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ASSIGNMENTS THAT WORK

Assignments that work

Aphorism essay: a fresh way to write about theme.The goal of this assignment is for students to identify aphorisms—short observations of general truth—in whatever text they are studying and then move through several scaffolded steps to analyze one particular aphorism. Ultimately, this should bring students to an interesting discussion of theme while discouraging plagiarism or reliance on AI.

Case Study Essay: a fresh way to write about theme. The goal of this assignment is for students to write about theme in a novel. To do this, they will complete several close readings of passages that relate to the theme and then write a conclusion based on those studies of longer chunks of dialogue.

impersonation essay a fresh way to write about character. Modeled after one of the exercises in the progymnasmata, a series of rhetorical exercises used by the ancient Greeks, the impersonation assignment is an exercise designed to teach students to imitate the style and ethos of a particular character. A successfully written impersonation will help a student to understand speech as argument, considering character, audience, and situation. This assignment works best with a play or other text in which characters have longer chunks of dialogue.

literature-based research essay a fresh way to approach research writing. The goal of this assignment is to engage students in the research process in a structured and streamlined way by investigating genuine wonderings about their reading. I have used this research essay as one component of work that is happening along with other things during a “book club” or “seminar set” unit when small groups of students are reading different works. It could easily be used with a whole-class novel or with independent reading.

The goal of this assignment is for students to get exposure to academic literary criticism in an accessible way. To do this, they will select a piece of literary criticism from a curated list, complete several directed readings, and then write an essay responding one idea in the literary criticism essay.

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