Short Video (30 minutes) Over Essay and Other Matters

I created a couple videos to help folks determine the subject matter and organization for their essays, a book analysis report.


If you have questions about your topic, do as many others have and ask me questions.  

Also share your ideas on the discussion threads.

We conclude the semester with an excellent story, one that offers new twists on familiar topics of dystopian fiction you have experienced this summer. 

I wanted to introduce you to a popular area of Young Adult and Adult Literature: the Zombie.

Remember that you have an essay due by this Friday, July 27, at midnight.  In addition, you should take the quiz right away:  one question, and the response is True.

You also have a final examination to take between Tuesday morning and Saturday at midnight, July 28.

You will also complete your discussion thread by Saturday at midnight, July 28.

Remember for Part One of the Exam:  you must write for each of the five prompts to which you respond at least six to eight sentences. 

And you need, unless the choice does not offer you the option, to write on three of the four novels. 

Do not respond more than twice to prompts from the same novel. 

Introduction to Week Eight and The Other Side of the Island:

 Video over The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Unwind for Week Seven

This week we move in a very different direction, which lands us in the USA after a devastating second Civil War, the Heartland War.

Unwind takes place in the not terribly distant future, in a society where the iPod ends up in an antique shop.

And this book also has a sequel, Unholy, which I will read this week.

As the discussion thread suggests and this week's announcement mentions, this novel should generate some interesting discussion about this society

where abortion is banned, but where parents can "unwind" a child between the ages of 13-18.

I think that you will love some of the vocabulary, especially the use of euphemism in a way that would make George Orwell smile or scream.

I posted some examples from the midterm examination for your consideration and to help you improve your work on the final examination. 

The final examination will cover four novels: Little Brother, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Unwind, and The Forest of Hands and Feet

Prompts for Part One: Remember that you must write for each of the five prompts to which you respond at least six to eight sentences. And you need, unless the choice does not offer you the option, to write on three of the four novels.

Do not respond more than twice to prompts from the same novel.

Little Brother: Severe Haircut Woman; Ms. Galvez; M1k3y; Darryl; Trudy Doo

The Knife of Never Letting Go: Ben; Aaron; Manchee; the Spackle; Hilde in Farbranch or Dr. Snow at Carbonel Downs.

Unwind: The Graveyard; Storking; CyFi; Pastor Dan; Humphrey Dunfee.

 
The Forest of Hands and Feet: Sister Tabitha, Mary's Mother, The Ocean, The Turning, Gabrielle

Essay Question: You can begin working on your essay question now:

For the final examination essay--as the syllabus notes, you have an additional essay to write other than the ones you complete on the examinations--you will write on one of the four novels we have completed since the midterm examination.

Each of the novels presents us with a couple: Titus and Violet; Todd and Viola; Conner and Risa, and Travis and Mary. Focus your critical investigation on one of these four couples. Write an essay about the couple, with primary attention given to how this couple affects the other in terms of what you see as the central concerns of the novel. Feel free to mention other characters to make your point; however, each paragraph of your essay must deal in the main with the two characters from the novel about which you choose to write.

And remember that in the introduction you want to reach specific conclusions about the couple's significance for understanding, if you like, central concerns in the novel: the growing awareness and change suggests something about the narrative's central conflict.

Your completed essay is due by midnight Friday, 28 July.

You must complete both parts of the examination between Tuesday of Week Eight and Saturday, 29 July.

You must complete the discussion thread by midnight Saturday, July 29.

Introduction to Unwind:

Quiz Review for Unwind:

Week Six, The Knife of Never Letting Go

This week, we turn to the world of Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first of a trilogy that includes the preceding titles.  As the video suggests, both of these titles appear in the novel you will read this week.

As you read through the book, you might find some of these quotations useful for this week's discussion thread, for they touch on many of the central themes.

And check out the links at the bottom of

the Wikipedia Page; while this vehicle has its faults as pretty much every teacher tells you, the links pretty much always take you to good sources.


This novel also won the James Tiptree, Jr, award for "gender bending" Speculative Fiction; I had the honor years ago of serving on this jury for the impressive award.  

And Todd certainly learns about gender on this planet to which religious groups came; Todd, however, has never seen a live woman, so Viola will present him with many challenges, for gender plays a substantial role in the novel.

Introduction to Week Six:

Quiz review for The Knife of Never Letting Go.  

This review video covers the thirty questions in this week's quiz.  Do a good job:

Little Brother for Week Five

Welcome to Week Five, a busy week.  This week you read Little

Brother, complete a midterm examination, contribute to a discussion thread, and take a quiz.

The video for the week might mention works from a previous manifestation of the class. I replaced, remember, the first four novels:  The Hunger Games Trilogy and Carbon Diaries.  

You will take the midterm examination between July 2, and midnight Saturday, 8 July. 

For a discussion of the examination, see the Announcement for Week Four and the blog page for that week. You will find as well plenty of samples, links, and other items of interest in the Assignment Folder.

The links for the quiz and the discussion thread will remain open until midnight Monday, July 9.

Introduction to Little Brother, a novel about which you will find a lot of information on the internet to use in your discussions:

Quiz for Little Brother:

I include here two links--Part One and Part Two--for a discussion of  Feed, a novel you can use for your essay; if you decide to read this novel, you will find this vocabulary helpful.  

In addition to responding to the discussion threads, you will take a quiz, completing both assignments by Monday at midnight.

This week we move in a different direction and read about young

adults caught in a different kind of invasion in England in the aftermath of a limited nuclear exchange.

