2 Videos about the Ancient Greek Oracle of Delphi
The image above is linked to the Britannica web site.
Nigeria: Journey of an African Colony
Click on the image above to access the film clip from the documentary.
This documentary provides an interesting counterpoint to our textbook’s view of the western imperialism that dominated Africa in the 19th century, and the ensuing independence movement in the later 20th century. Remember, Things Fall Apart is published in 1959.
Week 5 Syllabus: November 18
UNOKA DIES A POOR MAN, YET HE IS CULTURED nonetheless. He is a drunkard, yet he also is talented, and his musical abilities are appreciated in his village. Unoka is likewise lazy, but he knows how to greet his guest, offering him kola nut and welcoming him into his home. In contrast, Okonkwo has great physical prowess, but words fail him when he becomes angry. He is respected as a leader, yet he struggles to show affection to his children. It seems nobody is perfect according to Achebe…but because these men are flawed, does it follow that they are failures? Achebe notes in The Novelist as Teacher “that [Africa’s] past—with all its imperfections—was not one long night of savagery from which first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them (Achebe 45). Where is there good in Unoka? And in Okonkwo?
MONDAY, November 18
Starting with review of the posted quotes and observations about Okonkwo.
In small groups, discussing the trends you see in Okonkwo. What conclusions do you draw about him? Then, discussing Umofia, and how their societal values are similar to and different from Okonkwo’s.
Watching part two of the Netflix documentary on the foundation of the Crown Colony of Nigeria.
HW: Read chapters 3 and 4 for class on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, November 20
Period 1 will review the documentary with the new, improved note sheet/questions.
Period 3 will read two selections from an AP history textbook about the colonialism in Africa, and the European partition of the African continent.
HW: Reading chapters three and four for class tomorrow.
THURSDAY, November 21
Reading an article on the Festival of the Yam.
Discussion of chapter three’s visit to the oracle, and the brotherhood of Nwoye and Ikemefuna in chapter four.
Period 1 will work on the two textbook articles that they missed yesterday.
Vocabulary Friday! We will have our first crossword from the novel, due by the end of period.
HW: Read chapters 5 and 6 for homework. Pre-read and post-review the annotation guide questions.
Audio for Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Click on the image above to access audio files for the novel.
Week 4 Syllabus: November 11
IN ACHEBE’S NOVEL THINGS FALL APART, Okonkwo is our protagonist and hero who attempts to protect—and fails to save—his society. Unlike Binti, Okonkwo does not leave his home and people. Just the opposite, he attempts to preserve it by destroying the invading, violent and white, British colonists. Like the Meduse, the Ibo people of Okonkwo’s village are defenseless, both in guile and in force. On the back cover of Binti, the publisher notes that “in order to survive the legacy of war not her making, [Binti] will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined in the university.” Okonkwo has his people, his culture, and the wisdom of his ancestors. But none of these will be sufficient to stop the invading European powers.
MONDAY, November 11
Discussion on “Binti.” We will start with the Eden, the mysterious, powerful cube Binti finds in the Himba desert (or does it find her?). We will explore this mysterious object as a way of accessing Okorafor’s novella and story of cultural clash.
Second part of class, we will discuss the poem quoted in Achebe’s epigraph, “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet, dramatist and early 20th century revolutionary.
HW: Period 1 did not discuss the novella, because too many students weren’t prepared for discussion. Finish reading and annotating the novella, “Binti.”
Spend a half-hour researching and discovering what you can about Yeats’s poem, “The Second Coming.” Use these library database resources to discover what you can.
WEDNESDAY, November 13
Select the image above to access audio to the novel.
Period 1 will be discussing “Binti.”
Period 3 will begin reading and annotating Things Fall Apart (TFA).
We ARE behind on the syllabus, because we spend an extra day getting ready for our Great Books discussion of “Binti.”
Reading chapter one of TFA together; starting with the pre-and-post reading questions to help with annotation/comprehension checks.
