analysis

ENGLISH

 

TEXTS OF PASSION, POWER AND PERSUASION

Novels of Love and Social Comment: ORAL

 

Length:           7 – 10 minutes

Novel:             My Sister’s Keeper

Author:          Jodi Picoult

 

YOUR TASK: Imagine a class meeting where you discuss the merits of novels for detailed study in Year 12. Your task is to address the class, arguing whether or not the book you chose for independent reading would be suitable for whole-class study.

 

Points to address

 

The book for this task is “The Soloist” by Mark Salzman

 

1. Introduce the book and the direction your talk will take by referring to these things, though not necessarily in this order: title, author, a description of the overall issues/ideas and how they are represented through the characters and events. Mention also the setting (location and era). Briefly indicate whether you are going to recommend the book or not, and why. (not too much talking about the book!)

 

1. Identify your own reading position in relation to your book (do you accept the invited/dominant reading or are you a resistant reader? Or do you have an alternative interpretation of events and characters?). Support this position by some reference to the centered, the text-centered, the reader-centered or the worldview approach?

 

1. Now address the main part of the task: assess the book’s suitability for whole-class study, and justify your decision, using these criteria: does the book promote values that are worthwhile and morally appropriate? Does the book have literary merit? Does young adults? Does the book provide deep or minimal reflections on the semester themes of Love and / or Social Comment? Give plenty of detail when addressing these points.

 

1. Mention discourses and themes of the novel

 

1. Use some of the specialist English vocabulary for discussing literature, and the various readings we can make of texts.

 

Note:        We are not looking for, perhaps, insincere or unquestioning praise of the book – feel free to be critical of it, if that is how you feel.

 

Perhaps you didn’t particularly “enjoy” the book but, according to a Text-Centered and a World-Centered approach, you think students should read the book. Whatever your thoughts, this task requires you to justify your decision by making some reference to the reading positions framework and the reading practice framework.

 

This task is NOT to talk about the novel, it is to analyze it and deconstruct it to show why this novel is suitable for high school students.

The task is to analyse and deconstruct the novel “The soloist” by Mark Salzman. In doing this, you must argue to recommend or not recommend this novel for high school study and explain why. More information on the task is in the attached document. please read the instructions carefully