PDP English I UPDATED Summer Reading Assignment Hammond High Magnet School

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1 PDP English I UPDATED Summer Reading Assignment Hammond High Magnet School How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Revised Edition-2014) by Thomas C. Foster a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable. While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes and the literary codes-of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor. What does it mean when a literary hero is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower-and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun. ~Excerpt of review from You will need access to a copy of this text to complete the assignment. Read and annotate all chapters of the text. Use the enclosed guidelines for annotation. Complete the questions for each chapter of the book and the additional paragraph responses. There are 78 questions that need to be answered in full sentence format (1-2 sentences each) and paragraph responses throughout (located within the questions for chapters 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 22, 23). These paragraphs need to be 4-5 sentences each and will require you to analyze other books you have read and films you have seen. The chapter 27 question response needs to be 1-2 pages in detail. Create a separate document that contains your numbered responses to the questions and paragraph response questions. You do not need to copy and paste the questions into this new document. Trust that your teacher has a copy of the questions. Only your responses should be in this document. You will need to save your work in Microsoft Word as either a.doc,.docx, or.rtf file. Upload your completed document to Schoology by Wednesday, August 10 at 10:00 pm. To join Schoology and the PDP English I 16/17 class on it, go to Please use your school address (even if this is your first time in the TPSS school system, your address will always be the first four letters of your first name, then up to the first eight letters of your last tangistudents.org. Example for Robert Smith: robesmith@tangistudents.org.) After entering all the required information, please use the following code to join the PDP English I 16/17 class: GZ9S3-83QGR On the first day of class, bring in your annotated copy of the text to be checked. (If you are using a library book, you will need to plan ahead to have the book for at least the first week of school.) During the first week of school, the teacher will guide you through submitting your digital dialectical journal to Please do not attempt to do this on your own. Please contact Mrs. Chance with ANY questions or concerns prior to the due date of this assignment and/or the first day of school: kathleen.chance@tangischools.org

2 Annotation Guidelines Annotations should be: spread evenly throughout the text written directly in the book words written in the margins and include underlines, circles, highlighted texts but these alone do not make up annotations color schemes/codes are helpful *If you are using a library book, you will need to do all of this on removable Post-It Notes. What should annotations NOT be? Answer: Just blocks of highlighted text with no written explanation What should you annotate? Again, the possibilities are limitless. Keep in mind the reasons we annotate. Your annotations must include comments. Remember that the purpose is to indicate evidence of thinking. Have a conversation with the text. Talk back to it. Ask questions (essential to active reading). Comment on the actions or development of an idea or character. Does the idea or character change? Why? How? The result? Comment on lines / quotations you think are especially significant, powerful, or meaningful. Express agreement or disagreement. Summarize key events. Make predictions. Connect ideas to each other or to other texts. Note if you experience an epiphany. Note anything you would like to discuss in class or do not understand. Note how the author uses language. effects of word choice (diction) or sentence structure or type (syntax) point of view / effect repetition of words, phrases, actions, events, patterns narrative pace / time / order of sequence of events irony contrasts / contradictions / juxtapositions / shifts allusions any other figure of speech or literary device reliability of narrator motifs or cluster ideas tone / mood imagery themes setting / historical period symbols

3 What should my annotated text look like? For some excellent visual examples, please view the YouTube videos below. How to Annotate a Text: Annotating Text: How to Annotate a Text: How to Annotate a Short Story: (You don t have to have the short story out for this just watch what the speaker does with the annotation technique.) Continue on to the next page for your study guide questions:

