The Danger (and Power) of a Single Story

Developed by Kelly Guilfoil and Annemarie Russell

MODULE: STUDENT VERSION

Module Texts
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” Transcript. TED, TEDGlobal 2009,
July 2009,
www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript.
Cisneros, Sandra. “Barbie-Q.” Woman Hollering Creek. Vintage Books, Random House, 1992.

Module Video Texts

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” TED, TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009,
www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.

Module Individual/Small Group Texts

Bambara, Toni Cade. “The Lesson.” Gorilla, My Love. Vintage Books, Random House, 1992.
Banse, Tom. “The Big One, Serialized.” KNKX, 6 Mar. 2018, knkx.org/post/big-one-serialized.
Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” Cathedral. Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.
Jones, Edward. “The First Day.” Lost in the City. William Morrow, 1992, pp. 27-32.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Mrs. Sen’s.” Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999, pp. 111-
135.
Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.” Tell Me a Riddle. Dell, 1961.
Orange, Tommy. “The State.” The New Yorker, 26 March 2018,
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/26/the-state.

Activity 1: Setting Learning Goals for the Module

In this module, you will encounter perspectives different from your own and engage in
conversations about those perspectives. Consider the following questions as you write your
initial goals for this module in a metacognitive journal.
 What are some situations in your current or future life where you might engage with people
who think differently from you?
 What skills or experiences do you already have that might become useful in these
encounters?
 What frustrations do you anticipate?
 What might help you overcome any challenges?
We will continue our work of reading analytically, thinking critically, and communicating with
audiences through speaking, listening, and writing. You will also apply your skills of rhetorical
analysis to fiction and become aware of narrative strategies you can use in your own writing.

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 What have you practiced this year that might help with these steps?
 What skills have required your extra attention or practice?
 What’s one skill you would most like to improve?

Reading Rhetorically
Preparing to Read
Activity 2: Getting Ready to Read – Recognizing the Single Story
As you view each photograph for the first time, use the following questions to prompt your
thinking and reflective writing:
 What do you notice?
 What do you find most interesting?
 What do you find strangest?
 What do you find most revealing?
As you view each photograph a second time, read the caption or accompanying a story for each
image. After thinking about how the captions/stories reveal more about each image, write a
personal reflection answering any of the following questions:
 What differences did you discover between your inferences about each image and the story
revealed in the captions? What might account for any misinterpretations?
 How did the captions change, challenge, or confirm what you inferred about each image?
 What surprised you about the subjects of these photos?
 What surprised you about yourself as a viewer and interpreter of these photos?
 What do you think the photographers’ purpose and the audience might have been for any of
these photos?

Video Text 1 & Text 1 – “The Danger of a Single Story”

Activity 3: Getting Ready to Read – “The Danger of a Single Story”
After viewing and rereading Adichie’s TED Talk, discuss the following questions:
1. What is Adichie’s claim? What strategies does she use to advance her argument? Which
strategies do you find particularly effective? You may find it useful to refer to the transcript.
2. Adichie describes both being the subject of a single story and the single-storyteller making
assumptions herself. Which of her anecdotes feels most familiar to you? What single story
experiences in your life have caused you to reflect on assumptions?
3. Use the following graphic organizer to dig deeper into one or more of your single story
experiences.

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 2

 Choose a topic listed below. Use the chart to reflect on the differences between your
knowledge and beliefs. Think carefully about what experiences have led to your views.
military life addiction police officers elderly people immigrants
poverty physical disabilities mental illness transgender people

What I know How I know it

What I believe Why I believe it

 Which parts of your knowledge are drawn from reliable sources?

 Which might others dispute?
 How broad are the experiences that influence your beliefs?
 How might interacting with people involved in these topics influence your beliefs?
 What are some differences between knowledge and belief, for you personally or in
general?

Activity 4: Understanding Key Vocabulary – Possible Sentences

To deepen your understanding of the keywords and ideas from the TED Talk “The Danger of a
Single Story,” complete the following:
 In your journal, write up to five sentences using the following key vocabulary: foreigners,
pity, startled, complex, authenticity, ashamed, power, dispossess, stereotypes, dignity.
 Use two to three key vocabulary words in each sentence.
 Review the sentences you wrote with a partner. Make any necessary corrections.

Activity 5: Exploring Key Concepts – Relevant Vocabulary

Working with a partner, sort the following key terms into categories—any categories that make
sense to you. Read the terms and definitions aloud and discuss decisions with your partner.
stereotype (n.) a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or the idea of a particular type
of person or thing. (v.) to view or represent as a stereotype.
prejudice (n.) preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. (v.) give
rise to prejudice in someone; make biased.
implicit bias (adj. n.) prejudice that is suggested though not directly expressed.
simplistic (adj.) treating complex issues and problems as if they were much simpler than they
really are.
complicate (v.) make something more complicated.

