ABOUT NOTE TAKING…
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NOTES MUST BE COMPLETED IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING
NO ELECTRONIC FORMS OR TYPED NOTES WILL BE
ACCEPTED
3-4 PAGES TOTAL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Directions: Write notes on each topic, collecting and citing textual support from the novel. Below
are the topics you will take notes about.
1. Characters:
Write a brief-but-loaded description of each character. Make
every word count. Use complete sentences.
2. Dramatic or situational irony: Collect examples of moments when
the reader knows something the characters do not (dramatic irony), or when
unexpected events or surprises happen (situation irony).
3. Fable: A fable is a light-hearted tale meant to teach a moral or lesson. We can
also call that lesson a “theme.” What lesson(s) is the reader supposed to learn?
4.
Vocabulary: Collect a list of unfamiliar words
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Sample Character Notes, To Kill a Mockingbird
1. Jem is the eldest Finch child who serves as the family historian around whom the major
conflict in the novel (the attack from Bob Ewell) surrounds.
 “…left arm was somewhat shorter than his right…” (3)
 Southerners (3)
 “Jem was the product of their first year of marriage” (6)
 “He remembered her clearly, and sometimes in the middle of the game he would
sigh at length, then go off and play by himself behind the car-house. When he
was like that, I knew better than to bother him” (6)
2. Calpurnia is the Finch’s mothering, black nanny who is offered respect by both Atticus
and the children in a way that goes beyond what was expected of the culture
 “She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand
was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard” (6).
 “Tyrrannical presence” (6).
If you finish all parts of your required reading, I challenge you to read beyond the assigned
novel, selecting from this list of important novels. No notes are required for any additional
reading.
1. The Awakening
2. Brave New World
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
5. Jane Eyre
6. The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. The Moon and Sixpence
8. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
9. Siddhartha
10. The Stranger
11. Tess of the D’Ubervilles
12. Wuthering Heights
13. Invisible Man
14. Robinson Crusoe
15. Sula
16. Cry, the Beloved Country
17. Things Fall Apart
18. The Great Gatsby
19. Don Quixote
20. Pride & Prejudice
21. The Scarlett Letter
22. A Farewell To Arms
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God
24. Three Cups of Tea
25. A Separate Peace
26. The Piano
27. Joy Luck Club
28. Beloved
29. Woman Warrior
30. The Color Purple
31. Crime & Punishment
32. Invisible Man
33. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
34. The Woman Warrior
35. As I Lay Dying
36. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Kate Chopin
Aldous Huxley
Alexandre Dumas
Victor Hugo
Charlotte Bronte
Thomas Hardy
W. Somerset Maugham
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Herman Hesse
Albert Camus
Thomas Hardy
Emily Bronte
Ralph Ellison
Danel Defoe
Toni Morrison
Alan Paton
Chinua Achebe
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Miguel de Cervantes
Jane Austen
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ernest Hemingway
Zora Neale Hurston
Greg Mortenson
John Knowles
Kate Chopin
Amy Tan
Toni Morrison
Maxine Hong Kingston
Alice Walker
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ralph Ellison
Maya Angelou
Maxine Hong Kingston
William Faulkner
Mark Twain