April 20th-24th Supplemental Learning Tasks

I hope everyone is doing well entering back to the world of online schooling after your stay-cation April break. I would like to move forward towards our class novel study. This semester, we will be studying the work of American author Sherman Alexie through reading an analyzing his novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

This novel challenges us as an audience of readers because it provides us with perspectives and experiences that are not our own. Through reading a text with a strong theme of "identity" - perhaps we will be able to gain knowledge to better understand the world that we live in - the world close to home, but also the world on a global level - and how we as individuals fit in to this world.

Task 1: Read PDF pages 1-38, or until the chapter "Go Means Go"

You can access the PDF of the novel here for free:

https://www.sateskole.no/pluginfile.php/52444/mod_resource/content/1/the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-sherman-alexie-1%282%29.pdf

Task 2: Blog Post

Create a blog post of 500 words, responding to your initial thoughts and feelings on the novel. What do you think of Junior as a character? What are some of the struggles he is facing in life? Can you relate to any of this? Where else have you seen examples of these experiences in our world?

If you're struggling to come up with something to blog about, perhaps you can blog about the importance/significance of one or more of the following quotes:

- ‘Poverty = empty refrigerator + empty stomach’ (p. 8)

- ‘My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people.’ (p. 11)

- ‘It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor . . . It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ (p. 13)

- ‘And what’s more, our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain.’ (p. 2)

- ‘We were supposed to make you give up being Indians. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren’t trying to kill Indian people. We were trying to kill Indian culture.’ (p. 35)

- ‘But we reservation Indians don’t get to realise our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.’ (p. 13)

- ‘I think Rowdy might be the most important person in my life. Maybe more important than my family. Can your best friend be more important than your family?’ (p. 24)

Task 3: Personal Research

Choose two of the following questions to respond to in the forum "Pre-Reading Research":

https://sgreghayes.wixsite.com/website/forum/welcome-to-the-forum/pre-reading-research

1. Who are the Spokane Native Americans (in Canada, we refer to our indigenous population as First Nation)? Where are they located? What is their history? What are their customs and traditions?

2. Why were reservations set up in America? What was their goal? Has it been successful?

3. What are some of the issues and problems facing Native Americans?

4. Where in America is the Spokane Indian reservation located? Make a copy of a map with the area highlighted. How big is the reservation? How many people live there?

Task 4: Comment on another student's blog post. This is the most important task. You can find a list of student blog URL's in the forum.