B) READING PROJECT
Read a novel with a ‘first-person’ narrator.
Choose from the list below. Do you want to choose a different novel? Talk to me!
Make sure a classmate chooses the same text.
CHOICE OF TEXTS:
Mark Behr,
John Boyne,
Narinder Dhami,
Joe Dunthorne,
Ernest J. Gaines,
John Green,
Mark Haddon,
Laurie Halse Anderson,
S.E. Hinton,
Nick Hornby,
The Smell of Apples
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Bend it Like Beckham ( Klett ISBN 978-3-12-578010-1 )
Submarine
A Lesson Before Dying
( Cornelsen ISBN-13: 978-3060321858
Looking for Alaska ( Cornelsen ISBN 978-3-06-031125-5 )
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
(Cornelsen ISBN 978-3-06-031117-0 )
Speak ( Cornelsen ISBN 978-3-06-031127-9 )
The Outsiders ( z:B. Penguin ISBN: 978-0-14-038572-4 )
Slam ( Klett ISBN: 978-3-12-579822-9 )
High Fidelity
1) While- and After-Reading Activities
Read the book in four or more stages. Make sure you have finished by week 2.
Have a ‘Reading Log’ ready for notes ( exercise book / separate folder ).
For each section, focus on two activities:
1) Note down passages and info on the first-person narrator.
2) Decide what you want to do with the text ( see list below: ‘Things to do with a text’ ) – and
‘do’ it!
Procedure
A) Study the ‘Things to do with the text’ list. Pick an activity that appeals to you. Write it
down.
B) ‘Eagle’ stage: read the section in one go. Mark passages that might help you with the
activities: make notes into the margin ( N = narrator / A = activity ).
C) ‘Ferret’ stage: reread the section in more detail. Focus on the passages you have
marked.
a) Make notes on the first-person narrator into the following grid:
Passage
p.34, ll. 5 - 10
…
Character aspects
his / her dilemma ( outward appearance … )
b) Make notes to prepare for one activity.
c) Write ( draw … ) into your reading log. Make sure this is carefully done. Rely on
your notes and memory of the text rather than go back to the text itself.
d) After reading the whole novel, choose one of the activities listed under ‘Things to
do after reading’. Writing about this will be an in-lesson task in week
2.
e) In week 3, you will do a short oral presentation ( 5 to 10 minutes ) activity in class (
see ‘Presenting your novel’ ).
2) Things to do with a text
a) Dramatic monologue for a character in a scene:
Write down what is going on in their minds during this scene: what is s/he thinking /
feeling at that moment? Why?
b) Point of View: Write the story or a journal from the point of view of another character /
a character that is not involved in the story and show us what they see and think from
their perspective. How would it change the story?
c) Adjective-itis: pick five adjectives for the character(s), and explain how they apply.
d) Character Analysis: describe a character as a psychologist or recruiting officer might:
what are they like? Examples? Why are they like that? Focus on the I-narrator!
e) Draw!:
- translate sections into storyboards and cartoons; draw the most important scene in
the chapter and explain its importance and action in writing.
- Create a mini-comic book relating a chapter of the book.
f) Open Mind: (some people use a bathtub instead). Draw an empty head and inside of it
draw any symbols or words or images that are bouncing around in the mind of the
character of a story; follow it up with writing or discussion to explain and explore
responses.
g) Fictional Friends: who of all the characters would you want for a friend? Why? What
would you do or talk about together?
h) The Woody Allen: in Take the Money, Allen interviews the parents of a man who
became a bank robber. Write an imaginary interview with friends and family of a
character whom they try to help you understand.
i) The Kuglemass: Woody Allen wrote a story in which the character can throw any book
into a time machine and it takes you inside the book and the era. What would you do,
say, think if you "traveled" into the story you are reading?
j) Write a letter (10-sentence minimum) to the first-person narrator asking questions,
protesting a situation, and/or making a complaint and/or a suggestion. This must be
done in the correct letter format.
k) Reader Response: pick the most important image/object/event in the section and
explain why you chose it; be sure to support all analysis with examples. You may
also choose more than one.
l) Notes and Quotes: draw a line down the middle of the page; on one side write down
important quotes; on the other comment on and analyze the quotes.
m) Dear Classmate: using email or some other means of corresponding, write each other
about the book as you read it, having a written conversation about the book.
n) Speculation: based on everything you know now in the story, what do you think will
happen and why do you think that?
3) Things to do after reading
a) Second Chance: write about how it would change the story if a certain character had
made a different decision earlier in the story
b) Trailer: movie previews always offer a quick sequence of the best moments that make
us want to watch it; narrate the scenes for your trailer. Focus on verbs.
c) That Was Then, This Is Now: after reading the text, create a Before/After list to
compare the ways in which characters or towns have changed over the course of
the story. Discuss and explain about the list.
d) Retell the story in your own words
e) Write about what you learned from the story.
f) Endings. Write how you feel about the ending. Write a different ending to your story.
Give your ideas about it.
4) Presenting your novel
Just the Facts Ma'am: acting as a reporter, ask the students the basic questions to
facilitate a discussion: who, what, where, why, when, how? This is a partner activity.
Interrogation: a student must come up before the class and, pretending to be a character
or the author, answer questions from the class.
Prepare an oral report of about 5 minutes. Give a brief summary of the plot and describe
the personality of the ‚I’-narrator. Be prepared for questions from the class.
Give a sales talk, pretending the students in the class are clerks in a bookstore and you
want them to push this book.
Do a book talk. Talk to the class about your book by saying a little about the author,
explain who the characters are and explain enough about the beginning of the story so that
everyone will understand what they are about to read. Finally, read an exciting, interesting,
or amusing passage from your book. Stop reading at a moment that leaves the audience
hanging and add "If you want to know more you'll have to read the book."