iLit Selections ELA A 30 - Unit 2 Literature Class 2012 Sandra McTavish Anthology Teacher's Resource SECPSD All selections and artwork used with permission of the authors and creators. Copyright 2014, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777. Cover image 2014 by Catherine O’Mara. Table of Contents Selection Support: There Are No Coconut Trees in... 4 Selection Support: Footprints in the Snow 9 Selection Support: The Trial of Duncan C. Scott 15 Selection Support: Innovations 20 Selection Support: My Whole Life Going Home 24 Selection Support: We said to Inuit, "Tell us... 29 Selection Support: 3740166701 35 Selection Support: Dibenimiisowin (To Own... 39 Table of Contents MHR Custom 1 Table of Contents Selection Support: GrAfrica?: The Lost Boys and... 45 Selection Support: I Witness 52 Selection Support: Pardon Me, I'm Canadian 58 Selection Support: Reading Liberia 64 Selection Support: From Prairie Sky to Midnight... 72 Selection Support: Why Apathy Is Boring 77 Selection Support: The History of the Grey Cup 83 Selection Support: Counting On: Canada's Parks in... 89 Selection Support: The Making of Great Cities 95 Selection Support: Graffiti: Art or Blight? 100 2 MHR Custom Table of Contents Table of Contents Selection Support: Social Statement Stencils 105 Selection Support: No Refunds / Vancouver 111 Selection Support: From Virgil 118 Selection Support: From Acquiesce 123 Selection Support: Of Farmers and Hunters 129 Selection Support: Allen Sapp, Keeper of Stories 135 Selection Support: Wake-up Call 143 Selection Support: Making the Ordinary Feel... 148 Selection Support: Ten Favourite Places to Visit... 157 Table of Contents MHR Custom 3 Selection Support: There Are No Coconut Trees in Toronto Author Curriculum Connections Randy Boyagoda *This selection is most suitable for these courses: • AB (*ELA 9, 10-1 & 20-2) • BC (*ELA 8, 9 & 10) Type of Selection • MB (*English–Senior 1 & 2) Short story • ON (*ENG 1D, 2D & 3C) • SK (ELA 9, A10 & B10) Themes and Topics AB • Citizenship/ethnicity • 2 Comprehend literature and other texts in oral, • Identity print, visual and multimedia forms, and respond • Customs/traditions personally, critically and creatively: 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.2, 2.3.1 • Relationships/love/family/friendship • 3 Manage ideas and information: 3.1.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.3 • Immigration • Gift s BC • Hope/disappointment • Oral Language: A1, A8, A9 • Reading and Viewing: B1, B5, B6, B7, B8, B11, B12, B13 • Writing and Representing: C1, C2, C8, C10 Summary A man remembers a childhood visit from his Sri MB Lankan grandparent and its impact on his emigrant • 1 Explore thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences: 1.2.2 family. • 2 Comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print, and other media texts: 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.2 Readability • 3 Manage ideas and information: 3.1.2, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, • Average selection for most students to read 3.3.1, 3.3.2 • Moderate level of inferencing required ON • Oral Communication Interdisciplinary Links − Listening to Understand: 1.2 • Social Studies − Speaking to Communicate: 2.1 • Family Studies • Reading and Literature Studies − Reading for Meaning: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 − Understanding Form and Style: 2.3 − Refl ecting on Skills and Strategies: 4.1 • Writing − Developing and Organizing Content: 1.3, 1.4 SK • Comprehend and Respond: CR A10.1, CR A10.3, CR A10.4, CR B10.1, CR B10.3, CR B10.4 • Compose and Create: CC A10.1, CC A10.3, CC A10.4, CC B10.1, CC B10.3, CC B10.4 • Assess and Refl ect: AR A10.1, AR B10.1 4 MHR Custom Selection Support: There Are No Coconut Trees in... Background Support Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is a small island off the southern coast of India. Well over a quarter million Sri Lankans live in Canada, most of them in Toronto. Many emigrated because of civil war between the minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese in their homeland. Before Immigration involves moving from one country to another. Often this means leaving family, friends, and most everything that is familiar. Using your personal experience or your imagination, describe what it would be like to leave your home and start a new life somewhere else. • Students refl ect on − how they felt (or would feel) leaving behind their home, other family members, friends, and their community − how they prepared (or would prepare) mentally for such a move − how