So Much to Read, so Little Time!

Introduction

Importance of Literature

An important part of life is learning wisdom through the examples of others. One excellent way to do that is through literature. Reading from the best books is crucial to develop a well-rounded mindset of the world and to understand the different points of view and aspects of life.

The problem is, there is so much literature out there it can seem like finding a book to read is like finding a needle in a haystack, how can we choose what to read?

Before reading a book it is best to do some research to learn more about the author and the content of the book, so that you can get a better idea of what you can expect. This will ultimately help you to decide whether the book is worthwhile or not.

Types of Literature

For the purpose of this Webquest we will determine that there are three distinct types of English literature: British, American, and World.

British being literature written in the United Kingdom by authors based in that part of the world.

American, chiefly meaning the United States, focusing on the English language literature of the American Continent.

World literature is based anywhere else in the world besides the UK ans US. Can be written or translated to English.

Using the Tools

The Internet is an amazing tool to research literature and to find texts that you may never have even heard of.

It can also help you to distinguish different texts and determine if they deserve reading.

Task

Find Your Needles

Now it is up to you to find a few of the needles in the hay stack and find texts that you feel will be worthy of your time.

What you are to do:

Choose one text from each of the different types of literature that you wish to read.
One text must be written by a female author.
Learn everything you can about the author and the text itself.
Explain why you would like to read the texts you have chosen

These three texts will be books that you will read throughout the year and report on periodically throughout the school year, so choose wisely.

Process

Using the Web

You will have one Week to find the three works that you will be studying this year. You will be given a short period of time in each class period during this week to perform your study and search of the works.

To help you find worthy texts try search through these sources for each type of literature:

British Literature(Focus on 20th Century):

For a good overview of 20th Century British Literature and great examples of Authors and Texts,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_literature#Twentieth-century

For a good list of 20th Century Literary Works,

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/20th-century-british-literature

To find more information about Authors and Works,

https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature

American Literature (Focus on 20th Century):

For a good overview of 20th Century American Literature,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_literature#Beginning_of_the_20th_century

and

https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature/The-20th-century

For a good list of 20th Century Literary Works,

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/20th-century-american-literature

World Literature (Focus on 20th Century and outside UK and US):

For a good overview and list of 20th Century Literature outside the US and UK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_in_literature , There are many, I recommend focusing on anything from 1939 and on.

To be successful,

To successfully find a text that would be worthwhile I suggest you use these above resources as starting points. From each of these websites you can reach other websites about a specific work or author to learn more about them. Keep track of the websites you visit and be sure to have care when moving from website to website not to stumble on anything inappropriate.

We will do a brief practice in class to show you a basic way to learn more about one of the novels we will read as a class together this year.

Evaluation

How you will be Graded

To get the full points for this WebQuest assignment refer to this rubric:

Graded Process	4 Above and Beyond	3 Satisfactory	2 Meets Minimum Standards	1 Needs Improvement
The Search	-Used all of the time in class well.	-Used most of time in class well	-Used some of the time in class well	-Did not use time well in class
The Find	-Found Three literary works within the week	-Found Two Literary works within the week	-Found One literary Work within the Week	-Did not find any literary works within the week
The Criteria	-Each work meets the required Criteria from "Task" section	-Two works meet the Criteria from the "Task" section	-One work meets the Criteria from the "Task" section	-No works meet the Criteria from the "Task section
The Report	-Student gives explanation for why they chose and will read each of the three works	-Student gives explanation for why they chose and will read each of the two works	-Student gives explanation for why they chose and will read one work	-Student did not give explanation for any work

Teacher Page

WebQuest Created by Andrew Beal

Created for

MTE/566CA Curriculum Const & Assmt: Secondary English/Language Arts

January 28, 2018

Sirpa Harju-Kuns