Y3 ENGLISH LE

LEARNING AREA: ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Key Unit Competence: 

To analyse literary texts based on their genres and period.

Introductory activity

1. Describe what you see in the above pictures.

2. What do you understand by prose? 

3. Discuss briefly the key aspects of prose. 

4. Differentiate prose from poetry and drama.

6.1. Classifying and characterizing different periods of literature in English

6.1.1. Learning activity

Reading and analysing extracts of prose, poems and drama from literary works

I. Prose 

Read the following extract from the story “When the Sun Goes Down” by Gorowa Kamau and answer the questions that follow. 

Maureen stole a glance at Kanja. The poor man was fidgeting and sweating. She rose and opened the window. She served several glasses of fruit juice and passed them round. Kanja held the glass cautiously, his fingers shaking like an alcoholic’s. “Welcome Kanja.” It is great to have you visit,” She said. 

“Kanja has no idea how good it was for him to come.” When you are suffering from AIDS, one good friend is all you need to make life less suffocating. A person is only a person through other persons”. Steve observed.

“You too,suffering from AIDS?” Kanja breathed the one question he had been afraid to ask. He sounded perplexed. Steve smiled vaguely. But before he could speak, Maureen weighed in. The story, she seemed to suggest, was hers to tell. “I remember I had gone for a routine prenatal check when the doctor broke the news. When I was diagnosed with AIDS, I had only one prayer. In that moment, when the sun seemed to set on my life, I prayed that my unborn child be free of the virus. 

I prayed that somehow Steve would be free of the virus too. Oh, how intently I prayed. When my son was born and he turned out negative, my night suddenly went ablaze with a thousand stars. But there was one problem. Steve would not take the test when he finally acquiesced, He was positive I was devastated. My stars waned….”

Steve knew the signs all too well. The clouds were gathering and soon there would be storm, a deluge, he knew. He did not like the way she spoke. Her earnestness sounded almost unnatural. And why must she try to sanitise him?“I have forbidden you to blame yourself for anything!” Steve growled. 

“Oh, you don’t know how it feels seeing you suffer and knowing that I brought this pestilence on you but I swear I have been a faithful woman……. I was faithful to my husband. I was faithful to you, Steve……” her voice broke and she burst into tears. 

“Listen Maureen,” Steve spoke with a tenderness that surprised Kanja. A strange light played in his eyes. “Never cry when the sun goes down for if you do, the tears will not let you see the stars,” He pleaded.

She heaved and gasped painfully, trying to get hold of her emotions. Finally, she wiped her tears and looked at her son, playing innocently on his father’s lap. She had two daughters from her first marriage but this boy, the fruit of the only true love she had ever known in her thirty and five years under the sun, was the crown of her life. Still, a fear tugged at her heart leaving her belly feeling an airy hollowness. Would she live to see him grow up into a man? And if she died, would Steve care for him or would he let the boy to wonder unloved, unwanted on the harsh streets of life? Maureen had no doubt that Steve would live: He had the will. She wished she too could summon up that kind of spirit. She looked at Steve and their son again, the way a seer peers at the contents of his diviner-gourd to read the secrets of life and she smiled wearily. These were her men. She could die but these two, father and son, would always be together. Nothing could separate them. She could see that in the way they sat and played so snugly with his father, in the way Steve held him as if he would never let go. It was such a perfect picture. Just as if the whole world was just the two of them.

Still, she wanted reassurance but when she tried to speak, the words would not form. Steve held her eyes in his in that judicious manner of his and she knew he knew what she wanted to ask. And the answer was in his eyes-a more profound answer than any words could speak. In that moment, Maureen felt strangely relaxed and her heart sang: Ngûmbûkanyumethîî, Mageganiameekwothîî, matarîmekwo? Yes! She would fly out of this world and wonders hitherto unseen would be performed on earth…Maureen felt ready to fly.

