Students were given their copy of the novel. Their names are written in and I have marked down the number of the book they were assigned. This way, when they hand in a novel at the end of the study they’ll know they’re handing in their own, not someone elses.
We started right into the reading. It is easy to become engaged with the characters of the novel quickly because they’re written so carefully.
Students were also given their first assignment with the novel – to create a representation illustration of either Boo Radley’s house or his person. I showed them examples from former students who did the same assignment. They watched for the references as we read and made note of them.
We began our study of “The Raven” today by reading through the poem and pointing out any unfamiliar words. Students used a vocabulary sheet to make sure they understood some of these terms. Then we read through it again focusing on the plot.
Students were then asked to paraphrase each of the 18 stanzas, focusing on making sure they wrote down what question the narrator posed to the Raven and the repeated answer of “Nevermore” (meaning “No, never”).
