Sister Hawker, the teacher, emailed us maybe one week after the end of the Summer semester to give us our first assignment. Yep, she gave us a 6 week notice. And it's probably a good thing she did.
Does that mean that I did anything about it until I got back from Arizona one week ago? Definitely not.
Our biggest assignment is called Book Fest. Sister Hawker sent us the syllabus and 3 booklists. From what I gather from the syllabus for this assignment (yes, this ONE assignment has it's own syllabus...), here is what we are supposed to do:
- Pick one book, (or two plays; or one author's collected works + something else) from EACH list. (More on the lists in a minute...)
- Make a powerpoint presentation arguing whether or not to keep the book in the traditional English "canon"
- Create and deliver a 15-20 minute presentation (which will we have to give in front of the English department and our classmates - the classmates will grade us) to expand our powerpoint and the other things we have to do...
- Make a reading guide. The reading guide has 4 parts: a) A 500 word summary of the book, b) A 500 word personal review of the book, c) A 100 word biographical summary of the author, and d) 20 developed discussion questions that incorporate literary criticisms.
- A visual adaptation. We can make any of the following: book cover design, movie poster design, family photo/family tree, video game, film or stage set, movie/play book.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm thoroughly excited for this whole experience!
So I opened up the lists when I got back from Arizona. (This is the part where you all get to see the OCD, borderline completely mental side, of me) I went through each list and highlighted any book I hadn't read before in yellow (we're not allowed to re-read anything). After that, I put an orange star next to a book that sounded interesting purely based on the title and/or author. From there, I tried to narrow down my choices so when I get to the bookstore I can make my final decision there - and this is where it got interesting.
Recommended Booklist has 83 total books on it. I have highlighted in yellow 11 books. Yep, 11 books out of 83 that I haven't read. From those 11 I narrowed it down to 4 orange stars.
Non-Fiction Booklist has 79 total books on it. I have highlighted in yellow 7 books and out of those 7 books, I have 3 orange stars.
The Canon Booklist has 103 total books on it (these are the books that English teachers on campus have decided that every English student MUST read at some point in their lives). I have highlighted in yellow a whoping 10 books!! Out of those 10, only 4 have orange stars by them.
The fiction books I have orange stars next to are all by either Hemingway, Eliot, or C.S. Lewis.
Next step: go to the bookstore. YAY!!!
Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:
- Catching Fire comes out next week!
- Enchiladas on Sunday.
- LBS
- Barnes and Noble emails me weekly with coupons and such, and they've recently started emailing me book suggestions based on past-purchases. I am in SO much trouble.
- Bryce's not-so-silent auction on Thursday in Beverly Hills at the Aqualounge. It has a 1920's theme. And I'm supposed to dress up. Uh oh.
- Waking up to a text and thinking Bryce was asking me to runaway with him. He wasn't. I didn't finish the text before I closed my phone and went back to sleep. HAHAHA!
5 comments:
I share in your English nerdiness - sounds like a way fun project! We have an Engl 495 class too; I did mine over the summer, it was a folklore class and we had to write a 20-page paper on a book of our choosing. Yours sounds more intense though. All those authors you picked sound excellent - if you choose C. S. Lewis, which book are you doing? He's one of my favorites :)
If I choose C.S. Lewis, I would read "Till We Have Faces."
you would be excited to do that!!! lol. i love you for it.
have fun with it. i know you will! :)
I hated that class with a passion because of her stupid grading system.
thats good you're excited to do that! the only fun part of that whole project to me was having to do a visual adaptation!! you can read and write, i'll design. haha.
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