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disrupt (v.) interrupt by causing a disturbance or problem; drastically alter or destroy the
structure of.
narrative (n.) a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. (adj.) in the form of or
concerned with narration.
ally (n.) a person or organization that cooperates or helps another in a particular activity. (v.)
side with or support.
advocate (n.) a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. (v.)
publicly recommend or support.
appropriation (n.) the deliberate reworking of images and styles from earlier, well-known works
of art. appropriate (v.) take something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s
permission.
pander (v). gratify or indulge an immoral or distasteful desire.
authentic (adj.) of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine.
compelling (adj.) evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way.
Now work individually to write up to five sentences using the keywords in your journal. Use at
least three keywords in each sentence. You may need to change the form of some words (like
pander to pandering) to make them fit your sentences. Think back to the TED Talk and recent
class discussions to find ideas for your writing.

Activity 6: Exploring Key Concepts – Identifying Audience

Based on your investigation of the assigned publisher’s Web site, construct a profile for this
publisher’s ideal audience. Record your answers in your journal. Be prepared to share your
results with the class.
 Characteristics: age, education, community, region, gender, class, ethnicity, etc.
 Motives and/or Interests: What is important to this audience? What do they want?
 World View: What values, beliefs, or assumptions might members of this audience share?
 What details from your publisher investigation were most useful in constructing this
audience profile?

Text 2 – Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”

Activity 7: Surveying the Text – Making Predictions and Asking Questions
Use your copy of the short story provided by your teacher and prepare to discuss the questions
below. You may use the Internet to conduct brief research when necessary. Record your
thinking in your journal or as annotations directly on your copy of the text. These notes will help
you reflect on your reading process and compare this text to others later.
 Who is the author? Have you read anything by this author before? Look up an author bio
from multiple sources. What do these author bios reveal about the author’s interests and
values?

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 4

 When and where was this story first published? What might the publication source reveal
about the intended audience?
 What are your predictions about the content or tone of this text based on the title?
 The genre of this text is short fiction (short story). What do you already know about this
genre? What other works from this genre have you read recently? What purposes,
formatting, or style are generally associated with this genre?
 Skim the text. What do you notice about the format? Does anything surprise you, especially
compared to other short stories you’ve read before? Are there any text features or structural
features that might provide clues about what we can expect from this story? (Watch for the
length of the text, length of paragraphs, spacing breaks, dialogue, headings, font changes,
images, footnotes, etc.)
 Based on your predictions from this survey of the text, what are your initial responses? Do
you have any personal interests or biases related to this text? Do you think you are among
the author’s intended audiences for this text? Why or why not?

Activity 8: Creating Personal Learning Goals

Answer the following questions in your journal and label your entry with today’s date.
As a reader
 What connections do you notice between Adichie’s TED Talk and the story you are about to
read?
 What reading strategies have you used in the past that supports your reading of this story?
 How will your reading of this story differ from reading you’ve done before?
As a writer
 What might you learn from this text that supports your own narrative writing?
As a human
How will you monitor your own biases as you read this story?

Reading Purposefully
Activity 9: Reading for Understanding
As we surveyed the text, we thought about the author creating the story for readers in reality.
Now we’ll enter the world of the story and use SOAPSTone to understand the fictional situation.
 Speaker: From whose perspective is the story told? Who narrates?
 Occasion: What is the setting for this story? When and where does it take place?
 Audience: Is the speaker/narrator addressing the story to anyone in particular?
 Purpose: What is the speaker’s/narrator’s apparent purpose for telling this story?
 Subject: What topics are central to the story?
 Tone: What attitude does the speaker/narrator have toward the subject(s) of the story?

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Activity 10: Annotating and Questioning the Text
Your teacher will distribute a “Notice” bookmark and work through some paragraphs of “Barbie
Q” to demonstrate how the text can be annotated using the bookmark clues. Read closely and
annotate the remainder of the text on your own noticing and noting specific choices (diction,
imagery, details, etc.) of the author’s craft. You may add clues such as symbol, repetition, and
figurative language to the bookmark.

Activity 11: Examining the Structure of the Text – Descriptive Outlining

1. Divide the story into sections by drawing a line at each shift (change in time, location, tone,
topic, or perspective).
2. For each section, note what the story says narratively (inside the story).
3. For each section, note what the story does rhetorically (beyond the story).
Follow-up questions:
 Does the story shift in its focus or tone? How can you tell? Watch for paragraph spacing,
headings, transition words, change in focus.
 Trace the changes across these shifts. Watch for changes in character, setting, topic, tone.
What seems to be important—the changes or the consistency? How might this shed light on
an argument of the text?
 Which sections are most compelling? What makes them appeal to the audience? How might
they support the author’s argument in this text?
 Why does the story begin and end where it does? How does this focus attention on
characters, themes, or topics?

Activity 12: Considering the Rhetorical Situation

1. In your journal, label a page with Author at the top, Audience at the bottom, and Topics and
Argument in the middle.
2. Consult your prediction notes to describe everything you know about the author.
3. Consult your annotations to list the topics, both specific and general, that seem to be the
focus of this story. Work with an elbow partner to group these topics into logical categories.
Pay attention to any outliers that don’t fit neatly into a category—they may complicate the
rhetorical purpose or may serve a purely narrative function.
4. Consult your SOAPSTone notes to craft an argumentative statement based on the topics
of the text. What might the author be saying about any of these topics? What claims are
explicit or implied? Like a theme, this argumentative statement should extend beyond the
story itself and apply to the larger world. Unlike a theme, an argumentative statement may
call for action or a change in perspective from the audience. Check for an argument’s
validity by supporting it with evidence from the story.
5. Consult your prediction notes to describe the audience. Consider how different readers
might respond to the argument. Why does this argument matter, and to whom? What
counterclaims are possible from a hostile reader? Is there evidence in the story to support
any counterclaims?

