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Once Upon a Time
- 1. 1. Get a your class textbook from the cart (your seat number is your textbook number) 2. Take 5 minutes to set up your spiral notebook if you have not already. 3. If you have already completed setting up your notebook, please sit quietly and read. Number Until You Get to 100 1 2 3
- 2. Once Upon a Time Notes • Make the off center I shape on your paper in preparation for the day’s notes:
- 3. Apartheid in 90 seconds
- 5. Looking for Theme (It’s the underlying message) • We make inferences, or logical guesses, about the theme based on clues from the text. Strategies for Finding Themes • Look to the beginning paragraphs/section for clues. • Look for evidence in the text to support your inferences. 1. What is happening in the story? 2. What are the characters doing/thinking/saying/feeling? 3. Examine the symbols — objects, characters, or places that suggest meaning beyond themselves — and what they illustrate about the theme. 4. Where is the story taking place? What is the historical background?
- 6. What is the big idea or topic? What is important to learn (THE MEssage you take): What happens that demonstrates this big idea or topic (evidence from the text)?
- 7. Structure arrangement of parts in a story Fairy Tale Elements • The main characters are opposed by an evil force. • Animals have special abilities. • The story is used to teach a lesson. • Good characters have bad things happen to them. • The setting does not seem quite real. • Details in the story foreshadow that the problem, or conflict, will be resolved in a “happily ever after” ending. Elements in _______________
- 8. Structure arrangement of parts in a story Fairy Tale Elements • The main characters are opposed by an evil force. • Animals have special abilities. • The story is used to teach a lesson. • Good characters have bad things happen to them. • The setting does not seem quite real. • Details in the story foreshadow that the problem, or conflict, will be resolved in a “happily ever after” ending. Elements in Once Upon a Time
- 9. • Irony — the contrast between what is expected and what occurs. • With a partner, discuss the following (5 min): • Did Once Upon a Time have a happy ending? } Whose actions helped the boy and whose actions harmed him? Is this what a reader might expect? How does this contribute to the theme of the story?
- 10. Homework: • Complete the Fairy Tales and Theme Handout
Editor's Notes
- Read mini bio of Nadine Gordimer before story. Show 90 sec BBC clip to introduce apartheid (1948-1994) Next slide.
- White Area Sign A Bantustan, or homeland, which divided Africans into 10 groups. They could only be citizens of their homeland, not South Africa itself. This served as a way to forcibly remove Africans from their property, bulldoze their homes and exile them from their actual homelands. More than 860,000 Africans, Indians, and people of mixed race were segregated to overcrowded slums called resettlement camps. (That’s more than twice the population of the city of Tampa) Africans burning their pass cards in protest. Their pass cards contained personal information, and they were required to carry them at all times or risk getting arrested, detained, or tortured. Breaking the law in any way brought down brutal punishment from the government in the form of imprisonment, beating, whipping, shooting, and fining. A list of the laws/policies of the South African government that if broken could result in imprisonment, fining, or whipping. - Any African who takes a job outside his town, even if he has lived there for 20 years, must leave that town within 72 hours. No Africans may attend a birthday party if the number attending could make the gathering uncomfortable Read Once Upon a Time together. Remind students to take notes on key concepts, vocabulary, main ideas, and important people/dates as we go along. Make sure to leave a few lines of white space so that you can add more info later.
