Definition Paragraph

Henelsie is a lost soul in search of life's meaning. When she was young, she thought life is about pleasing her parents with a smile, a step and a word but life demanded more. At 7, she thought getting A's on her report card would make her parents happy so she aced every test giving up most of her comfortable nights to study. Her mom was pleased but Henelsie didn't see the smile she learned from her mother because her dad chose to never see her mom again. At 14, she thought that if life is not about making people smile, then maybe it is about a step--about taking risks. Henelsie fell in love recklessly bouncing back painfully from one failed relationship to another. She never moved forward with that step and she eventually also forgot to smile. At 28, she thought that maybe life is about finding the word that one can hold on to when life becomes miserable. Surely, it was not even close to love or success for she was there but found them meaningless. She kept chasing meaning until the only word that makes sense is giving up. Only then did she learned that she needs to be lost to find meaning. The process of everything she went through in life is where meaning lies. She found Henelsie just when she was about to tell life her big NO.

Classroom Activities

http://www.coastalcarolina.edu/faculty-staff/professional-development/instructional-resources/icebreakers/

Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Note-Taking Online Exercises

http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/menu_nt.htm

Book List

English 11
Basic Communication Skills

1. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
2. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
7. The Hobbit by J.R. R Tolkien
8. Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht
9. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
11. In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
12. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
13. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
14. Foucaults’ Pendulum by Umberto Eco
15. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
16. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
17. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
20. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
21. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
22. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
23. Of Love and Shadows by Isabelle Allende
24. House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
25. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
26. Eva Luna by Isabelle Allende
27. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
28. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
29. Sula by Toni Morrison
30. The God Stealer by F. Sionil Jose

Afro-Asian Literature

http://hs2englishliterature.blogspot.com/

You Tube Videos for Education

http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-best-youtube-videos-for-teachers/

Storytelling Games

http://www.storyarts.org/lessonplans/lessonideas/index.html#circle