Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Choice Book Unit

The choice book unit begins next week. You will select one of the following books:

Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Dajout
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Snow by Orhan Pamuk

You will be responsible for developing and teaching a lesson on your choice book to your book group. The lesson will cover an entire day, and you must maximize student learning and engagement.

On Monday, November 3 you will have a chance to read parts of each book to make a selection, but you may wish to do some research on the books before then.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Things Fall Apart Vocabulary

World Lit students, click on comments for this post and write the information for your assigned vocabulary word. Complete information for 4-Square vocabulary includes 1) a dictionary definition, 2) a symbol or image that represents your word, 3) two synonyms that you think that your classmates will understand, and 4) the word used in an original sentence that shows complete understanding of the word. The sentence should be about Things Fall Apart in terms of character, symbol, plot, setting or theme. NOTE: Although you are not able to post an image with your comment, simply describe the image.

Once all of the entries are made, students may wish to copy and paste the complete definition information into a Word document and print that to glue in their notebooks. Students may even want to print a second copy of the vocabulary words to make flash cards to study for the test.

Here are the vocabulary words:

egwugwu, p. 4, a masquerader who impersonates an ancestral spirit

kola nut, p. 6, (same as cola) a nut from an African tree that contains caffeine

proverb, p. 7, a short saying that expresses some obvious truth

Oracle, p. 12, any person or place believed to be in communication with a Deity (God)

agbala, p. 13, a woman; or a man who has taken no title

malevolent, p. 13, wishing evil or harm to others, “nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.”

incipient, p. 13, just beginning to exist, “incipient laziness” of Nwoye

chi, p. 18, personal god

abomination, p. 18, something hateful and disgusting

tapper, p. 20, someone who taps trees to get the sap or oil

share-cropping, p. 22, a farmer who gives part of his profits to the landowner

cassava, p. 23, tuber (root starch) often used for tapioca

Ibo (Igbo), p. 27, an African people of Southeast Nigeria

bride-price, p. 40, the money paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family

harbingers, p. 56, a person or thing that comes before to indicate what follows

effeminate, p. 58, having characteristics usually attributed to females; unmanly

plantains, p. 63, banana

ogbanje, p. 77, a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn