URGENT NOTE TO STUDENTS!

Because of the snow day, I will not be at school! A couple of notes for you about homework.

--The contract (which is due today) should be left in the bin. If you are not at school to turn in your contract, you can run it in to me on MONDAY. You WILL NOT be penalized (unless you don't bring it in Monday!)
--I will collect your journals and vocabulary flash cards when I see you next Tuesday.
--Students who turn in the contract should pick up a KWL/research proposal sheet (they are sitting on the student desk nearest to mine in the back of the room).

All students can email me for any copies of homework. The chapter 5 journal questions are below.

Chapter Five
-Evaluate Okonkwo's attitude toward feasts.
-Briefly summarize the story of Ekwefi.
-What kind of a woman is Ekwefi?
-What do you think is the significance of women having to sit with their legs together?

Chapter Six
-This chapter introduces a much-discussed aspect of Ibo belief. As in most pre-modern cultures, the majority of children died in early childhood. If a series of such deaths took place in a family it was believed that the same wicked spirit was being born and dying over and over again, spitefully grieving its parents. They tended to be apprehensive about new children until they seemed to be likely to survive, thus proving themselves not to be feared ogbanje. What is your impression of this belief?
-What roles does Chielo play in the village?

Chapter Seven
-How has Nwoye begun to "act like a man"?
-What values does Okonkwo associate with manliness?
-How does Nwoye relate to these values?
-How does the village react to the coming of the locusts?
-What are locusts like in the Bible? How is this contrast significant?
-Why is Okonkwo asked not to take part in the killing of Ikemefuna?
-Why do you suppose they have decided to kill Ikemfuna?
-Why do you think Achebe does not translate the song that Ikemefuna remembers as he walks along
-Why does Okonkwo act as he does?
-Predict how Okonkwo and Nwoye’s relationship will change.
-Most traditional cultures have considered twins magical or cursed. Twins are in fact unusually common among the Ibo, and some subgroups value them highly. How do the people of Umuofia feel about twins?
-Give your opinion on the custom surrounding the birth of twins.

Chapter Eight
-What is Okonkwo's attitude toward his daughter Ezinma?"
-Bride-price is the opposite of dowry. Common in many African cultures, it involves the bridegroom's family paying substantial wealth in cash or goods for the privilege of marrying a young woman. Do you think such a custom would tend to make women more valuable than a dowry system where the woman's family must offer the gifts to the bridegroom's family?
-How do you think such a system would affect the women themselves?
-Young women were considered marriageable in their mid-teens. Why do you think this attitude arose?
-How is the notion of white men first introduced into the story?
-Why might Africans suppose that they have no toes?
-What sorts of attitudes are associated with white men in this passage?