 The novel is somewhat controversial in its depiction of the romantic relationship that develops early in the narrative.

You might give the film based on this excellent novel your attention.  And Meg Rosoff  won the highly-acclaimed Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy

Among other things, Astrid Lindgren wrote that “Everything great that happened in this world happened first in someone’s imagination.”

This week's blog includes an introduction video, a quiz review, and a video about the midterm examination.

Pay attention to the Announcement Page, for I will update that information and links as the week progresses; this week's announcement page provides prompts and exam questions for the midterm exam available between Monday, July 2 , and Sunday, July 8.  

With respect to the midterm examination, take a look at responses from a previous year's Dystopian Fantastic class. The material differs; however, the method remains the same for both the prompts and the essay question.  In the Assignment Folder, you will also find identical responses to essay questions and prompts from the class--but over material this class does not cover. 

 
You will respond to 5 prompts (You will have a choice--either/or--for each of the five prompts) taken from the texts in paragraph form, at least seven to eight sentences for each.  And for part two, you will write an essay of around 2.5 pages.  

After the videos, which include a discussion of the midterm examination, you will find a list of prompts and exam questions for the Midterm.

 
In the following video,  I talk briefly about the novel for this week:

This video offers helps prepare you for this week's quiz over How I Live Now.

This video offers information about the midterm examination I recorded last spring; remember that you will not write on The Fifth Wave. In addition, I have changed the number of times you can return to Part One of the exam. Instead of having to complete your responses to the prompts in one sitting, you can return as many times as you like while the links remain open.

Remember that you respond in six to eight sentences to one of the choices given in each of the five prompts to which you return. If possible, you must respond to one prompt for at least three of the novels :

Midterm Examination Prompts (Part One) Between the start of the examination and its conclusion on Saturday, you can return to Part One of the examination as many times as you like. Matched: Final Banquet Dylan Thomas Artifacts Red, Blue, Green Pills Myth of Sisyphus Aberration Archivists Outer Provinces Ship Breaker Light Crew Sloth Harvesters Accelerated Age Pole Star Blood Buyers Red Ripper and Blood Rock Augments Orleans Surge Eve Califia Fletcher Marjorie City of Sand Arden Sows Dangers of Boys and Men class How I Live Now Aunt Penn Davina the Diabolical Dr. Jameson Reston Bridge Territorial Army Major McEvoy Jet Gateshead Lane  Midterm Exam Essay (Part Two) Write a 2.5 to 3 page (double spaced) essay on one of the following topics.  Remember that you want to avoid plot summary and put the matter into your own words:  to that end, do not cut and paste from the internet, for doing so will result in a grade of zero. Remember, too, that you want to offer analysis and not general comments or description:  do not retell the story (plot summary). Between Monday, July 2, and midnight Sunday, July 8, you can return to this part of the examination as many times as you like. Look over the exam essay examples provided for you in the Assignment Folder and on the web page. In your essay, remember that you have an argument to make.  Thus you want to make specific references to events in the narratives to support what you have to say.  In other words, provide examples by way of illustration and support for your assertions. Discuss the significance of the ambivalent role technology plays in Matched. In your essay, focus on the ambivalence of technology, especially in terms of how freedom gets curtailed for the comfort of security.  Think in terms of how what looks positive reveals negative circumstances in the novel that also bear upon contemporary society. Focusing on economics, write an essay on Ship Breaker.  Certainly what happens in Nailer’s world finds reflection in our own concerns with huge global corporations, ones that pretty much replace central government in this narrative.  Again, what happens in the novel in terms of how the economy words, you might argue, also find reflection in the contemporary issues, say, about wealth distribution and its consequences. Write an essay about how the invasion or the plague in How I Live Now or Eve; underscore the fragility of civilization and especially the threads that hold society together.  These threads remain pretty much invisible to us until, you might argue, something severs them, as in the sudden plague in Eve and terrorist attacks in How I Live Now. You will find that the vulnerabilities at play in these narratives find reflections in issues that concern us today. Each of the four novels presents an interesting and complex character.  Write an essay on Cassia, Eve, Nailer, or Daisy.  In your essay, reach conclusion about each of the characters and their specific conflicts in terms of the society in which they dwell.  Their conflicts relate directly to their experiences in the world they occupy, whether contemporary England tor the future worlds described in Matched or Ship Breaker. In the case of all four—and you will write your essay on only one of these characters—we can identify with the adolescents because in most respects they resemble familiar circumstances, whether the character rebels against authority or struggles with anorexia. Each of the character contends with conflicts in a world that differs greatly from our daily lives.

We enter week three of the term and in the process read the first book of yet another triology, Eve.

So continue to work hard on the readings and on the discussion threads.

Begin to give some thought to your 3-3.5 page essay--double spaced.  Read on the syllabus and the class introduction the discussion of the essay.  

In addition, look over the video for Book Analysis Reports from the spring semester class for Children's Literature and some of the student essays.  

The essay on Ted Hughes' Iron Giant offers an excellent example.

In addition, consider how people on the discussion thread support assertions with specific references to the text, often in the form of short quotations, and outside sources.

 As usual, I made a video--after a few tries--about Eve, in which I talk about the plot and give pointers for issues of concern on which you will want to concentrate:

 

Before you take this week's quiz, make sure to listen to the following video: 

        






 
I created a brief introductory video last summer for Yancey's novel The Fifth Wave, an  exciting alien-invasion novel you might enjoy; I can offer no great praise for the film: