Class Agenda 4.15

1. Announcements
Pay your taxes!
Blog Due later tonight
Essay One back TH
DREAM Act play Friday?
Other announcements?



Goal for lesson: Our goal is to think through our cluster's theme of "race and culture" by linking "keywords" to explain the novel Untouchable. We also want to consider how the novel might help us to further define our keywords.

You might remember that discussing keywords and the novel is the focus of our second essay assignment...therefore everything we do today will help you draft your paper!










2. For example, let's start with the keyword "paradigm." What is one way we can think about the "paradigm" of race and culture in the novel?















3. Class Discussion. Let's think more about keywords in the novel. Let's turn to page 22 and think about the word "colonial"(professor provides passage: read aloud). In what way does this passage illustrate the idea of "colonialism"? Now let's think about how we'd write this relationship into a sentence. Write a sentence as a class. Then, let's answer this question together: What else can this passage teach us about colonialism?













4. Group Work. Now let's think about our keywords next to other passages in the novel. In groups of 3-4, I will provide you with a passage to consider. Based on this passage, select a keyword from discussion that you think could help explain what's happening in it; I will provide you with several to choose from. Then, go one step further. Answer the following question the best you can: what can the passage teach us about the keyword? You might also ask: how does this passage teach us about race and culture in the novel? As a group, write down sentences that explain your thinking, based on our class model. Write these sentences on the board.

Group One: Page 20: race, class, labor, work.


Group Two: Page 52: race, culture, ethnicity.


Group Three: Page 62: race, racism, dominant culture, emotional identity.


Group Four: Page 83: biologist theory of race, religion, class.










5. In-class writing: return to your notes from Thursday and select one of the "keywords" from our discussion. Choose a keyword that you believe might usefully illustrate a passage from Untouchable, the novel we're reading. "Free write" on any connections between that keyword and the novel. If you were absent Thursday, select a passage from the novel Untouchable you find illustrates related to our cluster's theme "race and culture." Free write on how race and culture might illustrate your passage. We will share some of our responses when you're done.



6. Thinking through the novel: passages of interest and other keywords from the cluster.