Topics
in Literature
Ms. Fichera
Spring 2016
Online
Overview:
Welcome
to what I hope will be a great new opportunity to explore literature in a way
that you’ve never quite before. I am so
excited to get started! As you know,
this class is not going to function in the same way that your previous three and
a half years of high school English have.
Instead, there will be two major differences. First of all, in terms of content, each of
you will be designing your own curriculum for the semester. Secondly, the format will be online and not a
physical classroom space. The idea is
this: each quarter you will choose a
particular area of literary interest to study.
You will come up with a plan: essential
questions, books, and a schedule. Once
this plan has been submitted and approved, you will pursue this area of
interest until the end of the quarter, reading daily and posting to a blog
bi-weekly, then you will do the same for the second quarter of the
semester. Rather than meet daily in my
classroom, we will communicate via School Loop and the class blog.
Requirements:
1. Read
and write about your area of study five days a week. This should total approximately 80-100 pages
of reading and three pages of writing per week.
2. Keep
a composition book for each quarter. In
it, log the pages of your reading, take notes (this should be done in your own way, perhaps with thinking routines or
quotations but should not only be facts, though I imagine that there will be
some), and record and define at least ten new vocabulary words each week.
3. Keep
a blog for class and post to it three times a week. You will have three different types of posts
due.
a. Friday
blog – This is the simplest entry, the most factual. Please tell me the name of the book and
author you have been reading this week since the previous Friday; our reading
schedule will run from Friday to Friday (example Heading Home with Your
Newborn – Laura Jana and Jennifer Shu), what pages you read (example: 1-113),
and list and define ten new vocabulary words from your reading and what pages
you found them on (example: colic – persistent crying in an otherwise healthy
baby – p. 113).
b. Tuesday
blog – Relatively informal entry. 500
word minimum. This entry needs to be based around a quotation that you read
over the course of the week that inspired you to think and reflect, ideally on something
personal. There should be three parts to
your entry. The first should provide
some context of where you are in your book, the second have the quotation and
an analysis of the quotation, and the third should be a personal connection or
reflection to your life, your school, society in general, etc. To get some ideas about this, I will give you
the link to the Topics class from next year, and you can click on a student’s
name and read an entry written on a Tuesday.
Be sure to read around to get the best ideas. http://topicsinliterature2014-2015.blogspot.com/
c. Thursday
blog – More formal, though you can still use “I.” 500 word minimum. This entry should be more intellectual,
analyzing a particular element of your reading for the week. You might choose a
symbol, motif, theme, something about the style of writing, etc., but this one
will be more typical of what you would write about in an English class. Again, use the link to my class blog from
last year and then click on a student’s name and look for an analytical blog to
use an a model.
Your
blogs are due by the end of the school day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays,
so 2:15 pm. However, I would not
necessarily recommend that you work on these entries during school on the day
that they are due as they make up 100% of your grade for the semester.
I’m
hoping that your blog is something that you will be really proud of, so make it
interesting! Add pictures, links, music,
etc. (and make sure to cite them! Ask me or see Ms. Costello if you need help
with this). It should not just be type
with no “extras.” In that case, you
would be doing the work in a notebook. So instead, make it informative, but most
importantly make it your own. J
4. Be
passionate and independent.
Final Thoughts:
If
this seems like a lot, remember two things:
the topic is one that you have chosen yourself, so reading and writing
about it should not feel like work, and you should also be using your “class”
time (fifty minutes per day) in addition doing “homework” (about thirty minutes
per day). That’s a lot of minutes
learning about something that you care about, and I’m sure the time will fly
by. You might have noticed that my
examples above were about having a new baby, which I do, so that’s a topic that
I am currently motivated to read about.
I want you to choose two topics that you will be similarly excited about
and which will make you feel like English is not work so much as something that
is enriching your life.
I had been dreaming about teaching a
class like this for ages, and we tried it last year, and it went great. Sure, there were some bumps in the road, like
in any new experience, but I know that my students read and learned a lot more
(and about topics that really interested them) than they ever had before. I hope that you will, too, and that you are
genuinely excited to get started. Please
e-mail me or send me questions through the class blog at any time. I will do my best to respond right away, but
you can also use Mr. Ruland and Ms. Costello as resources as they will also be
heavily involved in this new online course and are also in the building for the
semester. I’m ready to get started and look
forward to reading about your projects every day. J
"One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested."
—
E. M. Forster
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