Teacher Guide for Text Set for Fahrenheit 451

The following is a sample of my academic writing:

Teacher Guide, Fahrenheit 451

In this text set for Fahrenheit 451, students will explore themes of the power of the written word and how censorship impacts the disenfranchised. This text set provides cultural and historical perspectives on censorship and what the societal relationship towards learning says about how a society cares for its people.

The article on the 1933 Nazi book burnings, the event that inspired Bradbury to write Fahrenheit 451, gives students historical context on how a dystopian society like the one seen in the novel can arise. Students will learn that the disdain for intellectualism that brought about censorship and book burnings in both Bradbury's futuristic American society and Nazi Germany can have real and unimaginable consequences. 

"You Have Insulted Me: A Letter" by Kurt Vonnegut is another nonfiction piece that looks at how the act of censorship does more damage than the inflammatory book itself. 

This set contains two autobiographical narratives that highlight the empowerment that comes with reading: "Learning to Read and Write" by Frederick Douglass and "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X. Both narratives give historical perspective, but they offer differing cultural perspectives. "Learning to Read and Write" by Frederick Douglass shows how ignorance can be used as a social structure to keep a class system in check, similar to Fahrenheit 451. Much like Montag, the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, Douglass reads in secret.

"Learning to Read" by Malcolm X offers a different perspective because Malcolm X's education is sanctioned and encouraged within the prison system. This text offers a viewpoint that contradicts the other texts by showing how disenfranchised people can be inspired by a framework that wants them to better themselves, and thereby enact positive change on society. 

There are three poems contained in this set. The poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold offers a stark contrast to the values of the dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 and shows how important art and beauty are to human nature. The poem "Burning a Book" by William Stafford highlights the dangers of an ignorant society, while the poem "Unto my books so good to turn" by Emily Dickinson imparts the solace and comfort literature can bring.

The fictional short story "The Portable Phonograph" offers a view of what is left of society after a nuclear event, like at the close of Fahrenheit 451, and shows how books and music remain the most important vestiges of society.

As teachers read these texts with students, some important questions to consider posing would be:

- What is the relationship between censorship and people becoming disenfranchised?

- What does it say about a society if that society wants to keep its people ignorant, as opposed to a society that wants a learned population? 

- What value do art, literature, and an appreciation of beauty bring to our world?

A note on sequencing: "Book Burnings" can be read before students begin Fahrenheit 451, but after the general concept of the novel is introduced. "Dover Beach" should be read as the poem is read in the novel, towards the end of Part Two. "The Portable Phonograph" should be read at the close of Fahrenheit 451. "Learning to Read and Write" by Frederick Douglass can be read at any point in the novel, but it should be read before "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X. The poems "Burning a Book" and "Unto my books so good to turn," as well as "You Have Insulted Me: A Letter," can be read at any point.