Extract from “When the Sun Goes Down” by Goro Wa Kamau 

A. Comprehension questions 

1. How does the content of the above story relate to its title? 

2. How did Maureen discover that she was HIV positive?

3. Prove that Maureen was worried about her husband and her expected son. 

4. Based on the story, explain how Maureen’s problem was not a result of unfaithfulness.

5. What shows that Maureen cared for her newly born son’s future?

6. From the passage, show that Maureen was sure her son would be taken care of even in her absence.

B. Vocabulary

Use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find the meaning of the following terms used in the above story.

a) …suffocating… (paragraph two)

b) …perplexed… (paragraph three)

c) …ablaze… (paragraph four)

d) …acquiesced… (paragraphfour)

e) …earnestness… (paragraphfive)

f) …pestilence… (paragraph six)

g) …tenderness… (paragraph seven)

h) …hollowness… (paragraph eight)

i) …wearily… (paragraph nine)

j) …judicious… (paragraph ten)

• Notes 

Prose refers to any special written piece of work that is built on sentences, paragraphs and grammatical structure rather than a rhythmic structure as in traditional poetry, where the common unit of verse is based on meter or rhyme. The term prose is used simply as a contrast to verse. It is what linguists call the “unmarked” form of language. Literary critics divide prose into fictional and nonfictional. Examples of prose include novels, novellas, short stories, essays, letters, editorials, articles and journals.

• Characteristics of prose

– The prose is written in paragraphs 

– It tells the story rather than describing an image or metaphor. 

– Generally, it has characters and a plot. 

Basing on its characteristics given above, prose can be broken into four categories, divided by purpose:

1. Narrative: writing which tells a story (can be fiction or non-fiction); usually told in chronological order. It has characters and follows the basic plot-line/ development/chart/diagram which is exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

2. Expository: It gives basic information; used often in speeches and essays; it does not tell a story or argue.

3. Descriptive: It describes something in detail, again without telling a story or arguing a point; used most often in combination with another mode of writing, but alone is often found in scientific or medical reports.

4. Persuasive: It tries to convince (persuade) someone to take a particular issue or point.

II. Poetry

Read the poem below and answer questions that follow.

“I Met a Thief”

On the beach, on the Coast,

Under the idle, whispering coconut towers,

Before the growling, foaming waves,

I met a thief, who guessed I had

An innocent heart for her to steal.

She took my hand and led me under

The intimate cashew boughs which shaded

The downy grass and peeping weeds.

She jumped and plucked the nuts for me to suck;

She sang and laughed and pressed close

I gazed: her hair was like the wool of a mountain sheep,

Her eyes, a pair of brown - black beans floating in milk.

Juicy and round as plantain shoots

Her legs, arms and neck,

And like wine - gourds her pillowy breasts;

Her throat uttered fresh banana juice

 Matching her face - smooth and banana ripe

I touched - but long before I even tasted

My heart had flowed from me into her breast;

And then she went-High and South

And left my car case roasting in the fire she’d lit.

By Austin Bukenya

• Comprehension questions

1. How appropriate is the title to the poem?

2. Comment on the setting of the poem.

3. Who is the persona in this poem?

4. Explain the use of imagery in the poem.

5. In your own words, explain what this poem is talking about.

Notes

Types of poetry

Poetry can be written in different styles. The birth of poetry can be traced back to prehistoric times, when people passed down their history in the form of narrative poems and songs. With its rich and glorious history, there are many kinds of poetry, such as lyric, narrative and dramatic poetry.

a) Lyric poetry 

An emotional writing focusing on thought and emotion - can consist of a song-like quality. Subdivisions include elegy, ode and sonnet. Lyric poetry does not attempt to tell a story. Popular lyric poems include the works of Sappho, “Go, lovely Rose” by Edmund Waller and the many sonnets of William Shakespeare.

b) Narrative poetry 

Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be complex. Some narrative poetry takes the form of a novel in verse. Shorter narrative poems are often similar in style to the short story. Sometimes, these short narratives are collected into interrelated groups, as with Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.” Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls, and lays. 

 The style of narrative poetry differs from dramatic poetry, which does not include an exposition and uses the character’s own words. Narrative poems also differ from lyric poetry, which expresses the poet’s thoughts and emotions rather than telling a story. 

A narrative poem often contains a moral lesson at the end of the poem. It is because it narrates a story which must have some conflict and resolution. However, the moral lessons may be explicit or implicit. Hence, the readers have to draw the meaning of the poem through analysis and evaluation of the characters and their actions.

Narrative poetry includes the subdivision epic and ballad. 

 i) Epic 

An epic poem is a long narrative poem told in dignified language, celebrating the actions of a hero. It gives a series of heroic deeds and events significant to a particular culture or a nation

ii) Ballad 

A ballad generally tells of an event of interest such as a crime. Ballads were originally intended to be sung while dancing.

c) Dramatic poetry 

Dramatic poetry, also known as dramatic verse or verse drama, is a written work that both tells a story and connects the reader to an audience through emotions or behaviours. In a form of narrative closely related to acting, it usually is performed physically and can be either spoken or sung. Normally, dramatic poetry uses a set rhyming or meter pattern, setting it apart from prose. It has evolved since its start in ancient Greece, but it still survives today, especially in operas.

