Independent Reading Assignment:
Students will be required to read a novel of their choice. Students should choose a book that they find not only interesting, but challenging.
*All choices must also be approved by Ms. Molloy / Mrs. Considine.

Students should begin reading immediately. Along with this assignment, students will be required to write a two page literary analysis of this novel, in which students will take a critical stance.

Due: Friday, May29

The Things They Carried / Reading schedule:

Tuesday: 5/19 The Things They Carried, Love (Due 5/21)

*BREAK: On Rainy the River (Due 5/26)

Tuesday/May 26: How to Tell a War Story (Due 5/28)
Thursday/May 28: Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong (Due 6/1)

Monday/June 1: Style, Notes (Due 6/3)
Wednesday/June 3: In the Field (Due 6/5)
Friday/June 5: The Lives of the Dead (Due 6/8)

ASSIGNMENT:
You must formulate a thorough Quote Sheet for each group* of reading. At least 7-10 quotes/excerpts will be expected, followed by a substantiation explaining the significance of each.

*Refers to each week of reading.
NOTE: “Break” counts as a separate quote sheet, you should four in total.

MEMOIR #6

For memoir number six we will be hold a story telling "competiton" like the MOTH story telling competiton we discussed in class: http://www.themoth.org/

Choose a topic from below and write a true story about your life that catches the listeners hearts, mind and spirit. After your story is told, judges in groups of 4's will give you a score between 1-10. The winner of the competiton will recieve a prize beyond the prize and newfound ability to showboat.


Possible topics
-Greatest story of your life
-Funniest thing that ever happened to you
-Most embarassing moment of your life

- Worst experience of your life

- Scariest experience of your life

- Best vacation ever

- Best weekend ever
-(other options, see John or Mrs.Molloy)

MEMOIR TOPIC #5


Déjà vu
Write a short sketch narrated in third person, of a scene in which a character has an experience that causes him/her to recall a startlingly similar past experience. Juxtapose the present scene and the past scene on top of one another, writing for instance, two or three sentences of the present moment, then alternating back and forth between present and past that way. You could show the reader the remembered scene by the use of italics. 250 words

Due: Friday, 5/15

MEMOIR TOPIC #4

ONE MOMENT
Write a third person fragment of a story about one important moment in someone’s life. Examine this moment from every possible angle. Think about smell, light, texture, distant and near sounds and the details that will stick in the memory of the participant. Don’t worry about telling a whole story (although you may learn that you can’t not tell a story here, when you explain the importance of the moment and tie up some of the threads attached to this moment).

The key to this exercise is to convey in ordinary details in every word about these details, the story at its microscopic level. Story is not just plot, talk, and event. Story is just as much the things you choose the reader to see, feel, smell, and hear. What do I mean by important moment? I want you to be imaginative. Choose an odd important moment, something that requires the reader to work a bit to understand the importance.
300 words. Due: 5/13

MEMOIR TOPIC #3


Choose one from the following 6 options, found on the Common Application.



Due: Monday, May 11


#1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

#2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

#3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.


#4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.


#5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

#6. Topic of your choice.

MEMOIR TOPIC #2

FUNHOUSE MIRROR

Write a deliberately distorted self-portrait – with aspects of yourself magnified or diminished. It is important, in this exercise to use your own name. The effect of seeing your name next to tall tales, things you can’t imagine yourself having done, is startling and useful. You are essentially creating a work of fiction out of the only real source of truthfulness you can be sure of – yourself. – 500 words.

DUE: 5/8