My friend Ben noted on an editors' list that he had just
joined DorothyL with respect to the following teaching unit.
I suggested he'd get better information from this list. If
you have suggestions, his email address is at the end.
Joy
> I'm an English teacher in the midst of a course
called Independent
> Reading. The students mostly get to choose their own
books, with my
> approval (mostly for reading level). For one of the
books, I've told
> the students that we are going to read a mystery
novel. Each student
> (and the teacher) will choose a book (with the
teacher's approval), and
> together we will explore what a mystery novel is and
what the devices
> and traditions are, engage in critical thinking and
test our powers of
> logic, deduction, and the narrative arts, and, I
hope, simply enjoy
> some crackin' good yarns.
The idea is
that all the books we are reading
> have some similar elements, so that we can come
together for periodic
> discussions. I'm not sure what form the assessment
will take, but I'm
> more concerned about the start right now. With
authors that could range
> from Poe and Wilkie Collins to Elmore Leonard and
Janet Evanovich, how
> do I come up with an umbrella that helps us to make
choices and to set
> parameters for our reading and discussion? Am I
better off restricting
> the genre to, say, period pieces or modern
nihilistic crime dramas?
> (I'd rather not; I think that the wider I make the
field, the greater
> willing engagement I'll get.)
I'd like to start the unit with
a
> presentation/discussion to determine what a mystery
novel is and what
> sorts of works we'll be choosing from. (One
correspondent suggested
> that I have a discussion asking them what they think
a mystery is.
> That's likely what I will do, or some variation on
it, but I need to
> know the answers going in...) Of course, I'm down to
the wire on
> this--I want to have this discussion/presentation
Monday or Tuesday of
> next week. If anyone can help, please send
suggestions or questions to
> Ben Boyington at secondsight@earthlink.net. All help
is greatly
> appreciated!
>
-- # Plain ASCII text only, please. Anything else won't show up. # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 18 Feb 2004 EST