While reading, similar to how you annotated Binti, look for culture clash within the Ibo people. Why does Okonkwo value? How are his personal views at times in conflict with others’ cultural values? Remember to use these questions at the end of our assigned readings.
HW: Finish (re)reading chapter one and read chapter two for class on Thursday. We will discuss Okonkwo’s values and the values of the Umofia people on Monday.
Week 3 Syllabus: November 6
WE’RE TRANSITIONING INTO OUR FIRST NOVEL, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In order to prepare for the novel, we will read a science-fiction novella, “Binti” by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor. It’s the bildungsroman (coming-of-age tale) of a young adult of the reclusive Himba people, traveling to university—on another planet! On the way, she must confront and overcome her fear of the majority Khoush people, who rarely interact with the Himba. How will Binti fare on her journey? While traveling, she will encounter the violent and frightening Meduse, a nightmare-like violent race, blood-thirsty and dangerous. How will Binti survive her journey?
WEDNESDAY, November 6
Crossword on the works of Ursula K. LeGuin. We will do these with partners, due by end of period.
HW: Make sure you have your copy of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart…we are starting our reading next week!
THURSDAY, November 7
Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Igbo immigrant parents; she holds a Ph.D. in English and is an associate professor of Creative Writing at University of Buffalo
Reading day. We will start reading “Binti,” a novella by an Nigerian-American writer. It tells the story of a Himba humanoid who travels to university—on another planet, Oomza. The Himba are reclusive, yet Binti goes forward on her hero journey. While traveling, she must engage the Khoush, the majority of humanoids who inhabit her home-planet and are biased against the Himba people. During her journey, we meet the horrific Meduse, a violent race engaged in war with the Khoush. Will Binti survive her journey?
While reading, annotate for information about the three core groups: the Himba, the Khoush, and the Meduse. How are they described? How do they act? What do they believe? How do these three groups interact? What argument is Okorafor making about cultural interactions?
HW: Finish reading and annotating “Binti” for class on Monday.
Have your copy of Chinua Acebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, ISBN # 978-0385474542. I will introduce it Monday, after our discussion on the novella.
A response to LeGuin's "Those Who Walk Away..."
This hyperlink will take you to M.K. Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” a response story to LeGuin’s thought experiment.
Week 2 Syllabus: October 28
LEGUIN’S STORY POSES SEVERAL QUESTIONS. How can society celebrate joyfully when a citizen suffers so cruelly in their midst? What’s an individual’s responsibility to alleviate suffering that exists in their society? Are those who leave Omelas running away from paradise, or embarking on their own to establish a utopia of their own making? What are the most important elements to a good society? Is suffering a necessary component to human life? We will discuss these and other questions this week, and then write an descriptive paragraph about your personal utopian/dystopian idyll.
MONDAY, October 28
Great Books discussion on “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“What is a utopia?” Small group reading/analysis of three stories that we’ve read so far.
HW: Staple together a) your annotations of the story, b) your classroom discussion of the story, and c) your utopia analysis worksheet. I will collect all three on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, October 30
Utopia Day! We will start with a short lecture on how Rushdie, Forster, Gorky, and LeGuin describe both utopia and dystopia.
Watching this short BBC video about both utopia and dystopia (see below).
In the same small groups as Monday, brainstorming ideas for your personal utopia, and discussing the merits and demerits thereof.
HW: Writing your discussion post in Canvas, wherein you describe your personal utopia.
HALLOWEEN, October 31
This is what the current, paperback edition looks like. But you CAN purchase and use any edition…whatever is cheapest!
We will have a SPOOKY Halloween day, celebrating some folklore (an ancient, and now modern tale about encountering the devil). We will also read selections from “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow” by Washington Irving.
We will close by watching the 1949 Disney retelling of the story, narrated by early 20th century crooner, Bing Crosby.
I WILL collect the Omelas materials today, in one group. That will include: annotations, discussion notes, utopia notes.
