the value of stories and the complexity and contradictions they can express?

Materials

  • The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
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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, listen, 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:

Why do we tell stories? 

In what ways does storytelling help people?

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 relationship between storytelling and healing. Have students reflect on the types of stories their families tell and the value of those stories. 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 the power of stories 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 The Things They Carried. They will revisit the questions and revise their answers following the lesson activities, classroom discussion, and 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. 

1. What is O’Brien trying to accomplish through storytelling? 

2. What do these stories reveal about the Vietnam War? 

3. What is the purpose of O’Brien reminding the reader that some of the stories, or parts of them, are not true? 

4. In what ways can “story-truth,” as O’Brien calls it, be truer than “happening-truth”? 

5. What is the effect of O’Brien retelling some stories in different ways? 

6. Which stories do you find most affecting and why? 

7. Can a story save someone’s life?

CCSS

Introduce the "Through the Lens" Activity

Activity: Personal Stories

In this activity, students will explore a story from their lives. 

Students will:

1. Choose a story about their lives that they carry and wonder about. 

2. List questions they have in connection with this story. 

3. Write the story. 

4. Retell the story in a new way by choosing to tell the story in one of these three ways: 

a. from a different perspective
b. in a way that reveals their uncertainties about what happened
c. with a different interpretation of events 

Invite a few students to share the two versions of their story with the class, or have students share in small groups. 

Ask students to reflect together about the stories they carry. Ask: How do people make sense of their stories, especially given the unreliability of memory? Do you think it’s true that the way people tell their stories affects the way they live their lives?

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

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

Ask students to follow steps 1–2 of this exercise. Instead of writing the story, have students tell their story to another student. They can then tell the story differently based on their choice in step 4.

Increase difficulty

Instead of writing two versions of their stories, ask students to write three different versions. Then ask them to write a one-page reflection about how the two new versions affect their understanding of the original story.

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: The Things You Carry

Have students choose two of the characters described in the first chapter/story in the text titled “The Things They Carried.” Have students list what they learned about these characters from what they carry. 

Then, using this first story as a model, students will write a one- to two-page essay that tells the story of the physical and emotional, tangible and intangible things they themselves carry. Students might benefit from focusing on a specific aspect of their lives, like school or sports or some other extracurricular activity.

Invite a few volunteers to share their short essays with the class.

Ask students to exchange papers with another student, preferably with a student they do not know well. After pairs have read each other’s stories, have each student write a short letter to the other, explaining what insight he or she got or what picture he or she developed about the classmate based on what the other student “carries.” 

As a class, have students share observations about the experience of sharing their stories and getting a letter in return. Invite students to reflect on how this activity affects their understanding of the value of O’Brien starting the novel with this list of what the men carried.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

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

Ask students to write a one-page essay about what they “carry.” Then, instead of writing a response letter to their classmate, ask students to orally share the impression they developed about their classmate after reading his or her essay.

Increase difficulty

In addition to the midpoint activity, invite students to write an additional two-page story that reflects a key aspect of what they carry. Some questions for students to consider exploring: How does what I carry shape my decisions and my perspective of the past, present, and future? How does what I carry affect those around me? Is there anything I carry that I would like to let go of and stop carrying?

Activity 2: A Debate About the Draft

Students will consider the chapter/story “On the Rainy River,” in which the narrator makes the anguishing decision of whether to go to Vietnam or dodge the draft by going to live in Canada. In small groups, students will discuss: 

  • How this story affects their understanding of what some young men went through when they were drafted. 

  • Whether they agree with a draft during wartime. 

  • Whether they think they would serve or dodge the draft. 


To support student understanding, have students read the Contextual Support titled The Vietnam Draft Lottery of 1969 for The Things They Carried. Then have them write a one-page argument for or against the draft.

Have students return to their small groups to share and discuss their arguments.

As a whole class, have students debate whether there should ever be a draft and, if so, whether a draft lottery is the fairest way to go about it.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

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

Instead of asking students to write a one-page argument individually, ask them to work in pairs to write one together. The paired students can then discuss their argument in a small group in preparation for the whole-class debate.

Increase difficulty

Follow up after the whole-class debate by having students expand on their initial page by writing a two- to three-page persuasive paper about the military draft, arguing for the stance they have taken.

Final Projects

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

Final Project 1: A Comparison of Approaches to Telling the Vietnam Experience

Students will compare O’Brien’s approach to writing about the Vietnam War experience—through a series of linked stories—to other methods of relating the Vietnam experience. To do this, they will select and read an article and watch a documentary about the Vietnam War. Some suggested resources are provided below. After reading and watching their selected sources, students will write a four- to five-page paper that compares the effect of each way of presenting information about the Vietnam War. In their comparison, they should explore the following: 

What is the strength of each method in relating the Vietnam experience?

What is the value of a nonfiction versus fiction approach to talking about the Vietnam experience? 

What do facts convey that stories don’t? 

What can stories accomplish that facts can’t? 

What is the value of O’Brien’s novel being a series of linked stories rather than one continuous story?

Suggestions for Articles and Documentaries


Articles
-Vietnam War
-He Enlisted at 14, Went to Vietnam at 15 and Died a Month Later

Documentaries
-Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, directed by Bill Couturié, 1987
-The Vietnam War: Personal Reflections

 

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

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

Instead of both reading an article and watching a documentary, students will only watch a documentary. Then have students write a three-page essay comparing the documentary and the book while responding to the questions listed in the original assignment.

Increase difficulty

Ask students to locate and read more than one article and watch more than one documentary. Students will then write a five- to six-page comparison essay exploring the questions listed above.

Final Project 2: The Power of Stories to Heal

As students read The Things They Carried, they will collect quotations from the novel that reveal what stories can do. Students should record these quotations in their notebooks.

After students finish reading the novel, have small groups review their collection of quotations, discussing common ideas and themes they find.

Next, have students use the Quotations about the Value of Storytelling Worksheet to reflect more on what stories can do by writing their two-paragraph responses.

Then have students read the following articles that explain how stories can help people heal.

-Turning Trauma Into Story: the Benefits of Journaling
-The Science Behind the Healing Power of Storytelling
-The Power of Story

After students read the articles, they will return to their small groups and use the chapter/story “How to Tell a True War Story” to write instructions for how to tell a true high school story. In the process, they will address the question of whether telling a true high school story can be healing. 

Have students organize all their information into a multimedia presentation that discusses how and why stories are healing. The presentation should include textual evidence from The Things They Carried, some selected quotes from the worksheet, information from the articles, and analysis about what O’Brien tries to accomplish through storytelling. 

Have each group present to the class.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

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

Have students choose only one of the three articles to read. They will then discuss in their small group or with a partner how to write a true high school story. They do not need to write instructions. Finally, students will work together to create the multimedia presentation as described above.

Increase difficulty

Instead of working in groups to complete this project, have students work independently to complete all the tasks in the project. Support students by organizing frequent small group and class discussions to help them refine their analyses.

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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