In our transition from the fictional life and times of Arnold Spirit of The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian to the real life and times of Ishmael Beah in A Long Way Gone, we needed to build some understanding about the issues facing the citizens of Sierra Leone.
The GIST is a literacy/ thinking strategy that helps you to summarize information you've read. In pairs, you each received a current article about issues affecting Sierra Leone from a variety of news sources. You read the article and then:
-highlighted up to ten of the most important words and phrases
-paired up with the other person who had the same article as you
-compared your list of words/ phrases and then narrow this list to six to ten words/ phrases
-separated the final pool words into two even groups
-each member of the pair took one group of words
-wrote your summary paragraph of the article using your group of words
-peer edited your rough draft paragraph and then wrote your final draft on a notecard
Most of you were able to finish this process during class. You did a great job collecting the essential issues that are happening right now in Sierra Leone. We will report out on our findings next class, before we start reading Beah's memoir. Here are some links to some of the articles we used in today's class:
Three Men Convicted of War Crimes in Sierra Leone
Interpol Cracking Down on Money Laundering, Child Trafficking and Drugs
UNICEF Responds to Lack of Health Care for Mothers and Infants
New Plan for Agriculture in Sierra Leone
Culture Clash on Display in Rape Trial