they felt (or would feel) arriving in their new home. • Ask students to explain why they felt (or would feel) each emotion. • Students share their thoughts with a partner or record their thoughts in their journals. During This story is about a Sri Lankan immigrant family living in Toronto. You will encounter some foreign words, foods, celebrations, and historical references that may be unfamiliar to you. As you read, look for context clues you can use to understand these words and references. • Students use BLM 1 to record unfamiliar words and references they encounter as they read. • Encourage them to consider − whether there are suffi cient context clues to help them understand the meaning and, if so, what they are − what strategies to use when encountering words whose meanings they cannot fi gure out from the context − whether knowing the meaning of these words is essential to understanding and appreciating the selection. Example: Essential to know in order If no, what to understand? Context strategy Word/ (yes/no) Word/ clues? If yes, what did you use reference Why or why reference (yes/no) are they? to fi nd out? meaning not? Ceylon Yes Reference Sri Lanka’s Yes—establishes to Lucky name from important detail growing up in 1948 to 1972 about family Ceylon background Johnny Yes Reference Actor who No—can Weissmuller to “double played Tarzan understand features” in movies in Lucky’s tropical the 1930s and heroics without 1940s understanding the reference Selection Support: There Are No Coconut Trees in... MHR Custom 5 After 1. Reading for Meaning The cardboard box represents hopes, adventures, and dreams. It also represents disappointment and reality. Explain, with specifi c reference to the text, how the author uses the symbol of the box to represent these things. • Th e following passages indicate the box as a symbol of hopes, adventures, and dreams: − “I wondered, a little hopeful, if there might be a leopard girl inside that box.” − “I have brought you boys the best gift s from the best of countries.” − “But when I heard the box jiggle and thud into the trunk I had another idea. Maybe this was no cat girl, but some parts from one of those German U-boats inside.” • Th e following passages indicate the box as a symbol of disappointment and reality: − “Th e cardboard box was a big shiny disappointment. No treasure inside, and the gift wasn’t even for us, but for my mother.” − “I mumbled because I was shy, but also because I had become a cynic about the possibility of anything good coming of it.” • To check on students’ understanding of the concept of “symbol,” ask them to Assessment for Learning explain the meaning of the coconut monkey head (e.g., to Oscar, it represents his homeland; to Piyal, it represents his family’s past, which he has dismissed). Listen in as students share their explanations with a partner, or ask students to answer this question on an exit card or in a journal. 2. Understanding Form and Style Toronto is mentioned in the title of this story. This tells the reader that Toronto, as the setting of the story, is important. How does the author use the setting to develop the plot of this story? • Toronto provides the context in which the confl ict between Piyal and Siya (i.e., their diff ering ties to Sri Lanka and their diff ering hopes and expectations, as symbolized by the gift of the coconut monkey head) develops. • Even Piyal’s and Siya’s perceptions of Toronto confl ict with one another. For Piyal, Toronto is a city of apartment buildings that look like giant bars of chocolate and cars that, from above, look like toys. For Siya, Toronto is nothing more than “a boxy landscape” and “a place-setting for homeward gazing.” • Although the story occurs in a particular time and place, the story’s themes (e.g., family relationships, identity, and hope and disappointment) are universal. 3. Critical Literacy There is a kind of opposition in this story with the Canadian-born brothers on one side, and their Sri Lankan-born parents and grandfather on the other. The youngsters are forward looking, while their elders are fi xated on Sri Lanka. Which side is the author on? How do you know? • Students who think that the author is on the brothers’ side might point out his description of the city as an exciting place, with apartment buildings that look like giant bars of chocolate; cars that look, from above, like a Matchbox set; and black roads that are “as smooth as a barbershop shave.” Th ey might also point out the way in which the author describes Piyal’s disappointment with the coconut monkey head from Back Home.