Overview
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Novel circles provide students opportunities to make choices among AP-level novels of outstanding quality and discuss them informally with peers. Typically, students will read an assigned section of their novels, discuss them in class, and provide various forms of formative assessments before using their novel to answer free-response question #3.
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How This Works
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Choose one of the three novels below. You are highly encouraged to research your novel in advance and determine if it is right for you.
Please be aware that AP is a college-level course. These novels are written for a general adult audience, and as such, may contain language, themes, or scenes which may be objectionable to some people. If you know of specific issues (religious, psychological, personal, etc.) that are personally problematic to you, please consult with me in advance of reading, and we will work together to find a workable solution. Novel Choices
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Accountability
Formative Assesssments
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For your reading, you will be periodically accountable to members of your group and as individuals for having prepared to discuss, write, and analyze all or part of your work in class.
Formative assessments are designed to provide you multiple ways in which you can respond to the novel informally. They may stress certain analytic, creative, or argumentative skills you can draw on for your summative assessment later on.
Some examples of formative assessments we MAY use include the ideas below. |
Small-Group Discussion
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Group Discussion
Group discussions can take many forms. Sometimes, you will discuss open-ended questions you developed, the teacher developed, or other passages for specific focus. You will be individually accountable for participating and for preparation. Approach #1: Passage(s) That Bugged You In a given work of literature, you may encounter passages that bugged you. Maybe those are passages that were hard to understand because of the language, because it turned a corner in plot or characterization, or because of other issues. To prepare for discussion of this nature, you will do the following:
Approach #2: Student-Developed Questions Prior to discussion, you will develop 4 or more open-ended questions. These questions MUST do the following:
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Creative Assessments
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Creative Assessments
These assessments are more creative, demanding that the students synthesize or transform material.
* Thanks to Sydney Venable of Green Valley High School for the bulk of these ideas. |