Things Fall Apart sits at an interesting crossroads between English and history. It is a work of fiction, but it responds directly to the way colonial Africa was written about by Europeans. A document-based essay lets students test the novel against actual sources from the period.

This kind of assignment works well in World History, World Literature, or team-taught courses. Students read a small set of documents, such as missionary accounts, colonial administrative writing, or later scholarly commentary, and use them alongside the novel. The result is an essay that requires them to weigh different kinds of evidence.

The final ending of the novel is a natural anchor. The District Commissioner thinks about writing a book on the peoples he governs and imagines fitting Okonkwo's story into a short paragraph. Students can compare that impulse with real colonial-era documents and ask what Achebe is criticizing.

Because this assignment mixes disciplines, you will want a rubric that is explicit about how documents and the novel should be used. Otherwise, students will treat the novel as a document and forget to analyze the source.

Setting Up the Document Set

Keep the set small, around four to six sources, and include a range of perspectives. Provide short headnotes explaining who wrote each source and when. Students should be able to discuss the author's point of view without doing outside research.

• Include at least one source written from a colonial or missionary perspective
• Include at least one source that reflects an African viewpoint or later commentary
• Add a map or visual that gives geographic and political context
• Provide a short excerpt from Achebe's own essays or interviews if appropriate
• Keep each document brief so students can analyze it closely in one sitting

Scoring the Essay

Borrow the structure of standard DBQ rubrics while adding literature-specific rows. Score the thesis, the use of documents, the use of the novel, sourcing analysis, and organization. A separate row for how the student handles the novel as evidence keeps literary analysis from disappearing.

Sourcing analysis deserves special attention. Ask whether students consider who wrote each document, for what audience, and with what purpose. A student who notices that a missionary report was written to raise funds has made a sophisticated observation.

Common Difficulties

Students often summarize each document in turn instead of using them to build an argument. Suggest organizing paragraphs by claim, with each paragraph drawing on both documents and the novel. A brief outline conference before drafting can prevent this.

Another difficulty is confusing the novel's setting with real events. The story is fiction, and while it reflects historical patterns, students should avoid citing it as proof of specific facts. Make this distinction clear in the assignment.

Grading at Scale

Document-based essays are dense and time-consuming. Rubric-driven tools like GraideMind can apply a multi-row DBQ-style rubric to each essay and produce structured feedback on document use and sourcing. Teachers can then focus their reading on the analysis that requires human judgment.

After the unit, gather feedback from both English and history colleagues on where students struggled. The assignment sits between two departments, and collaborative revision makes it better each year.