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Activity 13: Analyzing Rhetorical Grammar – Interrupted Passages
Interrupted Passage 1: Examine each passage from paragraph 2; then answer the questions in
your journals.
 “Every time the same story.”
We know that sentences need verbs. Why did the author break this grammatical “rule”?
What could this choice reveal about the character or the tone of this passage?
 “Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your
Barbie steals him, okay?”
This sentence, like many in this story, is written in the second person. This sentence even
includes a direct question at the end. Why might Cisneros have chosen this point of view for
this story? How might it advance her argument or appeal to her audience?
 “Kiss kiss kiss.”
What’s the impact of repeating these three words as their own sentence?
 “Then the two Barbies fight.”
What’s is suggested by this sudden shift between romance and anger?
 “You dumbbell! He’s mine. Oh no he’s not, you stinky!”
Why did Cisneros take time to include the dialogue of the girls’ playing? Why did she choose
not to use traditional dialogue formatting of quotation marks and paragraph breaks?
 “Only Ken’s invisible, right?”
What’s the impact of this rhetorical question? How does it help the reader get to know this
character?
 “Because we don’t have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when we’d both rather ask for a
new Barbie outfit next Christmas.”
Some editors would mark this sentence as a fragment. How do the sentence structures in
addition to their content create a picture of this character or invite the reader into the scene?
 “We have to make do with your mean-eyed Barbie and my bubblehead Barbie and our one
outfit apiece not including the sock dress.”
Several phrases in this sentence are repeated from the first paragraph. Why were these
words repeated? What makes them significant to the character or the context of this scene?
Interrupted Passage 2: Examine each passage from paragraph 6, noticing the grammatical
structure. Analyze why the author made the grammatical choices. Write your reflections in your
journal.
 “So what if we didn’t get our new Bendable Legs Barbie and Midge and Ken and Skipper
and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Ricky and Alan and Francie in nice clean boxes and
had to buy them on Maxwell Street, all water-soaked and sooty.”
 “So what if our Barbies smell like smoke when you hold them up to your nose even after you
wash and wash and wash them.”

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 “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash
brush included, has a left foot that’s melted a little—so?”
 “If you dress her in her new “Prom Pinks” outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt,
clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress, right?—who’s to know.”

Activity 14: Analyzing Rhetorical Grammar– Mentor Sentences

Sentences vary in length and authors make varied choices in the use of grammar. Your teacher
will model the use of mentor sentences using the following examples:
“Lying on the street next to some tool bits, and platform shoes with the heels all squashed, and
a fluorescent green wicker wastebasket, and aluminum foil, and hubcaps, and a pink shag rug,
and windshield wiper blades, and dusty mason jars, and a coffee can full of rusty nails.”
1. What do you notice in general, about parts of speech, about sentence structure?
2. How would changes to the grammatical structure change the rhetorical effect?
3. What’s the rhetorical effect of this sentence as it is written?
“Two Mattel boxes.”
1. What do you notice in general, about parts of speech, about sentence structure?
2. How would changes to the grammatical structure change the rhetorical effect?
3. What’s the rhetorical effect of this sentence as it is written?
Now use the three questions to analyze additional sentences selected by you or your teacher.

Activity 15: Analyzing Stylistic Choices – Comparing Voices

These are excerpts from short stories you may be reading in this module. Compare the
narrative voice and style of these excerpts using strategies from your “Notice” bookmark. Notice
similarities and differences between sentence length, sentence structure, verb voice, the point
of view, word choice, tone, etc. After you analyze the excerpts, write two or three observations
about an author’s stylistic choices in your journal.
1. This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night. His wife
had died. So he was visiting the dead wife’s relatives in Connecticut. He called my wife from
his in-law’s. Arrangements were made. (Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”)
2. Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail. Striped swimsuit, stilettos, sunglasses, and
gold hoop earrings. Mine is the one with bubble hair. Red swimsuit, stilettos, pearl earrings,
and a wire stand. But that’s all we can afford, besides one extra outfit apiece. (Sandra
Cisneros, Barbie-Q)
3. We play the game at recess, and the teachers don’t notice. We stand on the playground by
the flagpole, arms ringed with colored bracelets from the drugstore, waiting. The boys come
past us, in a bunch, all elbows, laughing. They pretend not to look. (Celeste Ng, “Girls, At
Play”)
4. “Who needs help?” Even if I came, what good would it do? You think because I am her
mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived for

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 8

 nineteen years. There is all that life has happened outside of me, beyond me. (Tillie Olsen,
“I Stand Here Ironing”)
5. He especially enjoyed watching Mrs. Sen as she chopped things, seated on newspapers on
the living room floor. Instead of a knife, she used a blade that curved like the prow of a
Viking ship, sailing to battle in distant seas. (Jhumpa Lahiri, “Mrs. Sen’s”)
6. So this one day, Miss Moore rounds us all up at the mailbox and it’s puredee hot and she’s
knockin herself out about arithmetic. And school supposed to let up in summer I heard, but
she don’t never let up. (Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson”)
7. In an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of
my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my very
first day of school. I am wearing a checkered-like blue and-green cotton dress, and
scattered about these colors are bits of yellow and white and brown. My mother has
uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so
that now my scalp tingles. (Edward P. Jones, “The First Day”)
8. You’re headed to a powwow. You were invited to drum at the Big Oakland Powwow even
though you quit drum group. You weren’t gonna go. You haven’t wanted to see anyone from
work since you got fired. (Tommy Orange, “The State”)

