Ind Rdg Nabokov Essay

AP Language
Independent Reading

We have talked extensively this quarter about Vladimir Nabokov's essay.  We will continue to do so as we use him as a standard with which to gauge our own critical reading skills.  Now, I would like you to assess yourself as a reader and assess the author of your fiction choice as a writer. This should be done only in the context of the Nabokov piece, "Good Readers and Good Writers." 

Objectives:

• demonstrate your understanding of the Nabokov essay
• analyze yourself as a critical reader, identifying your strengths and weaknesses when reading fiction on your own
• continue your work with argumentation and analysis
• demonstrate your ability as a writer: structure, organization, support, and standard English

The Assignment: This paper should have two distinct parts.
In Part One, assess yourself as a reader of your independent reading book using Nabokov's standards of major and minor readers. You must accomplish this in 500-600 words. Remember that you and the novel are the focus here: Do not simply summarize Nabokov's points.  Show how you stack up to his criteria and make sure you evidence to support your claims about yourself!
In Part Two, explain how the author of your book fits all three criteria for Nabokov's major writer.  You should also have evidence for this--quotes from the book that SHOW the author fulfilling Nabokov's roles for great writers. This section should also be 500-600 words.

Things to Consider:  
Part One

• Remember that your audience is me. I have read the Nabokov essay and do not need it explained.  Keep the focus on you and how you read the novel.
• Consider what textual evidence will best support your points. Make sure you choose the best evidence to prove your point.
• Be careful that you aren't relying on one part of the text for all of your paper's support. If your paper refers only to pages 1-100--even if you do a great job with those pages-- I will have to question whether or not you are even familiar with the rest of the book.
• Be specific. Avoid the obvious. Use this question to guide you here: Does this paper explain how I read this novel in relation to Nabokov or could this have been written by a generic student?  Because this section is about how YOU read the book, it should be written in first person.

Part Two

• When you talk about the author as a storyteller, be careful that you don't simply summarize the novel. You need to show HOW the author is good at storytelling--not tell the story he writes.
• Be careful with the enchanter section.  Remember, enchanter doesn't mean magical in a abracadabra kind of way.  It is the artistic brilliance of the author--the way all of the details come together in the end.  Again, don't use plot summary here.  You must prove that the writer is, indeed, an enchanter.
• Because the focus of this section is on the AUTHOR, it should be written in third person--no "I" or "you."

Overall

• Work for good transitions.
• Pay attention to your word choice.
• Audience and purpose should always influence your tone and level of language.
• No one except you should ever see a first (and probably a second) draft of any major writing assignment.  This paper will NOT go through process.  Make sure the paper you turn in is your best work.

Still Sick...

So here's what you guys all need to know.  (I know some of you have heard parts of this already and some of you have heard it all, but I just need to make sure everyone knows everything.)

D2s
Honestly, there's no way I'm going to get them done by Friday now.  I can't even be vertical for more than a few minutes.  I think I'm going to have to get them done over the weekend or early next week which means you won't turn in your final drafts until the very end of the quarter.  Therefore, I will not have time to grade them for 1st quarter and I'm going to shift them to your 2nd quarter grade.  I think this will work out quite nicely for you guys because you already have lots of writing points in 1st quarter (several that have not yet been graded) and you don't have much for 2nd quarter.  This will hopefully balance things out a bit.  I'm sorry about this, but there's not a lot I can do about it at this point. =(

RJ Conferences
A reading journal conference is where you sit down with me for 5-10 minutes (this will happen one day next week while you're reading The Jungle) and talk to me about where you are as a critical reader.  This is the beginning of the year so we're really just beginning this process.  Therefore, I'm not looking for you all to say you're star readers who always follow all of Nabokov's rules. (I won't believe you if you do.)  I am looking for an honest assessment of the rules you follow or at least know you should and the ones you're really not using at all.  These are claims about yourself and you'll need evidence to support them.  Your evidence is your RJ.  Show aspects of it as proof of what you're doing well.  Are you pretty good at noticing details or rhetorical devices? Show examples from your RJ.  Are you rereading?  What were you able to accomplish in your RJ because of that?  If you're not doing something, where is the weakness in your RJ that could have been improved?

After you assess yourself and offer evidence, then I would like one or two specific goals you can set to work on your critical reading during 2nd quarter.  You can't fix everything, so start with what will make the biggest impact (time management, better organization or note-taking, learning more rhetorical devices, better effort to reread, etc.).

How will I grade this?  If you sit down with me, have your RJ, cover what you need to thoroughly but concisely--showing evidence from your completed RJ--you get an A.  If you don't have much in the way of specific evidence, you'll get an A-.   If I have to prompt you to make sure you cover it all or have very little evidence, you'll get some type of B depending on how much prompting you require or how sparse the evidence is.  If you require prompting but can't even answer what I'm asking for OR you clearly don't have a completed RJ OR you just have absolutely no evidence for your claims, you'll end up in the C range.

The Jungle
Ms. Stark will be here today to give a brief explanation of how to use the Nooks.  Use the rest of class to read and work on your RJ.