Bring Your Books and The following to class

You will be completing your summer reading "assignments" during the first few classes. We will actually be using the essay for the first few weeks, so you will have time to do the work once you get to school. However, this is what you may want to start thinking about now.

• You will be in charge of running a small group discussion on one of the essays you read over the summer. Therefore, you should choose at least four of the essays on which you feel you could become an "expert." When you come to class, I will ask everyone to list at least four choices, and I will assign essays based on those choices. Everyone will be responsible for one essay.
• For each of the four essays you choose, you can start brainstorming ideas for questions you will pose to the class to help to help facilitate a discussion. Questions should be thought provoking, open ended (not requiring a simple yes or no or one-word answer) and should not necessarily have a right or wrong answer. 
• For example, the following question WILL NOT inspire much discussion: "Did Meredith Hall keep her baby or give it up for adoption?" However, this question might: "In 'Shunned,' Meredith Hall describes how she was systematically isolated and "erased" from her community after becoming pregnant as a teenager. Why was her "crime" considered so much more shocking than the all behaviors people tolerated in her town?  

So start thinking about the four stories you connected with or liked the most and start a list of discussion questions for each. See you soon!

Tips for Annotating

Please make sure to annotate your text.  This won't be new to returning students. Some tips on annotating:

• Use a Pen NOT a highlighter!!!

• Annotate sparingly, if everything is underlined then NOTHING stands out. Less than 25% of a page should be annotated (unless it's a doozy of a page.)

• Annotating is your way of conversing with the author, if you are confused or you are pleased, or angry, whatever-- underline the passage and make a note in the margins.

• If you see recurring phrases or themes, these are likely important to the story-- underline them

• If the title is mentioned in the book-- this is IMPORTANT-- underline where that happens.

• Underline when characters are being described in detail

• Circle unfamiliar words. Unless there is no way to understand the passage without knowing the word's exact meaning, just consider it in context and look it up AFTER your finish the chapter.

• Write brief summary notes at the end of chapters, to keep yourself on track.

Check out this site on the WHY'S and HOW'S of Annotating.
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/197454.html

Getting Started

The English 11 class will be reading In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, edited by Lee Gutkind.

If you want to order it on your own, the ISBN number is: 0-393-32665-9.

Once you buy the book, you should read the following essays:

• Introduction: Notes For Young Writers, by Annie Dillard.
• The Creative Nonfiction Police? by Lee Gutkind.
• Three Spheres, by Lauren Spheres.
• Looking at Emmett Till, by John Edgar Wideman.
• Shunned, by Meredith Hall.
• Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain, by Floyd Skloot.
• Notes From a Difficult Case, by Ruthann Robson
• Being Brians, by Brian Doyle.
• In the Woods, by Leslie Rubinkowski. 
• Mixed-Blood Stew, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.
• Four more essays from the book (any four not listed here) that you choose based on your own interest. 

Please annotate as you read and check this blog frequently because I will be posting assignments for you to complete and links for you check out throughout the summer. 

HAPPY READING! : )