HI!  Welcome to the LAST assignment of your LAST high school English course!  Let’s see if we can shake things up and do something creative.  Below are the basic facts of the assignment.  Start reading!

This box contains all the vital information that you need:

Ms. Bradley’s Independent Study Unit

The Calendar of Your Near Future

Oral / Media Samples

Creative Writing Samples and How to’s

Novel Justification form

The Creative Writing explanation form

The Media / Oral explanation form

Creative Writing rubric

Media / Oral rubric

Purpose and Expectations: This unit is designed to allow you the opportunity to pursue a topic of interest and learn how to refine ideas about that topic into a final Literary Response and an Oral/Media product. It is expected that you will select and read a major work of fiction/non-fiction or its equivalent as the basis of material for this assignment. Secondary source research and reading may also be required, depending on the nature of your topic. This unit will make up 20% of your mark for the course.

A  Texts: You are expected to select a major work of fiction/non-fiction or its equivalent as the basis of material for this assignment. Consider the following possibilities:

 

  1. Fiction: a novel written by a significant/classic/award-winning author. The novel would ideally be complex in plot, rich in language use and develop interesting, compelling characters.
  2. Non-fiction: a book written about or by a person of significant historical, cultural, artistic or political importance. It could take the form of autobiography, biography, history, memoir, travel writing.
  3. A collection of short stories, plays, poetry, or essays about a significant topic or event or idea.

Challenge yourself to find something which, for you, is a difficult read, something with a great deal of “meat” to it.

Here’s what you should not choose:

  • anything aimed at a teenaged audience
  • anything that has been published more than 10 years ago (I am talking about the original publishing date eg. Frankenstein)
  • anything that you have read for another course EVER or is on the curriculum for an English course at this school
  • the length should be at least 300 pages.  If your desired choice is less than the required length, you will be expected to read another work for comparison

I will post links to articles about literature here:

George Saunders Wins the Man Booker Prize for ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ (New York Times)

Best books of 2017 (New York Times)

The Star’s Top 10 books for 2017 (Toronto Star)