HW: Get your copy of Chinua Acebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, ISBN # 978-0385474542
Week 1 Syllabus, Quarter 2: October 21
WE SPENT ANOTHER DAY ANNOTATING/WRITING about Gorky’s “Chelkash,” so we will actually start LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” this week. Quarter grades are due this week, so I will be adding assignments into Canvas and calculating grades. If you have questions about any grade, please come see me and we can talk—my office is C-211 and my non-teaching periods are 2, 4, 5, and 7 (7C I’m in F-lounge hall supervision).
MONDAY, October 21
Spending the first 10 minutes finishing work on the Chelkash crosswords. The scholar with the most solved clues will set the bar for maximum points, and the curve on this assignment for the course.
Listening to the 4-page long, philosophical and dense story. annotating for what LeGuin says about the world of Omelas, the society there, and the people of Omelas. How is the celebration on the Green Fields a metaphor for a perfect society? How does our image of that perfection shift with the description of the child in the basement?
Starting work on the Chelkash crossword.
HW: Re-read and annotate the short story.
WEDNESDAY, October 23
Grading day. Reviewing the way grades are weighted by category, and how point values shift in the annotation category to privilege 2nd quarter (later) notes over earlier assignments.
Reviewing your feedback for the “Machine Stops” writing assignment.
HW: Revise, print, read aloud, and re-revise your “Machine Stops” response. This will be due in class on tomorrow.
THURSDAY, October 24
Collecting your revisions via a text-box submission in Canvas.
Re-reading (close reading) of Omelas and taking notes as a class.
Watching the first half of the Ursula K. LeGuin documentary in class. Add to your annotations on the short story.
HW: Finish watching the documentary this weekend. You should re-read, and finish annotating the story, in preparation for class discussion on Monday.
documentary on ursula k. le guin, audio to "Omelas" (Copy)
Click on the author’s image above to access the documentary, “The Worlds of Ursual K. Le Guin”
Week 9 Syllabus: October 14
“WITHIN HIM WAS RAGING A WHOLE MOB… of desires.” So describes Gorky, portraying the transformational greed that strikes Gabriel. What hold does greed have over us? How does greed transform both Gabriel and Chelkash—both of them? Why is Chelkash so offended by Gabriel’s request for all the money? Why does Gabriel strike out and nearly kill Chelkash? And in the end, why does Chelkash come to despise Gabriel, and yet gives everything to him in the end? Finally, what does Gorky want us to know about humanity, via the description of nature in the last paragraph?
MONDAY, October 14
Small group discussion groups, working on study guide questions on the introduction and part one of “Chelkash.” Answers do require direct quotes, punctuated appropriately.
Re-listening to the “blue sword” passage in part two, and writing an answer to the discussion question posted in Canvas.
Once done, we will listen to the ending of our story, part three, together in class.
HW: Write an answer to the “blue sword” discussion question on Canvas. By class on Wednesday, you should have a) finished the first eight study guide questions, b) finished posting your “blue sword” comment in Canvas, and c) finished reading AND annotating “Chelkash.”
WEDNESDAY, October 16
Crossword day! Bring on the vocabulary….
HW: Have 30 clues solved by class on Thursday. I am collecting annotations to “Chelkash” in class on Thursday.
THURSDAY, October 17
Guide to the parts of speech, online here.
Small group review of parts of speech. We will watch the following, short video about verbs.
Reading “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas.”
HW: re-read “Omelas,” picking out a) physical descriptions of the people, b) physical descriptions of the city, c) descriptions of their culture, and d) specific, concrete nouns or active verbs that LeGuin uses to create this imaginary world.
