IntroDUction to LIterature II

Welcome!
I aM so glad you are here.

But, Before we do anything, Do you have a Pencil?

Untitled Slide

How about paper?

Great.

to...
Write away!
(right Away.
Every Day.)

An "a" a day:

• present
• prepared
• participating

All that matters is that you keep writing until you hear the bell.

What are some of the Earliest Stories you can remember?

or...what have you read recently that changed the way you thought about something?

Our school-wide Essential Question: How do we Move Forward with Purpose?

10th-grade essential question: Why is it important to question our assumptions and seek multiple perspectives?

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, an assumption is“something that you accept as true without
question or proof.”

"Begin challenging your own
assumptions. Your assumptions
are your windows on the world.
Scrub them off every once in a
while or the light won’t come in."
-Alan Alda

Central Questions of this course:

• Why is it important to question the story?
• How are social Hierarchies reflected in stories?
• What is the Danger of "a single Story"?

How will this class work?

We will read, Write, think, speak, Listen

We will learn, improve, connect

We will experiment, take risks, make mistakes, give and receive feedback, try new things, consider other perspectives

but to do that well, and authentically, we need to feel comfortable.

We need to create a sense of community

and that starts with individual connections. And those start with stories:

Stories are how human beings have been connecting with each other and transmitting information since there was language.

and so we begin...

The Danger of a Single Story

• Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Write Away

• make five "identity bubbles." In each, write an aspect of yourself that is important in defining who you are.

For example: woman, left-hander, runner, vegetarian, mother, teacher, Vermonter

Now, think of a "single story" associated with one or more of those identity affiliations.

Examples: Vermonters live on farms, women are lousy drivers, left-handers are creative...

Chimamanda Ngozi

• Ted Talk: The Danger of a single Story

"The single story creates __(1)___s, and the problem with s is not that they are untrue, but that they are (2) . They make one story become the (3) story."

"The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

"The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal (4) difficult. It emphasizes how we are (5) rather than how we are (6) ."

"The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar."

"What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was both (7) and (8)?"

"What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was both poor and hardworking?"

Examples of single stories in your personal life, education, media, news, history?

How might we begin to reject "the single story" in our lives to regain Adiche's so-called "paradise"?

How can we "read against the grain"?

"Both And"
I am a vegetarian and I love the smell of bacon

"I am but I am not"
I am a woman but I am not a bad driver

Write AWay:
Look over your list of "stories only you can tell" and choose the best 3

Next, give those 3 titles (THey don't have to give the story away, but should Fit)

Your table will vote for their favorite title

Now, write that story, but begin with a single moment, and include sensory detail

Read Course Description And Do assignment 1

"A book must be an Axe for the Frozen Sea within us"
-Franz Kafka

So, what was your book about?

What do you look for in a book?

UNIT ONE:
WRITING A FICTIONAL NARRATIVE; READING ONE OF YOUR CHOICE AS A "MENTOR TEXT"