Back to the Future: December 2, 2015

PLC: Shortened Class

Focus: As Ishmael transforms into a child soldier, what traces of the past and future can we find?

1. Warming up with a quick partner discussion of Chapter 11: Ishmael makes it to the village where his parents were staying just moments after it has been attacked and burned. Yet, he finds no evidence of his parents' bodies.

• Do you think finding his parents' bodies would have helped Ishmael, or hurt him, or both? In other words, how would it have changed his journey?

• We meet an adult (Gasemu) at the beginning of the chapter who dies at the chapter's end. Why do you think Ishmael included him, and why did he include him at this particular point in the book?

2. Reading Chapter 12 together with a focus on connecting the past to the future:

• Find one line in which Ishmael is connected to past, and explore/question that connection.

• Find one line that offers us a glimpse of Ishmael's future as a child soldier, and explore/question that connection.

3. Starting Chapters 13 and 14 for tomorrow's fishbowl with a focus on finding patterns and connections, just as we've been practicing

HW:
1. Finish reading and annotating Chapters 12, 13, and 14 for tomorrow's fishbowl discussion (we'll read Chapter 15 on Friday).

2. Finish your www.noredink.com assignment, "Connecting Clauses, Take 1."