Week 8 Syllabus: October 7
CLOSE READING requires that you very carefully, and slowly, examine what the author describes in detail. We will practice doing this with “Chelkash.” Gorky is a great writer, in part, because he’s thought a lot about imagery and symbolism. For example, in his introduction, the Odesa dock workers are menial, suffering workers who are crushed beneath the shipping company’s inhumane treatment. We see them “toiling” for a few, meager crusts of bread, oppressed by fellow humans and nature itself. All is ruined by the greed of consumption! Likewise, Chelkash is described as a fox, a predator who takes advantage of the weak and innocent, stealing from them to feed his insatiable hunger for gold, more valuables, more food.
MONDAY, October 7
Posting your paragraph on Forster’s “The Machine Stops” into our classroom blog.
More closely examining the imagery in the introduction to Gorky’s “Chelkash.”
Then reading part one, wherein we see Chelkash described in great detail. He will meet a country bumkin (or rube)—a young, innocent farmer who travels to Odesa to make money, so he can purchase his own farm and marry the wealthy girl he loves.
HW: Read through the paragraphs on our blog. We will revise these in class, Wednesday night. Our focus will be VERBS. Which writers are better at using verbs? Which overly rely upon the “to be” forms: is, am, are, was, were, have, has, had, could, would, should, be, being, been, do, doing, does?
Also finish reading part one of Chelkash.
WEDNESDAY, October 9
Revisiting verbs as a part of speech (and the predicate, the part of sentence that describes the action/being the noun is/does).
Revising your paragraphs, changing THREE simple predicates to action-verbs.
HW: In class tomorrow, we will dive deeper into subject/predicate, improving your ability to identify that part of the sentence(s). We will then also work on revision.
Make sure you’ve finished part one of “Chelkash” for class. We will create a characterization focusing upon VERBS.
THURSDAY, October 10
Shortened day due to late start.
Short, concise review of subject/predicate rules via this video. We will start at minute 3:10.
Revision expectations for the machine paragraphs, due Monday.
Returning to part two of Chelkash. Here’s audio for our story!
HW: Finish reading part two. Where are the symbols that Gorky uses in this part of the story, their journey into the bay, and the successful theft of goods?
Also revise THREE “to be” helping/linking verb out of your paragraph, and repost the new version as a comment to your original post.
"The Machine Stops" Paragraphs
Post your paragraph on E.M. Forster’s short story here, as a comment to this blog entry. If you have any issues posting these, keep a screen shot of the issue you’ve encountered. We will revise the verbs in these during class Wednesday night.
Remember, your paragraph needs to take a stand on one side of the issue: Are machines helpful or harmful to society? Include a direct quote from the story, and an indirect quote from either the film Modern Times or Wall-E. You CAN acknowledge the other view, but do not “split the baby down the middle” in a Solomon-esque manner.
The above image, a still from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, will take you to the audio to Forester’s 1909 short story.
Week 7 Syllabus: September 30
MARGINAL ANNOTATONS SHOULD REFLECT THE READERS dialogue with the text about meaning. For narrative works, that includes your questions about what you’re reading: questions of clarification and questions that develop your thinking. Readers should write out their observations about the theme within the story, identifying and explaining a passage’s importance—be that a character conflict, a symbolic description, or an extended metaphor that develops the writer’s theme. There are lots of ways to annotate. Most importantly, you should practice engaging your reading in a dialogue. What do you notice? What is the writer doing? What would good readers notice, and what do they think it means?
MONDAY, September 30
Discussion of the short story, “The Machine Stops.” Who is responsible for the downfall of society?
HW: Write an answer to question #4 on the last page of our short story. I will collect your annotations on “The Machine Stops” for class on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, October 2
Returning to the Machine crossword for a bit, while I collect annotations from the story.
Second half of class, reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the introduction to the Maxim Gorky short story, “Chelkash".” Annotating for language that describes nature, objects, and people respectively, each reading. The audio for the story is here.
HW: When class resumes on Monday, we will work on the worksheets on the introduction and part one. We’ll also read part two and complete a worksheet on part two.
Selections from Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times"
Watch the selected scenes from Chaplin’s masterpiece. As you watch, study the film and look for the relationship between machine’s and the title character.
