Week 2 Syllabus: January 15

THIS WEEK WE ARE FINISHING ACHEBE’S TFA and starting our work on Greek mythology and Homer’s Odyssey. This week, we will start background on the Trojan war and the Olympian deities. We will start by finishing a short essay that summarizes and explains the argument made in a longer, academic essay. Then, I will begin to introduce the Greek gods and Homer’s Odyssey. Don’t have your copy of the Emily Wilson translation of Homer’s Odyssey? Get it from either our bookstore or elsewhere by Monday.

MONDAY, January 15

  • No school for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

WEDNESDAY, January 17

  • Small group peer-editing.

  • Students will read your abstract that summarizes the writer’s argument about Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

  • After reading essays, students should write in changes to their work. Essays collected by end of period.

  • HW: If you have not finished revising, do so, and turn in a printed copy of your one page abstract

Thursday, January 18

  • Introduction to translations and the differences between them.

  • Xenia: loosely translated as “hospitality,” it also means the guest-host relationship, AND our responsibility to: welcome travelers/strangers, eat together, share background and stories, exchange gifs of value, build bonds for lifelong relationships

  • Watching documentary, “Troy: Ancient Myths and Unsolved Mysteries”

  • HW: Reading handout, background on Trojan war: “Before Troy.” Due Monday.