What Makes the Man?

Good morning!

Today we had a whopping ten students in class (8 in the second, two students escaped), which is much better than I expected. I wonder when the numbers will really start to dwindle?

Today we looked at what makes the man. The E.T.: What does it mean to you "be a man?" (10 points)

After a discussion on manliness, which included a brief discussion on the lack of nurturing qualities, making us question if our list isn't lopsided, we looked at passages from Things Fall Apart and applied our thoughts on manliness to different ways that Okonkwo interacted with his world.

Those passages can be found here:

page 13 the first paragraph
page 33
page 61-62

For each section from the book, pairs of students did this:

1. Summarize each section.
2. For each section, discuss what character traits are present.


At the end, we answered our essential questions: Who is Okonkwo and what moves him? How does the idea of manliness affect his perception and actions? Is he different from us?

What is Your Story?

Hello absentee gang,

Today we finished the interview with Chinua Achebe and answered questions about the important and interesting things he said. We also discussed his answers and the way he was "evasive" (thanks for that Mert) and didn't answer anything too directly. We connected that to Adichie's idea of the danger of the single story. Achebe is sure to make it clear that there is no one way to read his book, nor is there only one thing that you should take away from it, other than the fact that we are all humans and it is the human experience that links us together.

In that vein, we brieflydiscussed how the issues that Onkonkwo deals with are similar to those that Willy Loman struggled with that Macbeth struggled with as well, highlighting the point that there are only so many human experiences available therefore we are linked by our humanity. Hopefully in a later class we can further explore this interesting notion.

The second part of the lesson was an excursion into the self, with a writing assignment focused on your favorite person...you!

This was an extension to Monday's entry task where I asked you to write "your story." The assignment (20 points): If you could only tell one story that defines you, what would it be? Also, you need to find a metaphor that represents you.

So the story will start with something like this:

If I had I had to choose one object that defines me, I would choose_______.
The the rest will be an explanation of the metaphor through the story of you.

Any questions? E-mail me!

No class tomorrow because of a ceremony.

See you Monday !?

Clarification

Hi gang,

Just for clarification, the way that you will know if an assignment was collected for a grade is there will be a point allocation next to the assignment. For example:

E.T. Why aren't you coming to school?

E.T. Write about the ways your brain will turn to mush if you don't use it for creative and free thought. (10 points)

Two entry tasks, but only one was collected for a grade, and that is indicated by the point allocation in parenthesis.

Make sense?

I hope everybody is well.

Friday and Monday

Hello!

On Friday the E.T. was to answer the questions (10 points):

What do you know about Nigeria?
What do people usually assume to be true for Turkey?

Then we watched a TED talk of a woman named Chimamanda Adichie about the danger of a single story. You can watch it here

On Monday, the entry task was:

What is your story? If you only had a paragraph to tell your story, what would you tell and why?

Then we finished watching Adichie's talk and answered some viewing questions.

Then we moved on to an interview with Chinua Achebe and answered some more questions. We didn't finish the interview, and will do so on Thursday.

You can listen to Achebe's story here.

Orwell and Colonialism

Hello there absent seniors, we miss you.

Today in class there was a quiz (20 points) based on what we did in class on Monday, which was a whirlwind tour (aka Sparknotes)of Things Fall Apart.

Then we moved on to a riveting definition and discussion of the differences between colonialism and imperialism. The was a prelude to reading Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant".

After we read the essay, present class members took five minutes and answered the objective question of the day, which was:
"How does Orwell convey his feelings towards colonialism in his essay "Shooting an Elephant?" (5 points)

Please check in and post a comment if you haven't yet!

Day 1 without Seniors--February 14th, Monday

Hello all and welcome to the blog created just for Mrs. Ozsarac's English class! This is not a blog in the traditional sense, since I will not be pondering the meaning of life or blogging about things that matter. This is a space for those of you in my class who would like to keep up on what happens each day of English class. What assignments I post here are not optional assignments and if you do not complete them you will get a zero, so please keep that important tidbit in mind.

For submissions of assignments, you have a couple of options:

1. Send it with a friend to turn in to me
2. E-mail it to me at annieo@kocschool.k12.tr
3. Bring it yourself! If you are using this blog as a resource, then you haven't been at school, and we miss you!

Here is what we did today:

1. E.T.-- Free Write (10 points)

2. Group work on the basics of Things Fall Apart. Please choose one of the three topics and submit a summary of what you know. The options are: main characters, plot overview, or themes motifs and symbols.

For an easy five points, please post a comment to this blog so that I know you found it. This is not an option! Please be sure to leave your name so I can give you points.