Chandas+Secret

 Choosing Texts for Teaching EN 3051 Alyson van Beinum Alyson Gair, November 15, 2010

Chanda’s Secrets, Too Good to be Kept a Secret

The novel “Chanda’s Secret”, by Allan Stratton, tells of the struggle of a young girl who’s bravery and courage drives her to save the family she loves. The story is set in Africa during the AIDS outbreak and centres on a young girl, mature beyond her years, who struggles to keep her family together. Her father has abandoned them, her mother is distraught over the death of her youngest daughter and her surviving siblings are acting out. We first meet Chanda dealing with the stigmatism of poverty and not having enough money to buy a decent coffin for her baby sister. Soon she is faced with the additional hardships of the shame, controversy and ostracism of AIDS when her mother’s boyfriend gets infected. To make matters even worse, her best friend is beaten after trying to make money in the sex-trade and her Mother goes missing during a visit to relatives. Throughout the story Chanda acts selfishly to ensure her siblings are cared for and does her best to care for her Mother and her best friend. Her one ally in this is her teacher, who Chanda finally has the courage to turn to, share her secrets and ask for help.

The novel is relevant to our kids because it is written by a Canadian author. Despite being written by a man, he has great insight into the female psyche and his characters are believable and admirable. The story touched me on many levels, but most of all when Chanda has to deal with the stigmatism that comes with AIDS. Two of my former jobs were in AIDS research, from the very first drug studies that treated mainly homosexual males with AZT to Saquinovir, a break-through product that gave AIDS patients their first hope for survival. I lived through the fear-mongering, the religious backlash against homosexuals, the “gay disease”; the stigmatism and ostracism was deplorable. Being on the inside and knowing the facts I was able to educate my family and friends about the realities of AIDS. So many people in the 80’s and 90’s and even today have died keeping their disease a secret; imagine dying and not being able to share what is killing you.

My current placement is at Stephen Lewis Secondary School, and this book is extremely relevant because of Stephen Lewis’ involved in AIDS research. He is quoted on the back of the book as follows: “This powerful story hits home with its harsh truths, its pain, and its hard-won hopelessness. No-one can read Chanda’s Secrets and remain untouched by the young people who are caught in the AIDS pandemic and still battling to make sense of their lives.” -Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

a) In what grade level / course would you teach this text? Are there other courses for which it might also be appropriate?

I would teach this in Grade 9 or Grade 10. The reading level of the book is appropriate and the level of language is not too advanced grade 9, though perhaps a little simplistic for Grade 10. This book would also be appropriate to a Health studies as it relates not only to AIDS/HIV infection, but could lend itself to the dangers of the sex-industry and the issues sex-workers face with respect to health and safety. It discusses unconvential family units, relationships and parenting issues all related to family studies and parenting.

The lesson plan below of studying the misconceptions of Africa and AIDS can be used in a wide variet of subjects. Teachers may or may not want to follow-up and read the novel, but could suggest it for those interested in learning more. Geography - identify how many different individual countries make up the continent of Africa and plot the incidence of AIDS in each colour by prevalence Math - plot graphs in the statistics of population in different African countries versus incidence of AIDS/HIV infection, historically from 1990 to present. Fashion - study the fashion trends from different African countries and their influence on patterns in material in current fashion Music - study the different types of music from many different African countries <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Biology - study immunology and the effect of AIDS on T-cells and why it is such a successful disease. They can also study the high rate of mutations of the AIDS virus and why an immunization booster is almost impossible to create. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Chemistry - study the different chemical compounds of the various medications used to treat AIDS - their differences and similarities. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Parenting - look at the different family units and the problems Chanda has to deal with, a child acting in the parental role. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">History - study the history of slavery in Africa. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Social Studies - study the many changes in culture of Africa over the last 100 years. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Economics - major imports/exports of Africa, the effect of AIDS/HIV on the economics of particularly affected countries, what 1st world countries are doing to help

b)What are the main ideas/ issues/ teaching points which you would emphasize when teaching the text? (Consider the knowledge possibilities: Social, topic, cultural, textual.)

<span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Topic Knowledge <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Death, Poverty, Self-esteem, Making decisions, Loyalty, Love, Courage, Birth/death, Bravery, fear of the unknown

<span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Social Knowledge <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Prejudice <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Socioeconomic status,class differences, Esther is considered a lower class than Chanda <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Gender issues/sexism <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Health bias, AIDS/HIV, stigmatism, misconceptions <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Family units and Relationships

<span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Textual Knowledge <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-novel <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-1st person narrative <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-present time narrative with some flashbacks to provide background, plot development <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-narrative is easy to read, vocabulary is not to difficult for Grade 9 & 10

<span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Cultural Knowledge <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-Africa, specifically Sub-Saharan Africa <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-traditional versus modern beliefs, religion and medicine <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-funeral traditions <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-family and friends

c) What are the issues/ challenges you might encounter in teaching the text?

<span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Lack of strong male role models in the book; male students finding someone to identify in the book <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Touchy subject when discussing Esther’s role in the story, her involvement in the sex-trade <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Dealing with violence against sex-trade workers <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- power and influence, the role of Mrs. Tafa in Chanda's life is challenging <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Talking about AIDS, dealing with misconceptions and the realities of the disease <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Understanding poverty when Canadians are so privileged. Can they relate? <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Death and loss, the death of her baby sister Sara happens right at the beginning of the book. This may bring up strong emotions in the classroom. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- It might be difficult talking about funerals and the traditions of Sara’s funderal; slaughtering a goat, the laying out of the body in the home. Perhaps we could discuss different cultural traditions in dealing with funerals. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Talking about folk medicine (witchcraft) and spiritual healers versus modern medicine <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Discussing religion in the classroom – Chanda’s belief’s versus their own. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Discussing the various structures of families and problems encountered by single-parent families. The mother seems to take on many boyfriends. I think there are 3 father’s of the 4 children in the family. Chanda's role in the family changes throughout the story and she replaces her mother, even sometimes when her mother is there. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Talking about family feuds and fights that occur and divide families. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Some of the language is inflamatory, "go whore with your daughter. <span style="color: #25371f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">- Loss of a parent - Chanda has lost her father, then she has to deal with losing her mother. This could be a difficult topic of students in the class have lost someone in their main family unit, especially a parent.

d) Describe one possible assignment / activity which you could use when teaching the text. How does it connect to the curriculum expectations of the course you are teaching?

<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Before reading the book, we need to discuss basic facts and identify and deal with any misconceptions that the kids may have about Africa and the people who live there. I would start the class asking them what they know about Africa. In pairs or groups of 3, students can put together a mind-map of what they think they know about Africa – anything at all. We would then have a class discussion and put these ideas up on the board, linking up any ideas if possible. Africa is usually associated with poverty, disease and living in grass huts with lions, elephants and giraffes wandering everywhere. If that is their only view of Africa then they will read the book with a negative idea of the country and its people.

<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Then I would show the TED video of the beautiful African woman talking about the problem of only having 1 story. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">We can then revisit the mind-map to see if there are any changes in what we know, add topics that we learned in the video. At the very least the kids will learn that Africa is a continent made up of over 50 very different countries.

<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">We can repeat this exercise with AIDS, think-pair-share ideas, watch an informational video, and unpack the ideas learned, improve the mind-maps, discuss misconceptions. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Students can then do research projects to find out more about AIDS and Africa. They can research AIDS and learn about the many misconceptions or mistruths associated with this disease. They can research a specific country in Africa, or research the continent of Africa, describing the basic geography, wild-life, exports. They can also research the history of slavery, African folk tales, African music, etc. Students will be expected to do a presentation to the class to share what they have learned. The teacher can separate kids into groups of 4 and provide a list of varied topics. Overlap should be at a minimum so there is a wide variety of presentations. Once they know a lot more about Africa and AIDS then they will be ready to read the novel from a better, more educated standpoint, leaving old misconceptions behind them.

__<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Curriculum Expectations for Proposed Activity: __ <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">By doing research on a particular subject, this will address the following: __<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Oral Communication __ <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.7 Audio visual aids - do the slides augment or detract from the oral presentation?

__<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Reading __ <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.3 Understanding Content - are the ideas from the research relevant <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.5 Understanding Texts - how does an article relate to the research topic? <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">3.1 Reading Familiar words - what information do they take for their presentation? <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">3.2 Reading unfamiliar words - are these included in the presentation - use a dictionary to read some of the research information <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">3.3 Developing vocabularoy - again will be demonstrated in the presentation since they are researching possibly new ideas.

__<span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Writing: __ <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.1 Identifying Topic, Purose and Audience. While doing the research, information will have to be presented in a manner that fellow classmates can understand. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.2 Generating and Developing Ideas. Using various materials through research, what will be the focus of the presentation? <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.3 Research <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.4 Organizing ideas. Present only the main ideas as students will have limited time for their topic - possibly 5 minutes. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1.5 Review content. Students will need to review their slides to ensure they have touched on the main ideas <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.1 Form. Slides will have to include both text and pictures <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.2 Voice. Will the tone be impersonal, objective, slang? Depends on the seriousness of the research topic. Obviously a presentation on folk stories could be humerous. A presentation on the history of slavery would be empathetic. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.3 Diction. Does the word choice match the voice of the presentation? <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.4 Sentence Craft - do the ideas flow in a meaningful, accurate way? <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.6 Revision - Is the student able to edit their own work. Perhaps build in peer editing to assist this. <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">2.7 Producing Drafts - rough research notes for presentation will need to be included to see the writing process <span style="color: #1d1d49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">3.0 Applying knowledge of conventions will be necessary for the powerpoint slides