Young+Adult+Lit+Research+Project

//**Context**: The culminating project for Young Adult Literature (ENGL 675) was to create a research-based unit plan utilizing literary theory that paired a young adult novel of my choice (Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick) and a non-fiction piece (Forever War by Dexter Filkins). I chose to approach these two texts from the perspective of Cultural Poetics, as offers students a chance to see the impact of culture, as well as our own interpretations, on texts that we read and study. // **Land of the Free, Home of the Brave** A Cultural Poetics Approach to Understanding War “Everything we do in life is rooted in theory.” – bell hooks

**What am I going to learn?** · How do media and other cultural artifacts sway and shape our thoughts and perspectives? (Art, advertisement, news, television, music, etc) · How does a culture influence and dictate people’s thoughts and beliefs? · How can we gain a new perspective on a current issue? · How are we impacted by the outcomes and consequences of “war”? · How does Cultural Poetics help us see our world through a different lens?

**Through what avenues will I be learning?** //The Forever War// (the first of two primary texts for this unit) is Dexter Filkins’ first-hand account of his time spent in Iraq and Afghanistan traveling with US soldiers during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Filkins’ raw and honest telling of not only the military perspective, but the civilian perspective of the Iraqi and Afghani people, make this memoir an important text for this study. Most often, we hear the perspective from those who are “winning” and don’t get to see how it affects other people. Filkins drags us through open fire, loss, pain, and triumph alike to show how these things affect everyone, even those of us tens of thousands of miles away.

//Purple Heart// by Patricia McCormick (the second primary text for this unit) is a young adult novel about 18-year-old Matt Duffy who suffers a traumatic brain injury after surviving being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). McCormick did extensive research on the lives of the soldiers that inspired her story, and her ability to connect to a wide audience about the effects of this “war” on soldiers that we hear about in the news and making it a concrete matter makes this a great pairing with Filkins’ true account of the human costs of Operations Iraqi Freedom & Enduring Freedom.

We will also be using other cultural artifacts (propaganda, religion, news clips, articles, commercials, letters, journals, art, music, etc.) to further understand our culture’s perspective and beliefs about the military action we are involved in now as well as wars/other military action from our past that we are now only beginning to understand.

**Why is this important?** Since most of you can remember, our country as been at war. After 9/11 happened, President Bush declared that he would get to the bottom of the situation and we would, as Toby Keith said, “…put a boot in their *%$.” However, we are not “at war” – we are technically engaged in //military action// – but not with a country – we are fighting //an idea//. The questions we find ourselves asking may be: What is the difference? Why are we even there? What does it matter to me? With the unrest in the Middle East in Libya, Yemen and Egypt, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have almost taken a back seat in the media. But what is going on when the cameras aren’t rolling and NBC, CBS and CNN are no longer airing live feed from the front lines? There are still men and women fighting for the freedoms that we inherently treasure, but what is happening to them? Are we getting the real story? Our awareness of world issues and being able to understand our impact on our global society is a powerful thing, and when we can determine the influence and importance of culture and history on our beliefs and ideals, we will forever be changed and be able to step back from ourselves and truly understand //why// we think the way we do.

**How am I going to learn this?** We will be answering the //what// of what we’ll be learning not only through the main texts, but we’ll also be using the literary theory Cultural Poetics to help us explore not only our own culture, but the cultures in which we’re involved in “military action.” Studying literary theory is much like looking through a lens, specifically looking for different and specific things, and it allows us to “bring out what is already there but we often miss with unaided vision” (Appleman xvi). The theory of Cultural Poetics, according to Clifford Geetz, tells us that we are not independent from our culture and everyone’s experience is a cultural artifact. Many of us do not realize that texts can be treated “much the way anthropologists treat cultural artifacts – as pieces of a larger cultural mosaic” (Blau 6). We are going to treat everything we come into contact with concerning the war/military conflict and our society, as artifacts that help other cultures, as well as ourselves, understand our ideals, beliefs and values. We are going to be using this idea to specifically understand, explain and show the impact of culture on the perspective during military conflict/action/war. It’s also important for us to better understand why people of specific cultures think, believe and act the way they do, which helps us better understand the wide yet small world in which we live.

