January 17th. Here is the work for periods 3 and 4 today. In ‘Literacy Objectives’ Book 2, look at unit 13, page 123. In your notebooks, write down your responses to the pre-reading exercise. Read the article, ‘Little credit for online shops’. Use a dictionary to look up the meanings of any words you don’t understand. Answer the questions 1-4 on pages 124-125 under the heading ‘Exploring a comment text’. Try to finish for homework. Read if you have time.
11th December. We are continuing our unit on ‘The Lives of Others’ with the drama, ‘Two Weeks with the Queen’. We have completed our first task, a formal persuasive letter to the queen from Colin, the main protagonist, in an attempt to persuade her to put him in touch with her doctors to help his brother, Luke. During the coming week, we will continue to study the play and analyse characters, themes and dramatic effects.
15th November. Written assignment – “A Discussion of the Character of Naledi in the novel’Journey to Jo’burg’ “. After our very detailed planning and preparation, you are now working on your essay. Your first draft should be ready for peer editing on Friday and you final draft should be handed in on Monday,21st November.
11th November. Hwk. Essay on Naledi’s characteristics. Write the introduction and the first two paragraphs of the body of the essay using your notes based on our discussion and planning in class. Bring what you write to class on Monday. Remember, characteristics must be supported by evidence from the novel.
Wednesday, 9th November. Just a reminder that you need to start planning your character essay on Naledi. For Friday, you should have ready a list of characteristics. Try to group together those that are similar. You should also be able to refer to evidence in the novel to support your ideas and opinions. Don’t forget your map if you haven’t quite finished.
We are now working on a character study of Naledi. You must finish preparing your ‘hotseating’ questions for Naledi and complete the character reference worksheet for tomorrow.
Don’t forget your completed maps are now due on Monday.
We begin our unit with a study of the short novel, ’Journey to Jo’burg’, by Beverly Naidoo, which tells the story of a young girl in South Africa at the time of apartheid.
August. Students begin by researching apartheid, Nelson Mandela, the ANC and life in pre and post apartheid South Africa. This gives us much food for thought and generates a great deal of discussion. We will also look at the background of the author. Keep this in mind as we read.
September. We are now going to read and discuss the novel. As we read, you must write a personal reading log, make notes on the character of Naledi on your character evidence table, make a rough sketch map of the journey and write short summaries of important events.
Now we have read about the ‘time of fire’, find out whatever you can about Soweto and what happened on the day Grace tells Naledi about, for group and class discussion.
Written assignment. Imagine you are Grace. Describe the events of that day as if it is happening to you now. Follow the instructions on your task sheet. Due date: Thursday, 29th September.
October. Finish reading and discussing the events of the novel.
You are now going to work with a partner on creating a large map of the journey Naledi and Tiro make showing all the places where important events occur. You must also write short summaries of these events and their significance and stick the summaries on you map in the appropriate place. Due date: Tuesday, 2nd November.