– Key Features of dramatic poetry 

This type of poetry uses the speech and actions of at least one person to depict a scene or plot. It is different from plain narrative because the focus is usually on how that individual emotionally or physically controls or responds to what is going on-that is, it is more than a simple explanation of fact. Often, it is from the character’s point of view, giving the audience an idea of his personality, morals, history and dreams.

In general, making a fictional person come alive is much easier when someone physically can show what that character is supposed to feel or do. This is the way the dramatic poetry mainly separates itself from other forms. It requires action, such as making facial expressions, gesturing or interacting with other people or things in the room.

Another key feature is that the text usually follows verse form or rhymes. As a result, it typically ends up feeling very rhythmic. Dramatic poetry requires a certain capacity to deliver the lines well in order to make the audience understand what’s happening. Getting this naturalness can be hard, however, simply because everyday speech typically is more like prose.

– Forms 

Dramatic poetry can take one of several forms: soliloquy, dramatic monologue, and dialogue. Any of these forms can stand by itself.

• Soliloquy 

In a soliloquy, a character speaks mainly to himself, not interacting with anyone else. It typically is a good way to quickly show what he thinks, wants or is going to do, because it gives insights into his mind. Perhaps the best example comes from William Shakespear’s tragic play, Hamlet, in which Hamlet questions whether it is better to live or die.

• Dramatic monologue 

A dramatic monologue is very similar to a soliloquy in that it reveals something about the speaking character. The main difference is that, here, the actor is talking to someone else in the play, not just himself. This second person doesn’t say anything, but their presence often makes the speech a little bit more believable. This type of dramatic poetry usually shows up during critical moments in the plot.

• Dialogue 

Dialogue takes at least two people, who exchange lines to direct action, give information or tell something about themselves. The benefit of this form is that actors can play off each other, responding naturally to what the other person does so that the play doesn’t seem overly rehearsed. The challenge in using it in dramatic poetry, however, is that a writer has to maintain some similarity between the rhythm and meter of the text for both speakers, even as he tries to make each one seem to have a separate personality.

Remark: 

Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. It is made of poems without rhythm and rhyme schemes. Although they don’t follow regular rhyme scheme rules, they still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem as he or she desires. However, it still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, and rhythms to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.

– Features of Free Verse 

• Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm. 

• They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; these poems do not have any set rules.

 • This type of poem is based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases, as compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry. 

– Function of Free Verse 

• Free verse is commonly used in contemporary poetry. Some poets have taken this technique as a freedom from rhythm and rhyme, because it changes people’s minds whimsically. 

 • The best thing about free verse is that poets can imagine the forms of any sound through intonations instead of meters. Free verse gives a greater freedom for choosing words, and conveying their meanings to the audience. Since it depends upon patterned elements like sounds, phrases, sentences, and words, it is free of artificiality of a typical poetic expression.

III. Drama

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions that follow. 

Dr. Stockmann: (snapping his fingers and getting up from the table): I have it! I have it, by Jove! You shall never set foot in the school again! The Boys. No more school!

Mrs. Stockmann: But, Thomas Dr.T

Stockmann: Never, I say. I will educate you myself; that isto say, you shan’t learn a blessed thing. 

Morten: Hooray!

Dr. Stockmann: But I will make liberal-minded and high-mindedmen of you. 

You must help me with that, Petra.

Petra: Yes, father, you may be sure I will.

Dr.Stockmann: And my school shall be in the room where they insulted me and called me an enemy of the people. 

But we are too few as we are; I must have at least twelve boys to begin with.

Mrs. Stockmann: You will certainly never get them in this town.

Dr. Stockmann: We shall. (To the boys.) Don’t you know any streeturchins-regular ragamuffins?

Morten: Yes, father, I know lots!

Dr. Stockmann: That’s capital! Bring me some specimens of them. 

Iam going to experiment with curs, just for once; there may be some exceptional heads among them.

Morten: And what are we going to do, when you have made liberal minded and high-minded men of us?

Dr. Stockmann: Then you shall drive all the wolves out of the country, my boys!