**__Pre-Reading Lesson__**

**Objectives** - Students will participate in a web-quest using several reliable and notable sources (the US State Government, Council on Foreign Relations) to obtain essential background information about Iraq and Afghanistan’s culture and history before reading the chosen texts - Students will be able to explicate and discern the differences between both countries

**Materials** - Laptop computers - List of websites (Appendix 1) - Web-quest worksheet (Appendix 2)

**Process**

1. Students will be assigned a laptop computer at the beginning of the class period. Each student will be responsible for completing the assignment individually. 2. Students will access the list of sites from our class website on edmodo.com for easy access (point and click). Students will be directed to only use the information from these sites and to NOT “google” questions to find the answers. 3. Students will complete the web-quest by completing the Word document (also accessed from our class website). Students will then turn in their assignment on edmodo for a formative assessment grade. 4. Once a student receives feedback on the web-quest (approx. 1 day), he/she will be able to go back and correct any issues/add information to the original assignment for later information/use on other topics discussed. Students will also be encouraged to keep a hard copy of the completed & corrected assignments in their daybooks to add more information as the unit continues.

**__Web-Quest Websites__** (Appendix 1)

**Source 1** [] History of Afghanistan

**Source 2** [] History of Iraq

**Source 3** Timeline of US involvement in Afghanistan

**Source 4** [] Timeline of US involvement in Iraq

You will be utilizing only these websites to find the answers to your web-quest on Iraq and Afghanistan. Make sure at the end of each of your answers, you site which source you used (Source 1, Source 2, etc.). This is good practice for you for the AP exam (synthesis essay). You will only be “graded” on the answers you submit on your assignment via edmodo. You are more than welcome to take notes in your daybook about other things you find interesting or things you want to remember. This may come in handy later on in the unit.

**__Web Quest__** (Appendix 2) Make sure you answer the questions for each topic in complete sentences, citing sources when appropriate. You must re-submit this on edmodo in order to receive credit. Remember – I expect you to use the information you’re reading and apply/synthesize it to answer the questions.

**Afghanistan**

1) How could the history of Afghanistan’s political and civil unrest create an issue with the current American/UN presence there?

2) What are some of the main points of civil/political unrest for each “period” of history?

3) To what extent does religion seem to be an influence in Afghani politics? Civilians’ lives? Past/current issues? Why is this an important topic to discuss concerning a country’s culture?

4) Discuss the timeline of American involvement in Afghanistan and how it relates to the country’s past as well as how it is contributing to their situation presently.

**Iraq**

1) How could the history of Iraq’s political and civil unrest create an issue with the current American/UN presence there?

2) What are some of the main points of civil/political unrest for each “period” of history?

3) To what extent does religion seem to be an influence in Iraqi politics? Civilians’ lives? Past/current issues? Why is this an important topic to discuss concerning a country’s culture?

4) Discuss the timeline of American involvement in Iraq (Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom) and how it relates to the country’s past as well as how it is contributing to their situation presently. **Reflection**  Think about what you knew/understood about Iraq & Afghanistan before completing this assignment. What is different? What is the same? What questions do you still have? What do you want to talk more about? How did you benefit from this assignment? How would you explain these complex things to someone who didn’t know anything about Iraq and/or Afghanistan?

**__Pre-Reading Lesson #2__** Pre-writing: When you hear the word “artifact,” what do you think of? Where are these found? What can they tell us? In what contexts do we normally associate the word “artifact”? After a brief class discussion of the pre-writing, students will view the teacher-created Prezi as a whole class while answering the questions in their daybooks that are presented at the beginning of the presentation:

What do these artifacts mean? Why do they mean that? What do we think of them? Why? What about my culture lends me to think this way? Do these artifacts have power? If they do, why? How do these artifacts impact my perspective?

After answering these questions for each of the artifacts, students will join together in small groups to discuss their answers and come up with at least three points of discussion or three questions to bring up in the Socratic seminar. (Students will all ready be familiar with the idea/concept/execution of the Socratic seminar.) Each group will be at the center of the circle, discussing their points/questions while other students join the “hot seat.” After each group has gone through the center circle, the whole class will come together to discuss the implications of our thoughts/feelings/experience/learning. Students will then reflect in their daybooks about the lesson as a whole and what they gleaned about the importance of their view of culture/people on their world perspective.

