alis its coming your way kung fu fighting. the goals to help you become a more sophisticated and...

ALIS

It’s Coming Your Way

Kung Fu Fighting

The Goals

• To help you become a more sophisticated and independent critical thinker

• To prepare you for higher levels of learning (A.P., college, the workforce, etc.)

• To instill confidence in each of you as a writer• To model how to research, read, and incorporate

critical (secondary) sources• To give you some freedom and independence to

connect to acclaimed American texts that we can’t read in class

The Process: Part I

• 1st leg of the race…you finished it! Your summer reading book was your first ALIS book. Well done!

• Do not lose your books or your writing.

• Get a dedicated ALIS folder ASAP; if you decorate it, you’ll love it more. – Should be sturdy, have pockets and brads in

the middle• ABSOLUTELY NO BINDERS!

Part II• 2nd leg of the race: select a second book that somehow

relates to your first novel; it may be from the same genre or category: African American Literature or the War category. It could also have similar settings, conflicts, main characters. You will need to do some research to discover connections.

• You will write an analysis of this text using a critical lens. (Don’t worry; we’ll teach you how).

• You will use both your summer book and your fall book, as well as other texts from the semester and multimedia sources like music, videos and images, to create a wikispace at the end of November that illustrates your learning and reflects your personal philosophy statement.

• We will teach you how to research and read critical sources so that you can use them in your essays.

The Grand Finale…• The 3rd leg of the race will take place next

semester. You will select a 3rd book, preferably from the ALIS suggested reading list, and refine/intensify the skills introduced to you 1st semester by choosing your own critical lens to analyze your text.

• You will eventually write a comparison essay between two of the ALIS texts you’ve read.

Dates to Know Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

• Wed 9/9: Present ALIS Overview• Friday, 9/18: Have 2nd ALIS book in class (you should buy

this; find and purchase soon, in case it has to be ordered)• Wednesday, 10/21: Finish reading and annotating 2nd

ALIS novel (annotation expectations will be discussed soon)

• 10/23-11/7: Individual conferences• Monday, 11/9: Rough Draft due IN CLASS—one printed

copy • Wednesday, 11/11: Work day in computer lab• Nov. 17-18: Final draft due• Wednesday, Dec. 2: wikispace work day in computer lab• 12/4-12/7: at least two peer edits on wikispace• Wednesday, Dec. 9 by midnight: wikispace to be posted

How To Succeed

Don’t procrastinate

Ask for help when you need it it

Remain calm

Bribe your teacher

What to do from here?• Choose your next ALIS text

• Wait, with baited breath, for my approval.

• Buy your book and begin reading and annotating.

Hot• Focused on a literary

element• Answers a question/solves

a problem• Leads to discovery of

something new• Involves intellectual risk-

takingExamples: • The magical woods in A

Midsummer Night’s Dream are used to convey the idea that love is enchanting and complicated.

• Cathy [from East of Eden], who incarnates evil, gives insight into the nature of evil and reinforces the underlying idea of free will.

• Charles Frazier, in Cold Mountain, uses the motif of birds to convey the idea that although there is cruelty and hardship in the world, the human spirit will prevail.

Not• Merely states the theme• States what any good

reader knows• Is safe and self-evident• Leaves one wondering, so

what?Examples:• Love, in A Midsummer

Night’s Dream, is enchanting and complicated.

• The theme of East of Eden is that humans have free will and may resist the powers of evil.

• Cold Mountain shows that despite cruelty and hardship in the world, the human spirit will prevail.

Sample Thesis Statements from The Crucible 

• Abigail, the antagonist in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, demonstrates that the most effective leaders rule through intellect, not brute strength.

•  • Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible, uses Abigail

Williams to reveal that selfishness is the most detrimental evil a person can commit.

•  • Playwright Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible, uses

the protagonist John Proctor to illustrate that man cannot ignore his societal duty, even during times of turmoil, to establish truth and justice.