Whole Class Text Study: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
E.Q: How can readers of complex texts effectively discern, and then communicate what they have discerned, about author’s craft, structure content and style?
Our purpose(s):
- To have a shared experience around a "classic" text that is suggested as an 11th grade exemplar by the Common Core Standards. We will consider if this text is one we feel should be read by all students as a whole class text as a part of our year-long analysis of the high school literary canon.
- To continue to develop our skills discerning and analyzing complex literary texts
- To continue to develop our skills communicating our arguments about the text in writing and discussion
- To use this text to practice for the literary analysis writing task on the Common Core Regents (part 3)
This Page has week-by-week tasks for you to complete.
*Be sure to check the weekly calendar to plan out your in-school and at home work depending on mini-lesson and discussion schedules!
*For Audio Files Scroll Down
Week 3
Due by the end of class, Tuesday 11/17
Finish the book & Complete Tasks 6, 7, 8 and 9
Link: Cover Page with Rubric and Overview
Task 6: Read the foreword (at the beginning of the book before it starts) and complete a QCQ for this section: Linked here
Task 7: Print out, read and annotate two articles connected to the text to help layer your discussions on the whole book. I will collect your annotations! When annotating, please don't just underline, talk back to the text by asking questions and summarizing as you go. Selections (feel free to find your own, as well)
- On Beauty: Banning Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
- The Economist, "Book Banning Education Standards"
- Think Progress, "The Bluest Eye Banning in Alabama"
- Looking for a challenge? This is a lengthy essay as part of a PhD thesis on "Racialised Beauty"
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Bonus: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk on "The Danger of a Single Story"
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Bonus: Melissa Harris Perry (from MSNBC news channel) on the proposed Ohio state ban of The Bluest Eye
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Task 8: Prepare for whole class socratic seminar discussion by reviewing the rubric and expectations (on the cover page link above!) This isn't something to hand in, as you will be assessed during discussion. Consider: essential questions, excerpts/quotations, themes, this week's articles and any other tools that push your thinking!
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Socratic Seminar Overview:
This method of discussion has some guidelines and protocol to help participants engage in meaningful conversation. You run the conversation and everyone has to talk at least once. I will not participate in the discussion unless there is a lull or I notice a potential talking point that may guide and push your conversation. Other than that, the floor is yours. |
We are pushing ourselves to…
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Task 9: Complete a tumblr reflection. This prompt is also on the tumblr page:...Now that you have finished The Bluest Eye, please take a moment to reflect and link a piece of evidence to your reflection. Some questions to prompt your metacognition:
- How did this whole class novel study go for you? What are your take aways? Did this text make you realize anything or think differently?
- What outcome targets do you know you need to work on moving forward? How do you know this?
- Please link a piece of work that helps to demonstrate what outcome targets you are finding success with and/or those that you know you need to work on. (consider including a QCQ, goodreads post, or taking a picture of your feedback!)
- What are you thinking about this text in the context of our big question about what students should be reading in high school English classes? In other words, should this text be on the suggested list? Should it be required?
Week 2
This Week's Overview Link
Read up to p.163 and complete literary analysis tasks 4 &5 by Friday 11/13
Cover Page With Rubric Linked Here
Task 4: Watch this video about discerning themes & contribute to the discussion on TED Ed
Task 5: Complete another goodreads post "literary element hunt" using a different literary element. This task is linked here. This time, you will need to identify a theme in the text and describe how Morrison uses a literary element or device to develop that theme. We had a mini-lesson on Tuesday about this type of writing, which mirrors part 3 of the common core regents. Below is an example of a "model" high scoring (4 out of 4) paper provided by NY State. Our writing often goes beyond this type of work, but it's a good check point!
Week 1
Read up to p.81 by Friday, Nov. 7th and complete these literary analysis tasks!
Task 1: Quote Comment Question- Complete by Friday for any quotation pages 1-81. Linked Here!
Task 2: Watch a video lesson and respond to the follow up questions |
This video, by another teacher named Amy Harter, is excellent advice about how to analyze literature more deeply so that you can create sophisticated theme statements (central ideas!). Click on the link to watch the video and answer the questions afterwards. This should help you with your analysis for Friday's discussion!
Task 3: Goodreads Post "Literary Element Hunt". For this goodreads.com post, click here and please write a literary analysis specifically about a literary element you notice Toni Morrison utilizing. Use text evidence to show this literary element in action. What does the use of this element do to help develop her story? In order to do this, click here to visit my "literary language" page and take a look to refresh your memory and notice what you need to review. Then print it or copy it to your google drive. We will use this as a guide to review literary elements going forward.
Christy Reading the Text Aloud
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