Welcome to Ms. Burris's World Literature Course
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." -Harper Lee
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Introduction:
This course is designed around the idea that everyone is different. Precisely like the quote says, one can never truly understand these different cultures unless one chooses to "walk in their shoes". There are thousands of different cultures around the world that students will, most often, never be exposed to. The main purpose of this course is to give students a chance to be exposed to a small number of these cultures. In this course, they will be exposed to the cultures of a select few regions of the world, including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
While these regions are vastly different from each other, it is also important to remember that they are vastly important within themselves as well. For instance, Cambodian culture is very different from Chinese culture although they are located within the same region. However, there isn't a possible way to explore these individual cultures in a semester's time. So for the sake of time, we will be lumping our units into regions, with a necessary disclaimer regarding generalization being given to students at the beginning of every region.
This will be a semester long course.
Semester Long Focuses:
Grammar Focuses- Each unit will have a separate grammar focus. Students will exercise these grammar lessons through their own writing as well as examining the writing in the literature we're studying.
Class Blog- Students will post all of their writing onto a class blog. This will provide easy and paperless access for the students, their peer editors, and myself.
Student led discussions- Each term, every student will sign up to lead 1 ten minute discussion at the beginning of the class. Students may choose when they are to lead these discussions, but they must lead one to receive credit. Discussions should be based on previous class periods or reading from the night before
Overarching Concept:
How can I "walk around in the skin" of this world culture?
Students will explore other cultures in this course and figure out their own place within that culture. This overarching concept deals with not only exploring other cultures, but learning compassion and understanding towards those who are different. I will encourage students to develop these feelings of understand and compassion by introducing them to multiple view points. I truly believe that the more students are exposed to other modes of thinking, the more they will begin to draw connections and relate to the material.
Textual Materials:
Textbook:
Excerpts from Textbook:
Websites and Podcasts:
Excerpts from Outside Sources:
Novels:
Movies
Unit 1:
We begin our semester with our first unit that focuses on personal culture. In this unit, students will explore their own home culture through the medium of narrative writing. While much of what we do this unit will provide for scaffolding for the rest of the semester (defining culture for instance), it will also be a community building unit.
Unit 2:
Our second unit will focus on the Middle Eastern region. Here we will examine both ancient and contemporary writings of the Middle East and relate their significance to our own recent encounters with this region. In this unit, students will write a compare/contrast essay, work in book groups, and begin work on a grammar focus (each unit includes its own focus).
Unit 3:
Our third unit will be focused on Europe, particularly British and Holocaust literature. We will primarily be focused on the issue of anti-Semitism in this region and will study it through Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and some Holocaust literature. The writing we will focus on during this unit will be the literary analysis paper.
Unit 4:
Our fourth unit deals will be focused on Africa, particularly Sudan, Nigeria, and Kenya. In this unit, students will explore the various political complications in these countries and how that stems from colonialism. The writing we will focus on will be argumentative writing including logical fallacies as well as rhetorical devices (ethos, pathos, logos).
Unit 5:
Our fifth and final regional unit will be focused on Asia, particularly China, Japan, India, and Cambodia. This unit is different from the others due to the almost entirely student-led nature of the unit. The focus of this unit will be on our country groups (explained in further detail on the page) and the collaboration amongst the group members. There will be no major writing focus for this unit, the focus will instead be on creating a lesson for each group to teach to their peers.
Unit 6:
This will be our final unit. Instead of focusing on a region, this unit will be devoted entirely to our final research project. We will explore the medium of research and how to effectively write a research paper. The final exam will also take place during this unit.
Additional Materials:
Resources:
Virtual Library http://smago.coe.uga.edu/VirtualLibrary/index.html
Vocabulary Activities
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/vocabulary-activities
Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs
http://www.clemson.edu/assessment/assessmentpractices/referencematerials/documents/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20Action%20Verbs.pdf
English Companion (Ideas for different units)
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/
Penguin Group Shakespeare
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/MerchantOfVenice.pdf
Ideas for Authentic Assessment
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0861-jan97/EJ0861Authentic.pdf
Ideas for discussion questions
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0931-sept03/EJ0931Strategies.pdf
This course is designed around the idea that everyone is different. Precisely like the quote says, one can never truly understand these different cultures unless one chooses to "walk in their shoes". There are thousands of different cultures around the world that students will, most often, never be exposed to. The main purpose of this course is to give students a chance to be exposed to a small number of these cultures. In this course, they will be exposed to the cultures of a select few regions of the world, including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
While these regions are vastly different from each other, it is also important to remember that they are vastly important within themselves as well. For instance, Cambodian culture is very different from Chinese culture although they are located within the same region. However, there isn't a possible way to explore these individual cultures in a semester's time. So for the sake of time, we will be lumping our units into regions, with a necessary disclaimer regarding generalization being given to students at the beginning of every region.
This will be a semester long course.
Semester Long Focuses:
Grammar Focuses- Each unit will have a separate grammar focus. Students will exercise these grammar lessons through their own writing as well as examining the writing in the literature we're studying.
Class Blog- Students will post all of their writing onto a class blog. This will provide easy and paperless access for the students, their peer editors, and myself.
Student led discussions- Each term, every student will sign up to lead 1 ten minute discussion at the beginning of the class. Students may choose when they are to lead these discussions, but they must lead one to receive credit. Discussions should be based on previous class periods or reading from the night before
Overarching Concept:
How can I "walk around in the skin" of this world culture?