(EJLIF looks rather doubtful about it; MORTEN jumps about crying “Hurrah!”)

Mrs. Stockmann: Let us hope it won’t be the wolves that will

drive you out of the country, Thomas.

Dr. Stockmann: Are you out of your mind, Katherine? Drive me out!

 Now-when I am the strongest man in the town!

Mrs. Stockmann: The strongest-now?

Dr. Stockmann: Yes, and I will go so far as to say that now I am the strongest man in the whole world.

Morten: I say!

Dr. Stockmann: (lowering his voice). Hush! You mustn’t sayanything about it yet; but I have made a great discovery.

Mrs. Stockmann: Another one?

Dr. Stockmann: Yes. (Gathers them round him, and says

confidentially It is this, let me tell you-that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

Mrs. Stockmann: (smiling and shaking her head). Oh, Thomas,

Thomas!

Petra: (encouragingly, as she grasps her father’s hands). Father

By Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, Act 5, page 88.

Comprehension questions

1. What is the purpose of Dr Stockmann in the excerpt?

2. Why has he qualified himself as a strong man?

3. Discuss the main themes in the above excerpt.

Notes 

Drama is literature that is primarily written for theatrical performance. It is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. Drama is one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. A dramatic text consists of two components: literature for reading and performance. Drama is incomplete without the performative aspect. Every dramatic text contains instructions, known as secondary text, for performance on stage. Drama is also a type of a play written for theater, television, radio, and film.

In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in pantomime or dialogue. It contains conflict of characters, particularly the ones who perform in front of audience on the stage. The person who writes drama for stage directions is known as a “dramatist” or “playwright.”

The following are the conventions of drama:

Cast of Characters: listed in the beginning of the play, before the action starts.

Act: a major division of a play.

Scenes: a major division of an act.

Stage Directions: a dramatist’s instructions for performing a play (secondary text).

Types of Drama

a) Comedy

Comedy is a play characterized by its humorous or satirical tone and its depiction of amusing people or incidents, in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and provide a happy conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience  laugh. Hence, they use quaint circumstances, unusual characters, and witty remarks.

b) Tragedy 

Tragedy is a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character. Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain, and death. Protagonists often have a tragic flaw-a characteristic that leads them to their downfall.

c. Farce 

Farce is a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay, typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often overacts or engages slapstick humor. It uses exaggerated and funny situations, starting with jokes, physical humour, drunkenness, and silly visuals just for the sake of getting people laugh.

d) Melodrama 

Melodrama is a play or style of acting in which the characters behave and show emotion in a more noticeable way than real people usually do. It is an exaggerated drama which is sensational and appeals directly to the senses of the audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of a single dimension and simple, or may be stereotyped.

e) Radio Drama 

Radio Drama or audio drama is a play that is read by actors for radio broadcast rather than performed on the stage. There is no visual component in radio drama. It depends on dialogue, music, and sound effect to create the images in your mind, to develop the characters and plot, to indicate the passage of time. It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension. It is very common for radio to exploit sounds and music effects to enhance values of their products. Radio in particular purely depends on voices and sound effects. It hardly has another way through which it could communicate to listeners.

6.1.2. Application activity

1. Explain the following term:

a) Prose b) Poetry c) Drama

2. State and explain types of poetry.

3. Differentiate the four types of prose.

4. Contrast the different types of drama you have learnt.

5. What do you understand by free verse?

6. Conduct a research on of the impact of a teacher’s incompetence on learners. The teacher recognizes his weakness and laments on the state of things. Write a poem that you will recite in front of your class. In the poem, show the teacher’s determination to overcome the problem. Choose a suitable title for your poem, and then start it like this: 

“Incompetent feels like a fish in a bowl,

Always swimming and hitting nothing but glass, 

………………………………………………………………………”

6.2. Using literary terms and devices in sentences and texts

6.1.1. Learning activity

Reading and analysis of literary extractst

Carefully read the extract below from Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart. Pay attention to the words in bold and then answer the questions that follow.

Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen, he had brought honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino.

He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights.

The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath. Amalinze was a wily craftsman, but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms, on their backs and their thighs, and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. In the end Okonkwo threw the Cat.

That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had had no patience with his father.

