Independent reading assignment

Post date: Feb 19, 2014 3:02:52 PM

Mr. Shurtleff

AP Lit/Comp

Independent Reading Assignment

Reading should be a pleasure. Reading should be enriching. Reading should inspire. Reading should educate. Reading should bring you happiness. Reading should make you chuckle. Reading should make our world better by causing readers to question the social order, politics, finance, as well as our everyday encounters with others. As an English teacher, I am constantly struggling with the dilemma over what to teach. Should I teach the classics, which are rich as well as rewarding, because, well lets be frank, how often would the majority of our citizens read the classics if they were not required to do so? Or should I read trade fiction and best sellers in hopes that my students eventually pick up a classic from the prison library? AP Lit/Comp allows me to do both. For your third nine weeks independent reading assignment you are required to choose a novel/author from the following list to read. These books are witty, sarcastic, satirical takes on our world. I think that wit and satire are seriously lacking in our society and I feel that by exposing my students to this manner of viewing the world, they will be better able to deal with the mundanities of their future lives. Life is not always fun. Work is not always fun, but literature can help you get through those moments with wit and verve.

So choose a book, remember the joys of reading for fun and write a snappy essay to boot. Choose one of the prompts listed around which to base your essay.

Dave Barry

Christopher Moore

Jasper Fforde

Terry Pratchett

Garrison Keillor

Kurt Vonnegut

Carl Hiaasen

1987: Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose a novel and note briefly on the particular attitudes and traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.

1989: In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see.”

Write an essay in which you “make a good case for distortion,” as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are “distorted” and explain how these distortions contribute to the overall effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.