Goodreads and Summer Reading
This week, you only meet in class twice; the rest of the time, you will need to use the interstitial mechanisms of the course to stay on top of your work. That’s a good thing. One of the skills you need moving forward is the ability to regulate yourself without constant supervision. You have to beat back any learned helplessness before you graduate.
And, as always, this is about making connections between lessons and lectures while making you stronger readers. That’s why you have to get used to flipped instruction, and it’s why the first part of the latest assignment on Google Classroom tells you to read this post:
That post connects to the reading you should have done at the beginning of the year, the assignment you should have done last week, the work we’ve done on writing and discussion, and a dozen other elements of this space.
If you have done your work diligently, this is the logical next step. It will make sense. If you have not done your work recently, you’ll have to catch up, as you’d expect.
Note: A copy of the assignment from Google Classroom is below the rest of today’s announcements and updates.
You have a week to figure out this writing response, although Friday’s class period should be reserved for passion projects and college essays. That further makes this Goodreads assignment a test of your ability to use the resources available to you to do good work without relying on someone to spoon-feed you answers.
College Essays: Walking Deadlines
On the subject of college essays, working on them remains on the menu of choices through October 25. That will be the last day you can elect to workshop an essay, meet with a teacher, peer edit, etc., during the class period.
After October 25, you can still get help on the essay, but you’ll have to schedule time outside of class for it. Remember that this writing assignment has its own deadline, which is the actual application deadline for the schools you’ve chosen.
Upcoming Novel: The Things They Carried
Once we’re through this week, we’ll start The Things They Carried. There’s no formal assignment until the novel is distributed, but you might want to read more about it on Goodreads:
From Google Classroom: Goodreads Assignment
Due on October 21. GAP Q1B ends with a formal score on October 22.
Your assignment is to use the resources of the makerspace — time, feedback, peers, and a new resource in Goodreads — to write about one of the BHS summer reading books for 2019.
You can do this, if you read your chosen book, by using last week’s writing (Summer Reading in the Fall) and the instructional post attached below. It will be a straightforward response based on your experience of the text, our background reading, and the reading you do on Goodreads.
If you did not read a book from the list, choose one now. You can find the complete list in a post from the first week of school: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3316. Once you’ve chosen a book, you can head over to Goodreads and read about it.
What you write can be driven by our universal process, which you can find linked again below, but it may be more useful to discuss your ideas in person, online, over email, etc., as you decide what to create after you log into Goodreads, look up your particular book, and enter that conversation.
To give it a list’s structure:
1) Download the app or load the website for Goodreads.
2) Register a new account, or decide to revisit this step later.
3) Search for the book in question — in this case, your choice from the list.
4) Dive into the writing and other data on Goodreads about this book.
5) Discuss what you find, in writing and in person, with peers and your teacher.
6) Write a response — the one you are assigned, the one you choose to write, the one inspired by the writing process, etc.
7) Decide whether or not to post the finished response to Goodreads.
8) If you publish to the site, wait to see if you get feedback. Otherwise, get feedback in the usual way.Ask questions in the comment section below, in class, and through the usual methods.