Preparation for the Theme Question on the Modern African Literature Test

Students worked in groups to prepare for the theme question on the upcoming test.  Working in groups with laptop computers, the students created tables of information.

Each student's table needed to have three columns, one for each of the units three themes:  tradition and change, the price of freedom, and living with indepence.

Students were encouraged to make use of the three theme cards they created during this unit:

Card 1:  "The Rain Came" by Grace Ogot

Card 2: "The Voter" by Chinua Achebe or No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu

Card 3:  Bones by Sadru Kassam or "The Return" by Ngugi wa Thiongo


They were encouraged to seek additional examples from other members of the class.  They should make the commentary their own.

Students need three examples for each theme.  Using examples from three different works for each theme would be best, but students may use two different examples from one work and a third example from another.

Students may use the same scene from one story to illustrate more than one theme; however, by choosing to do so, they will likely increase the level of scrutiny of the evaluater of the quality of their analysis.

Each cell in a student's review chart should include the following:

1. the title of the work (story, essay, play, poem, etc.; e.g. "The Return")

2. author's name (e.g. Ngugi wa Thiongo)

3. a short description of a passage that includes a key event or words related to the chosen theme

4. the student's commentary (analysis) of how the described portion of the work illustrates the theme  (The student should connect key words of the theme to specific actions or words from the portion of the text being described.)  The students commentary must do more than simply connect the theme words and the selected text; their commentary must state what this story reveals about that specific theme.


Mr. Stone re-emphasized the differences between writing for a test question without access to a text and writing with a text.  Students should write their examples as brief summaries of actions in the story or paraphrases of the words used by characters because it is too difficult for most to remember quotations word for word.

Students will have more time to work on their theme charts during the first class of the next week.

Homework:  Listen to the segment from KPCC's The Frame on how  "'Queen of Kwatre' director Mira Nair brings a different African story to Hollywood."  Be sure and watch the videos as well. We will discuss the segment in class.

Ngugi wa Thiongo's "The Return"

The class discussed last night's presidential debate and took an open-book quiz over "The Return."

Homework: Review your third theme card in preparation for tomorrow's conversation and spend time studying for the African unit test using quizlet.

Sadru Kassam's Bones and Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"

Students listened to Kenyan Sadru Kassam's play Bones with selected students reading the parts and Mr. Stone reading the stage directions.

A student read Nigerian Wole Soyinka's poem "Civilian and Soldier."

Homework:  Complete a third theme card showing how  either Ngugi wa Thiong'o's "The Return or Sadru Kassam's Bones portrays the themes of the price of freedom, tradition and change, or living with independence.

An open book quiz over Ngugi wa Thion'o's "The Return" will be given at the beginning of the next period before our third academic discussion.

Academic Discussion 2: Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness and Chinua Achebe's "The Voter"

Students used their second theme cards to participate in an academic discussion of how Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness and Chinua Achebe's "The Voter" address the themes of the price of freedom, tradition and change, or living with independence.

Homework:  Read Ngugi wa Thiong'o's "The Return" (133-140).

Feedback on Theme Cards

After a devotional reading of Proverbs 21: 2 and prayer, two students who had missed the last graded academic discussion over Grace Ogot's "The Rain Came" spoke.

Mr. Stone returned the other students'  first graded theme cards and gave opportunity for questions.  Students have the opportunity to revise their first theme cards and resubmit them for an improved score.

Mr. Stone then distributed a revised grading rubric for the students and went over the changes that had been made in response to their writing on their first theme cards.  In order to allow students to improve their writing skills in response to the feedback and to utilize the revised grading rubric, Mr. Stone announced he was postponing the discussion of Desmond Tutu's No Furture Without Forgiveness and Chinua Achebe's "The Visitor" to the next period.

Students took a quiz over Achebe's "The Visitor at the end of the period.

Homework:  Make any needed revisions to the first and second theme cards.

Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness and Chinua Achebe's "The Voter"

Quiz: excerpt from Desmond Tutu's No Future without Forgiveness


Students participated in a mock presidential election and discussed the results and the upcoming American presidential election.


Students began reading Chinua Achebe's "The Voter" (94-99).