Film Clip from Pixar's "Wall-E"
Click on the image above to watch a scene from Wall-E. Where, in the clip, do you see overtones and themes from Forster’s “The Machine Stops”?
Week 6 Syllabus: September 23
HOW DOES VASHTI’S EXPERIENCE ALLIGN WITH CAMPBELL’S hero journey? And her son’s, Kuno’s experience? There may be within any story multiple heroes, and multiple journeys which do or do not conform the the monomyth in varying degrees. Both Vashti and Kuno experience clear departures from the known world, moving into the unknown. Likewise, both experience a symbolic death-and-rebirth in a cave/tunnel like darkness—Vashti in the airship, travelling to see her son, and Kuno in the air-tubes that lead to Earth’s surface. However, neither return to the known world with an “elixer,” or new knowledge that saves either society or humanity. In fact, everyone dies! What, then, should we learn from this story without final truth?
MONDAY, September 23
Checking in homework, study guide to “The Machine Stops.”
Reading and annotating a New Yorker essay by Oliver Sacks, “The Machine Stops.” What argument is Sacks making about technology?
Writing a discussion response in Canvas using direct and indirect evidence.
Reviewing results from the STAR reading test, and how to interpret that data.
HW: Read through other classmate’s responses. What did they capture that you missed? What did you add to the conversation that they missed?
WEDNESDAY, September 25
Read and annotate Brautigan’s poem, “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace.” We will do that by reading it aloud three times, first just to listen to, second time to take notes on what you notice, and the third time to look for patterns.
What argument does Brautigan make about technology? In class discussion (NOT Great Books method). Add to your annotations.
HW: Post your answer to the discussion thread in Canvas on the poem. After posting, read other scholars’ responses.
THURSDAY, September 26
In the first half of class, watching selections from Charlie Chaplain’s epic quasi-silent film, Modern Times. We will start by reading an introduction to the film, written by Roger Ebert.
In the second half of class, watching selection of the film Wall-E.
Reading a poem, “Poem 114: Machines” by Michael Donaghy.
Then, wordplay! In small groups, working on the crossword.
HW: Finish your annotations and the Q&A on “The Machine Stops” for class on Tuesday.
Week 5 Syllabus: September 16
HAVING FINISHED ALL THE ADMINISTRIVIA of classroom expectations, the academic integrity policy, and the STAR reading assessment, and having covered our classroom routines in respect to classroom discussions, submitting, discussing and revising our writing, we can get into our short story unit. We are starting with a 100+ year old science-fiction story by the great English author E.M. Forster, author of A Passage to India. We will examine the story through the lens of Campbell’s hero journey, while practicing our annotation techniques: a) circling vocabulary, b) writing our questions, and c) taking written notes on the HJ and its parts in margins. Later we will read “Chelkash” by the Russian author Gorky, LeGuin’s classic “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas,” and others.
MONDAY, September 16
Lecture on annotating, carefully re-reading the last two pages of part one. What are the allusions to “blind”ness, humanity’s cultural history, and the grandeur of nature?
Re-reading part one with the audio and annotating together.
In small groups, students will begin working on the study guide questions.
HW: Finish the study guide questions for part one on your own, typing them up. These will be submitted on Canvas once we are done with the entire story.
WEDNESDAY, September 18
Students will listen to part two of the story, “The Machine Stops.”
In small groups (or individually), students will begin working on the study guide for part two.
On the passage, “man is the measure of all things…”
HW: Finish the study guide questions on part two.
Spend 45 minutes this weekend working on the crossword. No more time, no less. You MAY work with other scholars (or those not enrolled in our class)
THURSDAY, September 19
As we did with part one, we will examine a selection from part two for close reading and analysis.
Q&A around parts one and two. Something you didn’t understand? Want to know more about?
Moving into part three. Once done, we will work on the study guides.
HW: Study guide is due in Canvas on Monday.