The Absolutely True Diary
of a Part-Time Indian
By Sherman Alexie
Art by Ellen Forney
A semi autobiographical novel
Set in the Spokane Indian Reservation
In the state of Washington.
Sherman Alexie states that, "If I were
to guess at the percentage of my life
in the novel, it would be about
seventy-eight percent true"
The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian

http://www.spokanetribe.com/
Spokane Tribe
What makes for a good high school
experience? Do you have to be happy for
your education to have been a good
one?
2. What happens when a person leaves
their home environment in pursuit of
success? Do they give up or betray their
identity?
3. How do we, as humans, overcome
adversity? What strategies to we use to
get through hard times?
1.
Essential Questions
3 things about me!
1. Write a quality about yourself that you
think most of the people in the room
share with you.
2. Write a quality about yourself that you
think only some people in the room
share with you.
3. Write a quality about yourself that you
think is totally unique to you.
Identity
Everybody stand up!
2. One person stand up and read their card
one quality at a time.
3. If you share that quality with the reader,
stay standing, if not, sit down.
1.
Share out!
Reading aloud
 Read alouds are used to show how good
readers interact with books, stories,
poems, songs, legends, fables, fairy tales,
comics, etc.
 Follow along silently. It doesn’t matter it
it’s the teacher reading aloud or another
student reading aloud. One voice!
Courteous listening.
The Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club,
Why Chicken Means So Much to Me
Literary Logs Coping with Trauma and White Vs.
Indian
Write as much detail in the logs as possible with full quotes and
page numbers!
 Bring to class every day.

Description of Trauma
Quote showing Junior’s
Reaction
Your analysis: Why react like
that?
Junior was born with too
much cerebral spinal fluid
inside his skull.
“But jeez, did my mother and
father and big sister and
grandma and cousins and
aunts and uncles think it was
funny when the doctors cut
open my little skull and
sucked out all that extra
water with some tiny vacuum
(Alexie 4)?”
Junior is using humor to
make the trauma easier to
describe. He is also bringing
in support of his family by
mentioning every one of
them.
Description of difference + page #
Effect on Junior’s Life
Junior says his white dentist
believed that Indians only felt
half as much pain as while
people did, so he only gave us
half the Novacain (Alexie 2).
Even at a very young age, Junior
feels that he doesn’t receive
equal treatment
Polly, my best friend, with what
used to be a giraffe
Your reading assignment
by Tuesday, August 28th (bring your book)
Read the next 2 chapters; Do examples
from both logs. Choose carefully.
Revenge is my Middle Name and
Because Geometry Is Not a Country
Somewhere Near France
The next 5 days

Literal Language: The actual, dictionary
meaning of a word. Puppy for example.
◦ What, literally, really, is a puppy?
◦ A puppy is a baby dog.

Figurative Language:
Words that go beyond
their normal meaning.
◦ What do you see in your
mind when you read puppy?
Puppies are cute.
Literary terms

Simile: A figure of speech that compares
two things using like or as.
Example of Figurative Language
& page #
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character
“I do know that hope for me is
like some mythical creature
(Alexie 51)”. An example of
simile.

Metaphor: A figure of speech that compares
two things without using like or as.
Example of Figurative Language
& page #
“Mary was a bright and shining
star (Alexie 40)”.
An example of metaphor
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character
Allusion: A reference to a familiar person,
place, thing, or event.
Alexie mentions Dickens, another
writer, to emphasize Junior’s situation.

Example of Figurative Language
& page #
“I was the only kid, white
or Indian, who knew that
Charles Dickens wrote a Tale
of Two Cities. And let me tell
you, we Indians were the
worst of times and those
Reardan kids were the best
of times (Alexie 50)”. Alexie
is alluding to Dickens.
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character
The 3 most common allusions are to Greek
mythology, the Bible, and Shakespeare.

Hyperbole: Exaggeration used to
emphasize a point.
Example of Figurative Language
& page #
Hyperbole: “Those
kids were
magnificent. Those
kids were everything.
Those kids were
beautiful. Those kids
were beautiful, smart,
and epic (Alexie 50)”.
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character

Onomatopoeia: The use of a word whose
sound suggests its meaning.
Example of Figurative Language
& page #
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character
“Bang! Rowdy punched me.
Bang! I hit the
ground.
Bang! My nose bled
like a firework
(Alexie
52)”. Bang is an example of
onomatopoeia.
Extra: what other example of
figurative language appears in
this quote?

Symbol: A person, place, thing, or idea
used to represent something else.
Example of Figurative Language
& page #
Effect it has on the story, reader,
or character
“What was I doing at Reardan,
whose mascot was an Indian,
thereby making me the only other
Indian in town (Alexie 56)”. Mascots
are symbols.
What does an Indian as a mascot
represent?
How are these mascots symbols?
1. Gather together in your pods and share with
each other 1 or 2 of the traumas and
differences you pulled out of pages 40-54.
2. Make sure everybody shares and tells about
their analysis!
3. When you’ve gone around the pod once or
twice. Start reading as a group the chapter
“How to Fight Monsters” on page 54. Work
together to find some lit terms.
4. We’ll be monitoring your participation for a
formative grade today. 5 points
5. Be prepared to share out to the class at the
last 7 or so minutes of the day.
Look out for similes and hyperbole
Continue Reading and adding to your Lit
Logs. At least 2 or 3 detailed entries.
 Pages 54-98 by Tuesday September 4

◦
◦
◦
◦
How to fight Monsters
Tears of a Clown
Halloween
Slouching Toward Thanksgiving
Find 4 or 5 more examples of figurative
language and add them to the new chart.
 We’ll check off those logs for credit on
Tuesday.