… “Look at that wall,” he said, pointing at the far wall of his hut, which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone. “Look at those lines of chalk,” and Okoye saw groups of short perpendicular lines drawn in chalk. There were five groups, and the smallest group had ten lines. Unoka had a sense of the dramatic and so he allowed a pause, in which he took a pinch of snuff and sneezed noisily, and then he continued: “Each group there represents a debt to someone, and each stroke is one hundred cowries. You see, I owe that man a thousand cowries. But he has not come to wake me up in the morning for it. I shall pay you, but not today. Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. I shall pay my big debts first.” And he took another pinch of snuff, as if that was paying the big debts first. Okoye rolled his goatskin and departed.

When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father. Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time. Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders. And that was how he came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia by their neighbours to avoid war and bloodshed. The ill-fated lad was called Ikemefuna.

Adapted from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 

• Comprehension questions

1. Describe Okonkwo as a famous man in connection with his wrestling match with Amalinze

2. As explained in the above passage, prove that Okonkwo was a giant.

3. Basing on the above passage, do you agree that Okonkwo was a wealthy man? Justify your answer.

4. After carefully reading the text, discuss all the underlined expressions and phrases.

5. How do these words help make the story more colourful? 

6. What are these expressions called?

7. Use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find the meanings of the terms below:

a) …fame… (paragraph one)

b) …wrestler… (paragraph one)

c) …wily… (paragraph two)

d) …stretching… (paragraph two)

e) …pounce… (paragraph three)

f) …prowess… (paragraph five)

g) …revered… (paragraph five)

h) …doomed… (paragraph five)

i) …bloodshed… (paragraph five)

j) …ill-fated… (paragraph five)

• Notes

Literary terms/devices 

Literary terms or techniques are also known as narrative techniques or literary devices. These are the methods a writer uses to convey his or her message properly. Literary techniques help the reader visualise what the author is saying. This is what we call style. For instance, Achebe uses imagery in the chapter that we just read. Umofians refer to Amalinze as “Amalinze the Cat” because his back never touched the ground. We know that even if you throw a cat, it never falls on its back. This image therefore, helps us to visualise how Amalinze wrestled. It also helps us to understand why Okonkwo was so famous since he defeated the unbeatable Amalinze.

The table below shows some of the most common literary terms and devices used literary pieces of writing.

6.2.2. Application activity

1. Explain the following literary devices

a) Metaphor b) Assonance c) Simile d) Synecdoche e) Personification

2. Write a one page story in which you use at least five literary terms and devices.

3. According to you, how are literary devices important to the writer and the reader?

4. Discuss the literary device used in this dialogue.

Man: Who said smoking kills? I am forty and have been smoking for five years.

Woman: How wise! You are forty yet you look like a ninety-year-old.

 Besides, your cough is music to my ears.

5. Write 5 sentences in which you use the literary devices learnt. 

6.3. Spelling and pronunciation

A. Spelling and dictation

Listen carefully to your teacher as he reads to you a paragraph from Things Fall 

Apart by Chinua Achebe. Write it down as correctly as possible. 

B. Phonetic transcription

Complete the table below by giving the missing phonetic transcription of the words studied across this unit. Pay attention to the placement of the stress where necessary. Then practice their pronunciation. You can use a dictionary where you find it necessary. 

6.4. End unit assessment

1. Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.

“Building the Nation”

Today I did my share

In building the nation.

I drove the permanent secretary

To an important urgent function

In fact to a luncheon at the Vic

The menu reflected its importance

Cold Bell beer with small talk,

Then fried chicken with niceties

Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs

Ice-ream to cover the stereotype jokes

Coffee to keep the PS awake on return journey.

I drove the permanent secretary back.

He yawned many times in the back of the car

Then to keep awake, he suddenly asked,

Did you have any lunch friend?

I replied looking straight ahead

And secretly smiling at his belated concern

That I had not, but was sliming!

Upon which he said with seriousness

That amused more than annoyed me,

Mwananchi, I too had none!

I attended to matters of state.

Highly delicate diplomatic duties you know,

And friend, it goes against my grain,

Causes me stomach ulcers and wind.

Ah, he continued, yawning again,

The pains we suffer in building the nation!

So the PS had ulcers too!

My ulcers I think are equally painful.

Only they are caused by hunger,

No sumptuous lunches!

So two nation builders

Arrived home this evening

With terrible stomach pains

The result of building the nation –

Different ways.

By Christopher H. M. Barlow

• Comprehension questions

a) What is the poem talking about?

b) Who is speaking in the poem? How do you know?

c) What is the tone of the poem?

d) Identify some poetic devices used in the poem.

e) The poet says in the last stanza ‘so two nation builders arrived home this evening.’ Were the two people building the nation? Explain your answer.

