December!

We will begin reading Things Fall Apart together in class Tuesday and Wednesday, so bring your books!
Remember to scroll down to previous posts to make sure you don't miss anything.

Period 1: 
Solid, well-crafted, typed drafts are due on Thursday December 4 for peer-editing. Finish reading chapter 1 and complete your Chapter 1 dialogue journal--at least three quotes with succinct, intelligent responses. Remember your Nigerian artifact for the board!
Period 2: 
Solid, full-length, well-developed typed drafts are due at the beginning of class on Thursday December 4th for peer-editing. Complete your dialogue journal page for Chapter 1 of Things Fall Apart.

Period 5: Read chapters 1 and 2 of Things Fall Apart. 

• Fill in one dialogue journal page for each chapter (2 pages total due on Friday). Each page of your dialogue journals should include 3 quotes  (gathered from each chapter), so, for chapter one, you will select three quotes either about Okonkwo as a character; Igbo cultural practices, values or beliefs; proverbs or folktales; roles of women; or conflict with the missionaries. Do the same on the second page for chapter 2.
• Place the quotes on the left side of the table. Place your responses on the right side of the table. Use the CARPE note-making strategy to vary your responses. 
• Follow the directions on the example sheet. 
• Your summary goes at the bottom of the page.
• Final drafts were due on Wednesday December 3. Make sure your peer-editing sheet is completely filled out by two different editors!

• Period 6: Read chapters 1 and 2 of Things Fall Apart. 
• Fill in one dialogue journal page for each chapter (2 pages total due on Friday). Each page of your dialogue journals should include 3 quotes  (gathered from each chapter), so, for chapter one, you will select three quotes either about Okonkwo as a character; Igbo cultural practices, values or beliefs; proverbs or folktales; roles of women; or conflict with the missionaries. Do the same on the second page for chapter 2.
• Follow the directions on the example sheet. 
• Place the quotes on the left side of the table. Place your responses on the right side of the table. Use the CARPE note-making strategy to vary your responses. 
• Follow the directions on the example sheet. 
• Your summary goes at the bottom of the page.
• Final drafts for "The Role of Literature/Role of Storytelling" were due at the beginning of the class on December 3. 

*All STUDENTS: IF you forgot to turn in your Nigerian fact, image, or statistic, please turn it in--bulletin board ready (that means beautiful--typed, great font, etc.) ASAP.

Here are the instructions for your synthesis essay "The Role of the Writer/Role of Storytelling" from the power point as promised:

If you follow the prompt and the instructions on the sheet I gave you, you should have a very strong essay. 

Introductory Paragraph

Hook:

Begin with a quote:

•“Chimamanda Adichie said…” or

•Begin with a question:

•“What would culture be without stories?” or

•Begin with an anecdote:

•“Once upon a time…” my dad began, as I snuggled deeper into my x-men sheets.” or

•Begin with a statistic:

•“Every year, Amazon sells _______ number of books. And they say reading is dead…”

Background

•Set up your idea. This is the background or context

 For Example: Stories shape the lives of humans starting from a very young age, whether those stories are fables, tall tales told at the dinner table, church gossip on Sundays, or fantasies read before bed. Stories have a profound impact on the way our cultural identity is shaped, on our sense or right and wrong, as well as on our ability to understand other people.

Thesis:

For Example: Stories in my life have been a shield from tension at home, offering me other lives to slip into, other realities to explore. Stories have offered me new worlds and perhaps, most importantly, stories have taught me that I am not alone.

Body Paragraph #1

•Open with a topic sentence, for example: I suppose I might not have become a reader if I had not needed to escape the heated conversations between my parents during my second grade year. I'd seek out princesses in peril, trolls set on terrible vengeance, and kids who could time travel. At first I just wanted to escape, but later I found myself entering strange new reading territory, journeying into lives wildly different from mine but more realistic. 

Follow with quote and enough background to develop your idea, for example: Turkish writer Elif Shafak said, Stories can punch holes in your mental walls” and that was certainly true for me. Growing up in a tiny, conservative town, I had never known anyone who was hungry, anyone who looked different from me, anyone who was anything but a patriotic, God-fearing American. The first time I read about a child living in entirely different circumstances was in the seventh grade when…
Close with analysis: •Shafak’s idea that stories can offer release and relief from the staggeringly narrow confinements of our inherited experiences is proven by my secret awakening, sparking in me a curiosity to travel and see the world beyond the little valley I called home. My mental walls had been punched, and ideas started pouring in.

Body Paragraph #2 

Choose your next idea.

•Develop it in a similar manner using quotes to support your thinking. Use your author packet to help give you ideas.

Body Paragraph #3

Same idea. Choose a different author or a new point to develop.

•If this is hard for you, you may want to return to your thesis for guidance.

•My thesis said that stories offered me escape. Shafak is probably the best author to quote for that because she loved to travel into the lives of others by virtue of her active imagination.

•In my thesis, I also said stories helped me realize I was not alone. I could call on Uwem Akpan and Chimamanda Adichie finding a quote about how universal the human experience is, like when Akpan said “My dear American brothers and sisters, this is not just an African problem. Children all over the world suffer.” This might help me say I realized suffering was universal, or it helped me realize how small my problems were compared to the struggles of others, or how much power I have to change my life, just like children in the stories were brave enough to change their lives. The result was that I felt less alone.
-Do you see how I am making connections here? I am connecting the thoughts of these authors with my life and explaining my realizations as well as the effect those realizations had on me. 

Conclusion:

Conclusions do more than restate the thesis. They eloquently build on ideas presented in previous paragraphs driving home the importance of what you have said.

•Think of your essay as moving in a circle. The last part should not be an echo, but it should bring you to a peaceful or profound sense of ending.

•Do not introduce new ideas.

•Do leave the reader thinking, moved, or satisfied.