Activity 16: Analyzing Stylistic Choices – Charting Rhetorical Appeals

Choose one or two of the following excerpts for a more focused analysis of the author’s stylistic
choices and rhetorical purposes.
1. This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night. His wife
had died. So he was visiting the dead wife’s relatives in Connecticut. He called my wife from
his in-law’s. Arrangements were made. (Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”)

2. Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail. Striped swimsuit, stilettos, sunglasses, and
gold hoop earrings. Mine is the one with bubble hair. Red swimsuit, stilettos, pearl earrings,
and a wire stand. But that’s all we can afford, besides one extra outfit apiece. (Sandra
Cisneros, Barbie-Q)
3. We play the game at recess, and the teachers don’t notice. We stand on the playground by
the flagpole, arms ringed with colored bracelets from the drugstore, waiting. The boys come
past us, in a bunch, all elbows, laughing. They pretend not to look. (Celeste Ng, “Girls, At
Play”)

4. “Who needs help?” Even if I came, what good would it do? You think because I am her
mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? She has lived for
nineteen years. There is all that life has happened outside of me, beyond me. (Tillie Olsen, “I
Stand Here Ironing”)

5. He especially enjoyed watching Mrs. Sen as she chopped things, seated on newspapers on
the living room floor. Instead of a knife, she used a blade that curved like the prow of a
Viking ship, sailing to battle in distant seas. (Jhumpa Lahiri, “Mrs. Sen’s”)

CSU Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum DRAFT 10/8/2018 9

6. So this one day, Miss Moore rounds us all up at the mailbox and it’s puredee hot and she’s
knockin herself out about arithmetic. And school supposed to let up in summer I heard, but
she don’t never let up. (Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson”)

7. In an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of

my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my very
first day of school. I am wearing a checkered-like blue and-green cotton dress, and
scattered about these colors are bits of yellow and white and brown. My mother has
uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so
that now my scalp tingles. (Edward P. Jones, “The First Day”)

8. You’re headed to a powwow. You were invited to drum at the Big Oakland Powwow even
though you quit drum group. You weren’t gonna go. You haven’t wanted to see anyone from
work since you got fired. (Tommy Orange, “The State”)

Excerpt Author and Title: ________________________________________________________

What stylistic choices does Do these choices appeal to How do these stylistic and
the author make? Use your ethos (speaker’s credibility), rhetorical choices develop
“Notice” bookmark to look for logos (logic), or pathos the argument for the
clues. (emotion)? audience?

Questioning the Text

Activity 17: Summarizing and Responding
Complete a summary and response chart for “Barbie-Q.”

Title and author:

Whose story is told?

Argument:

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 10

 Your reactions (emotional, logical,
and credibility-based):
In what ways does the author put
the audience in a receptive frame of
mind?
Intended audience and their
potential reaction:
Hostile audience and their potential
reaction:
Necessary audience and their
potential reaction:

Individual or Small Group Text – 1) Bambara, “The Lesson”; 2) Banse,

“The Big One, Serialized”; 3) Carver, “Cathedral”; 4) Jones, “The First
Day”; 5) Lahiri, “Mrs. Sen’s”; 6) Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing”; or
7) Orange, “The State”
Activity 18: Thinking Critically – Reading Rhetorically Revisited
Choose a short story from those provided. Work with a small group who has chosen the same
story.
Follow the steps taken in Activities 7-16 to apply your skills to the new text. Although the steps
are listed below, you may want to refer to your work in your journals on “Barbie-Q” as a model.
1. Surveying the Text / Making Predictions and Asking Questions
 Who is the author? Have you read anything by this author before? Look up an author bio
from multiple sources. What do these author bios reveal about the author’s interests and
values?
 When and where was this story first published? What might the publication source reveal
about the intended audience?
 What are your predictions about the content or tone of this text based on the title?
 The genre of this text is short fiction (short story). What do you already know about this
genre? What other works from this genre have you read recently? What purposes,
formatting, or style are generally associated with this genre?
 Skim the text. What do you notice about the format? Does anything surprise you,
especially compared to other short stories you’ve read before? Are there any text
features or structural features that might provide clues about what we can expect from
this story? (Watch for the length of the text, length of paragraphs, spacing breaks,
dialogue, headings, font changes, images, footnotes, etc.)

