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Good morning.
We’ll get started at 11.
Today’s agenda:
1. Fourth week
2. Literary Terms - tomorrow
3. “Dead Man’s Path”
4. HW Find a copy of Animal Farm to read. We will begin
the novel next week.
Tomorrow – Literary Terms
Choices:
1. Buy a copy
2. library
3. text online – Project Gutenberg
4. pdf
5. borrow one from me
Tomorrow – using quoted material
Time flies! The weeks fly by.
This is near the end of the 4th week.
Almost halfway through the course.
Next five weeks – continue as we’ve been going
question? short stories, short novel Animal Farm Gweorge Orwell
begin Animal Farm next week
Quizzes and tests every week right to the end of the course.
We will begin essay writing soon.
Second last day – final work for marks, essay based on whatever topic we are covering at that time
* Almost halfway point – realities setting in
quizzes, tests – How are they going? Have they been successful?
Are you on track to pass?
If you want to know what your average, email me and I will email it back to you.
You can judge if you are satisfied with your progress.
I usually ask myself: What can I do to help myself in this course?
Focusing on basic principles that we have been learning:
1. sentence types- simple, compound, complex
2. writing process- organized, well-structured paragraphs
3. reading strategies – keeping up on the reading, making notes
One trend that I often see among students – midcourse slump
-first few weeks – lots of effort, feeling good, interesting work, working hard
- middle weeks – slump, losing energy for the course, slacking off, waining interest WE WANT TO AVOID THIS – WE HAVE TO KEEP UP THE EFFORT, HARD WORK
-final weeks – rush to the finish, sprint to the finish, playing catchup, making up for lack of effort in the middle weeks
Students - “Can I rewrite three tests? What can I do to bring my mark up to 80% It’s 45% right now. I don’t understand about sentences.”
** Don’t dump this on the teacher. Carry it yourself. I’m willing to help you, but I cannot solve your problems.
The time to do the work that you need to do is now!
This is the time to put you head down, hit the books, put your shoulder to the grindstone.
IDIOMS - put you head down, hit the books (study), put your shoulder to the grindstone – work hard at your school work or other work
This is the way we cheat we ourselves most- “I will start tomorrow.”
I will start my healthy diet tomorrow. Today I will eat six bowls of ice cream.
I will go to the gym tomorrow. Today I will sit on the coach and watch Youtube videos.
Tomorrow never comes; there is always an excuse.
We have five weeks left. Grab the bull by the horns! Make those five weeks transformative for you.
Change!!
Grab the bull by the horns! Take control of your own situation! Take the steps you need to take in order to accomplish the goals you have set out for yourself.
Do it now for yourself!
Some people like to retake the class a couple times. Don’t quit this time. Finish the race.
crosscountry running – 20k, 30k races
from a classmate “Learning English is like marathon.”
No pain. No gain.
Make a good steady, consistent effort, and you will get better.
national badminton tournament- high hope to win the championship
MY LECTURE NOTES ON “Dead Men’s Path”
• Big questions
Does a teacher from away have to respect the culture of the students, even if the teacher isn’t part of that culture?
• Michael Obi
- outsider
- a little bit selfish
- doesn’t seem to care much about the villager’s traditions, beliefs
“eradicate just such beliefs”
-young, energetic, enthusiastic, capable, outspoken, motivated, confident, yet unrealistic and inexperienced.
-also selfish, glib, close-minded, arrogant, lacks communication skills, lacks diplomacy, inflexible.
-“Dead men do not require footpaths.”
- thinks that his “modern methods” are better than the old ways
-expects his students to adopt these ways, even though their religion and village life reflect a different way of life.
-He is cause of his own problems
-believes in “many wonderful ideas,” but has not had a lot of experience with people to guide him
-Obi has “modern” ideas; the villagers have old-fashioned traditional ideas
school – metaphor for colonialism
Chinua Achebe – African, Nigeria
• Nancy
-young and modern
-is a bit innocent because she thinks her husband, as a headmaster, knows best how to do things
-is a bit of a follower, of fashion and of what’s in magazines.
“imitating the woman's magazine she read.”
- vain, unrealistic, uncritical
“become completely infected” by Obi’s new ideas
“queen of the school”
-the school is the “ruins of his work.”
Enthusiasm is evidently the most important factor in many successes. But, “misguided zeal” can make things much worse.
“The whole idea is just fantastic” – fantasy, illusion(n), illusory(a)– not true, imagination
• Taps into the idea of Colonialism
Colony –
• Talk about Canada’s history of not respecting First Nations cultures
Residential schools
Taking “the Indian out of the Indian”
• Achebe writing about Colonialism
• Ss look for good words and short phrases that can be used as quoted material for paragraph next class
Ultimately this is a story about power. How does a person who is in a position of power use that power?
contrast “I Confess” and “Dead Men’s Path”
Mr. Wei – position of power, willingly gives up/risks some of that power
Mr. Obi – position of power, refuses to compromise, discuss
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