2. Read the poem below and answer question about it.

There once was a young lady named Bright

Whose speed was much faster than light

She set out one day

In a relative way

And returned on the previous night.

 Anonymous...

• Comprehension questions 

Discuss the literary device used in the verse “Whose speed was much faster than light”?

3. Plan a sketch with your classmate(s) and perform it in front of your class.

4. Write a play on the contribution of teachers to the development of the country. Select a title that best expresses the message and moral lesson you wish to convey through the play. Then choose a partner (s) to perform the play with him/her or them in front of the class. 

5. Discuss the literary device used in the poem below 

“Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

By Dylan Thomas, “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night”

6. Read the excerpt below from Mine Boy and answer the questions that follow.

He carried on up the street and turned down Eloff Street. This was the heart of the city and the crowd was thick. It was difficult to move among all these white people; one had to keep on stepping aside, and to watch out for the motorcars that shot past. 

 Xuma smiled bitterly. The only place where he was completely free, was underground in the mines. There, he was a master and knew his way. There, he did not even fear his white man, for this white man depended on him. He was the boss boy. He gave the orders to the mine boys. They would do for him what they would not do for this white man or any other white man. He knew that, he had found it out. And underground, his white man respected him and asked him for his opinion before they did anything. 

 It way so and he was at home and ease underground. His white man had even tried to make friends with him because the other mine boys respected him so much. But a white man and a black man cannot be friends. They work together. That’s all. He smiled. He did not want the things of the white man. He did not want to be friends with the white man. Work for him, yes, but that’s all. And didn’t the others respect him more than they respected Johannes? It was because he did not say baas to the white man but knew how to deal with him.

From Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams

• Comprehension questions

a) What happens to the main character?

b) What does the story tell you about people, values and society?

c) What is the main message or theme in the above extract?

7. Discuss the main literary genres drawing their similarities and differences.

8. Using suitable examples, explain any 5 literary terms/devices that you have studied in this unit.

REFERENCES

1. Kenyatta University Institute of Open Learning, (2002) Communication skills. Nairobi, Institute of Open Learning-Kenyatta University.

2. Leslie A. Olsen and Thomas N. Huckin (1991) Technical Writing and Professional Communication (2nd Edition), McGraw-Hill.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_Rwanda

4. Donna A, et al.( 2001).Tales from here and there. Massachusetts D.C: Health and Company, division of Houghton Mifflin company

5. Joyce A, et al.( 2003). Writing and grammar. Massachusetts: Pearson education

6. Azary,B.S. Stacy, A. H. (1941). Understanding and using English grammar, Fourth edition with answer key. United States of America, Library of Congress: Cataloging-in- publication data

7. Raymond, M,(2012).English Grammar in use, Fourth edition: Cambridge . Cambridge University Press

8. Wong, Z. (2009). Why kneel when you can click: paper presented to the 7th International Conference on Digital Religion, Southern Cross University. Lismore, NSW, 28 to 31 July.

9. http://postmodernclog.com/a-5-paragraph-essay-sample-on-modernday-technology.php

10. Austin B, et al. (2003).English for secondary schools, Senior three student’s book. Nairobi: Oxford University Press, East Africa Ltd

11. REB (2017). General studies and communication skills for Rwandan schools: Senior six students’ book. Kigali: Rwanda Education Board

12. REB. (2019). History for Rwanda Schools senior six student’s book second edition. Kigali: Rwanda Education Board

13. REB. (2019). History for Rwanda Schools, Senior five student’s book, second edition. Kigali: Rwanda Education Board

14. REB. (2019). History for Rwanda Schools, senior four student’s book second edition. Kigali: Rwanda Education Board

15. Goro wa Kamau (2011) “When the Sun Goes Down” Sasa Sema Publishers

16. Austin Bukenya, (1996) “I Met a Thief”, East African Publishers

17. Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People,

18. Achebe, C. (2009). Things fall apart. 6th Edition. Toronto: Anchor Canada.

19. Christopher H. M. Barlow, Building the Nation

20. Barlow C.H. (2000) Building the nation and other poems. Kampala: Fountain Publishers 

21. Thomas, D. (1947) “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night”. Florence: Botteghe Oscure

22. Abrahams, P., & Yudelowitz, R. (1963). Mine boy. London: Heinemann Educational Book