Homework:  Finish reading Achebe's "The Voter" and complete a theme response card for either the excerpt from Desmond Tutu's No Future without Forgiveness or Chinua Achebe's "The Voter."  Adhere to the criteria of Mr. Stone's theme card rubric.

Bessie Head's "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses"

Quiz:  Bessie Head's "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses"


The class discussed Head's story and began to relate it to the unit's themes.


Homework:  Read the excerpt from Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness in the text book (103-106) and read the first part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's homepage until it begins to discuss scholarships.  A quiz will be given over these readings at the beginning of the next class period.

Bessie Head's "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses"

Mr. Stone distributed a grading rubric for the theme response cards students completed last week, highlighting the inclusion of the author's first and last name and the use of an appropriate action verb when expressing the thematic idea being discussed.


Students had opportunity to make revisions on their theme response cards during class and will have more time if desired to revise theme over the weekend.


Mr. Stone discussed with students of the advantages and limitations of the readings of literary works by readers from a different culture than the writers.


Students read the introductory material on Bessie Head, a writer from South Africa and Botswana.


Mr. Stone discussed the difference between reading a text which discusses events historical to the reader versus events which occurred during the reader's lifetime.


Homework:  Read "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses" (126-130).  Be prepared for a quiz over the reading and bring your revised theme response card.

Grace Ogot's The Rain Came

Tuesday-Thursday, September 6-8, 2016

A misunderstanding in directions left for the substitute for Mr. Stone on Tuesday resulted in students having a study period on Tuesday and no homework for Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday students read most of Grace Ogot's short story "The Rain Came" in class.

Homework:  Finish reading Ogot's story and complete a three-by-five index card to prepare for Thursday's discussion of Ogot's story.

On the unlined side of the card, students should write their first and last names, the number 4, and "The Rain Came."

On the lined side of the card, students should identify a passage they think relates to one of the three big ideas described in the introduction to the African Unit in the text book.

 (Be sure use quotation marks to begin your selected example, use ellipsis marks to indicate the middle portion of the passage which you will omit for brevity, the ending few words of the selected passage, a closing set of quotation marks, an opening parentheses, the page number where the passage selected was located, and a closing set of parentheses followed by a period.)

Students should then state which of the three big ideas they think their selected passage best illustrates and fill out the rest of the lined side of the index card with an explanation of how this passage illustrates the selected big idea.

Students will use their prepared index to participate in discussion in class on Thursday, September 8th.

Summer Reading: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

Tuesday-Thursday, August 30-September 1, 2016

Students worked in small groups to review for the summer reading test over Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird using a teacher-prepared study guide.

Students took the test on Thursday.  No homework was assigned due to Labor Day weekend.

Naguib Mahfouz's "Half a Day"

Monday, August 29, 2016

Students went to the teacher's lounge to eat Koshari (a street food considered a national dish of Egypt) while Mr. Stone read aloud to them Naguib Mahfouz's short story "Half a Day."  Mr. Stone made Koshari to model for the class how a food project could be made to accompany a selection of world literature.  Stone cited as inspiration for his food choice a line from Denys Johnson-Davies translation of Naguib's story which says, "We ate delicious food, took a little nap, and woke up to go on with friendship, and love, play and learning."

Students took a quiz over the story.

Homework:  Study for the summer reading test over Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockinbird.

James Henshaw's The Jewels of the Shrine

 Thursday, August 25, 2016

Students began the quarter and the contemporary African literature unit by reading in class James Henshaw's The Jewels of the Shrine.  Henshaw (1924-2007), a Nigerian playwright of the Efik people, studied medicine in Ireland and Wales and specialized in thoracic medicine in Nigeria.  Published in 1956, The Jewels of the Shrine was Henshaw's second play.

"Ageing in Nigerian literature:  James Ene Henshaw's the jewels of the shrine, " a retrospective article published in a special 1999 edition of the British medical journal The Lancet, noted Henshaw as Nigeria first modern playwright and Nigeria's "most popular playwright" from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

Students filled out a three-by-five index card with their first and last name and the name of the cultural group to which they most identify.  They took a quiz over the play at the end of the period.

No homework was assigned.