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Pop quiz
By Times staff writer Q: What books does an advanced placement English teacher assign her high school seniors? A: Connie O'Brien, who teaches advanced placement English at Seminole High School, expects her students to read Macbeth before they set foot in her classroom. They kick off their 18-week semester with a thorough discussion of the play, then begin a short story analysis. The stories they read and discuss include: Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway; The Catbird Seat by John Thurber; A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell; The Swimmer by John Cheever; Spotted Horses by William Faulkner; The Guest by Albert Camus; and The Japanese Quince by John Galsworthy. They read Toni Morrison's Beloved, then spend several weeks on a poetry unit. After that, they read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and Voltaire's Candide. In addition to completing classroom assignments, O'Brien expects her students to pursue outside reading. Her suggestions include: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf; The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; Night by Elie Weisel; Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; Medea by Euripides; The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien; Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot; The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy; As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; My Antonia by Willa Cather; A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines; and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Because Seminole High operates on a 4-by-4 schedule, a form of block scheduling that offers four 90-minute classes instead of six 50-minute classes, the students have plenty of time to read and write in class, but they prepare most of their work at home. Their grades are based on written and oral presentations, tests and journal entries. They are expected to complete reading and writing assignments on time. Late work is generally not accepted. O'Brien's objectives are for her students to become proficient at literature analysis and for them to be prepared for college-level reading.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
