Frankenstein:
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PRE-READING ACTIVITY: LITERARY INFLUENCES
Shelley's Literary Influences for Frankenstein |
Reading Questions |
You will read ONE of the following texts to prepare for our study of Frankenstein. You should pull the document into Notability, annotate it, and answer the reading questions.
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Please answer the reading questions digitally (either in a Pages file, on the same Notability file as the text, or in a new Notability file. You will need to be able to paste them into a Google document later.)
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Frankenstein Group Analysis Assignment
You will be working in groups to analyze Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. You will record your notes and work on a shared Google document. Though you will be in groups, you will each have an individual assignment for which you will be held accountable.
You will have a core group that you are responsible for “teaching” throughout the entirety of this novel study. Prior to teaching and discussing within your core group, however, you will have an opportunity to work with the members from other groups who are assigned your like topic to ensure you have all of the information you need to be able to effectively teach your core group members. For example, in the pre-reading activities, each member of your core group will be assigned a different essay/poem to read, analyze, and teach, but before teaching that essay/poem to your core group, you will break up into groups of students who all read the same essay/poem in order to compare your answers on that one essay/poem before breaking out into your core group and teaching your information to them.
Though this information will be typed into a group Google document, I will list the assignments below for quick reference:
You will have a core group that you are responsible for “teaching” throughout the entirety of this novel study. Prior to teaching and discussing within your core group, however, you will have an opportunity to work with the members from other groups who are assigned your like topic to ensure you have all of the information you need to be able to effectively teach your core group members. For example, in the pre-reading activities, each member of your core group will be assigned a different essay/poem to read, analyze, and teach, but before teaching that essay/poem to your core group, you will break up into groups of students who all read the same essay/poem in order to compare your answers on that one essay/poem before breaking out into your core group and teaching your information to them.
Though this information will be typed into a group Google document, I will list the assignments below for quick reference:
PRE-READING ACTIVITY: LITERARY STYLEAn author chooses her style carefully to convey themes in a particular way. It is important to understand such styles, devices, and this case an allusion, in order to understand how they impact the theme. Each group member will need to choose one term to define and explain. I want you to do both if appropriate because sometimes an actual definition tells us very little. And although you haven’t yet read Frankenstein, I want you to consider implications for the novel based on what background knowledge you do have. If a group only has five members please leave one term blank, and we’ll share out that information among groups. Write your name in the “literary term to define” box, so I will know who was responsible for defining each term.
READING ASSIGNMENTSAs you read each section of Frankenstein as designated below each group member will choose one device and trace it through the novel. You may choose to keep your device for the duration of the novel or you may exchange devices with your other core group members over the course of the reading. As you read make note of what is used, how it is used, provide examples from the text, and consider implications for the theme(s) of the novel. If your group has six member you will include the last option “Doppelgangers, Foils, Parallel Characters and Resulting Irony.” If your group only has five member this device is not an option for your group! Write your name in the “literary devices to trace” box for each reading assignment, so I will know who was responsible for tracing that element for that reading assignment. Please do this for each reading assignment even if you opt not to trade devices within your group. The questions following each reading assignment will be answered as a group during your class work time.
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Group questions for class discussionLetters
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POST-READING ACTIVITY: LITERARY LENSES
Now that you have finished reading and tracing the literary elements within Frankenstein, it’s time to analyze the novel in its entirety. Before beginning this wrapping up process you will be studying some of the various schools of literary theory and how they apply to Frankenstein specifically. Essentially a literary lens is the paradigm through which a piece of literature can be viewed. Use the following website, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/1/, to determine which critical lenses your group will be researching and to develop a deeper understanding of exactly what a critical lens is. There are several listed here, but each group member only needs to choose and research one lens. Each member must choose a different lens, however, so please be certain to communicate to determine who is doing what before wasting time. The actual criticisms themselves can be found using the Literature Resource Center in DISCUS. This can be accessed from our library’s home page. Do not wait until the last minute, as researching criticisms to find the right one can sometimes be more time consuming than it sounds. Write your name in the “Literary Lens” box, so I will know who was responsible for reading each piece. If there are only five group members simply leave the last row of cells blank.
Literary Lens & Definition |
Literary Criticism
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Explanation of connection to Frankenstein |
POST-READING ACTIVITY: ANALYSIS ESSAY
At this point, as a group, you have now studied the works that influenced Frankenstein, the new literary devices seen in Frankenstein, Frankenstein itself by tracing the literary elements already known to you, and the various critical lenses through which Frankenstein may be viewed. Now it’s time for your group to pose a prompt and answer it in a concise essay using at least one influential text, one new literary device, one device as traced through the text, and one literary lens. For example, when discussing To Kill a Mockingbird we know that it was influenced greatly by the events of the Scottsboro Boys trial, it is a Bildungsroman (a “coming of age” novel), it relies heavily on point of view and characterization to develop its theme, and it can be easily viewed through the new historicism lens (also often referenced as the historical/biographical approach). Our prompt/thesis statement could then be something to the effect of: In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the voice of Scout, a young woman coming of age in the 1930s South, in order to promote the ideology that all men should be treated with dignity and respect if they deserve dignity and respect regardless of their ethnic identity. In order to answer this prompt, or prove this thesis, if you will, I will need to address all of the items I previously listed. You are developing this prompt and answering it as a group, and therefore you will be writing this in class, together, and not in a “divide and conquer” sort of way. Yes, you will need quotes from the book; yes, you will need quotes from the influential text; yes, you will need quotes from your criticism; and yes, you will be expected to cite all of these quotes properly in MLA format and include a works cited page. This paper will likely be 2-4 pages in length, not including the works cited page.
The group analysis concept for the study of Frankenstein and the Google doc assignment was created by Dawn Weathersbee, M.Ed., NBCT. [email protected]
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“We are dealing here not with how a man acts toward man, but with how a man acts when he feels that he must defend himself against, or adapt himself to, the total natural world in which he lives.” - Richard Wright, Native Son |