Things Fall ApartWhat you need to know

Okonkwo’s family

Okonkwo -- main character -- influential clan member in Umuofia. Fears all things considered weak and feminine. He’s incredibly masculine, hardworking, rash. He’s abrasive with his three wives and children.

Unoka -- Okonkwo’s father -- sensitive, lazy, loves music, in debt -- everything Okonkwo despises in a man

Okonkwo’s family

Ekwefi -- Okonkwo’s second wife

Ezinma -- Ekwefi’s only child

Nwoye -- Okonkwo’s oldest son by his first wife

Obiageli -- Nwoye’s sister

Ikemefuna -- boy taken from neighboring village to appease a crime and prevent war -- meets an unfortunate end...

Native Vocabularyharmattan -- a dry, dusty African trade windcowries -- shells used as currencykola nut -- eaten in social situations; offered as a gesture of hospitalityalligator pepper -- hot spice often eaten with the kola nut to kill the bitterness of the kolapalm wine -- alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm treepalm oil -- used for lighting and cookingyams -- staple food for the tribe

Native VocabularyIgbo -- a group of people living in southern Nigeria in AfricaUmuofia -- one of a cluster of 9 villages; feared by its neighbors, known for war and magic; this is where Okonkwo livesBride-price - converse of dowry; the bridegroom's family pays cash or goods to the bride's family Chi - personal spirit, similar to luckegwugwu -- a tribal member who masquerades as an ancestral spiritOgbanje -- a wicked child who is born and then dies only to re-enter its mother's womb over and over again.Foo-foo - pounded yam, traditional staple food of IgboObi - male living quarters

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tfa/OBJ.htm

Check back of book for list of words

Vocabulary Words

word and definition

use in a sentence

make a connection to the word

synonym and/or antonym

Vocabulary Words

improvident

haggard

plaintive

mirth

revered

discerned

uncanny

murmur

ultimatum

imperious

Chapter 1

emissary

capricious

malevolent

incipient

Chapter 2

Vocabulary Words

abomination

brusqueness

benevolent

atone

valediction

deftly

arduous

poignant

Chapters 3 and 4

Research Project

Research ProjectWe have been exploring the idea of culture this year.

Native African culture is one that is quite different from American culture.

Cultures clash, as we saw in Reservation Blues and we will see later in this novel.

To better understand the novel and what happens later in the book, you will be researching an aspect of Igbo culture with a classmate.

Project Directions

1. As you read the first 9 chapters of Things Fall Apart, you will annotate your book, making notes about your topic. Highlight key parts. Use sticky notes or note cards. (You will receive a grade for your sticky notes or note cards; you must have your own.)

2. Ask questions that you will explore in your project. Provide these questions to your viewers in your PPT.

3. Research your topic. Answer the top 3 thoughtful questions you asked yourselves. You need a minimum of three reliable Internet sites/sources. Keep track of your sites on note cards and summarize the information that you find on each site.

Project Directions5. You will be presenting your project to the class, with a 20-slide minimum, including a title page slide, a Guiding Questions slide, and a Works Cited slide with your three sources in MLA format.

6. Your project must include pictures and preferably include video or sound clips.

A sheet with scoring guides and these directions will be available on my Web site, ridalhigh.com, under the English II tab.

You are responsible for your own sticky notes and note cards.

You must each come to class with a flash drive and save a version of the project on each drive. If one member of the group fails to show on presentation day, you are still responsible for the project!

Research topics

You will choose topics randomly. The person who matches your topic selection is your partner.

Topics: music, food, war, weddings, festivals/holidays, farming, language, hospitality, status, justice, gender roles, clothing, business dealings, family, sports, housing, medicine, view of nature, religion

Helpful SpringBoard Pages

Act. 3.3, p. 150 -- explains how to pronounce names in novel

Act. 3.5, p. 153 -- glossary of selected native words and phrases

EA1, p. 166 -- aspects of culture for research project