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  Based on your predictions from this survey of the text, what are your initial responses?
Do you have any personal interests or biases related to this text? Do you think you are
among the author’s intended audiences for this text? Why or why not?
2. Creating Personal Learning Goals: Metacognitive Journal
As a reader
 What connections do you notice between Adichie’s TED Talk and the story you are
about to read?
 What reading strategies have you used in the past that supports your reading of this
story?
 How will your reading of this story differ from reading you’ve done before?
As a writer
 What might you learn from this text that supports your own narrative writing?
As a human
 How will you monitor your own biases as you read this story?
3. Reading for Understanding: SOAPSTone
 Speaker: From whose perspective is the story told? Who narrates?
 Occasion: What is the setting for this story? When and where does it take place?
 Audience: Is the speaker/narrator addressing the story to anyone in particular?
 Purpose: What is the speaker’s/narrator’s apparent purpose for telling this story?
 Subject: What topics are central to the story?
 Tone: What attitude does the speaker/narrator have toward the subject(s) of the story?
4. Annotating and Questioning the Text: “Notice” Bookmark
 What do you notice?
 What surprises you?
 What changes, challenges, or confirms what you knew before?
 Use the “Notice” bookmark for further questions.
5. Negotiating Meaning: Strategies Bookmark
 Use opposite side of “Notice” bookmark.
6. Examining the Structure of the Text: Descriptive Outlining
 Divide the story into sections by drawing a line at each shift (change in time, location,
tone, topic, or perspective).
 For each section, note what the story says narratively (inside the story).
 For each section, note what the story does rhetorically (beyond the story).

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7. Considering the Rhetorical Situation: Author, Topics, Argument, Audience
 In your journals, label a page with Author at the top, Audience at the bottom, and Topics
and Argument in the middle.
 Consult your prediction notes to describe everything you know about the author and the
intended audience.
 Consult your annotations to list the topics, both specific and general, that seem to be the
focus of this story. Work with an elbow partner to group these topics into logical
categories. Pay attention to any outliers that don’t fit neatly into a category—they may
complicate the rhetorical purpose or may serve a purely narrative function.
 Consult your SOAPSTone notes to craft an argumentative statement based on the
topics of the text. What might the author be saying about any of these topics? What
claims are explicit or implied? Like a theme, this argumentative statement should extend
beyond the story itself and apply to the larger world. Unlike a theme, an argumentative
statement may call for action or a change in perspective from the audience. Check for an
argument’s validity by supporting it with evidence from the story.
 Focusing again on the audience end of the page, consider how different readers might
respond to the argument. Why does this argument matter, and to whom? What
counterclaims are possible from a hostile reader? Is there evidence in the story to
support any counterclaims?
8. Analyzing Rhetorical Grammar: Mentor Sentences
 Notice the grammatical structure. Analyze why the author made the grammatical
choices. Write your reflections in your journal. (See sample questions in Activity 14 if
needed.)
9. Analyzing Stylistic Choices: Charting Rhetorical Appeals
 Notice similarities and differences between sentence length, sentence structure, verb
voice, the point of view, word choice, tone, etc. After you analyze the excerpts, write two
or three observations about an author’s stylistic choices in your journal.
10. Summarizing and Responding
 Title and author
 Whose story is told?
 Argument
 Your reactions
 In what ways does the author put the audience in a receptive frame of mind?
 Intended audience and their potential reaction
 Hostile audience and their potential reaction
 Necessary audience and their potential reaction

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Activity 19: Synthesizing Multiple Perspectives
Discuss the following essential questions in your rotating Conver-Stations. Bring your
Summarizing and Responding charts and annotated copy of each text to provide evidence in
your conversations. Record the most interesting ideas from each conversation on a blank sheet
of paper. At the end of the activity, respond to one essential question in two to three sentences
and submit as an exit slip.
 How do the stories in this module either challenge or support Adichie’s central argument in
“The Danger of a Single Story”? Which characters had their own single story experiences?
Which stories challenge our own assumptions as readers?
 What’s the relationship between power and storytelling? How do the stories in this module
deconstruct traditionally held ideas of power, specifically with regard to gender, race, and
class?
What “single stories” exist in America today that lead to prejudice, stereotypes, and
misunderstandings? How are authors, journalists, and artists using narratives to complicate
these simplistic beliefs? What single story can you identify and complicate with your own
text?

Activity 20: Synthesizing Multiple Perspectives – Revisiting Relevant Vocabulary

1. Look again at the relevant vocabulary from Activity 5. How many of these words are you
comfortable using? Refer to the definitions for any that are not familiar. Revise sentences
you wrote in Activity 5 based on your recent learning.

ally advocate appropriation authentic

compelling complicate disrupt narrative

pander prejudice simplistic stereotype

2. Now think about the stories you read after the TED Talk. For each story, choose three to five
of the most relevant words from this list and write a new sentence expressing how these
words relate to the story.
3. Write one more sentence using three to five words from the list above to answer an
essential question based on the TED Talk and the stories you read.
 How do the stories in this module either challenge or support Adichie’s central argument
in “The Danger of a Single Story”? Which characters had their own single story
experiences? Which stories challenge our own assumptions as readers?
 What’s the relationship between power and storytelling? How do the stories in this
module deconstruct traditionally held ideas of power, specifically with regard to gender,
race, and class?
 What “single stories” exist in American today that lead to prejudice, stereotypes, and
misunderstandings? How are authors, journalists, and artists using narratives to

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 14

 complicate these simplistic beliefs? What single story can you identify and complicate
with your own texts?

