As an 11th grade humanities student, I sincerely hope that you are reading something interesting & challenging every day. If you ever need help selecting something, please see me. When in doubt, please look at my Suggested Authors & Literature and/or read The New Yorker.
Required Texts
Students must have access to individual copies of the required texts for this class. Students do not need to purchase copies of books, but they do need to be able to read regularly and should plan on having a "personal" copy. Borrowing one from the library is perfectly fine. All of these are available in many libraries, in bookstores, used or new, as e-books, online, and more. If you need any assistance at all, please see me and I will make sure that you have what you need.
Fall Semester
Any selection from the list on the Our People's History page.
Narrative Nonfiction Reading Journals
Please maintain a reading "journal" that includes the following (at least!).
Every week, complete the following and bring it to class on Tuesday. Keep track of these, keep them organized, and be able to reference them easily and regularly. Each one should be a minimum of one typed, single spaced page, using a normal font at size 12 with one inch margins.
Q—C—C—Q
Q—Quote
Select a quote from the pages you have read over the past week that is significant.
Place type quote at the top of the page, in the following format:
"Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn. He didn't appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at most. A rifle protruded from the young man's backpack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the forty-ninth state. Gallien steered his truck onto the shoulder and told the kid to climb in." Jon Krakauer, from Into the Wild, p. 3-4.
C—Comment
Comment on the significance of quote. Explain why it is significant in the book and explain why you chose it. Feel free to discuss the literal or figurative meaning(s) of the quote, how it relates to the larger context of the book and/or the stylistic devices used by the author.
C—Connection
Discuss connections related to the quote. How does the quote connect with earlier topics or literary devices in the book? How do you think this quote will connect with later sections in the book? How can you connect the quote with other books you have read or current content in Humanities class? Does the quote have any personal meaning to you?
Q—Questions
What questions do you now have about the book? What does this make you want to know or learn about?
and...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Spring Semester
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The class collage
Slaughterhouse Five is a Tralfamadorian novel, told in the telegraphic sense. We ware going to break this book up into sections to read, but you are encouraged to read ahead, and read more that we merely require.
Each time we come to a reading deadline in class, you should create and bring an image that represents a section of the text and a quote. You'll post your images and quotes on a class collage on the whiteboards so you can visualize the novel as a whole as we read.