4 UPDATED Study guide: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster Ch. 1 Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It s Not) 1. What are the five characteristics of the quest? 2. Choose a book you have read or a movie you have seen that contains a quest and identify the characteristics and explain. Use Foster s explanation of the setup in The Crying of Lot 49 as your guide- meaning yours should be as detailed and clear as his. Ch. 2 Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion 3. Complete this sentence about communion breaking bread together is an act 4. Why does Foster assert that a meal scene in literature is almost always symbolic? 5. List the things, according to Foster, that eating in literature can represent. 6. Think of an example of a positive communion scene in a book you have read or a movie you have seen. Describe the scene and explain its symbolic meaning. 7. Think of an example of a negative communion scene in a book you have read or a movie you have seen. Describe the scene and explain its symbolic meaning. Ch. 3 Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires 8. What are the essentials of the vampire story? 9. What are some things besides vampirism that vampires and ghosts represent in literature? Ch. 4 Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? 10. What is the big secret Foster reveals in this chapter? 11. How does recognition of these allusions in literature change the reading experience for a reader? 12. What is intertextuality? 13. How does Foster say a literature professor can help a beginning reader? Ch. 5 When in Doubt, It s from Shakespeare 14. Why do so many writers use and quote Shakespeare? 15. features prominently in the use not only of Shakespeare but of any prior writer. Paragraph Response: Discuss a work with which you are familiar that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. (1 paragraph) Ch. 6 Or the Bible 16. What do Biblical allusions do for a piece of literature? Paragraph Response: Read Araby by James Joyce (you can Google it online). Discuss Biblical allusions in this story that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the two great jars. Be creative and imaginative in these connections. Ch. 7 Hanseldee and Greteldum 17. What is the literary canon? 18. What does Foster suggest as the reason so many writers choose to allude to fairy tales in their works? 19. For what purpose do writers often use readerly knowledge of source texts? 20. Think of a book you have read or a movie you have seen that draws parallels to a familiar fairy tale. Briefly describe the plot and how the fairy tale allusion plays out. To what effect? (Irony? To mess around with the story? To make what point?) Explain.

5 Ch. 8 It s Greek To Me 21. How does Foster define myth? 22. What are the four great struggles of the human being? Ch. 9 It s More Than Just Rain or Snow 23. Foster says weather is never just weather. What are some things rain can represent in literature? 24. What does a rainbow represent in literature? 25. What does fog represent in literature? 26. What does snow represent in literature? Paragraph Response: Discuss the importance of weather, not in terms of plot, in a specific literary work you have read. Ch. 10 "Never Stand Next to the Hero" 27. What is the most important thing a character can do? 28. What effect does Patroclus' demise have on Achilles and on The Iliad in general? 29. Explain Foster's statement, "it it's not in the text, it doesn't exist," in regard to characters (two ways). 30. Explain and elaborate on two reasons readers should care about fictional characters. 31. Delineate two of Foster's examples of heroes who learn lessons vicariously and through whom. 32. What are the differences between round and flat characters, according to Foster? Summarize Foster's points about why all characters are not round. Interlude Does He Mean That? 33. Summarize Foster s argument in this chapter. Ch. 11 More Than It s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence 34. What are the implications of violence in literature? 35. What are the two categories of violence in literature? Describe and define each. 36. What are the four reasons that authors kill off characters in literature? 37. What questions should readers ask themselves when they encounter an act of violence or a death in a piece of literature? 38. Choose an act of violence or a death from a piece of literature you have read and using the information in this chapter, identify its literary purpose. Be sure to include specific details to make your answer clear and complete. Ch. 12 Is That a Symbol? 39. What is the difference between symbolism and allegory? 40. What are the tools we must use to figure out what a symbol might mean? 41. Why is symbolic meaning different for each individual reader? What are some of the factors that influence what we understand in our reading? 42. Symbols in literature can be both objects and. 43. What are the questions readers should ask of the text when trying to determine symbolic meaning? Paragraph Response: Use the process described in this chapter to investigate a symbolic object in something you ve read or watched. Be creative, but don t go overboard. Ch. 13 It s All Political 44. Foster asserts that, Nearly all writing is. 45. Foster explains why most literature can be called political. Summarize his argument. Paragraph Response: Assume that Foster is right and that it s all political. Use his criteria to show that a major literary work you have read in the past is political.