Activity 21: Reflecting on Your Reading Process

Return to your metacognitive journal where you set learning goals for both stories. Use the
following questions to reflect on your reading and plan for your writing. Write your responses in
your metacognitive journal and label your entry with today’s date.
As a reader
 What are your most significant learnings from the texts you have encountered in this
module?
 Which strategies have been most helpful in reading fiction with a rhetorical lens?
 What have you learned by applying these strategies as you read? Think about strategies
like making predictions, SOAPSTone, annotating with the Notice bookmark, vocabulary
strategies, visualization, syntax surgery, descriptive outlining, considering the rhetorical
situation, interrupted passages, mentor sentences, voice/style comparisons, charting
rhetorical appeals, comparing audience reactions, and Conver-Stations.
As a writer
 What have you learned about structuring a narrative to develop an argument?
 What have you learned about appealing to a specific audience?
 What have you discovered about using grammar rhetorically?
 What stylistic choices will you experiment in your own writing?
As a human
 What has changed in your thinking about the topics at hand?
 What changes are you considering for your actions based on what you’ve read and
discussed?
 What would you like to learn more about?

Preparing to Respond
Discovering What You Think
Activity 22: Considering Your Task and Your Rhetorical Situation
After you listen to your teacher read the prompt, reread it and circle any unfamiliar words.
Annotate the prompt with numbers indicating the steps you need to complete. Your class will
work together to create a list of strategies to achieve each step.
Writing prompt: What is a dangerously narrow single story from a community you know?
Perhaps it’s one you believed until you learned more about the people involved, or maybe it’s a
single story some people believe about you or your family. Develop a narrative (fiction or
nonfiction) to help complicate this simplistic belief for a specific audience. If your narrative
focuses on a community different from your own, position yourself as an ally rather than co-

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opting the perspective you’ve selected. Anticipate your audience’s needs by selecting a
medium, genre, and style that will invite interest and empathy.
1. Choose a problematic single story — brainstorm single stories
2. Identify a specific audience — analyze audience needs
3. Research the topic — interview, search online, read/watch/listen to local news
4. Make choices (medium, genre, and style) to appeal to the intended audience — compare
examples of different media and genre, review stylistic choices from short stories
5. Write a narrative — use strategies from Notice bookmark and analysis notes, plan using a
descriptive outline, draft, revise, edit
Alternative writing prompt: In her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” author
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie argues that stories have great power, both “to dispossess and to
malign,” and “to empower and to humanize.” Choose a story from this module and decide
whether, in its craft and appeal to a specific audience, it has achieved the power Adichie
describes. Has it complicated a single story for an audience that previously held a simplistic
view? Does it fall short by appealing only to audiences already familiar with the complex
subject? Or does it wield a darker power, reinforcing a stereotype or maligning a marginalized
community? Using specific evidence from Adichie’s speech, your analysis of the short story, and
your investigation of the story’s intended audience, create an argument to convince your
classmates and teacher that the story you select should be upheld as an example of literary
social justice or rejected due to its limited appeal or purpose.
1. Choose a short story — review short stories, annotations, and notes
2. Decide whether selected story empowers, falls short, or maligns — review rhetorical
situation notes and summary/response notes
3. Select evidence from TED Talk, story, and audience analysis — use close reading and
discussion notes
4. Choose a medium and genre (speech, essay, letter) — consider audience needs, review the
format of the selected genre
5. Create an argument — plan using a descriptive outline, draft, revise, edit

Activity 23: Gathering Relevant Ideas and Materials

We’ve heard a speech arguing that stories “empower and humanize” people. Then we read
several fictional narratives that sought to achieve that goal. Now we will explore a variety of
narrative nonfiction texts that have the same goal. These texts offer ideas for topics, media, and
genres to write your narrative. Choose several texts from the list of Web sites provided and take
note of the argument and potential audience reactions to each.

Title, author, and genre

Argument

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 16

 Your reactions (emotional,
logical, and credibility-based)

In what ways does the author

put the audience in a receptive
frame of mind?

Intended audience and their

potential reaction

Hostile audience and their

potential reaction

Necessary audience and their

potential reaction

Now compare the features, benefits, and drawbacks of each genre as you consider which genre
might be the best fit your own narrative and audience.

Objective Potential Potential

Description Benefits Drawbacks
Features, media, Accessibility, requirements;
Genre
format pairings with audience, content, purpose
Short fiction .

Illustration

News article

Photo essay

Opinion column

Video

Podcast

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 Interview

Memoir

Brainstorm what topics and audiences might be your focus as you write your narrative response
to the prompt. After considering several options, choose one topic, audience, and genre for your
narrative.

What communities face the

What audiences may currently believe a single story and
danger of being defined by a
could benefit from learning more?
single story?

Activity 24: Developing a Position

Once you’ve chosen a topic for your narrative, use the graphic organizer below to investigate
your current knowledge and beliefs. Consider the differences between knowledge and beliefs
and how you came to these understandings. Reflecting on your own learning about this topic
will help make your narrative more compelling and help you understand potential audience
reactions.
My Topic

What I know How I know it

What I believe Why I believe it

What I need to learn What I learned and how

Finally, make a list of what you would like to learn about this topic before you begin your draft.
Brainstorm resources for your research. As you saw in the narrative nonfiction Web sites,
primary sources, people from the communities being described, are especially useful in telling
authentic stories. Consider interviewing someone or finding a published interview or memoir
about your topic. Add to your graphic organizer as you continue your research.