- Gordimer develops a theme throughout the story. We can look for and identify this theme based on inferences that we make from clues in the text. Inferences are just logical guesses. Strategies for finding themes: Initial paragraphs of a text often give clues to the theme. Re-read lines 11-18 What is happening? What emotions or thoughts is the author describing? Why is she afraid? How is this similar to and different from the people in her community? Re-read lines 30-45 Is there an intruder? What actually woke her up? The mine’s location under her house is important to note in this moment: There are mines located all around South Africa because gold and diamond mining is a huge part of their economy. Gordimer is talking about mines 3,000 feet below her house, which is presumably in a whites only section. The purpose of creating different sections is to isolate white people from all other nonwhites, but is this possible? No, they are surrounded by this issue on all sides, literally and metaphorically. The whites cannot escape the suffering that is going on around them, because it surrounds them. Look for evidence in the text What is happening in the story? (lines 66-78) People of another color are quartered in the section of the city where riots are taking place (buses burned, cars stoned, children shot) These people are not allowed in the whites only section unless they have a job. The wife is afraid that someday these people might come up and tear down their “You have been warned” sign and riot in the neighborhood Husband tells wife not to worry, police have tear gas and guns They install electronic gates and require visitors to announce their intentions, or purpose for being there, into the intercom box. What is the real purpose of the intercom system? (to give family control over who enters) 2) What are the characters thinking/saying/feeling/doing? (lines 99-130) - All of the families in the neighborhood install alarm systems that end up setting each other off after (the cat sets one off) - Intruders break in under cover of the noise from the alarm systems and steal valuables, including taking a moment to audaciously drink the whiskey. Why do you think Gordimer included the detail about the intruders stopping to audaciously drink the whiskey? - The wife gives the unemployed people sitting in the gutter bread and tea, but is warned by the housemaid and husband to stop because the unemployed people will likely break in and rob them - So on the one hand, the wife is concerned about the wellbeing of the poor unemployed people in the gutter, but the housemaid’s and husband’s fears squelch that concern. The concern and fear exist in tension with one another. 3) Examine the symbols. - Let’s examine the little boy as a symbol, or a character who suggests a meaning beyond himself. To figure out what he might stand for, what is his approach to life? How does this differ from his parents’ approach to life? - What might he symbolize? (innocence and happiness) - What ends up happening to the little boy? ( He is shredded by the wire, which is an extension of their fear, so fear ultimately destroys happiness). 4) Where is the story taking place? What is the historical background? - Suggested by what we know of Gordimer and the similarities to what happened during Apartheid in South Africa. - Riots and shootings mirror story.
- So let’s figure out the overall theme, or underlying message, boil it down to a sentence or two using this theme chart. What is the big idea or topic: Fear and the consequences of fear What happens that demonstrates this big idea or topic? (look back to your notes from the previous slide) Possible responses: Author sets up the theme of fear at the beginning when she thinks there is an intruder and hints that white community cannot escape the brutality brought on by the racial segregation, which is symbolized by the mines below her house. The family in the story is fearful of the riots happening and installs additional security measures to try to prevent riots and burglaries in their homes. The additional security measures (motivated by fear) backfire in almost every way; the alarms actually help people break in, they wire destroys the little boy The little boy symbolizes innocence and happiness because he is carefree and plays, while his parents are consumed by fear, letting it overtake every aspect of their lives. This overwhelming fear ultimately destroys the little boy. 3) What is important to learn (THE MEssage you take): Don’t let fear dictate your actions and isolate you from a community.
- Go over main elements of a fairy tale. Get the students to provide examples of fairy tales and go through one together, naming elements present in the story. Next, go through the fairy tale elements in Once Upon a Time. The main characters are opposed by an evil force: mom, dad, and little boy think the evil force is the people of another color, but it’s actually their fear. Animals have special abilities: the cat can scale the 7 foot wall, but that’s about it. The story is used to teach a lesson: Don’t let fear isolate you from a community. Good characters have bad things happen to them: Little boy gets shredded. The setting does not seem quite real: thoughts? Details in story foreshadow that the problem, or conflict, will be resolved in a happily ever after ending: Uses a fairy tale set up and language, and increasing security measures make you think it might end up happily ever after, but it does not. What other elements or fairy tale conventions does Gordimer use that evokes or makes you think of fairy tales? Language: “Once Upon a Time” “Wise Old Witch” “Happily Every After”
- Writer’s use irony to surprise readers by providing a contrast between what is expected and what actually occurs. - With a partner, take 5 minutes to discuss whether or not Once Upon a Time had a happy ending. - Next, discuss the actions of the gardener and the grandmother toward the little boy. Whose actions helped the little boy and whose actions harmed him? Is this what the read might expect? How does this contribute to the theme of the story?