Students will explore other cultures in this course and figure out their own place within that culture. This overarching concept deals with not only exploring other cultures, but learning compassion and understanding towards those who are different. I will encourage students to develop these feelings of understand and compassion by introducing them to multiple view points. I truly believe that the more students are exposed to other modes of thinking, the more they will begin to draw connections and relate to the material.
Textual Materials:
Textbook:
- Elements of Literature: World Literature- Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
*Required by school
Excerpts from Textbook:
- Noah and the Flood (Version from World Literature textbook)
- Epic of Sundiata (excerpt from World Literature Textbook)
- African Proverbs (excerpt from World Literature Textbook)
- "O Oriole, Yellow Bird" from The Book of Songs (from World Literature Textbook)
- "What Plant is not Faded?" from The Book of Songs
- Bei Dao's "Requiem" (from World Literature Textbook)
- Excerpt from Confucius's Analects (from World Literature Textbook)
- Excerpt from the Tao Te Ching by Laotzu (from World Literature Textbook)
- Lieh-tzu's The Missing Axe (from World Literature Textbook)
- Ha Jin's Ocean of Words (from World Literature Textbook)
- "Night" from the Rig-Veda (from World Literature Textbook)
- Excerpt from the Bhagavad-Gita
- Piece on Mohandas Gandhi (from World Literature Textbook)
- "Rama and Ravana in Battle" from the Ramayana (from World Literature Textbook)
- R. K. Narayan's An Astrologer's Day
- Lady Ise's "A Flower of Waves" (from World Literature Textbook)
- Ono no Komachi's "Though I go to you" and "Doesn't he realize" (from World Literature Textbook)
- Excerpt from Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book (from World Literature Textbook)
- The Zen Parables (from World Literature Textbook)
- Yasunari Kawabata's The Jay (from World Literature Textbook)
Websites and Podcasts:
- Memoir Website: http://www.memoirsbyme.com/featured.html
- NPR Story on Malala Yousazai : http://www.npr.org/2013/10/15/234730460/malala-yousafzai-a-normal-yet-powerful-girl
- NPR Story: How One Kenyan Tribe Produces The World's Best Runners: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/11/01/241895965/how-one-kenyan-tribe-produces-the-worlds-best-runners
- This American Life Podcast: #223 Classifieds
Excerpts from Outside Sources:
- Gilgamesh (the Flood Story)
- Excerpt from Malala Yousafzai's I Am Malala
- Excerpt from Elie Wiesel's Night
- Modern love Song
- Shakespearean Sonnet "My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"
- Passage from Alice Walker's The Color Purple
- Excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions
- Short biography of Lopez Lomong
- Excerpt from Vikas Swarup's Slumdog Millionaire
Novels:
- Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (Iran)
- Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (Afghanistan)
- Sadegh Hedayat's The Blind Owl (Iran)
- Moshin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Pakistan)
- Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around your Neck
- Patricia McCormick's Never Fall Down
Movies
- The Merchant of Venice
- House of Flying Daggers
- Lagaan
- The Twilight Samurai
Unit 1:
We begin our semester with our first unit that focuses on personal culture. In this unit, students will explore their own home culture through the medium of narrative writing. While much of what we do this unit will provide for scaffolding for the rest of the semester (defining culture for instance), it will also be a community building unit.
Unit 2:
Our second unit will focus on the Middle Eastern region. Here we will examine both ancient and contemporary writings of the Middle East and relate their significance to our own recent encounters with this region. In this unit, students will write a compare/contrast essay, work in book groups, and begin work on a grammar focus (each unit includes its own focus).
Unit 3:
Our third unit will be focused on Europe, particularly British and Holocaust literature. We will primarily be focused on the issue of anti-Semitism in this region and will study it through Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and some Holocaust literature. The writing we will focus on during this unit will be the literary analysis paper.
Unit 4:
Our fourth unit deals will be focused on Africa, particularly Sudan, Nigeria, and Kenya. In this unit, students will explore the various political complications in these countries and how that stems from colonialism. The writing we will focus on will be argumentative writing including logical fallacies as well as rhetorical devices (ethos, pathos, logos).
Unit 5:
Our fifth and final regional unit will be focused on Asia, particularly China, Japan, India, and Cambodia. This unit is different from the others due to the almost entirely student-led nature of the unit. The focus of this unit will be on our country groups (explained in further detail on the page) and the collaboration amongst the group members. There will be no major writing focus for this unit, the focus will instead be on creating a lesson for each group to teach to their peers.
Unit 6:
This will be our final unit. Instead of focusing on a region, this unit will be devoted entirely to our final research project. We will explore the medium of research and how to effectively write a research paper. The final exam will also take place during this unit.
Additional Materials:
Resources:
Virtual Library http://smago.coe.uga.edu/VirtualLibrary/index.html
Vocabulary Activities
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/vocabulary-activities
Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs
http://www.clemson.edu/assessment/assessmentpractices/referencematerials/documents/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20Action%20Verbs.pdf
English Companion (Ideas for different units)
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/
Penguin Group Shakespeare
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/MerchantOfVenice.pdf
Ideas for Authentic Assessment
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0861-jan97/EJ0861Authentic.pdf
Ideas for discussion questions
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/0931-sept03/EJ0931Strategies.pdf