Literary Projects
Literary Projects
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Wisdom, Goodness, and Sanity
Wisdom, Goodness, and Sanity
The governing concept in a Humanities space is that literature is the best tool we have for developing empathy and a sense of ourselves. As articulated in this video, "Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others: because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little more wisdom, goodness, and sanity."
We use this expansive definition of literary merit to explore new texts alongside canonical ones. In Q4, students are able to choose their own text to read.
The Self-Prescribed Literature Project post contains all of the instructional material for this work.
READ Poster
READ Poster
For this project, students created a READ poster for the work of literary merit they chose to read in Q4. The idea stems from the READ posters created by the ALA to promote reading. Students' work was more robust and interactive, however, and built on last year's efforts:
More About the Project
More About the Project
The Menu of Choices for Q4 of 2023 also includes the Senior Spring Reading Choice Board, which is the sister project to the READ posters.
NOTE: Below are last year's essays, a set which includes reader-response essays and discussions of literary merit.
Reader's Response
Reader's Response
A major writing task and assured experience for seniors that was first introduced alongside a project-based update on April 11. Students were then guided through the selection of a work of literary merit:
Reader-response writing is scaffolded, in a makerspace, on the universal elements of writing. There are several guides and worksheets.
Student Literature Projects
Student Literature Projects
Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida
Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida
This manga was suggested as a work of literary merit by Liz Bodansky, and it rapidly became one of the best examples of our expanding definition of literature. The updated project page, for instance, now features a real-world reader-response essay on Dorohedoro as one of its prime examples.
As the guides we used suggest, this kind of atypical narrative lends itself to an atypical project. Liz developed a podcast (alongside her READ poster, which is embedded here), using in-class discussions and the iterative nature of the space to sketch out a structure for the planned and extemporaneous analysis. See below:
The Midnight Library by Matt HaigThe Midnight Library by Matt Haig
12 Rules For Life Read Poster.pdf12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
Jaime Pinto — READ Poster.pdfOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
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