Reading Stamina!

One of the goals of the Great Expectations unit is to see a long, complex novel through to the end and to develop reading stamina. It's not easy to keep reading a book that is long, challenging, and has many characters and sub plots that might not always keep your attention. We're more than halfway through the book and we've got less than two weeks worth of reading assignments left. How are you doing? Are you persevering? If you stopped reading at some point, are you ready to pick it back up again and see it through to the end? You can do it! And when you finish, you'll have a sense of satisfaction that will stay with you throughout the challenging years of advanced high school English that lay ahead...

Write two paragraphs for this post. In your first paragraph, write about how you're doing with keeping up with the reading. If you're keeping up, how are you doing it? Do you listen while you read? Do you read each assignment after school or do you read a few reading assignments at a time so you can take days off? Explain how the reading is going for you. If you're not keeping up, what can you do to get back into it? Explain your plan for finishing the novel.

For the second paragraph, write about something compelling that's keeping you interested. Maybe you're not feeling so interested...then what is something that you like enough about the book to get you back into it.  Describe what you consider to be the most compelling aspect of the novel and write about what draws you to it.

It is a Most Miserable Thing...

As Stage 1 of Great Expectations draws to a close, Pip's inner self becomes more complicated as he realizes the life he leads and the life he wants to lead are very different. Pip wants to be a gentleman. He feels ashamed of home. He agonizes over what Estella might think if she were to peek in the windows of the forge and see him covered in soot.

Think of a time in your life when you experienced feelings similar to those of Pip. Write about how it feels to want your life to be different. Make sure to make a clear connection between how you felt and how Pip feels in Great Expectations. You need only write one paragraph for this post.

Please proofread your paragraph before you post. Read your paragraph out loud to make sure you have no poorly constructed sentences. Do not publish your post until you are sure you're publishing something free from errors in capitalization, punctuation and grammar. 

Due Monday, March 7.