Ms.Clapp’s Comments (group member since Jun 06, 2011)

Ms.Clapp’s comments from the MHS AP English group.

It's on the back of the hard copy we passed out - it's basically a two column note for information - like history - main topics, details on left, your comments and connection to other texts you've read on the right. At the bottom, summary on the left, evaluation on the right. Hope this helps!

Summer Fun for APES(AP English Students) 2011
You’ve got some fun ahead of you this summer! Here’s the complete list of what you have to do:
1. Read and take one page of two column notes(see attached template) for each chapter of How to Read Literature Like A Professor. Yes, that’s something like 27 pages of notes, but you’ll thank us later. This will be a resource that we will use all next year, so you really want to do a good job on it. This will be turned in on the first day of school.
2. Read the three required summer reading books:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

For Things Fall Apart and The Namesake, create a Good Reads(www.goodreads.com) account, join the group MHS AP Literature and comment on each book at least three times. There is a posting area for each third of the book(no worries about spoilers) Please do not use your last name or Malden anywhere in your username, but do give us some clue as to who you are. Your comments should be your questions, your observations, and your opinions about your reading. You should read all of the other comments in a thread before responding. You may include agreement with the comments of others, but your posts must include some original thinking or observation about the text; we need to know that you have read it! The use of specific textual evidence or passages to discuss is encouraged. Please do pay attention to your spelling, grammar, conventions, etc.; over 50 people will be reading this discussion, so it’s common courtesy. Please feel free to start additional threads on other books you might be reading or specific aspects of the books you’d like to discuss.
3. For Heart of Darkness, we would like you to take notes that will be used in an assignment in the beginning of the year. You should have 8-12 pages of notes for the book, using a two column format with quotations on one side, the reasons you chose them on the other. Please draw from the following categories:
• Rich vocabulary that enhances the setting and characterization
• Phrases (3-5 words) that catch your attention with their meaning, their elegance, their ability to reveal something deeper about a character or event
• Complete quotations that demonstrate character development
On the second day of school, you will be writing an in-class, timed essay on one of the novels, for which you will also need information from How to Read…so take good notes and read carefully…don’t be afraid to re-read!

Be sure you read and consider the poem from which the book takes its name...what does it mean that the center will not hold? Just what IS that rough beast?

Where does Okonkwo have left to go? Thoughts?

What observation on the human experience is Achebe making through the tragic conclusion of the novel? Do things have to fall apart? What makes the center come undone?

What kind of ending did you expect? How did it live up to your expectations? What kind of comment on the human condition do you think Lahiri is making?

Is Gogol growing on you yet? You can read the author Gogol's most famous story online - just search for "The Overcoat."

So what do you all think of the first third of this book?