Thursday, March 12, 2009

Printouts From 2 Credible Sources

You need them in class on Monday, March 16!

After a quiz today on chapters 15-17, we got into research groups and discussed preliminary information and ideas about where to get credible research about the persecution event. The research assignment for Monday is to find--and print or photocopy--two CREDIBLE sources that discuss the causes and/or effects of your event. Here is the information from the power point slides that I showed today in class:

For Monday, March 16th:
1. Find two CREDIBLE sources of information about the causes and effects of your event.
2. Print out the sources including author, title, date of publication, etc. information.
3. Bring your sources to class on Monday.

**REMINDER: CREDIBLE sources...
Come from university sites, respected organizations, etc.
Name an author
Offer a bibliography

YOUR SOURCES FOR MONDAY MUST BE CREDIBLE!!

A great place to look is the EHS databases (SIRS and EBSCO in particular):
EHS DATABASE LIST
**You need the EHS passwords for these databases--hopefully you wrote them down in class.

As Kelly P. pointed out first hour, you can also try looking at news sites like the NY Times. When I googled "New York Times Darfur," I got a long list of interesting (and credible) articles about the situation there.

Also--read pp. 154-167 for tomorrow. If you didn't read pp. 136-153, please try to get that done for tomorrow as well since things are truly falling apart for Okonkwo.

GO HORNETS!!!!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Things are About to Fall Apart

In tonight's reading, you will see the foreigners come into the Igbo villages.

In class, we worked on analyzing three passages from last night's reading.

Homework?
1. Complete the preliminary background research assignment (see previous blog post and research paper prompt on Edline)

2. Read pp. 136-153

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Researching Persecution

Today after a reading quiz we discussed the research paper. Your job for Thursday, March 12, is to do some preliminary research on an example of persecution or colonialism in the world. Some possible options are:

· Darfur
· Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
· Tibet
· Rwanda
· Black War in Australia
· Iraqi Kurds
· Bosnia and Herzegovina
· Other specific examples of colonialism

You may click on a a link above to go to the Wikipedia page about the example. Read through the information on Wikipedia, and respond to the following in your notebook:

1. Dates of this persecution/colonialism event.
2. Describe the persecutors.
3. Describe those being persecuted.
4. What is the general nature of the conflict?

Friday, March 6, 2009

Jaguar Destroyers

Today I collected the counselor assignment. Then we worked on proverbs. We completed the following activity in the notebook:

Pick three proverbs from Things Fall Apart to study more closely

For each proverb:
1. Write the meaning of the proverb (explain it using your own words)
2. Write the relevance to the novel (how it is used, why it is used
3. Consider its relevance or irrelevance to today’s world. Can you think of a time when the wisdom of the proverb was applied to a modern situation? Can you think of a time when the wisdom of the proverb should have been applied and wasn’t?

Some proverb possibilities:

“The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.” p. 8
“If a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.” p. 8
“Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.” p. 19
“A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.” p. 19
“A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.” p. 20
“An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.” p. 21
“The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.” p. 21
“Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.” p. 22
“Looking at a king’s mouth, one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast.” p. 26
“Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.” p. 26
“When a man says yes his chi says yes also.” p. 27

Pages 52-109 must be read by Tuesday. Since Monday night we are supposed to unplug, you will have a good portion of the hour on Monday to read in class.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Reading, Reading

Today in class we worked on reading Things Fall Apart.

Homework:

1. Cheer on the boys against Jefferson.
2. Complete the counselor assignment--due tomorrow.
3. Read pp. 52-86 (for Monday)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Breaking it Down

Today in class we answered analysis questions about chapters 1-3 in Things Fall Apart. The homework for tonight is to read pages 26-51. (1st and 3rd hour students can leave the reading for tomorrow in class since I'll be in a meeting and you'll be with Ms. V). I also suggest that you take some time tonight to be sure that you are caught up on the outside reading assignment. At this point you should have 10 blog posts about the reading that you are doing outside of class.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Drinking from human skulls?

Yep, that happens in the reading for tonight. Your assignment is to read through page 25.

In class we took a quiz, talked about Okonkwo, and finished discussing Igbo culture.

**Don't forget to complete the counselor assignment (previous post) for Friday!!