**__During Reading Lesson__**

**Objectives** - Students will be able to explain how this type of cultural artifact impacts them as a person and how it may affect others - Students will draw conclusions about similarities/differences between the novel and the journal entries - Students will engage in answering some of the overarching questions in reference to the entries - Students will examine the syntax and be briefed on military writing SOP and how it differs from the writing they do on a daily basis

**Process** After finishing //Purple Heart// (which we’ll read first), students will read the journal entries from one of my friends from high school who is a Staff Sergeant in the US Army. Seth was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and has gladly and willingly shared some of his journal entries to let the students read and experience. After reading the two journal entries, students will react/reflect in their daybooks to the following questions: How is Seth’s personal experience similar or different from the news we hear? To the books we’ve read? What did you discover from looking at this artifact? We will discuss how this type of cultural artifact may have reshaped/redefined our perspective of war along with the novel. Students will also be asked to engage in a conversation about the ending of both of Seth’s entries and how that impacts them as citizens as well as how it could impact a soldier. (Appendix 3) Army Staff Sergeant Seth Houle Journal Entries from Deployment in Afghanistan

**Journal Entry #1**

I don’t remember the day but the month was August and the year was 2009. I was deployed to FOB Baylough, Zabual province, Dashopan district, Afghanistan. 3rd Squad plus attachments were on a patrol; we were showing our Company Commander (CO) our Area of Operations (AO).

We were about to move into a hostile town when our CO said he wanted to check out a neighboring town. We decided on a plan of action and moved in. With our HMMWV 1151A's staged at the top of the town providing Support By Fire (SBF) over watch we moved into the town on foot. The CO doing his own thing was walking about the town without any real worries.

I took it upon myself to be his security attachment since the rest of my team was in the SBF position. I followed the CO as we went door to door and talked to the villagers. The CO made link up with the village elder and talked to him about the on goings in the town and if they had seen any Taliban and if they needed any help. Of course the village elder said there were no Taliban in the area (though we knew this town was a safe haven) and that they needed water and supplies for the winter. The CO said we could help. Our interpreter came up to us moving very quickly, and said that there was ICOM chatter and there were Taliban in the town and we were right outside of their door.

We checked everywhere and could not find anything. After about 45 minutes or so we decided to leave the town and continue our original mission. As we pushed out of the town the Afghan National Army (ANA) platoon we had with us opened fire on the opposite hill side. We all hit the ground and tried to figure out what was going on. ANA would shoot at anything that moved with no regard to anything around them. So we continued to move back to our trucks. As we reached the trucks the ICOM chatter came back saying, "They are leaving the town, wait until they get in their trucks and shoot at the top of them."

The top of our trucks is where our exposed gunners are. So we told our gunners to get low and keep an eye out. As soon as we started to push forward we got ambushed. We suppressed the enemy with a high concentration of fire from our .50 cal M2 browning machine guns and our MK19 40mm automatic grenade launchers.

I was in my truck and my platoon sergeant got in my squad leaders truck and we started pushing toward the enemy. My platoon sergeant came across the radio and said that I had to dismount my truck and move back to my squad leader. I came back across the net with who’s going to maneuver my truck. He said he could control both. So I dismounted my truck as we were being shot at with accurate fire from an unseen enemy. As the trucks moved forward I had about 300 yards between my squad leader and myself that I had to run. As I started back to him a burst of enemy machine gun fire impacted the dirt where I was just standing.

I got back to my squad leader and he looked at me as if to say you are one lucky son of a bitch. The trucks suppressed the enemy and moved back to our position. We mounted back up and pressed on. We moved to a spot and refit ammo and supplies. We took about 15 minutes to do that and then pushed out.

As soon as we left that location we were ambushed again. We pushed through that ambush and fired on the move and called in mortars on the enemy locations.

We go about 2 clicks down the road when we were hit with yet another ambush. We were pinned down we had RPGs air bursting around us and very accurate enemy fire hitting our trucks and impacting all around. The CO dismounted the truck to check on our lead truck. I dismounted my truck to cover his movement.

I crouched behind the left rear wheel of my truck (because it was the side with the least amount of enemy contact) while I was engaging targets; I looked over my left shoulder. I saw one of our men down in the dirt. I looked back down my barrel and looked back over my left shoulder he was still down. I jumped up from my position and ran over to him. I was completely exposed to enemy fire, as we were not behind any of our trucks and in the open.

It was the CO he was shot in both legs. I grabbed for his tourniquet. He didn’t have one I said where the hell is your tourniquet SIR!! He said just get me the hell out of here. So I grabbed his IBA and carried him back 20 yards to the truck through the enemies fire. Enemy rounds impacted all around us while we moved back to the trucks.

I loaded the CO in the truck with the help of the Medic. I went to the right side of the truck and got in. The medic just sat there as we pushed back the FOB. I yelled at the medic to start treatment, but he was dehydrated and didn’t know what was going on. I got on the net with the FOB and told them what we had. They called for a MEDIVAC while we drove back to the FOB. I pushed the medic out of the way and started cutting off the COs pant legs and applied field dressing to both his legs.

