Great first day, guys. I hate talking as much as I did, but I think we're set for the year. If you want a copy of the syllabus or the LitToC stuff, you can download it all here.
Also, here is the Scribd document of the novel. As I said before, use it only until you purchase the book. You will not be able to read the entire novel on a computer or iTouch screen.
As you read, mark the parts that are interesting to you. This will be the first thing I ask about tomorrow. (And don't forget vocab!)
You can pick up your copy at Barnes and Noble on 41st (by AMC). Begin reading as soon as possible. We will be discussing the novel on Monday.
As always, if you have trouble getting a copy, please let me know. We can work something out through the school or you can have one of my personal copies. No worries.
I just spoke with B&N at 41st. They tell me that Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You should be at the store by the 13th, which is a week from today. I'll let you know if they arrive sooner. This is really a good thing as I think we all have plenty more to say on our current topic, right?
Your homework for tonight is to come up with a short list of books you'd like to read for class.
Tomorrow we will decide whether we want to read different books in groups or one novel as a class. If we read together, we will have weekly reading quizzes as we did with About a Boy last semester. If we read in groups, we will work from the Discussion Leader, Connection, and Scrivener worksheets as we did at the end last semester. We'll discuss this in class tomorrow.
Today we discussed possible topics for our next essays. Here's what we came up with:
1st Hour Dracula—after exploring various symbols in Stoker's novel (vampires, the stake, blood, the transfusions, lightness and darkness, etc), we came up with several topics from the book, which are listed below:
Fear of the unknown
Fear of death
Good versus evil
Holy versus unholy
Purity versus corruption
We also explored the vampire metaphor (life/health/soul/purity/blood-sucking) in modern culture and society. For the essay, each student will be writing a short fictional piece implementing the vampire metaphor and one or more of the topics listed above. We will be workshopping these in class tomorrow, and they are due Monday the 14th. The papers should be at least two typed pages, double-spaced, 12 pt font, header, etc.
3rd Hour War of the Worlds—as with Dracula, we explored various symbols in the novel (aliens, the alien technology, the curate, the hero), then pulled several topics from the work:
Foreign versus domestic
Adversity
Humanity/inhumanity
War
Interaction between opposing cultures
Students will write a short analysis of "Book I" from Wells's novel, discussing one of the topics above and supplementing their argument with quotations from the text.
4th Hour War of the Worlds—Using an "invasion" metaphor, students will write a short fiction piece using one or more of the topics above from War of the Worlds. The perimeters of the paper are the same as those for the Dracula piece above.
We have decided to read H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds [online text] for our first novel this session. This will be an exciting unit, as we will be covering not only the novel, but the radio presentation of 1938 [download audio file from The Mercury Theatre on the Air] and its subsequent impact on American listeners. We will be discussing the novel on Monday, so you should either buy a copy this weekend or bring your laptop to class to access the online text. I will post a reading schedule in a day or so.
