Parable of the Sower Lesson Plan

Paracecto Babies

Kind of Activity:

Research

Objective:

Students will discuss how one aspect of the novel may be an allegory for a real-world phenomenon.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1

Structure:

Damage from Paracecto (which caused Lauren's hyperempathy when her mother abused it while pregnant) might be an analogy to the damage caused to the children of drug-addicted mothers in the 1980s and 1990s in the midst of the crack epidemic. During this time, when Butler was writing, there was widespread social panic about "crack babies," also known as prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE).

Divide students into groups of four or five. Each group will research the...