While you are reading a text of literary merit (or re-reading one that you "read"), just react. Just simply react to what you are reading. Post your classroom appropriate reactions to this blog when you are one third, two thirds and three thirds done with your text. This format was inspired by this teacher's blog post: http://starrsackstein.com/category/students-regularly-react-to-literature-they-dont-just-analyze/
AP Independent Reading For your independent reading during the third trimester, you can choose any novel of literary merit that you want. You can choose a completely new work, a work by your author or a work that you “read” before but want to revisit. The only “work” that you will have to do it simply “react” to the text and post your reaction to our class blog at http://armadafoster.weebly.com/independent-novel-blog.html You will need to post three reactions: one when you are about 1/3 through your book, one when you are about 2/3 through your book and one when you finish your book. Obviously implicit in these “reactions” is reacting to the reactions posts by classmates. In fact, if you and classmate(s) want to read the same book, it might make the reactions more engaging. Below is a list of some of Mr. Foster’s favorite texts from the literary canon. Please note that this list does NOT imply that these are the “best” texts of literary merit-just one that the bald man enjoys. 1) A Handmaid’s Tale: This peach is a dystopian novel where one character is a bit of an outcast and is contemplating saving this new, ruined society. You might be thinking, “I read that book already when it was called 1984, Brave New World or Fahrenheit 451.” I know, so did I, but I find this genre groovy, and this novel has a feminist twist on this archetypal quest. 2) And Then There Were None: I wish we had time to read this text in class and in future years, I just may replace one of the texts that we did read this year with And Then There Were None. Agatha Christie, the author, is often called a pioneer in mystery/suspense writing. The plot basically follows the storyline of the board game and crappy 1980’s movie called Clue. It is a classic “whodunit” where the more you learn about each character, the more you think he/she did it. 3) Gulliver’s Travels: This gem is a four part satirical novel by Jonathan Swift that is read in many AP Lit classes. On its surface it is just a tale of a dude going on a journey to a land where he is perceived as a giant, or a “small person” or a savage. It is funny at times and entertaining to read throughout. Below the quirky absurd adventures of Gulliver lies a satirical stance where Swift is clearly criticizing a specific government and government as a whole. Many times while reading I thought to myself, “Ah, I see, he is saying that the government practice of X is crap and should be changed cuz Y.” 4) Paradise Lost: This is a book that I have never read but really want to. This is one of the classic classics. In it, John Milton uses biblical allegories to make bold statements about humanity. This is often referred to as a “staple” text by other authors of literary merit. For example, it is the spiritual backdrop to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and referenced bluntly in that novel. This text is an answer to a Jeopardy question at least once a month. This text is one that “smart, English scholars” are familiar with and can reference intelligently. Most Commonly Referenced AP Novels (that we don’t do together in class) 1) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 2) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 3) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 4) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 5) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 6) Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 7) Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce 8) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 9) Woolf, Virginia Mrs. Dalloway 10) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 11) Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 12) Native Son by Richard Wright 13) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 14) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 15) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 16) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut 17) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy 18) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 19) Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift 20) The Natural by Bernard Malamud 21) The Awakening by Kate Chopin 22) Golding, William Lord of the Flies 23) Chaucer, Geoffrey Canterbury Tales 24) Unknown Beowulf 25) Burgess, Anthony A Clockwork Orange 26) Alvarez, Julia In the Time of the Butterflies 27) Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid’s Tale 28) Wright, Richard Native Son 29) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston 30) Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray Most Commonly Referenced AP Plays (that we don’t do together in class) 1) The Crucible by Arthur Miller 2) Our Town by Thorton Wilder 3) Macbeth, King Lear, Henry VIII by Shakespeare 4) A Streetcar Named Desire by Tenessee Williams 5) A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry 6) Fences by August Wilson 7) The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde 8) The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill 9) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? By Edward Albee 10) Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez 1. Coetzee, J. M. Waiting for the Barbarians 2. Crace, Jim The Pesthouse 3. Danticat, Edwidge The Farming of Bones 4. DeLillo, Don White Noise 5. Erdrich, Louise Love Medicine 6. Gordimer, Nadine The Pick-Up 7. Greene, Graham The Quiet American 8. Jen, Gish Typical American 9. Jin, Ha A Free Life 10. Kafka, Franz The Trial 11. Kesey, Ken One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest 12. Khadra, Yasmina The Swallows of Kabul 13. Kingsolver, Barbara The Poisonwood Bible 14. Lahiri, Jhumpa The Namesake 15. Hisham Matar In the Country of Men 16. Marquez, Garbiel One Hundred Years of Solitude 17. McCarthy, Cormac Blood Meridian 18. Haruki Murakami After Dark
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