Greetings, Honors English student:
I hope your summer is off to a fine start. I know that many of you have concerns about the summer reading and the note taking you’re to be doing with the three novels. This letter is intended to help out.
First, the three books you are to read for summer are
The Hobbit
Joy Luck Club
O Henry stories
In the books, you have two jobs to do.
First, highlight or underline any or all of the following:
*Important plot points
*Important character description or dialogue
*Something you think the author said particularly well
Second, make notes in the margin:
*Questions or predictions you come up with
*Insights or explanations about the highlighted portions
*Personal reactions to the story
*Evaluation of what the author is doing, how s/he is doing it, and how successful s/he is
*Analysis of the story, plot, character or theme
You’ve done a good job if someone who didn’t have time to read the whole book could find out everything important by reading your notes.
To help with communication and questions about the class, I’m trying something new this year. I have set up a blog at www.pgreene.blogspot.com. You can ask questions by posting comments there, and I’ll try to answer them quickly.
Hope your summer is going well. I’ll see you in September!
Mr. Greene
posted by Peter A. Greene at 9:40 AM
24 Comments:
Erghhh...Mr. Greene! I have a concern. I started reading The Hobbit, blah, blah, blah. I'm pretty far into it and all of that happy stuff. Anyways, my method was to just highlight parts important to the chapter and parts that may be seemingly important to the book. I then summarized these highlighted parts at the bottom of the page. Then, after I read a chapter, I wrote a summary of the chapter at the beginning of the chapter. If any of that makes sense, which it most likely doesn't. Anyways...yeah, can I just continue doing that, but still add my views, etc? Please...=/
savannah, that's a good start. Just add something more in the way of analysis-- your notes should touch on more than simple plot summary.
PAG
So...I can continue my method, but just add more about what I think and more of how I think the plot will turn?
More about what you tyhink is good. More about what you think the author is trying to accomplish and how well s/he is doing would be good. Plot predictions are okay, but it sounds like you're covering plot plenty and could use some emphasis on other literary elements.
Oh, okay. I think I understand now...hopefully. Does this count as a grade?
Does it matter what order we read the books in?
nope-- read them in any order you like...
do we have to do split journaling over the summer ??
If by split-journaling you mean the note-taking and highlighting described above, then yes, you do. The three books listed in the post and in your letter are due on the first day of school.
My cousin was in honors last year and she had to do a different split journaling than what the letter was talking about. Can we write stuff in a notebook only used for honors or do we have to write in the margins??
I want you to use the note-taking described in the letter.
If we are having trouble writing in the margins of some of the books, can we get larger copies??
Dorothy
if you're running out of spce in the margins either A)you have humongous handwriting or B)you are writing more than you need to.
So...it's me...again. Yeah, I know I have more questions than a 3 year old. Anyways, do you want us to find themes? Like... "I believe one theme for 'The Furnished Room' is 'Homeless People are Insane'. I believe this is a possible theme because the one homeless person in the room went psycho, blah, blah, blah" Yeah. That's just an example. Is that good? Cause I'm doing stuff like that, a summary and then my view! But of course my possible themes are better than a homeless person needing Ritalin.
that sort of thing would be fine, savannah, particularly if that's useful for you.
Hi Mr. Greene! uhh I have a couple of questions for you . I was talking to my sister today and I was asking her about this whole split-journaling thing. I am sooo confused!! I have been writing in the margins about what I think is going on in the book and how the characters are reacting to each other.. but then I write a whole summary of the chapter in a notebook ... she said that she didn't think I needed to do both.. I am reading the Gift of the Magi and it is taking me FOREVER! I am soo stressed about what I am supposed to do that I can't finish the dumb book! coudl you please help me!! I would be most certainly greatful and much less stressed! If you could just tell me what I am supposed to do in the margins.
THANKS-Caitlin
caitlin, first of all, your sister is correct (it will be much simpler if you just remember that your sister is always correct)-- you do not need to do any separate note-taking. Just make your notes in the margins.
Second, I can't really think of another way to say what I've said in the letter and first post here. I don't really want to be any more specific than that because I want to see what you guys do left to your own devices. Just use the guidelines in this post, plus anything else that you think you'll find helpful.
ok thanks!
I dont know if im doing this whole taking notes thing right. I feel like I'm highlighting too much, even though I do only highlight sentences that tell a lot about the plot, characteristic sentences, or "well-said" sentences. Also, I am done with Joy Luck Club and wrote about 3 things in the whole book. I did highlight, but I just didn't have anything to write about it. Is this bad?
Well, I would certainly like to see a little more reflection and reaction than three commenst would suggest. As for the highlighting, try limiting yourself to things that are only super-important. If you could only highlight three sentences (or parts of sentences) on any single page, which ones would you pick?
I am having a lot of trouble finding what to highlight in The Joy Luck Club. In the other two books I found it pretty easy, but for this book I find myself either highlighting EVERYTHING or nothing at all. I'm not exactly sure of what to highlight.
I'm going to leave you to try to puzzle that out on your own, since you've already done two books successfully. Just use your best judgment for this one.
In the Joy Luck Club I'm highlighting parts important to each chapter, writing a summary of the chapter, writing a summary of the characters on the page that lists the characters and then on the first blank page what I think the overall theme of the book was and how the author could've improved it and why. Err...is this bad?
Why hello there Mr. Greene. I have a question. Do you have any extra Sherlock Holmes books, or do you know a place where I could buy one? My mom and I seriously searched our whole house, and we still cannot find it!!
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