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!