Alexander The Great

Post your thoughtful questions (questions only -- keep this short) under your block
over here on the right where it says Further Class Discussion -->

NOTE ABOUT THE READING FOR TUESDAY:

I forgot to mention that on the website, it says to post your three most thoughtful questions to the class website.

A “thoughtful” question is one that requires some thought, and it’s generally not one that can be answered with a discrete piece of information.

For example, in class I wondered whether ATG had been born when Philip became king in 359 BCE.

I looked it up and found out that ATG was born in 356 BCE, so no, he wasn’t born yet. ATG was born three years into his father's reign as king. ATG never knew his father’s father.

That question is good, in that it shows that I was thinking about Alexander and what it would be like for him to grow up with his father as king.

But it was an easy one to answer.

Similarly, “where is Macedonia” is pretty discrete. Find a map (here’s a link to that map I showed you in class) <http://www.greece-map.net/maps/macedonia-map.gif>

and you’re all set.

These are fine questions, but if these are my most thoughtful questions, I’m probably in trouble…

A more thoughtful question might be:

In paragraph 3 on page 1, it says that Philip “managed to unite all of Macedonia under his leadership.”

Weren’t there any people who opposed him? I understand that he killed his rivals and did his best to subdue all rebellions… but didn’t some people in his kingdom oppose him?

That question would require a bunch of research into Macedonian history. Do NOT undertake such research… but do pose thoughtful questions such as that one that show that as you are reading the material, you are emapthizing with the people you are reading about and that you are thinking about what it would have been like to be Alexander the Great (or, on the first page, what it would be like to be his father, Philip II of Macedon).

Finally, as we've discussed, if you don’t know what a word means, please look it up.

However, you should not include vocabulary questions in your question list
(all of the questions you generate, by the way, will go into your question log for 12-3-07).

So while you may think to yourself: “what does disinterested mean?”,
do not list that as question – use that as a chance to expand your vocabulary.

If you have looked up a word and you still don’t get it, please email me and I’ll try to help.

See you Tuesday.