Assignments

In pairs, students may choose any of the following as the **central topic(s)** in their presentations**.** We have **bolded** the central themes within the context of the text. These interviews should combine the conventions of the television/radio mediums and textual evidence as seen through an accurate portrayal of characters. Further interview questions need to be based on textual evidence but students are encouraged to make inferences and predictions. Presentations should be a minimum of 2 min. and a maximum of 4 min.
 * Lesson 9& 10: Television Radio Interview Presentations **
 * Common v.s. private ownership of Bingo winnings (**economic** theme) – “our prize money” to pave the roads (59) – How economic equality leads to other forms of equality.
 * Emily Dictionary’s many **identities** : A victim of domestic abuse, a mother and/or a LGBTQ character
 * Pelajia’s matriarchal leadership as seen in her conflict with the Chief (**gender, patriarchy**).
 * How Tomson Highway constructs the rape of Zha as a double **victimization** (Native and mentally disabled). Other than personal harm suffered by Zha, what else does the rape illustrate?
 * Imbalance of power and the urge to subdue another person are at the **root of violent acts**. Analyze the fight scene in the store in the view of power shifting from balanced to unbalanced.
 * Recorded **oral reflection**: Myths, legends, fairy tales, stories: natural and supernatural in human life; creating of a hero figure.

Two rubrics should be created to assess different criteria for the Prezi and hard copy forms. For example, Prezis should be required to have ‘paths’ to signal connections, movement and relationship between characters. However both mind maps should have a central character to give the mind map focus and to make it more visually appealing. Both mind maps should also incorporate images that are tied to textual evidence on what the central character says, what the character does and what other characters say about them.
 * Lesson 10: Character Mind Mapping **
 * students will use the character list ( from p. xii) in a mind map to show the complexity of relationship using mind maps to draw connections between the women and their stories
 *  the representations of relationships should have an overall circular or web-like appearance and be non-linear
 * Students should be able to see and display the difference between western hierarchical structures ( i.e. Shakespeare’s chain of beings ) and the First Nations web of beings
 * Students are allowed to produce the mind map in the form of a hard copy or as an electronic Prezi


 * Lesson 15: Essays Choices **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Discuss the figure of Nanabush: characteristics, function in the play, relevance in First Nations culture.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Concepts of circular and web-like world order (Aboriginal point of view) as different from the concepts of hierarchical and linear world order (Western-European point of view i.e. Shakespeare’s “chain of beings”). Discuss differences and consequences for everyday life in perceiving the world through these perspectives.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Literal and symbolic meaning of rape. Discuss Tomson Highway's choice of represent Zha's rape scene as an artistic expression of a painful life experience.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Consider how the economic needs of the women drives the play’s entire narrative. How do the Rez Sisters demonstrate their collective ability to overcome economic limitations and how do you reconcile this with the play’s ending back on the Rez? Why do you think these women invest so much, emotionally and economically, in something seemingly so frivolous and arbitrary as the “Biggest Bingo in the World”? Who has benefited from this ‘game’ and who has not and why? What do you think the bingo represents for these women and the text? Does Highway ask the audience to feel the same way towards the bingo as the Rez Sisters? Why or Why not? Perhaps also consider the appeal of lottery tickets and why people by them.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ultimately does the play have an optimistic or pessimistic outlook?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independent research choice on any social justice issue. By giving students a choice, Behrman notes that “beyond selecting the topic and finding library books or websites on the topic”, “[s]tudents must become engaged participants in a problem affecting them and be able to reflect upon the social and cultural forces that exacerbate or mitigate the problem” (495). This is our attempt to provide students with a more authentic, inquiry-based learning experience. This option could also easily accommodate exceptional student’s needs by giving them opportunity to express issues relevant to their lives in another formal written form other than the essay.