Independent Reading Booktalk with Lenses

AP Lit Independent Reading

Lit Analysis Booktalk

Assignment:
Prepare and give a 10-minute booktalk in which you give a BRIEF synopsis of your book, analyze an element of the book, and show how the author uses that element to create his/her theme.  This should be essentially what you did for your lit analysis, only you’re doing it orally.  This means you still need evidence. Rather than having to write, go through  the process, and worry about MLA citation and grammar, you’re challenged with the task of making it comprehensible to your peers in only 10 minutes.  Therefore, focus on ONE aspect of the novel, just as you did in your lit analysis essay.

Objectives:

• Continue working on lit analysis (theme, analysis of an element, and evidence to back claims)
• Apply critical lenses to a novel
• Demonstrate excellent public speaking skills
• Use and correctly cite (orally and written) credible literary sources

Items to be Sure You Include:

• Title and author
• BRIEF plot synopsis
• Analysis of the element you’ll be focusing on
• Argument of the theme of the book and how your element contributes to it
• Evidence from the text to back up your claims
• Works cited page either shared/emailed OR printed and handed to me BEFORE your presentation

Critical Lens Aspect
To help deepen your analysis, you’ll also need to apply critical lenses to your reading of the text.  EVERYONE will be using reader response (you can’t avoid it) and formalist (because this is AP Lit and ALL interpretations MUST be grounded in the text).  In addition, you should consider your novel from another perspective:  historical, biographical, feminist, psychological, Marxist, etc.  Use the lens to help you better understand the argument the author is making by considering the context or what he/she may be saying about society.  

In order to do this well, you should do some brief research on your author, the time period, psychology, etc.  When you use these outside sources to help deepen your understanding and to give more credibility to your analysis, you must cite your sources ORALLY during your booktalk.  Also, be sure to include the book you read and at least two other credible literary sources on your works cited page.

One note about lenses:  They are not "a thing."  You're not going to talk about "the lens" in your booktalk.  Lenses are a way of looking at literature.  I will be able to tell which lens you are using just by listening to your interpretation and your evidence.  No critic ever says "Using the psychological lens..." so you shouldn't either.

Sources
Credible literary sources are written by scholars and almost always published by university presses.  You have two good places to find quality critical and biographical sources:

1. EBSCO's Literary Reference Center.  That is the ONLY database you should use for criticism or biographical sources.  If you need to do other lens-specific research (historical, economic, psychological), use EBSCO's other databases.  Username:  3114indhs   Password: haea11   Helpful tips:  After you've searched, look under the Refine Search column on the left.  You can click under Source Types and restrict your sources to only literary criticism or biographies, depending on what you need.  Do NOT use Reviews.
2. Dunn Library at Simpson.  Search before you go, but seriously, this is here in town.  It's a college library and though it isn't as complete as Iowa or Iowa State, it has far more literary criticism than our high school media center can or should provide.  Search your title or author before you go, write down the call numbers so you can find the section/resources when you get there, and take your Indianola Public Library card.  It does require you to go somewhere and try something new, but I promise that the people who put it off the longest have the most frustration with criticism in AP Lit.  It's the BEST place to find quality sources even if it's not the most convenient. Be glad it's here in town.

Grading
I will grade your presentation using the rubric found here.
Your works cited page will lose one point for each error and two points for each missing item (author, date of publication, etc.).  Be sure to use the Purdue OWL to help you with your MLA.