We pulled up to the FOBs LZ the Blackhawk was touching down. We carried the CO to the bird and then the Blackhawk was gone. I moved quickly to our FOB aid station to give our medic an IV.

After I was done giving the medic an IV, I went to get something to eat. As I sat down to eat I looked at my hands and they were covered in the COs blood. I ate my dinner and then washed my hands.

The next day we continued with our everyday routine as if the day prior had never happened.

**Journal Entry #2**

So my squad (3rd squad) and I were setting in an OP (over watch position) to over watch another squad (1st squad) as they pushed into a town. I had just got my team set into position and walked over to my squad leader to give him an up on the status of my men and their positions. 1st squad was on the net saying they were in contact. I called over to my team (B team) to give them a sit rep (situation report) as my squad leader let A team know the current situation.

At this time I was moving back to my team and I heard a round wiz passed my head and it impacted on the rock behind me. As we scanned the mountaintops for Taliban, we were being shot at by an enemy we could not see.

We called in mortars from our FOB. We fired on the surrounding mountaintops trying to suppress the unseen enemy. As the 1st squad pushed forward they too were being engaged. They opened up on the mounting sides and tops with .50 cals and MK19s, as we continued to call in our mortars.

I pushed out two of my guys to our 6 o'clock to cover us incase we were going to be over ran. Our Platoon Leader who was on the ground with 1st squad called in air support. Two British F15s were on station with in about 20min. My squad leader was talking with our PL over the net while our PL was talking with the pilots. My squad leader was letting the PL know where he should have the F15's drop their rounds. The PL told the pilots and at the same time our mortars hit one mountain and a 500lbs JDAM hit another. All was quit for what seemed like an hour but it was really like 5 min. Then enemy fire burst from the mountains. We starting engaging with everything we had from M4s to M249s, M240s, .50cals, and MK19s. Again our squad leader told our PL where to drop rounds and he relayed to the pilots and again rounds hit.

Then nothing just quit. 1st squad moved out while we continued to scan the ridge lines nothing no movement except a few donkeys. We could only think that the Taliban was using them to get supplies and personnel to the ridgelines. We waited 5 more hours in the hot Afghanistan summer and then exfilled the OP back to our FOB 7 clicks on foot.

We got back grabbed some water took our kits off broke down our weapons and started cleaning them. Out of nowhere enemy mortars were falling into and around our compound. We put our weapons together as fast as possible threw our gear on and went to the rooftops. We dropped motors on the positions the enemy was firing at us from. This went on for 30 or 40min. Again quit and dusk rolled in we waited for another hour when it was pitch dark and came down from the roof tops.

We went through our end of the day routine of showers chow and calling loved ones.

All we could do was chalk it up to a good day. None of us injured and all of us in the FOB for the night. All and all a successful day.

**__Post-Reading Lesson__** This post-reading lesson is designed to engage the students in a meeting (face-to-face) or Skype with Seth Houle, the soldier who shared his journal entries with me for this unit, to talk about his experiences in Afghanistan while he was deployed. Although the students have already read some of his experiences, it’s different when a student can make a personal connection to another human from the same culture. From the beginning of the unit, the students will be involved in a service-learning process and project. This will involve students becoming pen pals with a platoon through [|www.adoptaplatoon.org]. Through this service project, students will be able to see a new perspective of the military action we have experienced the last 10 years, as well as give those soldiers comfort in the form of letters and/or care packages. The students will also be creating real and current artifacts as well as receiving them. Students will keep a scrapbook of letters, pictures, etc. sent from their perspective soldier to keep. At the end of the year, the students will “unpack” this experience as a reflection of what they’ve learned and their experience of being a pen pal to a soldier.

**__Sources__**

Appleman, Deborah. //Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents.// New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2000. Print.

Blau, Sheridan. //Building Bridges Between Literary Theory and the Teaching of Literature//. Rep. no. 5.6. Albany: National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning, 1993. Print.

Bressler, Charles E. //Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice//. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

Filkins, Dexter. //The Forever War//. New York: Vintage, 2009. Print.

Houle, Seth. “Journal Entries.” Acquired by Lorelei Futrelle. Facebook message. Online.

Lawrence, David. "Heroic Act of Witness: Dexter Filkins' Forever War." //War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities.// 22 (2010): 15-20. Print.

McCormick, Patricia. //Purple Heart//. New York: Balzer Bray, 2009. Print.