Reading at Risk survey assignment

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. This detailed study showed that Americans in almost every demographic group were reading fiction, poetry and drama—and books in general—at significantly lower rates than 10 or 20 years earlier. The declines were steepest among young adults.

The scenario: You are Norwalk High’s English Department chair. You will prepare a report about the NEA’s survey to share with the department. You should focus about how reading trends in America are changing and how this will affect the lives of young people as they grow up and try to compete in a tightening global job market.

1) Summarize the results of the survey. (Write at least a half-page.)

2) Cite three facts from the survey that back up what you said in the summary. (This should be a bulleted list.)

3) Recommend actions that the English department should take to address the problems identified by the NEA survey. (Write at least one page.)

Reading Lord of the Flies

You have several options for reading Lord of the Flies. You can:

• use a book that you check out from school (of course)
• read the full text online here
• read my abridged script versions of chapters 2-12 online:
• chapter 2
• chapter 3
• chapter 4
• chapter 5
• chapter 6
• chapter 7
• chapter 8
• chapter 9
• chapter 10
• chapter 11
• chapter 12

Here is a study guide for the first three chapters of Lord of the Flies. And here are the study questions for chapters 4-6. You do not need to turn in answers to the questions for homework. But, you will take a reading quiz on each of these chapters on the day that you are supposed to have read it. The study guide will help you prepare for it.

Make Connections to the Text

It's easy to read things by people whose interests are similar to yours. But to be a truly good reader, you must challenge yourself to read outside your comfort zone. You have to read hard books to succeed in school, and that's a good thing, because reading challenging books makes you grow and become a more interesting person.

But, how to do it? How do you read a difficult text? The first step is finding personal connections to it. Even the most obscure and old-fashioned text has something in it that relates to your life today. The Great Gatsby is about money and class. The Crucible is about back-biting gossip. Macbeth is about someone who will do anything for power. These are themes that we see in our lives and in the newspaper every day.

When you find personal connections to a difficult text, you become more interested in it, and that gives you the motivation to keep slogging through the hard parts. The pain is worth it. These classics repay the work you put into them.

We're using Jim Burke's Making Connections organizer to practice connecting to a text. First up, we're trying it with Paul Feig's hilarious autobiographical essay, "We Stood in Line at Ellis Island for This?" Next week, we'll practice on the introduction to Anne Lamott's classic how-to-write handbook, Bird by Bird. We'll also talk a lot about making personal connections when we read Lord of the Flies.

Reading Skills Expected of College Students

We discussed the skills that are expected of students who are entering college, and we examined a list of expectations that was developed by a board of teachers and professors in California. Even if you go to school in another state, these are the skills that college professors will expect to see in you. More importantly, these are the skills that you need to be a good reader. They are worth developing. We will be talking about them all year:

• Read texts of complexity without instruction and guidance
• Summarize information
• Relate prior knowledge and experience to new information
• Make connections to related topics or information
• Synthesize information in discussion and written assignments
• Argue with the text
• Determine major and subordinate ideas in passages
• Anticipate where an argument or narrative is heading
• Suspend information while searching for answers to self-generated questions
• Identify the main idea
• Retain the information read
• Identify appeals to the reader
• Identify the evidence that supports, confutes or contradicts a thesis
• Read with awareness of self and others

Welcome!

This is the website for Mr. Smith's senior English course at Norwalk High School. I'll use it to post summaries of what we're covering in class, as well as details about homework assignments and other information you need. In the margin on the right side of the blog, you'll find links to more resources about the texts and themes we're studying.

Beowulf Day 3

Anglo-Saxon Boasts and Beefs

We began with a quick review of kennings and alliteration, discussing a few of the kennings from the beginning of the poem, including "hall-watcher" (line 142), "swan's road" (line 200), "word hoard" (line 258) and "corpse-maker" (line 276). I also handed out a study guide about Anglo-Saxon history, outlining what students will need to know on that subject for any Beowulf quizzes and tests.

We spent the bulk of the period talking about Anglo-Saxon boasts. We discussed how common boasting and insults are in a popular modern art form -- hip-hop. I asked students to describe some of the great hip-hop beefs. I pointed out that the macho posturing that goes on in rap was just as common in Anglo-Saxon poetry.

A student stood in front of the class and performed Beowulf's boast in lines 407-455. We discussed the passage briefly, talking about the alliteration in lines 420-422, the violence in lines 442-450, and students initial impressions of Beowulf.

Then students wrote in their journals for five minutes on this prompt:

What kind of man is Beowulf? How can you tell? Why has he come to fight Grendel, do you think? Compare Beowulf's motivation to that of Luke Skywalker and/or Sir Gawain.

After the students wrote, we discussed their answers.

Two students then performed the trash talk between Unferth and Beowulf (lines 499-606). We discussed it, including the kenning "sleep of the sword" (line 566). Then students received a homework assignment, to write a Beowulf-like boast about themselves.

HW: Write a one-page boast about yourself, Beowulf-style. The boast must be connected to something you've really done, but you can feel free to exaggerate your accomplishments. (Don't you think Beowulf does?) The boast must be at least one page long and written in non-rhyming verse (like Beowulf). It must contain at least two kennings and at least two lines with heavy alliteration. Due Friday, 2/11. (Extended to Monday, 2/14)

Beowulf Day 1

Introducing the Anglo-Saxons

We discussed basic history of the Anglo-Saxon people with two Powerpoint presentations: Who Were the Anglo-Saxons? and Old English and Beowulf.

We discussed Anglo-Saxon poetry as an oral tradition, which was performed by storytellers rather than read on paper. We watched two videos of actors performing passages from Beowulf:

- Benjamin Bagby performs the opening lines of Beowulf in Old English.

- Julian Glover performs Beowulf's fight with Grendel in translation.

Students independently read brief essays on the Anglo Saxons (pgs. 3-6) and the Sutton Hoo treasure (pgs. 42-43) in the purple England in Literature textbook. We also looked at the BBC documentary about Anglo-Saxons, found here. And the History Channel's documentary on the Anglo-Saxons, found here.

Study guide questions (students should be able to answer these for Beowulf quizzes and tests):

- When did the Anglo-Saxons dominate England?

- Who inhabited England before the Anglo-Saxons?

- When did the Anglo-Saxon era end, and why?
- Where did the Anglo-Saxons come from?
- What kind of people were they?
- Were the Anglo-Saxons Christian?
- Who was Alfred the Great?
- What is the Sutton Hoo treasure?

What is..
- a thane?
- mead?
- a scop?
- a bretwalda?
- the Danelaw?

HW: How Do We Know About the Anglo-Saxons? worksheet from the British Museum (due Wednesday, 2/9)