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Collection Requirements: The Nitty-Gritty

Your collection must contain 20 items belonging to a variety of categories. To find these 20 great items, you must read and analyze 34, then choose the best of those to include in your final product– which will be a blog that contains recommended readings based on your core book.

As you collect and annotate, be sure you keep track of what you already have by filling out this checklist as you go. Remember, you can always ask your teacher if you are unsure about a particular category or requirement.

  • essays/articles/news (minimum 10)
  • speeches (minimum 5)
  • poems (minimum 5)
  • short stories (minimum 5)
  • non-fiction book (minimum 1)
  • fiction book (minimum 1)
  • other-free choice (minimum 7): this can be ANYTHING–cartoons, architecture, photos, sculptures, paintings, etc.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS THAT WORKS HAVE TO MEET

  • Female writers/artists (cannot be more than 70% of total)
  • male writers/artists (cannot be more than 70% of total)
  • time periods (minimum 5 distinct periods -MUST include ancient history)
    If you do not know what defines a time period-ask your teacher or go to this link
  • Cultural perspectives (minimum 5 different ones)
  • Dissenting views (minimum 3)
  • fiction genres (minimum 3): there are many ways to define genre, and as long as you can defend these five as DIFFERENT from each other, and as an actual “genre”, that will work. Here are some links for help with the concept of genre:
  1. Literary Genres
  2. List of Literary Genres

BINDER

Your binder should be divided into at least 5 sections. I recommend using the categories below– although you may create different categories if you prefer. What’s most important is that you have all your papers with you every day, and that you are able to find what you need, when you need it. So start with the following and then adjust, as needed:

  1. Article of the Week: Keep your readings  here. Remember that I have only given you the readings for first quarter.
  2. Poetry: Keep a copy of the poetry analysis worksheet here. Don’t write on it. Use separate notebook paper to answer the questions. Remember that for each poem you read and analyze, you will do either a worksheet, or a journal entry. I will collect these and grade them for completion. So, keep all poem-related work here– including the actual poems with annotations (remember that for each item you analyze, you must annotate it as well). If you read the poem in a book, and therefore can’t annotate in the text itself, just write your notes on paper (be sure you label it with the poem title and the date), and keep it with the worksheet or journal entry.
  3. Fiction: as above, keep a copy of the fiction analysis worksheet here. Don’t write on it. Use separate notebook paper to answer the questions. Remember that for each short story you read and analyze, you will do either a worksheet or a journal entry. I will occasionally collect these and grade them for completion Keep all fiction-related work here– including the actual story with annotations (remember that for each item you analyze, you must annotate it as well). If you read the story in a book, and therefore can’t annotate in the text itself, just write your notes on paper (be sure you label it with the story title and the date), and keep it with the worksheet or journal entry.
  4. Nonfiction: Same as above. Fill out a worksheet OR write a journal entry for each essay, speech, or other nonfiction item that you analyze. Put your annotated photocopy here too, or if you took notes on separate paper, label the notes clearly and keep them in this section of your notebook.
  5. Visual Analysis: You can create a section for this in your notebook as well, although it will not as important as the other sections above. Click here to see the guidelines for visual analysis.
  6. Notes: I will expect you to practice good note-taking in this class. From time to time I will collect and grade them. The notes will be mostly taken from websites that I ask you to visit; the purpose of these websites is to help you better understand a new concept related to your analysis work. Notes should be continuous (meaning, you don’t start a new page every time you take notes, you continue on the same page). They should be dated and titled so that I can see the difference between one day’s notes and the next. During the semester I will give you some tips about note-taking that worked for me in high school and still work for me today.
  7. Class activities: From time to time I will ask you to freewrite about a given topic, respond to something we have read or watched, or in some way participate in a class activity that involves writing. Please keep all this work in one section of your notebook. Like the notes, these entries will be continuous (don’t start a new page every time you write a new journal entry), and dated, so that I can see, and you will remember, what activities/journal entries you wrote, and on which days. Like your notes, these will be collected and graded from time to time.

As we progress through the semester, you may find your binder is getting too full. When that happens, consider getting a folder for storing graded work and keeping it here in the classroom. It will be helpful to you later when you are writing your paper(s) and completing your bibliography.

Packet due dates and details- some details to be added later as needed

MARKING PERIOD 1

Packet 1: 2 items- due Thursday Sept. 29

Packet 2: 2 items plus notes from the  Nonfiction Analysis Help page (including the links that take you to further information on diction, images, language, and syntax). – due Thursday Oct. 6

Packet 3: 4 items plus notes from the Fiction page of the blog. Please take note on the link called Fiction Analysis. – due Thursday Oct. 20

Packet 4: 2 items- due Thursday Oct. 27

MARKING PERIOD 2

Packet 5: 2 items plus notes on tone/audience/purpose of Mohammed Ali speech plus notes on tone/audience/purpose of a second speech that you choose. Click here for the details.

Packet 6: 2 items due Thursday Nov. 10

Packet 7: 2 items due Thursday Nov. 17

Packet 8: 3 items due Thursday Dec. 8

MARKING PERIOD 3 & 4

Packet 9: 3 items due (Date TBA)

Packet 10: 3 items due (Date TBA)

Packet 11: 3 items due (Date TBA)

Packet 12: 3 items due (Date TBA)

Packet 13: 3 items due (Date TBA)