Honors Humanities
Modern Tragedy Literature Circles
Lit Circles! Lit Circles! Who wants a good, old-fashioned literature circle? You do?!?!? Me too!!!!
How do we get this done, you ask. Here we go:
1. Pick your play. Think very carefully about this. Choose the play that you are the MOST interested in. You will get a copy of your play tomorrow.
2. Make a cute little group with other people reading your play.
3. Do some preliminary research on the play and author. It’s fun! The author and time period can help you understand the play in its proper context. Try to challenge yourself in terms of your sources. Don’t only use Wikipedia, and certainly use it with caution. And don’t use SparkNotes; that’s gross. Your first small group meeting (see item 2) should include some discussion of your research.
4. Meet three times with your small discussion group. When you come into class on the day of your discussion, you will come prepared with at least three higher-level thinking discussion questions (typed and printed). The questions should reflect both a thoughtful reading of the play AND an understanding of the readings on tragedy we are studying in class.
The discussion dates are:
· 1/27 (first third or so of the play and David Hume and background info on author/play)
· 2/2 (second third or so and Emerson)
· 2/8 (final third and Artaud)
5. You will write a 2-page paper on any topic relating to the play. Ideally, you should pick something small about the play and study it in detail. Choose something like a symbol or a name or a character trait or a setting to focus on. This is a SMALL, FOCUSED paper. Obviously, you will need a strong thesis and textual evidence to support. This will be due on turnitin.com by Feb 14th.
6. As a group, you will act out a scene in front of the class that epitomizes one of the theorist’s thoughts on tragedy. The scene should be 3-5 minutes long. These will take place during the week of Feb 8th.