Class,
Last semester, we focused quite a bit on rhetoric and grammar; this spring semester will focus on literary analysis. Now, rhetoric is a part of everything we read, including novels. The author has something to tell us, and they use a particular way to appeal to us. So keep this in mind as we progress this next semester. We will learn how literature uses its own kind of appeals by playing with language. Each week, we will cover a new literary term, but don't let the term be a one-time introduction. You will need to learn them inside and out. You will need to learn to recognize them and use them. This is the foundation for further literary studies. That said, it is one of my favorite subjects in English, so I think you are going to like it. :)
Class starts back up on January 15th. I have some classes on professional development I'll be doing the week of the 7th, so our class will start a bit later. Your first book is Night by Elie Weisel. It is one of my favorites. It is also heartbreaking. We watched his speech at the White House called "The Perils of Indifference," but this is the story of his own experience in a Concentration Camp during the Holocaust. Keep Kleenex nearby. His story is harrowing and brutal, and I only wish it were fiction. But he has something to teach us. As you begin reading his story, start taking notes. We will learn to annotate this semester, but I'd like you to start in your own organic way. I'll share some of my tips with you when we return. For now, just focus on the things that stand out to you the most. What parts do you think are the most important? What is most confusing? What is most controversial? Do you think we should read books like these? Why or why not?
I will ask you pick up a composition notebook, just a cheap one found in most stores. You will keep a reading log of your responses. I will not grade these for grammar or spelling, but for content. How are you engaging with a text? I'll post some questions up each week to help you think deeper. And I'll give you some readings attached here on the website that will be a bit more complex, but we will make more sense out of them when we discuss them in class. Try your best. Get out of it as much as you can. Write down what you understand and how you feel about it. Soon, we will put these ideas into a conversation with the books we are reading. (This is called theory, but don't let terms like that fool you into thinking it's too hard. We do the same thing when we discuss things like whether DC or Marvel better represents a hero and why.)
We will also continue working on grammar, but we will take a different approach this next semester. Make sure you keep all of the grammar rules I gave you last semester because this time we will use it in editing. Each week, I will give you a few sentences full of grammatical errors. Your job is to rewrite them correcting every grammatical and spelling error. Practice makes perfect. If you can learn to edit their work, you will only reinforce those skills for your own work. :)
I hope you are all enjoying your break! If you'd like some extra work to do over break, check out a Holocaust book or documentary. It will help you establish the historical setting of our next book.
See you in January!
