Today's Agenda:
Starter 3: Review
Today's Learning Goal
Review Key Terms
As a reminder…
Discuss Homework: BREAKOUT ROOMS!
In your breakout room, discuss the following questions for both texts. Elect one spokesperson to report out on key ideas/insights from your discussion!
“How to Write about Africa”
Danger of a Single Story
"It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story."
Review the next assignment and roll into end of class work time
Let’s Insta!
One way to challenge the single story is to change what you look at every day. Take stock of what's on your feed?
Self-Assessment and Class Feedback Survey: Please fill out this survey to assess your participation in class this week and provide me with feedback as well.
HOMEWORK: Let’s check out the homework due for next Tuesday and Wednesday and why I’m assigning it.
- Starter (7 minutes)
- Homework discussion (20 minutes)
- If time: Instagram challenge (10 minutes)
- Homework overview and participation survey (5 minutes)
Starter 3: Review
- What is one thing that stands out in your memory about our class yesterday?
- Now, open your digital comp book and review your notes on last night's assignment: What was the biggest idea you took away from the essay or podcast?
Today's Learning Goal
- Challenge the idea of a "single story" of Africa as part of developing a decolonized mindset.
Review Key Terms
As a reminder…
- Colonial Mentality: the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people as a result of colonization, i.e. them being colonized by another group and
- Decolonization: the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby a nation establishes and maintains its domination on overseas territories.
Discuss Homework: BREAKOUT ROOMS!
In your breakout room, discuss the following questions for both texts. Elect one spokesperson to report out on key ideas/insights from your discussion!
“How to Write about Africa”
- Share out your notes from this essay
- What lines best captures the TONE (aka the attitude of the writer toward the subject) of this essay?
- What is Wainaina's purpose in writing this essay?
- What are all the stereotypes he speaks to in this essay?
- If this were "How to Write About America", how would it go?
Danger of a Single Story
- Share out your notes from the TED Talk
- To what extent does your starter from the first day of class represent a single story about Africa like the one Adiche describes?
- What are the dangers of a single story?
- What connections are you making between the other reading assignments we’ve done this week, especially our discussion of the term "White supremacy" yesterday?
"It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story."
Review the next assignment and roll into end of class work time
- Insta challenge (if time)
- Self-assessment and feedback survey
Let’s Insta!
One way to challenge the single story is to change what you look at every day. Take stock of what's on your feed?
- Cruise over to the "Resources" tab of my DP and check out the list of instagram accounts
- I'd encourage you to follow some or all of these!
- For now, pick ONE to check out. Spend about 10 minutes reading through their posts and pick one you find interesting.
- Reply to my post in our google classroom stream with the link to the insta post, your reaction, and one question it sparks for you.
Self-Assessment and Class Feedback Survey: Please fill out this survey to assess your participation in class this week and provide me with feedback as well.
HOMEWORK: Let’s check out the homework due for next Tuesday and Wednesday and why I’m assigning it.