The Workbook Plus a Zoom lesson
Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam is eerily prescient — from plagues, to environmental disasters, to water shortages, and border confrontations. The narrator’s 30- year struggle with a hostile environment changes him, incrementally, but he slips cosily into his father-shaman’s arms upon their final reunion. This minimalist text, with sparse background details, seems worlds removed from the veiled and hushed environment of Hailsham in Britain in the 1960s. In Ishiguro’s text, the problematic nature of catch-up ethics is reflected in Kathy H’s narrative recount of her transition from “student” to “carer” whereby she is “told” and “not told” about her identity as a donor in the donation program.
Students who purchase this workbook will also be able to join my essay-writing zoom session on the text. Together with the workbook, I’ll walk you through the obvious parallels between the texts, and the distinct differences.
In your essays, you will need to deal with the key ideas, show a smart progression of ideas, evaluate the “how” techniques as succinctly and precisely as possible all the while keeping your essay neat and snappy.
As well as a detailed evaluation of the themes, characters and key ideas, this workbook has 7 detailed essay plans, an extended table of similarities and differences, including the social, political and environmental world of the text through to personal stories of courage and tenacity. These plans form the basis for an essay/discussion, and we’ll also work through more.
Zoom times: TBA.
To purchase click here.
