1. Warm Up 5/12/14 Arable : land Impenetrable : jungle
Create a sentence that shows the relationship between the first two words of each analogy. Then, use the sentence that you created to find a pair of words that share the same relationship.
Arable : land
Impenetrable : jungle
Navigable : waterway
Fertile : fertilizer
Shallow : pond
Flat : field
2. Desecrate : holy
Despoil : beautiful
Beautify : ugly
Glamorize : rich
Damage : corporeal
Improve: dull

2. Agenda Participate in a pre-reading discussion
Discuss Nigeria and author Chinua Achebe
Read the short story “A Dead Man’s Path.”
Craft reading comprehension questions
Write a journal entry that predicts some aspects of Achebe’s larger text, Things Fall Apart

3. Pre-reading Discussion
Get with your assigned group and compile what you know about the topic that you’ve been assigned. You’ve got five minutes 

4. Drill 5/13/14
What are your cultural/familial traditions relating to deceased relatives (funerals, etc.)?
What are your cultural/familial traditions relating to births (baby showers, etc.)?
What are some other birth or death traditions or rituals that you know about?

5. Agenda Locate Nigeria on a map. Read Dead Man’s Path.
Discuss Dead Man’s Path.
Complete a journal entry.
If time, begin homework.

6. Learning Targets
I can apply prior knowledge to a new learning in a literature unit.
I can explain the events in Chinua Achebe’s “A Dead Man’s Path.”
I can design reading comprehension questions for my peers.
I can predict some major themes for our class’s next major text, Things Fall Apart

7. What do we know about Nigeria?

8. Dead Man’s Path During Reading Questions
Why have mission authorities decided to send a “young and energetic” man to run the Ndume Central School? About what is Michael Obi outspoken?
What does the path through the school compound connect?
What explanation for closing the path does Mr. Obi give the village priest? What does Mr. Obi say is the “whole purpose” of the school?
What does the visiting supervisor write about the new headmaster after villagers damage the school grounds?

9. Dead Man’s Path post-reading discussion questions
Contrast Mr. Obi’s attitudes with those of the priest. Which character shows more tolerance towards the other’s beliefs?
What does the story suggest about the way people should treat the beliefs of others? What does it suggest about the way people should go about making changes?
Based on the priest’s remarks, what can you infer about traditional Ibo attitudes toward their ancestors and their heritage?
If you were in a similar situation to Mr. Obi’s, how would you handle the clash of new ways with the old?

10. Journal Entry - DMP
Write a one-page journal entry that predicts what you think will be the major themes of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. You are to use what you learned by reading the short story and also the pre-reading discussion in order to complete this task. (Sample questions to answer in case you can’t think of what to write)
What do you think about the tribal culture that Achebe has used for his story? Do you think Achebe will use the same setting for Things Fall Apart?
Based on “Dead Men’s Path,” how do you think the theme of conflicting beliefs will be shown in Things Fall Apart?

11. Homework: Read through the rest of your packet, and then, based on your reading, complete the following:
You will create three types of questions for your peers to ask. Write these on a new piece of paper.
Text Explicit – The answer can be found DIRECTLY in the text
Text Implicit – the answer must be INFERRED
Script Implicit – the answer relies on PRIOR KNOWLEDGE and connects the subject matter to real life.