SENIOR ENGLISH: FIRST SEMESTER OUTSIDE READING

A good reader reads all the time. A good reader reads all sorts of material: books, newspaper, blogs, and more. Your critical reading skills are not only for essays and literature. It is very important that you keep reading. You should select your outside reading soon and inform your teacher via email. Then you should start to read! There are a few different ways you can do this:

One Book, One Zip Code, our local reading program has selected Jonathan Safron Foer’s book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Some of you read this last year as juniors. Read or reread this book and attend at least one of the events sponsored by One Book!

If you have already read Extremely Loud and don’t want to revisit it, read one of Foer’s other books: Everything is Illuminated or Eating Animals. Attend the evening on September 12th with Mr. Foer or do a book-talk on the book.

Read one of the fall plays and one other play by the same playwright. One play is Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer (best known for such plays as Equus and Amadeus). The other is The Rimers of Eldrich by Landford Wilson (who wrote Hot L Baltimore and The Fifth of July). Attend the play.

Follow a regular online blog that publishes at least two times a week. Perhaps it is a blog focused on a specific subject (like a sports team, television show, or hobby). Perhaps it is a blog that is more like a magazine (I like Lifehacker.com). There is even a great blog for those searching for colleges! Follow the blog for four weeks. Write a brief summary and evaluation of the blog.

Read about at least three different colleges in at least six different books. Create a chart that summarizes the most important points, things that were reported differently, and things that are important to you.

Read a book of poetry! Select either a book by a single poet or a collection of works by many poets. Check the book with your teacher. Read it and do a book-talk in the WERCS.  

Go back and reread a book that you read in class freshman or sophomore year. Write a brief evaluation of how you see the book differently the second time around.

Pick a book you have been meaning to read. This could be fiction or nonfiction. Check it with your teacher first. Then, read it and do a book-talk in the WERCS.

Have another idea? See your teacher!