Progressing on my Unit

[This blog responds to the 10/02/13 questions: what’s your conceptual framing?; what texts are you thinking about bringing in?; why?]

The unit’s essential question:  Why do good people do bad things?

The unit’s conceptual framing: by exploring research into the psychology of cruelty, and reflecting on instances of cruelty, the class may come to a better understanding of the following: how to avoid being cruel; how to contextualize the cruelty we face from others; and how to cultivate approaches to our social and political lives that reduce cruelty on and micro and macro levels.

Texts to be included in the unit (and why, i.e. the questions attached to the unit's essential question, the former of which directly inform the inclusion of their respective texts): “Girl” (Why does the person who’s talking to the narrator call her a slut?); “Smell and Envy” (Why would someone be jealous of the smells someone else is experiencing?  Do you think that’s fair?); “No country club for old men” + “As For Empathy, the Haves Have Not” (Do you think you are empathetic?  Why or why not?); “In Simili Materia” (Why do you think the little girl slaps her doll?); and “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Why do you think the brother buries his sister if he thinks she is alive?).