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 18

Writing Rhetorically
Composing a Draft
Activity 25: Making Choices about Learning Goals
Return to your metacognitive journal to your learning goals and the reflection on your reading
process. Use the following questions to plan for your next steps. Write your responses in your
metacognitive journal and label your entry with today’s date.
As a reader
 What are some rhetorical strategies from the narrative nonfiction texts that made the stories
compelling or put readers in a receptive frame of mind?
 Where might these fit into your own narrative argument?
As a writer
 What do you still need to learn about your audience and topic in order to plan and draft your
narrative? Highlight or list again the grammatical and stylistic choice from your previous
metacognitive journal that will help you appeal to your audience.
 What do you know about yourself as a writer that might help or hinder your writing process?
 What are you looking forward to as you write, and what are you dreading?
 What resources or strategies can help you progress smoothly through the writing process?
As a human
 As you read narrative nonfiction texts and researched your topic, what changed, challenged,
or confirmed what you knew or believed before?
 How might you think, act, or live differently after working on these issues?

Activity 26: Making Choices as You Write – Audience Analysis

After researching your topic and brainstorming potential audiences and genres, use this graphic
organizer to identify and analyze a specific audience for your writing.

Topic Position
What is your argumentative claim about your topic?

Intended Audience
Who would benefit from learning more about your topic?

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 Characteristics Motives and/or Interests Intended Response
Describe the key traits of What is important to this Describe what you want
this audience including age, audience? What do they this audience to do - make
education, community, want? a decision, take action,
region, gender, class, change/affirm their beliefs,
ethnicity, etc. etc.

World View
What values, beliefs, or assumptions might members of this audience share?

Quickwrite: What rhetorical choices—genre, language, style, structure, evidence,

appeals—will support the needs, interests, and expectations of your intended audience?

Activity 27: Making Choices as You Write – Descriptive Outlining

1. Starting with a blank page or with an existing draft, divide the page or draft into sections with
a line at the end of each section. Write “SAYS” and “DOES” at the bottom of each section.
2. You might choose to begin by planning what each section will DO rhetorically to develop
your argument. Consider the following:
 How do you want to begin your argument?
 Will your thesis be stated explicitly or implied through the narrative?
 Where will you establish ethos, and where will you appeal to logos and pathos?
 How will you conclude your argument?
3. Either before or after your rhetorical planning, plan what each section will SAY narratively (to
develop your story). Consider the following:
 How will your narrative’s characters and setting be introduced?
 When will a conflict arise?
 What events and details are important to include in the narrative?
 Will there be a climactic moment?

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 20

  Will any character face a turning point?
 Will the conflict resolve?
4. After planning your descriptive outline, you are ready to begin or continue writing your
narrative. You can make adjustments to your structure as you write but maintain both a
narrative and rhetorical purpose that will appeal to your audience.
SAYS and DOES Template – Sentence Frames
SAYS: Introduces [character(s)] and [setting]
DOES: Establishes the ethos of the main character by showing…
SAYS: Introduces the conflict that…
DOES: Appeals to pathos for the main character by showing…
SAYS: Provides an example of…
DOES: Appeals to logos involved in the situation by showing…
SAYS: Takes the conflict to the climax by…
DOES: Reveals the problem involved in the situation, focusing on…
SAYS: Resolves the conflict by…
DOES: Invites the audience to understand…/believe…/take action related to…

Revising Rhetorically
Activity 28: Analyzing Your Draft Rhetorically
After the teacher models this activity, brainstorm a potentially hostile audience for your draft.
Think of a specific type of person or group of people who disagrees with your perspective. Read
your draft from their skeptical point of view.
 What feedback would they provide?
 What revisions would make your draft more inviting for these readers while still challenging
them to think in a new way?
Now identify readers who would benefit from learning more about your topic or reevaluating
their beliefs based on your argument. This is your necessary audience.
 What feedback would they provide?
 What points would challenge them?
 What revisions would enrich this reader’s experience while challenging them to consider the
complexity of the issues involved?
Work in pairs or triads to share ideas about your potential hostile audience and necessary
audience. Use your journal to record suggested revisions based on your group’s input.

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 Hostile audience:

Potential reaction:

Suggested revisions:

Necessary audience:

Potential reaction: .

Suggested revisions:

Activity 29: Gathering and Responding to Feedback

Participate in a writing workshop with your classmates and teacher. Here is a sample workshop
protocol to follow.
1. The author requests a specific kind of feedback (structural, language choices, audience
appeal, etc.). If the draft is very long, the author might call attention to a specific section for
feedback.
2. Facilitator (not author) reads the draft aloud without interruption. Let all audience members
get an overall sense of the draft or excerpt.
3. Facilitator elicits ideas about what worked well. Note these comments as annotations
directly on the draft. The author can be annotating on a separate copy of the draft.
4. Facilitator reminds reviewers of the author’s specific request for feedback. Remind the
author that he or she has the final say on what feedback to use in revisions.
5. Facilitator calls for feedback on possible revisions. Whenever possible, note this feedback
as a question, especially when annotating on the draft itself.
6. Conclude by thanking the author for sharing the draft, and return all copies of the draft to the
author.

Editing
Activity 30: Editing Your Draft – Dialogue
Carefully read the following excerpts. What do you notice about how the dialogue is formatted in
each? Begin creating a list of dialogue “rules” to guide your own writing and editing.
Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and
your Barbie steals him, okay? Kiss kiss kiss. Then the two Barbies fight. You dumbbell!
He’s mine. Oh no he’s not, you stinky! Only Ken’s invisible, right? Because we don’t

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 have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when we’d both rather ask for a new Barbie
outfit next Christmas.
Sandra Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”
“You can’t even hear it when I sing,” you told Bobby after group one day.
“So what? Adds body. Bass harmony is underappreciated,” Bobby told you, then handed
you a cup of coffee.
“The big drum’s all you need for bass,” you said.
“Voice bass is different from drum bass,” Bobby said. “Drum bass is closed. Voice bass
opens.”
“I don’t know,” you said.
“Voice can take a long time to come all the way out, brother,” Bobby said. “Be patient.”
Tommy Orange, “The State”
“This is the place,” Miss Moore said, presenting it to us in the voice she uses at the
museum. “Let’s look in the windows before we go in.”
“Can we steal?” Sugar asks very seriously like she’s getting the ground rules squared
away before she plays. “I beg your pardon,” said Miss Moore, and we fall out. So she
leads us around the windows of the toy store and me and Sugar screaming, “This is
mine, that’s mine, I gotta have that, that was made for me, I was born for that,” till Big
Butt drowns us out.
“Hey, I’m going to buy that there.”
“That, there? You don’t even know what it is, stupid.”
“I do so,” he says punchin on Rosie Giraffe. “It’s a microscope.”
“Whatcha gonna do with a microscope, fool?”
“Look at things.”
“Like what, Ronald?” asks Miss Moore.
Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson”
“Maybe I could take him bowling,” I said to my wife. She was at the draining board doing
scalloped potatoes. She put down the knife she was using and turned around.
“If you love me,” she said, “you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you
had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable.” She
wiped her hands with the dish towel.
“I don’t have any blind friends,” I said.
“You don’t have any friends,” she said. “Period. Besides,” she said, “goddamn it, his
wife’s just died! Don’t you understand that? The man’s lost his wife!”
Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”
“These the forms you gotta use?” my mother asks the woman, picking up a few pieces of
the paper from the table. “Is this what you have to fill out?”
The woman tells her yes, but that she need fill out only one.
“I see,” my mother says, looking about the room. Then: “Would you help me with this
form? That is if you don’t mind.” The woman asks my mother what she means. “This
form. Would you mind helping me fill it out?” The woman still seems not to understand. “I

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 can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write, and I’m askin you to help me.” My mother
looks at me, then looks away. I know almost all of her looks, but this one is brand new to
me. “Would you help me, then?”
Edward P. Jones, “The First Day”
“Yes, I am learning,” Mrs. Sen said. “But I am a slow student. At home, you know, we
have a driver.”
“You mean a chauffeur?”
“Mrs. Sen glanced at Mrs. Sen, who nodded.
Eliot’s mother nodded, too, looking around the room. “And that’s all…in India?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Sen replied. The mention of the word seemed to release something in her.
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest. She, too,
looked around the room, as if she noticed the lampshades, in the teapot, in the shadows
frozen on the carpet, something the rest of them could not. “Everything is there.”
Jhumpa Lahiri, “Mrs. Sen’s”
“Aren’t you ever going to finish the ironing, Mother? Whistler painted his mother in a
rocker. I’d have to paint mine standing over an ironing board.” This is one of her
communicative nights and she tells me everything and nothing as she fixes herself a
plate of food out of the icebox.
She is so lovely. Why did you want me to come in at all? Why were you concerned? She
will find her way.
She starts up the stairs to bed. “Don’t get me up with the rest in the morning.” “But I
thought you were having midterms.” “Oh, those,” she comes back in, kisses me, and
says quite lightly, “in a couple of years when we’ll all be atom-dead they won’t matter a
bit.”
Tillie Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing”
“What’s your name?” we say, and her face goes pink with surprise. Up close we can
read her T-shirt. Under a picture of animals in the jungle, it says, “If the Macaw saw what
the Leopard spotted, then the Toucan can, and you can, too! SAVE THE
RAINFOREST!”
“Grace,” she says.
“Grace,” we repeat. “Grace.” We like the sound of it, the round single syllable, like a
polished metal bead.
Celeste Ng, “Girls, At Play”

Activity 32: Reflecting on Your Writing Process – Reflecting on Learning Goals

Return to your metacognitive journal to revisit your learning goals. Reflect on your growth as a
reader, writer, and as a human. Use the following questions to decide what learning was most
useful to you in this module. Write your responses in your journal and label your entry with
today’s date.
As a reader
 What are you most proud of as a reader from this module?
 What reading or analysis strategies will you carry with you into other reading experiences?

Danger and Power of a Single Story DRAFT 10/8/2018 24

As a writer
 What are you most proud of as a writer from this module?
 What writing strategies will you use to improve future writing?
As a human
 What is the most important learning you’re taking with you from this module?
 How did you change as a result of this module?

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