ASSIGNMENTS      ENGL101 WRITING I

Book Club

 

Why Have a Book Club

Reading is more complicated than we think it is and so we underestimate what it takes to do it well.  Too often we think that if we don’t get something we read, it wasn’t meant to be got. But meaning will not just jump out of the book. You must look at the information that the book gives you and decide on a theory of what the book is trying to say.  Then you need to figure out the way the facts in the book support your theory. You may not think reading is something you should have to work that hard at, but it can be, and I hope the book club project will help you to see this, as well as give you strategies to help you be a better reader for this and all of your classes.

 

I also hope you will get out of this what the “club” part of the project means: meaning just doesn’t fall out of the sky and into your own head.  You think a thought; you share it with a friend; they add to it; it comes back to you a different, more complicated, maybe better (or maybe worse) thought. Whatever happens, though, it is a different thought then when it started. Your group will help you figure out what is important in this book and you will help them.

 

Finally, you will also write a short, informal journal that records how you come up ideas and how they change over time. This is a good opportunity for you to see how writing helps you to figure things out. How you build meaning as a reader and a writer.

 

Taken all together, the book club should demonstrate valuable lessons about what it takes to be a good reader, writer, and thinker in and beyond the college setting.

 

How Book Club Will Work

Book Club will be held either every Tuesday or Thursday (opposite your study session time) for fifty minutes. You’ll meet with a group of about five other people from this class and a book club facilitator—folks from around campus have volunteered to participate in the book club project. Your groups will be decided on the first day of class based on the book you choose. Book club descriptions will be made available on the first day of class. You can choose from the following books:

 

In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez

The Brief Wondrous Life

     Of Oscar Wao

Junot Diaz

House of Sand and Fog

Andres Dubus III

Survivor

Chuck Palahniuk

Nineteen Minutes

Jodie Picoult

 

Participation in book club is one of the out-of-class requirements that count towards fulfillment of your one credit ENGL144. As such, here is a place to reiterate the attendance policy:

 

 

Attendance and Preparedness for Class and ENGL144.  What happens day-to-day in this class only works if we are all here and ready to work as much as possible; therefore, attendance is mandatory.  Here is my policy on how absence will affect your evaluation in this class.

  • You are allowed four absences free and clear, no excuses necessary.
  • After your four absences, any and all absences, regardless of the reason, will adversely affect your final grade in this class.
  • After six absences, you will fail this course.

 

About ENGL144: As mentioned earlier, you have been given placement in ENGL144, a one-credit support course for this course. ENGL consists of work done in a Study Skill session, a Book Club, and in weekly meetings with a writing fellow. Attendance at these additional weekly activities is mandatory for passing ENGL 144 and failure to do so will adversely affect your success in ENGL101. I will receive weekly attendance and progress reports on all three activities.

 

***This attendance policy applies to the writing conferences you will schedule with your Writing Fellow—missing a writing conference counts as missing a class.

 

***This attendance policy applies to the book club meetings scheduled directly after this class—missing a book club counts as missing a class.

 

***This attendance policy applies to the study skills sessions meetings scheduled directly after this class—missing a meeting counts as missing a class.

 

Furthermore, keep in mind:

  • Absence is not an excuse for late work: assignments will not be accepted after the class period they are due.
  • In-class work cannot be made up.

 

 

What to Do For/In Book Club

1. Read the book. As a group you should decide how to divide up the reading over the course of the semester. Use the syllabus to help you set page amounts for each meeting. I would suggest counting up how many book club meetings there are and divide the number of pages in the book by that number.

 

2. Write the journal.  At the beginning of each book club, you will write for around ten minutes about whatever you read for that meeting. You should always be developing your theory of what is important/significant about the book—always trying to figure out what the book is trying to say.  So you just can’t summarize.  You have to think and write about why this story is being told as well as how it is being told. You should expect to share these journals with your book club. Your book club leader will collect your journal and get them back to me.

 

Take the Journal seriously. It will help you figure out what the book means. Some general guidelines for keeping your journal.

It is not ever acceptable to say “I don’t know what it means,” or “It’s stupid and the writer didn’t mean for it to mean anything.” You need to try.  Your effort will be valued, even if it isn’t perfect.

·                       It is not enough to say “I think the book is funny” or “I think it is interesting.”  You need to talk about why you think these things are true and what in the text proves it to you and how it connects to the overall significance of the book.

·                       It is not enough to say “I think the book is about love” or “I think the book says that time heals all wounds.” First off, don’t talk in clichés.  Be specific and original.  Second, if you say that the book is about how war can make even the best of friends into the worst enemies and vice versa because, in war, you need different parts of your personality then you do in regular life, then you need to find evidence in the text to prove it. You need to figure out how the plot, characters, setting, and all that show you that this is in fact what the book is about.

·                       There may be many more then one or two ways to read this book.  You will and should have different theories.  As long as you prove them using the text, you will be fine.

 

4. Discuss the Book with your group. Your book club facilitator will give me reports on the progress and quality of book club discussions. Use your journals to help you have good, lively conversations. I will ask that you write a summary of what went on in your book club (one summary per group) to compliment what your facilitator has to report.

 

5. Write a final reflection.  After you’ve finished the book, in class, I’ll ask you to turn in a reflection on your reading over the course of the semester.  You will write on this prompt:

Describe the reading process based on your work on the book club project.  What role does writing about your reading play in making meaning?

These might seem like impossible questions right now, but by the end of the semester, you’ll have smart things to say.

 

6. Do a Final Presentation. In addition to the reading and writing you will do for the book, you will also do a group presentation about the book. You will do a test run of your presentation in class. Your final presentation will take place at the Midyear Symposium for 1st and 2nd Year students on the last day of fall semester. For general information on the Midyear Symposium, visit the Symposium page on the Office of Undergraduate Research website. More information on the specifics of your presentation will be made available to you later in the semester.