6 Ch. 14 Yes, She s a Christ Figure, Too 46. Foster writes to get the most out of your reading of European and American literature, knowing is essential. Similarly, if you undertake to read literature from an Islamic or a Buddhist or a Hindu culture,. Why? Explain. 47. Foster asserts that a character need not have all of the distinguishing characteristics of Jesus Christ in order to be considered a Christ figure in literature. Why? Explain. 48. How is reading a piece of literature a conversation with the author? (even if the author has been dead for a thousand years) Paragraph Response: Using the list of 18 items in this chapter, analyze a film you have scene in which a prominent character displays at least three of these characteristics. How does this character demonstrate Foster s idea? Do you believe this type of imagery applies to this film? Why or why not? Ch. 15 Flights of Fancy 49. If you come across a character flying in a piece of literature, they are one or more of the following: (list) 50. What does it mean when literary characters fly? 51. Does a character always have to actually fly in order for there to be flying in a piece of literature? Explain. Paragraph Response: Select a literary work you have read in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail. Chapters 16 and 17 You are not responsible for reading these chapters this summer. I will summarize them for you: the key idea from these chapters is that scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions. In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and if the author is doing his or her job, it reflects and creates theme or character. Ch. 18 If She Comes Up, It s Baptism 52. What are some of the things that baptism (or immersion in water) can mean in literature? 53. What are some of the things that drowning can mean in literature? Paragraph Response: Think of a baptism scene in a literary work you have read or film you have seen. How was the character different after the experience? Discuss. Ch. 19 Geography Matters 54. What are some of the roles geography plays in literature and what are some of the effects of geography on literature? 55. What does it mean when an author sends a character south? 56. How can a writer s personal geography inform his/her work? Ch. 20 So Does Season 57. What are the symbolic meanings of the seasons? 58. Choose a piece of literature you have read in which season is important or symbolic. Give title and author and briefly describe and explain the symbolic season. Interlude One Story 59. Summarize Foster s point in this section of the book. 60. What are the two words Foster uses to define this concept? 61. Define intertextuality. 62. Define archetype. Ch. 21 Marked For Greatness 63. For what reason(s), do authors give characters deformities, scars or other physical markings in literature?

7 64. Choose a book you have read recently and identify a main character who has some physical marking. Describe and explain why you think the author chose to give him/her that physical trait- what does it mean? Ch. 22 He s Blind for a Reason, You Know 65. For what reason(s) do authors choose to make characters blind in literature? Paragraph Response: Find a story or film that prominently features a blind character. Based on your example, do you find Foster s statements true or false? Ch. 23 It s Never Just Heart Disease And Rarely Just Illness 66. What things can heart trouble signify in literature? 67. What are the principles governing the use of disease in works of literature? Paragraph Response: Recall a character in literature or film that died of any kind of disease. Name the literary work or film. Consider how this death reflects the principles governing the use of disease in literature. Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism. Ch. 24 Don t Read With Your Eyes 68. Explain what Foster means by don t read with your eyes. 69. About what does Foster warn readers? Ch. 25 "Its My Symbol and I'll Cry If I Want To" 70. What is a conceit? 71. Look up "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne. Using your own words, explain the conceit in this poem and how its symbolism expresses the poem's theme. 72. What is the recognizable conceit in Collum McCann's novel Let the Great World Spin? Ch. 26 Is He Serious? And Other Ironies 73. Explain what Foster means by irony trumps everything. 74. Foster defines irony like this: What irony chiefly involves, then, is Explain what he means by this. 75. There are three types of irony in literature: Verbal irony (character says opposite of what is expected) Situational irony/structural irony (situation or event plays out in an opposite or abnormal way- not like expected) Dramatic irony (audience/reader knows more than characters know) Identify one example of each type of irony that Foster has presented in this chapter or earlier in the book and write it here. Ch. 27 A Test Case 76. Complete the task that Foster sets out for you in this chapter. Be prepared to participate in a class discussion about it during the first week of school. This response will need to be detailed: 1-2 pages. Postlude: "Who's In Charge Here?" You are not responsible for reading this section. I will summarize for you: As a reader, trust your own instincts. Listen to others' ideas, but guide yourself. Writers and their works remain alive as long as we readers continue to make it that way. Envoi 77. How does Foster suggest that readers learn to identify trends? Why are trends important? 78. What is Foster s parting advice for his reader?

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